Jana
Jana Luykan is desperate to move with her sixteen-year-old brother, Marco, to their aunt and uncle’s farm in California. For the past six months since their mother’s death, she has struggled to keep him in school and out of mischief. In Council Bluffs during the final days before joining a westbound company, Jana is shocked to arrive home from her evening job to find Marco bleeding and two ruffians insisting they’re joining the Luykans on the wagon train. If she doesn’t agree, then they’ll tell the sheriff about Marco’s participation in a saloon robbery. She’ll do anything to protect her brother—even pretending these men are her cousins.
Rik Sanderson trails two bank robbers to Council Bluffs. This pair has proved elusive over the past month, and he’s anxious to capture them and collect the bounty. About to give up, he spots them in a group of pioneers signing up with a wagon train company. He gets a job as a hunter for the company, figuring he’ll wait the week until they reach Fort Kearney to turn them in there. When he realizes they are holding a woman, who he aided in a saloon scuffle, and her brother hostage, Rik vows to watch over the innocents.
By the time the wagon train reaches the fort, Jana is a wreck from keeping up the pretense of the two strangers in her camp. Mister Sanderson seems to always be watching—an action that doesn’t soothe her nerves. She’s afraid he knows of Marco’s involvement with the robbery. Rik confides his suspicions about her “cousins” and that he’ll turn them over to authorities the next day. Jana begs him not to arrest Marco. The fort commander extracts a pledge from Rik to see Jana and Marco get to California safely and performs a marriage—for propriety’s sake. Rik struggles against his long-held vow not to get personally involved but realizes he can be a good influence on the young man…an influence he never had growing up.
The grueling trip tests the strength and endurance of this makeshift family. Will the challenges pull them apart or force them to cleave to one another for survival?
Book Details
A Bachelor's Lessons in Love
A Beautiful Love
A Fortunate Miscalculation
A Game of Hearts
A Match of Misfortune
A Pearl Before Spies
A Perfect Love Anthology: Containing the novella, A Perfect Match, and the full-length novel, A Perfect Secret
A Proper Governess
A Secret Correspondence
A Shadow from Venice
A Trick of Fate
A Well-Trained Lady
