Secret Surrender--Jarrett Family Sagas--Book Four

by Vivian Vaughan

  Molly luxuriated in his embrace, at the feel of his body, soft and sensual, hot and hard, against hers. “Why do you like them now?”

  He pulled her close and began a long slow journey back to the pinnacle of passion. “Because we’re in it together.”

  Later, much later, they lay languidly in each other’s arms again.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get you a present,” Molly sighed.

  He leaned on an arm, kissing her softly. His eyes probed, pensive, serious. “You did, Molly love. You gave me the greatest gift a woman can give.” His eyes dimmed. “And I took it and left—twice.”

  She stroked his face. “But you came back. Twice.”

  That reminded her of the letter. Jumping from the bed, she pulled open her bureau drawer, dug beneath her lingerie, and found both envelopes. The contract to sell the Blake House and the letter she had written Rubal on the children’s instructions.

  “Cleatus arranged for me to sell out to the Harvey House people.” Rubal had come off the bed to stand beside her. Taking the contract from her hands, he stared instead into her face, waiting for her to explain.

  “It was the only way I could see to…to…”

  She watched his Adam’s apple bob; his jaws clenched. In one stroke he tore the contract in half.

  She turned to the other envelope, the one she had carefully addressed to Rubal. “This is the letter the children made me write…” When she unfolded the sheet of notepaper, it was clean—not even an ink stain.

  Rubal picked up his jacket and pulled a letter from the pocket. “This what you’re looking for?”

  She stared at the letter, penned in her own hand, held now in his. At the bottom, written in Lindy’s flowing script, she read: ‘Rubal, Molly loves you, and we love you. Please come home.’ It was signed in various stages of penmanship by all the children. Travis’s name, however, was neatly printed, letting Molly know they had mailed her letter long ago.

  “The children!” Weakness washed over her when she recalled how hard she had resisted mailing this letter. Her eyes found Rubal’s. “What if they hadn’t mailed it?”

  They fell into each other’s arms, then, sobered by how close they had come to losing each other.

  The Blake House Cookbook

  By Molly Durant Jarrett

  Chicken and Dumplings

  Boil one fat hen, salted and peppered to taste, slowly until well done. Reserve broth; bone chicken.

  Dumplings: Mix 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Cut in two tablespoons butter and 1 cup hot milk. Turn onto cutting board; knead until smooth; roll and cut into dumplings.

  Bring broth to boil, add dumplings, simmer ten minutes, covered; remove lid, add chicken pieces, cook an additional ten minutes.

  Fried Corn Bread

  1 cup cornmeal

  a pinch of baking powder

  a pinch of salt

  a pinch of sugar, if desired

  1 whole egg, if desired

  walnut-sized ball of lard

  Mix all ingredients; add boiling water to desired consistency; drop by spoonsful on sizzling hot griddle.

  Fried Salt Pork and Sawmill Gravy

  Render tallow; dip thin slices of salt pork in egg bath, then flour; fry in hot tallow until crisp. Drain while making gravy.

  Sawmill Gravy: Scrape leavings from frying pork; add equal amount of flour to the grease; stir until bubbling. Add pinch of salt and enough pepper to tickle the innards. Pour in milk gradually, stirring constantly, using one cup milk for each tablespoon of flour and grease.

  Syllabub

  In a chilled punch bowl, dissolve one cup of sugar in one cup of sherry. Put bowl under cow, milk until full and frothy. Set in springhouse (or snow if available) until chilled. Serve in chilled mugs, topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. A light hand on the spirits will enable children to enjoy this holiday drink along with their elders.

  More from Vivian Vaughan

  Branded

  El Paso, Texas. 1895. Five years ago, life as Jacy Kimble knew it ended with a scandal that sent her brother Hunter and his best friend Trevor Fallon to Yuma Prison for murder. The scandal cost her family their Arizona Ranch, ruined her father’s political career and took his sanity, leaving the Kimble family in shambles. Once the belle of Arizona society, Jacy Kimble was haughty and flirtatious—her favorite target: Trevor Fallon. Her father called him a hired hand.

