Prologue

Dodge City, Kansas

1883

Hope stared at her older brother, who was sprawled in a chair, his meal practically untouched, while his lips found the little flask he carried every few minutes. She knew that the scabbing slash across his cheek and the bruising around his eye meant he was in trouble again.

“Did you take the money from the pot on the bookshelf?” Hope demanded.

Daniel groaned as he forced himself into an upright position, golden liquid spilling from his flask and onto his shirt.

“Aw, Hope, I’ll pay you back,” Daniel said with a sigh.

“We can’t go on like this,” Hope said quietly, her hands gripping the back of another chair.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s been ten years since Pa died, and things are only getting worse,” Hope said, tears forming in her eyes. “I don’t know how to help you.”

“I don’t need your help, Hope!” he snapped. “I’m the one protecting you. You don’t know what I have to do to keep us steady!”

His words stung, and she looked down at the floor and swiped tears from her cheeks. The hours at the boardinghouse were long and her back ached from cooking all day. She tried to visit every second night to make sure he was eating, but it was becoming too much to bear.

Daniel opened his mouth to say something else when a loud thump sounded against the front door. Daniel slid his feet off the table and crouched down slightly as he walked to the window. He ducked suddenly, dropping to the floor and signaling with his hand for her to hide.

Hope’s heart pounded in her chest as she clambered inside the empty pantry cupboard. Angry voices shouted for Daniel to come out, and suddenly she heard the crack of wood as the cabin door was kicked in.

“I told you if you didn’t pay up, you’d be done for,” a gruff voice told Daniel.

“Hold up, Will,” Daniel spluttered, “I just need some more time.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Will laughed coldly. “Now we’re here to take what’s ours.”

Hope clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from shrieking at the shatter of glass and the crash of what sounded like a chair breaking apart. She tightened her grip, feeling the tremble in her fingers. Not even seeing the life fade from her Ma’s eyes or hearing the deathly rasp in her Pa’s voice had filled her with as much fear as worrying for her brother’s life did.

“You’re making a mess, Will,” Daniel complained. “You know I can make double what I owe you in a night.”

There were some loud guffaws, followed by a thump and a grunt from her brother. Then more laughing followed, and Hope pressed her ear to the pantry door. She swore she could hear the door of the cast iron stove squeak open and the scrape of a poker against the floor.

“No!” she breathed to herself, her heart thrumming with fear.

She knew her brother wanted her to stay safe, but she also believed without a doubt that she couldn’t rely on him to protect her, not when he needed saving himself. She could either stay in hiding, waiting for Daniel to change, or she could stand up and take control of her own life.

“Stop!” she shouted, bursting out of the pantry, the door nearly coming off of its hinges from the force.

“Hope!” Daniel shouted as he wrestled against the two men holding him down. “No!”

“And who is this?” one of the large men asked, lurching towards her. He indeed had a red-hot poker gripped in one hand.

“She’s pretty,” the other man said with a laugh. “Is she your little sister?”

“Don’t touch her!” Daniel ordered, blood gushing from his nose. His shirt was stained with it, and his light brown hair hung limply in his eyes.

It was just as she had feared. The only person left on the earth to protect her could do nothing to save them. All she had was herself to rely on. The man with the poker reached out a hand towards her, but she held her ground.

“Touch me and you’ll never get your money,” Hope growled, thrusting her chin into the air.

“Defiant, aren’t you?” the man snorted. “How much you got?”

“What does my brother owe you?” she demanded.

“Twenty dollars to clear his gambling debt with me,” the man stated.

She refused to let her shock over the amount show on her face. A moment later, she threw twenty dollars on the kitchen table, the sum total of everything her Ma had left her, along with her own savings from the boardinghouse.

“My brother’s debt is paid,” Hope declared, refusing to let her voice betray the fear she really felt. “Now, get out!”

“For now,” the man muttered under his breath as he dropped the poker and pocketed the cash.

