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He’d heard all right. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but they’d both overheard Ma and Pa talking while they’d been cleaning up after the party. Their voices had been full of worry.

“We have to get Isaac a wife.” Jo’s lips scrunched up as she widened her eyes. The look she always used when she was determined to get her way.

David placed his hands on the quilt covering his bed and leaned forward. “No way. A grown-up woman ain’t gonna believe I’m Uncle Isaac. Not if I answered one of those.”

As Jo jumped on the bed, landing on her knees, she threw a punch to his gut. He doubled over, stifling his yelp. He didn’t want the adults in here. Didn’t want to be in trouble again for something Jo had started.

“Uncle Isaac needs us.” She twisted his ear, and he barely held back a yelp.

David pushed her face away with his palm, earning a grunt.

She came right back, and he swatted her away.

“Uncle Isaac has to have a wife.” Jo gritted her teeth. “If not, he’ll never be happy again. Is that what you want?”

It’d be nice to see Uncle Isaac smile again. David thought about how Isaac was always serious now. The haunted way he stared at the horizon. His uncle was hurting.

“Ma knows it would bring him back.”

His heart pounded in his ears as Jo switched to a softer tactic. Even knowing how she worked to get her way, the words hit him in the gut harder than her punch. “All right.”

He’d barely mumbled the word, but Jo already had the letters fanned out in her hands.

Jo chewed at her bottom lip as she flipped through the letters. Her fingers grasped at an envelope. As she worked to pull it out, a faint scent of roses filtered into the air. Jo wrinkled up her nose. “This can’t be it.”

“Why not?” A gnawing started in his stomach. He wished she’d get on with this.

“If her letter smells like that, what is she gonna smell like?” She tossed the letter to the floor.

“Don’t you think Uncle Isaac wants a girl that smells pretty?”

“I’ve smelled pretty. That ain’t it.” Jo fingered the stack again, landing on another letter.

The apprehension grew larger in his stomach as he caught the gleam in his sister’s eye. She yanked at the envelope, pulling it triumphantly from the pile.

“ This is the one.”

* * *

BONUS EPILOGUE

Thank you for reading A Steadfast Heart . Find out what happens next for Ed and Rebecca with our free Bonus Epilogue !

This bonus epilogue will not be released on any retailer platform, so click here to get your free gift. You acknowledge you are becoming a Sunrise Publishing, Wendy Klopfenstein and Lacy Williams subscriber. Unsubscribe from any newsletter at any time.

* * *

Journey once more with our mail-order brides with our third romantic Wind River Mail-Order Brides story, A Dangerous Heart by Lacy Williams and Wendy Galinetti.

Former U.S. Marshal Isaac McGraw wants nothing more than to forget his past and live in isolation on the family ranch. But his meddling family has cooked up other plans—plans that include matching Isaac with a mail-order bride who has two young boys in tow.

There’s something about Clare Ferguson that bothers Isaac…more than the haunted look in her eyes and the way she’s constantly glancing over her shoulder. Against his will—and better judgment—he finds himself drawn to Clare and her cheery disposition.

When Clare’s secret past and relationship to an infamous outlaw is revealed, Isaac must break free from the chains of his past to keep his new family safe…

This sweet historical romance is perfect for fans of the following tropes:

*lawman hero

*ready-made family

*heroine on the run

*grumpy/sunshine

*redemption

Pre-order from the Sunrise Shop to get your hands on it early, or later from your favorite retailer .

Keep reading for a sneak peek…

A DANGEROUS HEART | WIND RIVER MAIL-ORDER brIDES #4

CHAPTER 1

“You can’t catch me!”

Shrieks and laughter from young voices carried on the early-autumn breeze as Isaac McGraw strode through the yard between the barn and the original family homestead—now his older brother Drew’s home.

His six-year-old niece Tillie had sprouted up while he’d been gone on his last mission for the U.S. Marshals. Eleven-year-old Jo had grown lanky and awkward and looked more like her mother every day. But when Isaac looked at them, sometimes he saw the little tykes they’d been before.

Isaac’s younger brother Nick trailed the girls toward the barn. He was within shouting distance but only raised his hand in a wave.

Isaac returned it half-heartedly and continued toward the main house.

He steeled himself and slowly pulled in air through his nose, the smell of damp hay and musky horses mingling in the fall air—familiar scents that now felt suffocating.

A low-hanging fog clung to the grass and the bottom rails of the paddock as Isaac trudged through the mist and climbed the steps.

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee greeted him as he crossed the threshold.

