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Frontier Matchmaker Bride
Regina Scott
The Lawman Meets His MatchSuccessful Seattle matchmaker Beth Wallin has her most challenging assignment yet – find Deputy Hart McCormick a bride. Beth's still smarting after the handsome lawman spurned her affections a year ago. But if she finds Hart a wife, Beth will gain favor with the city's most influential women…and perhaps free her own heart, as well.Marriage is the last thing on the deputy's mind. After tragically losing his sweetheart, he vowed never to love again. But as sweet, spunky Beth introduces him to potential fiancées, Hart finally feels a spark…for her! The stubborn bachelor will be Beth's first matchmaking miss, unless they can both admit that she just might be his perfect match.
The Lawman Meets His Match
Successful Seattle matchmaker Beth Wallin has her most challenging assignment yet—find Deputy Hart McCormick a bride. Beth’s still smarting after the handsome lawman spurned her affections a year ago. But if she finds Hart a wife, Beth will gain favor with the city’s most influential women...and perhaps free her own heart, as well.
Marriage is the last thing on the deputy’s mind. After tragically losing his sweetheart, he vowed never to love again. But as sweet, spunky Beth introduces him to potential fiancées, Hart finally feels a spark...for her! The stubborn bachelor will be Beth’s first matchmaking miss, unless they can both admit that she just might be his perfect match.
REGINA SCOTT has always wanted to be a writer. Since her first book was published in 1998, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages. Fascinated by history, she learned to fence and sail a tall ship. She and her husband reside in Washington State with an overactive Irish terrier. You can find her online, blogging at nineteenteen.com (http://nineteenteen.com). Learn more about her at reginascott.com (http://reginascott.com) or connect with her on Facebook at Facebook.com/authorreginascott (https://Facebook.com/authorreginascott).
Also By Regina Scott (#ud5b238af-ef50-583c-bcab-d6cdbaee7080)
Frontier Bachelors
The Bride Ship
Would-Be Wilderness Wife
Frontier Engagement
Instant Frontier Family
A Convenient Christmas Wedding
Mail-Order Marriage Promise
His Frontier Christmas Family
Frontier Matchmaker Bride
Lone Star Cowboy League: Multiple Blessings
The Bride’s Matchmaking Triplets
Lone Star Cowboy League: The Founding Years
A Rancher of Convenience
The Master Matchmakers
The Courting Campaign
The Wife Campaign
The Husband Campaign
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Frontier Matchmaker Bride
Regina Scott
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08251-8
FRONTIER MATCHMAKER BRIDE
© 2018 Regina Lundgren
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
—1 John 4:16
“I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Hart’s gaze moved to the wharves, as if he saw a gang of marauding pirates rather than busy longshoremen.
Beth stared at him.
“I’d hate to have to explain to your brothers,” he added.
Well! She was about to tell him exactly what she thought of the idea when she noticed a light in his eyes. Was that a twinkle in the gray?
Beth tossed her head. “Oh, they’ll take your side. They always say I have more enthusiasm than sense.”
He shrugged. “I know a few women who match that description.”
Beth grinned. “But none as pretty as me.”
“That’s the truth.” His gaze warmed, and she caught her breath. Hart, flirting with her? It couldn’t be!
Silly! Why did she keep reacting that way? He wasn’t interested in her. He’d told her so himself. And she wasn’t about to allow herself to take a chance on love again, especially not with Hart McCormick.
Dear Reader (#ud5b238af-ef50-583c-bcab-d6cdbaee7080),
Thank you for choosing Beth and Hart’s story. I hope you enjoyed watching the youngest, and most determined, Wallin meet her match. If you missed any of the other stories in the Frontier Bachelors series, look for The Bride Ship (Allegra and Clay), Would-Be Wilderness Wife (Catherine and Drew), Frontier Engagement (James and Rina), Instant Frontier Family (Maddie and Michael), A Convenient Christmas Wedding (Simon and Nora), Mail-Order Marriage Promise (John and Dottie) and His Frontier Christmas Family (Levi and Callie). It has been my pleasure to bring their stories to you.
You can find more information on my books and sign up for a free email alert when the next book is out at my website at www.reginascott.com (http://www.reginascott.com).
Blessings!
Regina Scott
To Tina James, for making my books the best they can be across nineteen stories, and to the Lord, without whom there would be no stories.
Contents
Cover (#u94991a16-9975-51b9-b4f3-1eeda61405d8)
Back Cover Text (#uc0466ab9-07a0-5a4a-a10c-c32893f045c0)
About the Author (#uf44adf6d-5dd7-5f73-99ae-ae74683962cf)
Booklist (#ua6efbbf9-f041-5791-b3c4-063c12bbbac0)
Title Page (#uda39f5f0-8ca8-5647-8e40-1363b26cd26b)
Copyright (#u19b13d04-030b-5173-a954-63e44af2f26d)
Bible Verse (#uf5756644-8bf0-5645-9e06-aca159a13204)
Introduction (#u1668f1fa-58bf-55ae-b32e-030e53c65cc1)
Dear Reader (#u6ffa150b-d6a6-5b3c-82da-af5bcad0534f)
Dedication (#uba1f6c74-d5f8-59ca-9d5f-707b68167482)
Chapter One (#udc320537-e9af-5c72-9107-300d928232da)
Chapter Two (#u68276edd-7a7a-5ae0-b7ca-02e5df615d22)
Chapter Three (#u956ef390-d76d-511b-9c7a-e8e330993fdb)
Chapter Four (#u86b79e6c-1a8c-50cf-83ae-372c1ba1fc80)
Chapter Five (#ude1a21ae-ee92-52b7-8cf9-7dcbd3a21b29)
Chapter Six (#uddfa31c6-4704-5bbc-86b4-a297171fec0c)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ud5b238af-ef50-583c-bcab-d6cdbaee7080)
Seattle, Washington Territory
March 1875
It simply wasn’t easy to save a man’s life.
Beth Wallin blew out a breath as she stood in front of the Kellogg Brothers’ mercantile, a cold breeze tugging at her feathered hat. Hart McCormick always rode down Second Avenue between ten and noon on Tuesdays. She’d studied his movements every time she came to town, and the pattern hadn’t changed in the ten years she’d known him. Here it was nearly noon, and she hadn’t so much as caught a glimpse of the lawman.
Her booted foot was tapping against the boardwalk under her pink-and-white-striped skirts. She forced it to stop. The muddy street was thronged with riders on horseback and farmers with wagons. She loved the bustle, the purposefulness. Men in warm wool coats and ladies with swaying skirts passed her for the shops on either side. She smiled and nodded in turn. After all, it wouldn’t do her reputation or Hart’s any good if the truth about their past was known.
But really, was it too much to ask that the man be punctual?
She shook her head. She shouldn’t be so annoyed with him. Hart had no idea she was waiting. He might be off chasing bandits, lying in wait for vandals, rescuing children from raging rapids. That’s what he did: safeguard the citizens of King County, standing between them and the forces of evil.
“He’s just a man,” she muttered aloud. “Opinionated, stubborn, bullheaded...”
