An emotional Western romance set in Dakota Territory, 1883.
Chapter 1: The Woman Nobody Wanted
The first time Elias Montgomery saw the woman who was supposed to become his wife, half the town of Deadwood was laughing at her.
It was November of 1883, and the Dakota Territory was already surrendering to winter.
Snow swept across the wooden platform of the railroad depot. Horses stamped their hooves along the frozen street. Smoke rose from the chimneys of small businesses, disappearing into a sky the color of iron.
A crowd had gathered outside the station.
They weren't waiting for a visiting politician, a shipment of gold, or news from the railroad.
They were waiting for a woman.
A woman who had traveled more than a thousand miles believing that somebody wanted to marry her.
Lara Higgins stepped down from the train with a carpetbag in one hand and a folded letter in the other.
She was twenty-eight years old, with warm hazel eyes, a beautiful round face, rosy cheeks, and thick chestnut-brown hair pinned beneath a dark traveling bonnet. She weighed nearly three hundred pounds, with a very full figure that made ordinary dressmaking a challenge and narrow train seats a source of constant discomfort.
Her navy traveling dress was carefully sewn. Its collar had been repaired twice, and the cuffs carried delicate embroidery she had stitched herself during the journey west.
She was tired.
Her feet hurt.
Her back ached from three days of uncomfortable travel.
But beneath the exhaustion, she carried something she hadn't felt in years.
Hope.
Somewhere in this cold frontier town was a man named Elias Montgomery.
A cattle rancher.
Thirty-five years old.
Owner of Whispering Pines Ranch.
A hardworking man, according to the letters.
A lonely man who wanted a capable wife.
A man who had specifically requested a woman of substantial build, someone strong enough to manage life on the frontier.
Lara had read those words until the paper began to soften along the folds.
For most of her life, people had spoken about her body as if it were the only interesting thing about her.
Her older brother had called her his permanent burden.
Women at church had whispered that she would never marry.
Men had laughed openly when she passed.
But somebody in Dakota Territory had apparently chosen her.
Not despite her size, the letters claimed.
Because of the strength he believed she possessed.
As she stepped onto the platform, Lara lifted her chin and searched the faces in the crowd.