Sweet Reckoning

the long version

SHE PROMISED HERSELF TO A STRANGER For all her beauty and spirit, Amy Harris was wasting away. Abandoned by her father years ago and just jilted by a no-account sweetheart, Amy saw little hope of ever leaving St. Louis and her God-fearing mother... until Matt Kendall came to town. He was a tall, tan, hard-muscled farmer who'd known her Pa back in the Civil War, and he was just passing through. His firm gaze manly swagger fired Amy with unquenchable longing--and when this polite stranger asked her to wed, Amy thought her dreams had come true. Now, in a lone farmhouse amid the Missouri hills, Amy would find her gentle feelings challenged by her husband's fierce desire and their very lives threatened by outlaw gangs riding a trail of plunder through their town. And soon, as a spectre from her husbands forbidden as rises to condemn him, her newfound love would be test in the consuming fires of passion, truth, and danger.