Forged in Love


 
 
 
 
 
 Half Title Page
 
 
 
 
 Books by Mary Connealy
 
 From Bethany House Publishers
 
 THE KINCAID BRIDES
 
 Out of Control
 
 In Too Deep
 
 Over the Edge
 
 TROUBLE IN TEXAS
 
 Swept Away
 
 Fired Up
 
 Stuck Together
 
 WILD AT HEART
 
 Tried and True
 
 Now and Forever
 
 Fire and Ice
 
 THE CIMARRON LEGACY
 
 No Way Up
 
 Long Time Gone
 
 Too Far Down
 
 HIGH SIERRA SWEETHEARTS
 
 The Accidental Guardian
 
 The Reluctant Warrior
 
 The Unexpected Champion
 
 BRIDES OF HOPE MOUNTAIN
 
 Aiming for Love
 
 Woman of Sunlight
 
 Her Secret Song
 
 BROTHERS IN ARMS
 
 Braced for Love
 
 A Man with a Past
 
 Love on the Range
 
 THE LUMBER BARON’S DAUGHTERS
 
 The Element of Love
 
 Inventions of the Heart
 
 A Model of Devotion
 
 WYOMING SUNRISE
 
 Forged in Love
 
 The Boden Birthright: A CIMARRON LEGACY Novella (All for Love Collection)
 
 Meeting Her Match: A MATCH MADE IN TEXAS Novella
 
 Runaway Bride: A KINCAID BRIDES and TROUBLE IN TEXAS Novella (With This Ring? Collection)
 
 The Tangled Ties That Bind: A Kincaid Brides Novella (Hearts Entwined Collection)
 
 
 
 
 Title Page
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright Page
 
 © 2023 by Mary Connealy
 
 Published by Bethany House Publishers
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota
 
 www.bethanyhouse.com
 
 Bethany House Publishers is a division of
 
 Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
 
 www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
 
 Ebook edition created 2023
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
 
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
 
 ISBN 978-1-4934-4070-2
 
 Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 
 Cover design by James Hall
 
 Historical town photography by Gary J. Weathers / Getty
 
 Cover model photography by Rekha Garton / Arcangel
 
 Clothing imagery by Joanna Czogala / Arcangel
 
 Author is represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
 
 Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
 
 
 
 
 Dedication
 
 This book is dedicated to Quinn, my new granddaughter. Beautiful and sweet and so welcome. True, she’s only one month old while I’m typing this, but I sense that she is brilliant and talented in many ways.
 
 Welcome to the family, precious little girl.
 
 
 1
 
 
 
 AUGUST 1870 PINE VALLEY, WYOMING NEAR THE WIND RIVER MOUNTAINS
 
 A bullet slammed into the side of the stagecoach carrying Mariah Stover, her pa, and her older brother.
 
 “Robbers!” The driver’s voice roared in the hot Wyoming summer as the crack of a whip lashed, driving the horses faster. “Everyone, fight or die!”
 
 Mariah heard the man riding shotgun on top of the stage land on his belly and open fire from the roof.
 
 Bullets peppered the coach.
 
 Mariah sat between Pa and Theo, facing the horses. Pa, a Civil War veteran, snapped his Spencer repeating rifle into his hand and fired out the window in a steady, rolling blast.
 
 Theo threw himself to the opposite seat, occupied by two men who looked terrified. He aimed, fired, and fired again with his Colt pistol. Pa’s rifle echoed the pistol in a steady volley of gunfire.
 
 Mariah dug for the pistol in her satchel and checked the load. She looked out the window to her right. No one there.
 
 Her pa and brother were tough men used to Western ways, who knew that civilization was often left behind at the town’s edge. You just had to hope the uncivilized wouldn’t follow you right into town.
 
 You protected yourself, or you died. The stagecoach driver had it right.
 
 Pa fired out his window while Theo used the window beside the two others. Both men looked more city than country, and if either of them had a weapon, he didn’t produce it. Instead, they just slid aside for Theo.
 
 Mariah gripped a six-shooter. When Pa paused from firing his Spencer, the one he’d gotten in the war when he’d been a sharpshooter, Mariah shouted, “Lean forward while you reload.”
 
 Pa did so without looking or speaking, focusing completely on his rifle and trusting her to be tough, competent, and ready.
 
 Mariah watched out the window and saw four men riding ever closer, blasting away. One of them went down, likely from the gunfire of the man on the roof.
 
 She aimed and fired, aimed and fired, and kept going, trying to get the most out of her flying lead.
 
 They were miles from town. No way to get help before these gunmen finished their fight, died trying, or were driven off.
 
 “Get back!” Pa hollered.
 
 Mariah needed to reload anyway, so she gave way to Pa’s superior marksmanship.
 
 A cry from overhead ended the gunfire from the shotgun rider. Mariah saw him plummet from the top of the stage. As the three remaining outlaws rode past him, two of them fired into his body.
 
 Pa growled in disgust at the vicious killers. He opened fire again. Mariah had her gun ready to go when she saw someone coming up beside the window on her side. She whipped her head around in time to see the rider empty his pistol into the city boys until they were