Behind the Ranges Series

When newly widowed Hattie Rommel chooses a second husband, she doesn’t expect him to fulfill her most secret dreams. She just wants him to take her to Oregon. Emmet Lachlan marries Hattie with the understanding that he will be free to leave her behind, once she is safely in Oregon. He is a wandering man, not a settling-down farmer. Then an old trapper bequeaths them a map to a valley where gold lies on the ground for the taking. While Emmet and Hattie gather the gold, they also discover each other. Even lost in love's magic, they both know it cannot last. When they run afoul of murderous renegades, they must flee across untamed mountains to the hidden valley Hattie calls Cherry Vale. In the home she's always longed for, Emmet discovers a peace he's never sought. The end of summer means they must resume their interrupted journey. Can Hattie leave the only place that's ever felt like home? And if she does, will Emmet give up looking for what's on the far side of the hill?

Victim of brutal rape, Flower Jones longs for refuge in England, where she believes she will be safe. But she reckons without William King, an escaped slave, who wants her for his woman. Although he could live free in Cherry Vale, where no one will ever whip him again, William follows her as she travels to a seaport, risking capture as an escaped slave. The raw gold they carry excites the greed of outlaws, who force them to fight for their lives. Face to face with death, will Flower realize how precious life —and William—are to her?

Nellie Sanders persuades her uncle, a renowned botanist, to allow her to join an expedition to the Sawtooth Valley in Idaho Territory in 1872. Using an assumed name, infamous shootist Malachi Breedlove contracts to lead the botanical expedition into the wilderness. A crazy old woman steals Nellie, believing her a dead daughter returned to life. As leader of the expedition, Malachi is forced to send others to seek the woman he now realizes he loves. Nellie finally convinces the old woman to take her back, claiming she will die without Malachi. No sooner are Nellie and Malachi reunited than disaster strikes the expedition. Now the lovers must face the dangers of the wilderness must, conquer old weaknesses and discover new strengths. As the summer ends, Nellie faces a choice between academic acclaim and love, while Malachi wonders whether he can hang up his guns and survive. Can they find a compromise that lets them both realize their dreams?

Silas Dewitt, newly arrived in an Idaho gold camp, saves two Chinese boys from a mob of drunken miners. But one of them turns out to an independent, stubborn, lovely woman who decides her role is to protect him. Soomey, shaped by poverty and sexual slavery, sees Silas as her means to freedom and independence—until she falls in love with him. Knowing that she is assisting in her own heartbreak, she guards his back as he searches for a cache of gold nuggets. A vicious killer stalks them both, hating Soomey for her race, Silas for his wealth. Silas faces him in a desperate knife battle, but is too late to save Soomey from painful torture. Scarred in body and soul, Soomey tries to leave him. Can Silas holds her with passion, tenderness, and a promise of eternal love?

In all his wanderings, Buffalo Lachlan has only once before seen eyes winter-sky blue like Siri Trogen's. He promised a dying man he'd find a lost twin, and he's been following nebulous clues and vague rumors halfway around the world ever since. His search leads him to Astoria, Oregon, the cold, rainy winter of 1873. Could Siri be the lost sister, heiress to a barony? Before Buff can find proof, he becomes caught up in her hunt for her stolen children. Inexplicable accidents and unexplained disasters complicate their efforts. Is someone trying to prevent Siri from finding her children, or him from finding the missing heiress? Shared danger drives them into each other's arms. Shared adventure teaches them that they each have a streak of recklessness, a core of courage, and a heart full of love to share. But before they can make any decisions about the future, they have to find Siri's children, prove she's the lost baroness...and stay alive.

Sixteen-year-old Merlin Lachlan dreams of knight errantry, but with only one eye, doubts he'll ever be more than a squire--a knight-in-training. He soon has the opportunity to play the hero when he befriends Calista Smith, a girl-child traveling alone to her father in Montana. Eight years later Merlin receives a telegram from Callie, a cry for help. Her father is taking her to an unknown destination, possibly to a fate worse than death. Abandoned at the depot in Cheyenne, along and virtually penniless, Callie finds work. When Merlin arrives he finds not a damsel in distress but a woman standing on her own two feet. Still, she is Callie, and he has a tender memory of her. As she has of him. Merlin weds Callie to ensure that her father will have no more control over her fate. Thwarted, Lem Smith seeks revenge and ends their brief idyll with fire and blood and terror. Afterward Merlin has no memory of her, beyond what his friends tell him. Callie is captive and helpless. Each believes the other dead. Time heals most wounds, but not broken hearts. Callie escapes from her father and builds a life for herself. Merlin returns home, all of his youthful dreams shattered. Until a child's smile awakens old memories, and a family calls to its own.

Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry. Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women's suffrage and equal rights for all. They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny. Sabotage to the telephone system and a boycott by the Anti-Chinese League threaten Tony's career and Lulu's convictions. The consequences of their one night of love shadow their future. How long before their very lives are endangered?