She tugged at the bodice of her jet black gown. Dobson stopped counting her small inventory of stamps and raised her head. How could he have forgotten the way they'd parted seven years ago? Megan drew in a deep breath. Had he really come back? Did he remember her? She shook her head. Like everyone else, she wanted to talk about Justin. “Who's making trouble?” Megan asked, even though she knew the answer. They needed seed and new tools, clothes and whatever supplies they'd run out of during the cold Kansas winter. Settlers and farmers came into town more often. The first big shipment from the East had arrived. Megan looked up from the inventory papers in front of her. She maneuvered her considerable bulk around the furniture and plopped down in her chair.

“And sin makes its own kind of trouble,” Widow Dobson said, shaking her head as she walked away from the group of women toward the front of the store and her small table and dresser that served as the United States Post Office. The women, clustering by the bolts of fabric and the new shipment of fashion books, whispered that he'd been as handsome as sin. If this Kincaid fellow could protect them and keep peace, they didn't much care about his past. Vague talk about boyhood pranks and no one's ever having seen his father made them shrug. The newer settlers wanted to know what exactly this Justin Kincaid was supposed to have done. He wouldn't dare show his face back in Landing after what had happened to him. The old-timers said it couldn't be the same boy. The nearby farmers, in town to buy their spring supplies, mentioned the news to one another. But when she notices how tender he is with the orphaned girl, she can't help but see glimpses of the man she fell in love with, and she wonders if life has granted them a second chance after allâ¦Ĭhapter Nineteen CHAPTER ONE Landing, Kansasâ≁878īetween the rustling petticoats of the ladies looking at the current issue of Godey's and the rattling of nails being weighed on their scale in the back corner, Megan Bartlett heard talk in her general store. And the man who returnsâthe man with a bitter, mocking smileâis not the man she remembers. Megan Bartlett had all but given up on ever seeing Justin Kincaid again when he returned to assume the sheriff's position. But what he hadn't counted on was Megan, the only woman he's ever loved, volunteering to take in the young girlâ¦ When a saloon girl is murdered, it's up to him to lead the investigation and to find a home for the dead woman's young daughter. Justin Kincaid is the local bad-boy-turned-sheriff, and now he's got to prove himself to his people and his town. Fall back in love with 1800s Kansas in Susan Mallery's fan-favorite tale of love, loss, and redemption.

Justin's Bride by Susan Mallery