By the time Daniel regained consciousness, Hope had cleaned him up and made him coffee. As soon as he was coherent, she explained plainly that she would not be visiting again.

“I’ll come back home when you can promise you’ve changed,” Hope told him on the way out, biting back tears.

Chapter One

Dodge City, Kansas

1883

Hope dragged herself off to her pokey bedroom at the back of the boardinghouse so she could change. She pulled off her stained white apron and opened a small window to air out the smell of food that had seeped up from the kitchen. She could still hear the roar of voices from the dining hall below vibrating up through the worn floorboards. She washed her face and put on her nicest bonnet, then hurried back out.

Daniel’s letter telling her to visit had come as a surprise. Usually, he just collected the money he wanted from the boardinghouse without even bothering to say hello. It had been months since she had seen him in person.

As she began the long walk home, all the reasons why Daniel might want to see her raced through her mind. Had he changed? Were things better? Could she finally leave the grueling hours of stirring bubbling pots over a hot stove and washing plates until her fingers were raw behind? Her stomach churned with a hope she’d long kept buried.

Their old cabin appeared through the trees, but it didn’t fill her with a sense of ease. Even in the cheerful glow of spring, it looked grim. She could just make out Daniel’s lean figure in the doorway waving to her. Her heart leapt in her chest, and she bit down on her lip as she suddenly longed to see her brother. Against her will, and perhaps her good sense, she could feel the spark of hope ignite within her.

“Oh, Daniel,” she said, trotting towards him as she ignored the ache in her feet. “It’s so good to see you!”

He gripped her in a bear hug and spun her around until she begged him to stop. “You look well!” he observed, grinning at her.

“How are you?” she asked, studying every inch of his face.

His brown eyes were almost vacant, and tiny scars flecked his pale skin, but he held onto a wide smile, as if he thought that might cover it all.

“All the better for seeing you. How’s the boardinghouse? I tried to get in to see you, but they wouldn’t let me,” Daniel said as he led her inside.

“Did you now?” Hope asked, wondering if she could really believe him. “I wish I could have seen you. The days cooking are long, hot, and busy, and the nights are lonely. Sometimes I feel I won’t last another day in the heat of that kitchen…”

She realized with a pang that he wasn’t listening, because he was waiting for her to notice his efforts. Hope smiled at the kitchen that her brother had obviously tidied up just for her visit. There were wildflowers in a jug on the table, and some apples Daniel had likely stolen off someone’s tree nestled in a basket.

“Is this for me?” she asked, pushing aside her hurt.

He grinned more widely at her, and she was reminded of the handsome boy he’d once been, before the vices of Dodge City had lured him in and stolen his youth.

The water on the stove began to boil, and he poured it into the coffee pitcher, passing her a cup once it was ready.

“Sorry. There’s no milk or sugar.”

“Just sitting down is good enough for me,” she said, quietly sipping the bitter coffee. Her nerves mounted as she wondered at the reason for his letter.

“I’ve stopped gambling, Hope,” Daniel finally said, breaking the silence. “And I’ve broken away from my…my friends.”

She assumed he meant the gang he had been working for. She had heard things around town whenever a rancher’s cow disappeared, or when the cowboys at the boardinghouse complained about a poker table that was rigged.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Hope said, though she couldn’t shake the uneasiness that spread through her. There was something in his manner that hinted he was hiding something.

“There’s a rancher in town who’s agreed to give me work,” Daniel continued, his dirty fingernails tapping on the tabletop.

“That’s wonderful,” Hope breathed, reaching out and squeezing her brother’s hand.

It was cold to the touch, and he drew away from her.

“There’s just one thing I need help with,” he continued, his eyes looking right through her.

‘No,’ Hope heard her mind warning her.

“I still have some debt I need to pay off before I can start the job,” Daniel said.

“How much?”

“Forty dollars.”