  Now Trevor has shown up at her door, escaped from prison, or as he tries to make her believe: he was freed in the middle of the night with one order—clear her brother’s name and keep him from hanging.

  For five years she has hated Trevor. How can she believe him now? Yet, how can she not help him try to prove her brother’s innocence? It’s a hard choice for Jacy: believe the man who ruined her life, or throw away any hope for her family’s future. Complicating everything, Trevor is the same handsome, no-account cowhand who once romanced her. And Jacy had loved him. Now she feels that powerful attraction returning. How can she spend time with him? How can she not?

  No Place for a Lady

  When Madolyn Sinclair, Secretary of the Boston Woman Suffrage Society, steps off the train in Buckhorn, Texas, she doesn’t know there is a right and wrong side of the tracks. Madolyn has come to this god-forsaken land with three purposes: to find her runaway brother Morley, secure her inheritance, and return to Boston to organize a Center for Women’s Rights. What she had not expected to find in this windswept land—or anywhere—was love: Madolyn Sinclair has dedicated herself to teaching submissive women from all walks of life that they don’t need men.

  Then she meets Tyler Grant, her brother’s erstwhile business partner, who offers to take her to Morley’s ranch. She reluctantly accepts, and Tyler takes her on a wagon ride she will never forget. But Tyler has an ulterior motive, and he’s caught a tantalizing woman in his web of deceit.

  Reluctant Enemies

  New Mexico Territory, 1879. Will Radnor has never stopped looking for Charles Martin Kane, the man who murdered his father back in Philadelphia. Following the first good lead he’s had in years, Will accepts a position with a law firm in Santa Fé. In Chimayo, a golden-haired cowgirl, ‘dressed like Billy the Kid and smelling of horse sweat’ climbs into the stagecoach and changes his life forever. Then he learns her name.

  Priscilla McCain has realized her dream to become the best danged cowgirl in New Mexico Territory, following in the boot steps of her beloved father, Charlie McCain. In Chimayo she climbs into the stage and trips over the flimsy black boots of a greenhorn lawyer. He is tall, though, and handsome. Silk shirts and perfume spring to mind. Then she realizes what he is—a greenhorn.

  Soon, however, even wild horses can’t keep them apart. Will passes every ‘greenhorn’ test Priscilla poses and proves himself a quick learner. Before she knows it, Priscilla has donned that silk shirt, lacy chemise, and spritzes on her mother’s perfume.

  As Will’s love for Priscilla grows, he knows that the time will come when she must choose between him and her father, and either choice will be disastrous for all of them. He has never seen a family as close. But can he forego bringing Charles Martin Kane to justice, even for the woman he loves?

  A Wish to Build a Dream On

  Reese Catlin is determined to get his herd from Texas to Kansas ahead of the rush. An excellent chuck wagon cook is essential to the cattle drive, and after tasting the delectable lemon pies at the café in town, he knows he’s found the perfect man for the job in 'Andy' Dushane.

  Only as it turns out, Andie Dushane is actually a woman, and he knows the rest of the cowboys won’t stand for it. But after she proves her culinary skills can’t be matched—or resisted—she joins the camp on the trail to Kansas.

  Before long, Andie’s delicious cuisine wins over the stomachs of the cowboys, but it’s the warmth of her passionate embrace that wins over the heart of Reese.

  Storms Never Last

  Eager to flea Indianola, Texas and th
e violent blood feud between her own family and the neighboring Suttons, Lindsey Mae Burnett makes the desperate decision to work as a shady lady to fund her escape.

  March Sutton is in Indianola with one mission—murder. In an effort to relax, he pays Miss Fancy's House of Fanciful Delights a visit where he is paired with the beautiful, innocent Lindsey.

  As a fierce storm descends upon the city, both March and Lindsey find themselves in danger of being swept away by not only the harsh winds, but by each other as well. Will their love survive the dangers of the vicious storm and the looming threat of Jeb Taylor, only to be destroyed when Lindsey learns that March is one of the very Suttons she’s running from?

  Sweetheart of the Rodeo

  Caterina Raminerz, daughter of a ranch cook, wanted nothing more than to marry her oldest friend Monte Ballou. But the morning after he proposes, he disappears, along with Caterina’s hope for a future with true love.

  Six years later, Monte has returned, determined to ride a dangerous stallion in the Fourth of July Rodeo. Still deeply in love with her childhood sweetheart, Caterina vows to do whatever necessary to stop Monte from riding the ferocious horse—and maybe save his life.

  But even as buried feelings and forgotten promises find their way back to the surface, Monte is promised to someone else. Will Monte and Caterina find their way back to each other before their love is extinguished forever?

  Tremaynes of Apache Wells

  Chance of a Lifetime

  Fort Davis, Department of Texas, 1868. Sabrina Bolton lives with an omnipresent feeling of guilt: her twin sister’s death when the girls were five left their mother in a perpetual state of melancholy. Now, fourteen years later, everything Sabrina does brings the admonishment “Proper young ladies don’t...”

  Sabrina wants more. She wants to treat people at the post hospital; she wants to work at her father’s off-base mercantile with her friend, Rosa Ramírez; and she wants romance. Then her mother makes the ultimate choice—a suitor for Sabrina. Sabrina cannot summon one romantic feeing for Captain Lon Jasper. Indeed, he criticizes her behavior as much as her mother does.

  Then the man called Tremayne rides onto the base and straight into Sabrina’s heart. Tremayne was reared by Apaches after his parents were murdered by unknown assailants, and he considers himself an outcast in both worlds. To him, all white-eyes women are witless. As if to prove the point, he almost runs down a fiery-haired woman who has wandered into the street and tripped on her skirts. He helps her stand, and from that moment they find no peace unless they are together. As their love grows, Tremayne knows he must leave Sabrina. Together she would be an outcast, too.

  Catch a Wild Heart

  Keturah “Ket” Tremayne belongs nowhere, to no one. Born of an Apache mother and “white-eyes” father, Ket is an outcast in both worlds. She has erected a wall around her heart, a wall of hatred for all whites, especially the soldiers at Fort Davis...and her stepmother, Sabrina.

  Now Ket goes into the mountains to rescue her half-brother and his friend from Comancheros. Along with the boys, she rescues a greenhorn surveyor named Blake. His gibberish confounds her, but his compassion draws her near…and her sense of self-preservation pushes him away.

  Meanwhile, Blake has his hands full surveying a rail line while avoiding renegade Apaches...except for the half-Apache girl who is the most astonishing, bewildering, and wonderful woman he has ever met. Even when it’s snowing outside his blood boils just thinking about her. Keturah Tremayne considers herself an outcast, wanted by no one, but Blake knows better, and if it takes the rest of his life, he will tear down the wall she has erected around her heart and set her free.

  Jarrett Family Sagas

  Sweet Autumn Surrender

  Ellie Langstrom has built a quiet, simple life on a ranch in Summer Valley, married to the gentle, older Benjamin Jarrett, the love of her life. But that dream is shattered when she finds Benjamin’s bullet-riddled corpse on the back doorstep and watches her barn burn to the ground.

  Ellie doesn’t know who is after her or why, so she telegraphs Benjamin’s far-flung brother Carson for help. Two months later, a Jarrett brother finally arrives—not Carson, Texas Ranger, but the blue-eyed gunfighter, Kale Jarrett. Ellie is terrified of guns and of the handsome gunslinger now living in her house. But she needs him…maybe in ways she doesn’t want to admit.

  Silver Surrender

  Aurelia Mazón lives with only one goal: to escape her high-mountain silver mining town for the big city. Though her father owns the mine, she wants more from life. After her father vows to send Aurelia and her mother to Guanajuato if the silver thefts at the mine continue, Aurelia sets a plan in motion to make her dreams come true.

  But just when her plan begins to work, the unthinkable happens: a handsome stranger, a gringo, is arrested for the thefts. Aurelia has no choice but to break the gringo out and escape with him into the Sierra Madres, where she falls into his arms. There, she learns the gringo is Carson Jarrett, a Texas Ranger.

  Chased through the Sierras by the Federales, Carson realizes that their budding, passionate romance cannot come to pass: the Mazón family will never allow Aurelia to marry a gringo. But Aurelia’s ingenuity and indomitable spirit will say otherwise.

  Sunrise Surrender

  Mississippi River, 1879. Delta Jarrett is desperate to end the recurring dreams that haunt her: disturbing, passionate dreams about her ancestor, pirate Anne Bonny, and Anne’s lover, Calico Jack. Their romance happened over a hundred years before, but now, in 1879, Delta is still enamored with their world. In an attempt to purge the dreams, Delta agrees to serve as a reporter for her brother-in-law Hollis’ newspaper, the St. Louis Sun. She would cover stories onboard a Louisiana showboat, the Mississippi Princess, at each port of call, and for the festivities later in New Orleans.

  Brett Reall, on the run from a murder he did not commit, is back in the bayous of Louisiana after a decade, disguised and on the lookout for bounty hunters and the law. His enemies could be anywhere, but after boarding the Mississippi Princess and seeing Delta, he has a new fear: pulling this beautiful woman into harms’ way.

  Delta can sense the danger that surrounds Brett, but her vivid dreams and growing love for this real-life pirate draw her closer and closer to him, and to disaster.

  Secret Surrender

  The year is 1879, and Molly Durant has fallen on hard times. When her mother died, Molly was left with a dilapidated boarding house and five siblings, all of whom she was determined to keep together. But with no boarders, thieves stealing her family’s timber, and her banker fiancé set on sending her siblings to foster homes, fate seems against her. Then Molly gets an unexpected knock on her door.

  There, standing before her, is the man to whom she once foolishly gave her body, the same man who abandoned her: Rubal Jarrett. Or someone who looks like him? The man claims to be Jubal, twin brother of Molly’s old lover, here to survey a route for a railroad through the timberland.

  “Jubal” soon has the boarding house brimming with paying guests, Molly serving meals to the public, and the family of siblings pitching in to help. He plans to help her turn her life around. Only then can he leave without a guilty conscience. He will not run out on her again. But memories of that long-ago night with her race through his head and hum in his ears. He dismisses a fleeting thought: “This time, Jarrett, you might get caught in your own trap.”

  Silver Creek Stories

  Heart's Desire

  At a stage stop on the way to join her father in Silver Creek, Holly Campbell receives a telegram reporting his suicide. Heartbroken and determined, she continues on with one goal: to prove he was murdered. Letters she received from him told her whom she can trust—and the one man she can’t. Sheriff Quintan Jarvis is as crooked as they come and Holly means to keep as far away from him as possible.

  But even as Holly tries to resist her attraction to the mysterious sheriff, she can’t deny her body’s yearning for the handsome lawman’s embrace. Will s
he be able to solve the mystery of her father’s death before she surrenders to Quintan’s touch and her HEART'S DESIRE?

  Texas Twilight

  When Trace Garrett shows up on Clara Ehler’s Texas ranch, she can hardly believe it’s him—and as handsome as she remembers. When Trace left years before, he took Clara’s dream of true love with him. But now he’s back, and one look at him sets a heat of passion ablaze once again.

  But Trace holds more than the deed to Clara’s heart—he holds the deed to her ranch as well. He’d heard she planned on selling it and moving East, but he knows the only place for Clara is on the Texas frontier, and in his embrace.

  Runaway Passion

  Emilie Hahn is determined to escape her father’s ranch, and not even the handsome Texas Rancher sent to pursue her will drag her back without a fight. Even as she resists his attempts to return her to her father, her heart can’t deny the desires that pass between them.

  Creed McCaslin has been hired to rescue Emilie, and he’s going to do it. Even when he learns that she’s a runaway, not the damsel in distress her father has made her out to be. But his mission never included falling for his feisty and beautiful captive.

  Will Creed return Emilie to the ranch, or will he turn out to be her true ticket to freedom?

  Sweet Texas Nights

  Meg Britton arrives in Silver Creek with one purpose: to see the construction of the rail line completed. Fighting against the hell-on-wheels culture of hard drinking and harder living, her own father’s misgivings, and rival railroaders, it is only Meg’s sharp tongue and steadfast determination that keep her mission afloat. That is until she meets the handsome and mysterious Kalib Cheney.