Lawfully Pledged Read online

  “You are smuggling in goods?”

  His brother turned in shock to look at Emma, who just shrugged innocently. He knew what it was like to be completely confused by a woman and grinned, thinking of how Madeline had laughed at his first offer of marriage. Daniel was in for a treat if this sweet, innocent woman could be so secretive and clever as his beloved Madeline.

  “Have a care with your thoughts, dear husband,” Emma stressed with a hard look in her eyes, “I have done what I must in order to survive these past years that I have been alone. I have lied, begged, borrowed, and stolen to put food in my belly because of the exorbitant tax laws and flagrant abuses levied on us.”

  “I am not uncaring of your needs, Emma. I haven’t been here to take care of you and frankly, I am impressed at how brilliant I am finding my wife has turned out to be. Alden,” Daniel said, turning back to his brother, “I… we… cannot let our uncle continue to destroy our legacy. We must take back the business before he ruins it.”

  “I have already taken steps towards that,” Alden admitted softly, with a lethal intensity. He suspected something had happened but couldn’t prove it. Family was everything and the idea that any of his loved ones were threatened, abused, or mistreated, it didn’t sit well at all.

  “We will not be taking the business back. You have always been the one with a head for business, not me. Besides, I have married and need to return to my wife. I wanted to check on Emma to make sure she didn’t need for anything and quite pleasantly surprised to find you here.”

  “You’ve married?” Daniel gaped in stunned shock.

  “Yes. Madeline is wonderful and could not leave due to an illness in her family. I told her I would only be gone a few days and must be heading back in the morning.”

  “Of course. Once everything settles down, we must meet up again when there are no stresses of war, no threats to us, and no time constraints. I think I should like to meet the woman that has tamed my roguish brother.”

  Afterword

  Growing up, my family and I visited our relatives in Quebec every summer. One of the things I remember fondly was sitting around, surrounded by cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents… with a steady flow of English and French conversations between us all.

  We would have tourtiere and fresh blueberry cobbler, because a little bit of food would make enough to feed an army – and there were fifteen to twenty people to feed at once, at times! I thought I would share the recipe for tourtiere that I have made over the years in my own home. (Psst – it’s amazing with a little ketchup on top!)

  Tourtiere (or meat pie)

  1 pounds of ground pork

  ½ pound of ground beef

  1 cup of water

  1 large potato, chopped finely

  1 onion minced

  Salt/Pepper

  dash of cinnamon

  ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves

  2 ready-made pie crusts

  Bring the ground pork, ground beef, chopped potato, onion to a boil until completely cooked. Strain the water (and save it just in case) and add spices. Mix well – if you need to add a little of the water back in, do so. You want a consistency that spreads easily across the pie crust. Fill the crust and then cover the meat filling with the other crust.

  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until pie crust is a deep golden brown. Let it set for about ten minutes before cutting. You can eat it hot or cold. One pie will feed about six to eight people.

  (Now that I’m typing my recipe – I’m hungry and considering making one for the house. It’s perfect on a cold winter’s day and filling.)

  Enjoy!

  Ginny

  A Bride for Daniel

  Enjoy Daniel & Emma’s story on Kindle Unlimited

  Emma Butler is devastated to find her life spiraling out of her control. She is married by proxy at the moment war begins in her own home of Lexington, Massachusetts. The ‘shot heard round the world’ is volleyed directly in front of her, leaving her an orphan. To make matters even more tragic, her new husband never arrives to claim her. The ideas of life, liberty, and happiness seem so far away as she struggles to get by in a world she no longer recognizes. Just when things begin to settle down, she comes face to face with her missing groom, Daniel Knox.

  Daniel Knox has had his life put forcibly on hold when he is pressed into service for the King’s Navy. Betrayed, alone, and with nowhere to go – he heads for the one spark of hope that he remembers from years ago, praying for a second chance at happiness with Emma, his Proxy Bride.

  Lawfully Yours

  Lawfully Yours - available on Kindle Unlimited

  Emily and Elias Jessup left their home in southern Texas, tired of living a life of poverty. They soon find out that life is no better alone on their own. With not a penny to their name and no job prospects, the siblings turn to stealing from the rich to survive. Constantly on the run from the law, the two know their days are numbered before the law catches up to them.

  Cade Singleton heard stories of the Jessup siblings preying on the rich. When the bounty is increased high enough to entice him into pursuing them, he wants nothing better than to make them see justice.

  When he finally catches up to them in a rural area just south of Dallas, Cade captures Emily and decides to use her for bait to apprehend her brother. Can this bounty hunter find it in his heart to see past Emily's lawless ways and be able to see the kind-hearted woman that lies beneath? Can Emily start over and be freed from her past through loving Cade? And will the Jessup siblings finally find redemption?

  An Agent for Gillian

  Grab An Agent for Gillian- Click here!

  Two wrongs don’t make a right – or do they?

  Gillian Jameson had lost her world when her husband died. Alone, scared, and desperate for something to fill the emptiness in her soul- she turns to the Pinkerton Agency for help. What she never expected was to be married again, especially to a man like Cade Malone.

  Cade had a recklessness to him that was born of sheer desperation. His wife and child were gone. He was running from memories that haunted him with every breath and nightmares that plagued him each night. What he needed was a reason to go on- and it certainly wasn’t in the form of a new partner.

  Can two broken souls form a bond between them? Will seeing another person who is struggling to deal with the trauma in their lives be just the thing to help old wounds heal – or would falling for each other simply create another emotional scar that is just too great to bear?

  About the Author

  Ginny Sterling is a Texas transplant living in Kentucky. She spends her free time (Ha!) writing, quilting, and spending time with her husband and two children. Ginny can be reached on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or via email at [email protected]

  Subscribe now to my Newsletter for updates

  Copyright © 2019 by Ginny Sterling

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum