Midnight Rider. Diana Palmer
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Название: Midnight Rider
Автор: Diana Palmer
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon M&B
isbn: 9781472009685
isbn:
Diana Palmer delivers a tale of two unlikely lovers in turn-of-the-century Texas who are about to find love where they least expect it....
Count Eduardo Cortes’s fortune—and future at his beloved ranch—are in question. Tragedy, money woes and family pressure are now driving him toward a marriage of convenience. That is, until he encounters Bernadette Barron, wandering frightened and disheveled after a society ball....
Beneath the grime, it’s clear Bernadette is beautiful and rich. But is she just another heartbreak waiting to happen or has Eduardo finally found the one woman who can save his ranch and heal his heart? The Spanish count can provide Bernadette with the title she needs—but can he return her feelings?
Gazing into her husband’s penetrating eyes, Bernadette sees not only his calculating ways but also his quick arousal to passion. Will their growing desire be enough to overcome the mounting challenges they face...and claim the love she will not be denied?
Praise for New York Times bestselling author
Diana Palmer
“Palmer demonstrates, yet again, why she’s the queen of desperado quests for justice and true love.”
—Publisher’s Weekly on Dangerous
“The popular Palmer has penned another winning novel,
a perfect blend of romance and suspense.”
—Booklist on Lawman
“Palmer knows how to make the sparks fly...heartwarming.”
—Publishers Weekly on Renegade
“Sensual and suspenseful.”
—Booklist on Lawless
“Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller
who captures the essence of what a romance should be.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“Nobody tops Diana Palmer when it comes to
delivering pure, undiluted romance. I love her stories.”
—New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz
Midnight Rider
Diana Palmer
MILLS & BOON
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Contents
CHAPTER ONE
Southwestern Texas, 1900
IN ALL THE WORLD THERE WAS nothing Bernadette Barron loved more than her garden, despite the asthma that sometimes sent her running from it in the spring months. There were plenty of flowers in southwestern Texas, and many occasions to fill her father’s elaborate Victorian home with them. Colston Barron owned at least half of Valladolid County, which was midway between the prosperous city of San Antonio and the smaller city of Del Rio on the Mexican border.
He had done extremely well for an Irish immigrant who got his start working on building the railroads. Now, thirty-three years after his arrival in the United States, he owned two. He had money to burn, but little family to spend it on.
Despite his wealth, there was one thing still lacking in his life—acceptance and respect from elite society. His rude Irish brogue and lack of conventional manners isolated him from the prominent families of the day, a situation he was determined to change. And Bernadette was going to be the means of it.
His beloved wife, Eloise, had died of an infection just after giving birth to Bernadette. His eldest daughter had died in childbirth. His only son, married with a small child, lived back East, worked as a fisherman and kept contact with his father to a minimum. Albert was in disgrace because he’d married for love, refusing the social match his father had planned for him. Only Bernadette was left at home now. Her brother could barely support his own small family, so running to him was not an option unless she was able to work, which was impossible because her health was too precarious to allow her to hold down a job such as teaching. Meanwhile, she had to cope with her father’s fanatical social aspirations.
It wasn’t that Bernadette didn’t want to marry, СКАЧАТЬ