Luke Ashcroft's woman

the long version

WESTWARD HO! Charlotte Dalton has been let down by the men in her life. Dismissed by her abusive father as a plain brown sparrow who would never attract a man, she is left untouched by her timid husband, and then widowed on the trail west before she truly knows what it means to be a wife. Abandoned by her bullying brother-in-law to face the challenges and dangers of the passage across the plains, she vows she'd be better off making her new life in the fertile Sacramento Valley without any man by her side. But all that is about to change as she is swept into strong, caring arms, teased by knowing green eyes, until she can no longer resist the temptation of becoming . . . LUKE ASHCROFT'S WOMAN.