He stalked to the dry sink, reached for a cup on the shelf above, and snagged the tin pot from the stove.

“Were you out all night, Uncle Isaac?”

Isaac had seen his nephew David stacking plates in the corner as soon as he’d come inside. It was too much to hope the fourteen-year-old would keep his silence.

Isaac nodded, setting the coffeepot down and turning to lean his hips against the counter. He lifted his cup to take a sip but avoided looking directly at the boy. It was too hard. David reminded him of another boy, one who hadn’t lived to see his fourteenth birthday.

“Are you going again tonight? Can I come with you?”

David’s questions tumbled over each other. The boy had idolized Isaac since they’d pinned the marshal’s badge to his chest. And even now, when Isaac had given it up.

“No.” Isaac hadn’t meant to growl the word, but there it was.

David went quiet, subdued.

Drew hadn’t asked Isaac to keep watch, but it gave him an excuse to keep his distance, and it felt like penance for not having been here when the well had been poisoned a few months ago. According to their middle brother Ed, the family had been so ill they might’ve died.

Voices carried from the adjoining living and dining room, along with a husky laugh that belonged to his new sister-in-law Kaitlyn.

Moving to the doorway, he caught sight of Rebekah, Ed’s wife of only a few weeks.

Two of his brothers had settled into marriage recently. It was another sign he didn’t belong here anymore. He preferred the isolation of the hill country, his only companions a few varmints and a herd of cows.

But the ongoing feud with their neighbor made the solitude impossible. For now.

Isaac knew that any man willing to poison and kill wasn’t going to give up easily.

That’s why Isaac needed to keep watch. Heath Quade wasn’t going to give up, not when the McGraws owned the best water in the county.

Quade had made that abundantly clear as he’d bought out two more neighbors over the past weeks.

It wasn’t enough for him to own the biggest ranch in the county.

He’d bought or finagled nearly every piece right up to the McGraws’ property lines.

Isaac’s chest cinched tight at David’s disappointment. He moved into the dining room to join Ed and Rebekah and Drew and Kaitlyn.

“What’s this?” his brother Ed asked, bewildered. He was looking down at a white piece of paper on the table. Rebekah stood behind him, hands on her hips.

“It came to the mail-order bride postbox addressed to Isaac, postmarked a week ago. I found it in the mail when we were in town yesterday.” She narrowed her eyes on her husband. “I thought I was the only one you were writing to.”

Isaac watched color rise into Ed’s cheeks, and a tiny part of him liked that his brother’s new wife was sassing him.

Months ago, Ed and Drew and Kaitlyn had cooked up a plan to find Isaac a bride—without bothering to ask him if he wanted one.

The letters that were exchanged after the family had placed the mail-order bride ad on his behalf had caused a mess of trouble—and resulted in a match between Ed and Rebekah.

It gave Isaac a perverse kind of pleasure to see his brother squirming from the consequences of meddling in his life. Isaac was still angry.

“You are the only person I wrote to,” Ed said.

Rebekah softened. “Then why does this Clare Ferguson say she’s arriving on the train tomorrow?”

Isaac went still.

There was a jerky movement in the doorway at Rebekah’s question.

“Hold up, son,” Drew said at the same time as Isaac swiveled his head.

David stood in the open doorway, guilt written clearly on his expression. The kid had no poker face. He was trying to edge away unobtrusively, but Drew’s focus was legendary.

“Why don’t you come in here and tell us what you know about this letter.” There was no room for disobedience in the command.

David hung his head, barely stepping inside the room. “Jo made me do it,” he mumbled.

“Do what?” Ed asked.

Isaac’s skin prickled at the sideways glance David shot him.

“Write a letter,” the boy said hesitantly. He rubbed the back of his neck. “To get Uncle Isaac a wife.”

Kaitlyn choked on her coffee.

It seemed that once he’d started, the words just tumbled out.

“We heard you all talking at Uncle Ed and Aunt Rebekah’s wedding.

About Uncle Isaac. I told Jo it was a bad idea, but she—” His gaze flicked to Isaac.

“We don’t want Uncle Isaac to be sad anymore.

So we picked one of the extra letters and wrote back to the lady who sent it. ”

Isaac’s skin stretched too tight over his bones. No one in the family knew what had happened. There was no way David and Jo could know the well of darkness he’d descended into. But their innocent desire to help him—when he didn’t deserve it one whit—hit like a punch to his solar plexus.

Isaac saw the guilty looks his brothers exchanged and Drew’s glittering gaze.

“How many letters did you write?” Kaitlyn asked.