“Forty!” Hope gulped, feeling a growing bitterness in the pit of her stomach. She knew she had to help him somehow, because he was her brother and she loved him, but she couldn’t ignore the resentment that she was beginning to feel. She brushed her hair behind her ears with her fingers as she tried to think. “Daniel, I have money saved, but-”

“I’ll pay it back as soon as I get this job at the ranch.”

Hope paused, a frown forming on her face. “I thought you already had the job,” Hope said slowly, Daniel’s words confusing her. She knew she had to keep things clear in her mind. Otherwise, he would talk her in circles.

“Well, sure I do,” Daniel said, his sallow cheeks tinging red. “It’s just that this money will ensure I get the job. There are travel costs and-”

Hope set her coffee cup down and looked at him, her heart sinking into the pit of her stomach. This was why she didn’t dare hope anymore, and why she couldn’t trust anyone, not even those closest to her. People always let her down, but no one could crush her heart like her brother did. Somehow, he still knew how to get through all her defenses.

“Daniel,” she began as firmly as she could, despite the wobble in her voice, “I don’t have that kind of money.”

“Hope, you don’t understand what these men will do to me!” Daniel complained, his hands gripping hers tightly. “You remember that day, right? The day you left me!”

Hope felt a stab of guilt at the reminder, but she thrust it aside. She could not let Daniel pull her in again.

“Is the money to secure you a job on a ranch, or to pay your gambling debts?” she asked, fixing him with the hardest stare she could muster. “If you’re in trouble, Daniel…”

Daniel released her hands and leaned back slowly in his chair. She watched his mask of charm and positivity slowly fade away, leaving a tired, worn-down man with no hope slumped over before her. It broke her to think that he was only twenty-eight and had a world of potential locked away inside of him. Would he have turned out better if he hadn’t had her to worry about?

Hope shook her head and closed her eyes. She clenched her hands tightly underneath the table, feeling the jagged edges of her nails dig into her palms.

“Just tell me the truth, Daniel,” she pleaded in a low voice.

Daniel blinked at her, his expression stony. Then, anger started to build in the creases around his tight mouth and weary eyes.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you anything!” he blurted, pushing his coffee out of the way and spilling it across the table. “I’m your blood! Now give me the money, Hope! I know you have it!”

“Daniel!” Hope exclaimed, standing up. “Is money all you care about?”

“You don’t know what it’s like. You have work-”

“I break my back every day!” Hope exclaimed, her voice cracking. “I can’t do it anymore.” She shook her head as she turned away from him. “I can’t watch my life slip away working breakfast, dinner, and supper, just so my meager wages can go to your gambling. I won’t do it!”

“Hope, please!” she heard him call as she stumbled out of the kitchen.

Blinded by tears of anger and hurt, she ran from her brother, the ache in her tired feet distracting her from the stabbing pain in her heart.

Chapter Two

Montana

1883

Hope jolted awake, her heart fluttering with panic as the shreds of her dream of Daniel’s desperate pleas slipped away from her. It had been almost a month since that day, but Daniel still haunted her in her sleep. She dabbed her damp face with a handkerchief.

“Are you alright, dear?” a woman asked, patting her arm gently.

Hope blinked at the women seated around her in the cramped and stuffy coach. They were all staring, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“I’m fine. Thank you, Betty,” Hope said, forcing a smile.

Eight days ago, Hope had left the noise and bustle of Dodge City behind, traveling across the country by railway. After reaching Montana, she had boarded a stagecoach with five other women making their way to Virginia City. At the time, she had felt her decision to be an exciting opportunity, but now it seemed reckless and desperate.

“You must have been dreaming about your husband-to-be,” Betty teased. “I hope he’s handsome enough for you.”

The other women in the coach chimed with nervous laughter. It was something they all wished for. Even Hope.

Ethan Blake. That was the name of the man Hope had written to in response to his advertisement for a bride. In black and white print, Ethan had sounded sincere and safe. More than that, he’d promised a quiet life on a ranch in Madison Valley where work was plenty, but meaningful. Hope had felt it was a chance to build something that equated to far more than a strongbox full of dollars in a town surrounded by people who drank and gambled their lives away.

