DeAnn Smallwood
Desperate to escape her abusive aunt, Charity answers an ad for a mail-order bride.Furtively she boards an early morning train to Chesterfield Colorado and marriage to a man she’s never met. She arrives hungry and destitute only to be told by the station master the prospective bridegroom is deceased. She also discovers he was the town drunk and the “purty” house he described was an unlivable hovel. It was all lies. The news is more than Charity can take. She faints from hunger and shock.Ted Wilson, half owner of Wilson Sawmill, is at the train station to pick up a saw blade. Ted catches Charity as she falls and realizes he can’t turn his back on this woman. He loads the unconscious Charity into his wagon and takes her home.While Charity’s future is a concern, Ted’s main worry is his brother, Dev, who lies in an upstairs bedroom delirious and near death. Dev’s arm was accidentally sliced open by an axe and is badly infected. The physician wants to amputate. How can Ted make this decision, knowing his brother wouldn’t want to live without an arm?Charity awakens and claims to be knowledgeable in healing. Does he dare believe in her and allow her to try and save his brother’s arm and life? Does Charity dare to defy all odds and take the risk not only to heal but to love a bitter, angry man?
