A Hero's Heart — Sylvia McDaniel

Rachel, a spinster, with a sister and three small children, is stranded after her preacher father is killed in an Indian raid. Wade is a gambler that runs across them, on his way to a Fort Laramie for the biggest card game west of the Mississippi.

THE ODDS MEANT NOTHING ...

Following her preacher father to Oregon was not the life Rachel Cooke had imagined for herself, but dreams of love had to wait when there were orphans and a rebellious sister to care for. Then her father was murdered in a vicious Indian raid, leaving Rachel and her family alone on the rigorous trail west. A hardened gambler with seductive eyes was the only man to deliver them to safety -- and Rachel to a passion she had never known.

...UNTIL HE GAMBLED ON LOVE

Wade Ketchum might have been raised in a saloon, but he was determined to find the only family he had left in the world. A spinster with a wagonload of Bibles and three small children was more trouble than he needed along the way. Yet he couldn't leave them to the trail's cruelties. And he couldn't deny the desire that overwhelmed him whenever he kissed the lovely woman who believed that he still had a heart....