She also knew that it was her only way to escape the hole Daniel was trying to pull her into. She had begged him to join her in going West so that they could have a fresh start together, but he’d stubbornly refused, saying he needed to fight his own battles.

Hope had then made the impossible choice to save herself alone.

“There’s no way to know, Betty,” another woman said, chewing on her nails. “We’re marrying complete strangers! They could all be absolute toads!”

Hope chuckled at this, but she noticed the fear in some of the other expressions around her. On their journey so far they had talked for hours about the men they were to marry, and as they had drawn closer, excitement had turned to apprehension.

“Now, Dorothy, don’t fright the whole stagecoach. We’ve all got our worries,” Betty chided. “Oh, please don’t start crying again, Elizabeth!”

“I just hope he’s a kind man,” Elizabeth said in between sobs. “My cousin Flora said she knew a gal who ended up marrying a drinker! He hit her every day till she rode him over with her horse!”

“A drinker!” the other women murmured.

Hope thought of her own brother. He was a drinker, though never violent, but it had brought other dangers into her life. She had no idea what Ethan’s vices might be. What if he, too, was a gambler, or dishonest in some way? Hope bit her lip to try suppress the surge of worries that flooded into her mind.

Betty squeezed her hand and smiled at all of them. “Mary, didn’t you say your cousin ended up married to a nice, handsome rancher?” Betty asked in desperation.

Mary nodded. “But her mother-in-law makes her wash the pigs every day.”

“Wash pigs!” Dorothy gasped in horror.

Hope could think of worse things. A stitch formed in the base of her stomach and no amount of shifting could ease it. She was running away from a home, a job, and three steady meals a day. All Ethan had offered were a few short sentences in the Sunday paper. That was not enough to know a man, and especially not to hand her life over to him. Hope felt like there was no air left in the carriage, so she pulled open the drapes to get to the window.

“Is that Virginia City?” Mary asked, pulling Hope back and pointing outside.

“Looks like it! Well,” Betty said with excitement, “there’s no turning back now!”

Elizabeth burst into noisy wails.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Dorothy said, holding her handkerchief to her mouth.

As the carriage swayed and jolted over the rutted roads, Hope felt her own stomach churn. Sweat dampened her collar, and sparks started to flit on the side of her vision. Had she made a terrible, inescapable decision?

“Here we go, dear,” Betty said, cooling Hope’s flushed face with her fan. “It’ll be alright.”

“Look at the mountains!” Mary breathed in awe.

Hope pushed her face through the window and took a deep breath of fresh air. She opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by rugged mountains and dense pine forests, so unlike the flat, dusty prairie surrounding Dodge City. Below them, an icy blue river snaked through the valley, and wildlife darted into the trees at the noise of their coach. Ahead, she could just make out the clustered buildings of Virginia City, and thought them quite small against the vast and wild landscape.

The cool air calmed her thoughts and reassured her that she could make most any situation work, so long as it meant she was free to start a new life. She had sent Daniel a farewell letter with a fair amount of her savings inside, partly hoping he would use it for a train ticket, but knowing he wouldn’t. Then she had used the last of her savings to book her own train tickets and coach to Montana. Now that she was so far from anything that resembled home, there was no returning.

All too soon, the coach pulled up alongside a small platform, and a loud man with a book under his arm led them to their boardinghouse. It was smaller than the one in Dodge City, but seemed to be bursting at the foundations with young women.

“Are they all in town for husbands?” Hope hissed at Betty.

She nodded.

“Mary Everest?” the man called, looking down at all of them around a rather large mustache.

“Here,” Mary said in a voice that trembled.

“Dorothy May?” he boomed again.

“Here!” Dorothy squeaked.

“Hope Caldwell? Hope?”

“Here,” Hope said as Betty jabbed her in the side with an elbow. She had been distracted as she looked around, trying to spy on the different people as they entered the boardinghouse.

