Golden Rapture — Stephanie Bartlett

PRECIOUS LOVE

Riding through lush stands of fragrant pine with the cool river breezes caressing her hair, she holds tightly to his buckskin-clad torso as their mule climbs the Coldwater Mountain Trail and into the Oregon Territory ...

So begins the story of Cathleen Donovan, who leaves Dublin far behind to become the bride of a man she has never met ... and Peter Brandt, the rugged mule packer hired to escort the headstrong Irish beauty to her new home. Against all reason, they fall passionately in love -- only to be forced to go their separate ways. Then Cathleen does the unthinkable: she refuses to marry her fiance. A woman alone in the bawdy boomtown of Jacksonville, Cathleen suddenly finds herself the owner of a dangerous gold claim, fighting for her life and the love she'd crossed the seas to find ... the love she'd risk everything -- even her precious freedom -- to know again ... GOLDEN RAPTURE