“When do the men arrive?” Elizabeth asked, her small frame trembling from head to foot.

“Word was sent that your coach came in,” the man explained. “Your men’ll be along shortly, unless you made other arrangements.”

Hope saw Elizabeth grip onto Betty’s arm tightly.

“You’ll be alright, child, stop your worrying,” Betty soothed her in a whisper.

“The matron’ll show you to your rooms,” the mustached man said, closing his book with a snap.

Hope tried to remain composed, but she felt her nerves jangling just as keenly as Elizabeth did. She thought back to hiding in her mother’s pantry, listening to thugs beating up her brother, and reminded herself that meeting yet another strange man was no more difficult a feat. She had gone through worse.

The difference was that this was a stranger she had agreed to marry.

She was led down a narrow hall filled with endless doors, the floorboards creaking beneath her feet. The boardinghouse smelled of coal smoke and burnt coffee, and was filled with the hushed chatter of nervous women.

“This is yours,” the matron said, unlocking the door for Hope and handing her the key.

As Hope walked into the room that held an iron bed and a chipped wash basin, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was no more than a cow in a herd of agitated cattle at an auction, waiting for her number to be called and hoping for a kind owner.

Chapter Three

Virginia City, Montana

1883

Jackson watched the flow of people steadily flocking in and out of the boardinghouse across the road. Men arrived in their Sunday best, collected a woman, and trotted off as if they had accomplished something oh so grand.

To order a wife through the post as though she was nothing more than a tin of coffee or a new hat was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. One could send a tin of coffee back if it was spoiled, or return a hat if it didn’t fit, but what did you do with a full-grown woman expecting to say ‘I do’?

His friend Ethan was in no way ready to take on the responsibility of a wife, let alone one he’d never met before. Jackson had pointed out that Ethan was already caring for two elderly parents, his sister, and a large cattle ranch, and that meant he needed a partner he could trust, not a complete stranger from the other side of the country. Ethan had laughed Jackson off saying it would all work out, but Jackson felt uneasy about the whole situation.

Jackson shook his head and pulled his hat back on. He strode across the street, trying to ignore the growing chatter and giggles from the groups of women standing outside the boardinghouse. He tried to avoid making eye contact with any of them as he hurried towards the entrance, tipping his hat slightly by way of greeting.

“Excuse me,” a blonde woman said as she bumped into Jackson in the doorway.

He turned back to see if the woman was okay and noticed she was giggling, a faint blush across her cheeks as she hid her face beneath her bonnet.

“Are you…hurt?” he stammered, aware that his bulky frame stood out awkwardly amongst all the frills and bonnets.

“You wouldn’t happen to be…” she began hopefully, covering her mouth with a gloved hand.

“I’m not here for a wife!” he said a little too loudly, drawing away from her in fright.

There was a chorus of giggles behind him and Jackson felt the color rise in his own cheeks as he lowered his gaze and pushed on into the boardinghouse. He was nearly thirty, could grab a bull by the horns, break in any horse, and build a house from the ground up, but a group of snickering girls made the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight.

As he stepped inside, the air was several degrees warmer and a wave of lavender, rose, and orange blossom permeated the air. A group of women approached him, hope written on their faces, but by the time Jackson had violently sneezed three times, the huddle of ladies had scattered. He’d take mucking out cow dung or the smell of a wet chicken any day over the combined perfumes of forty different women.

Jackson wiped the tears from his eyes and glanced around the entrance hall, hoping to find someone who looked as though they were in charge. His eyes landed on a young woman standing alone at the base of the staircase, one hand resting lightly on the banister. Blonde curls escaped her bonnet and swept across her cheeks as she scanned the room around her. She turned, and light danced in her hazel eyes as she looked his way, their eyes briefly meeting.

Jackson was momentarily stunned at her beauty that needed no face powder or heavy perfume. Before he could greet her, she lowered her gaze and was absorbed by a crowd of ladies moving past him.

“Are you looking for someone?”