The Bounty Hunter's Bride

Victoria Bylin write male characters who are believable.  In The Bounty Hunter's Bride, a warm and touching historical romance, I thought I could smell the stink coming off hero Beau Morgan when he came off the range into town badly in need of a bath.

Dani Baxter gets off a train in the Colorado Rocky Mountains expecting to meet the finace she's been writing too, but he's not there.  She hires a buggy and goes out to his ranch only to find he died five day before and the fate of the three little girls she's come to love via her letters is now in the hands of a man full of vengence.  Beau Morgan is her fiance's brother and a bounty hunter who's too full of hate for the man who killed his wife to let himself love again, even though he begins to realize his attraction for Dani.

An maternal aunt hires Pinkerton detectives to check Beau Morgan out and challenges whether he's fit to have custody of his brother's daughters.  So,  Beau proposes to Dany, but only as a marriage of convenience.  The marriage will be in name only to keep them out of the reach of this aunt who is quick to hit as a way of disciplining chilfen.

As Beau chases the man who killed his wife down a canyon, a flash flood almost kills him and his horse.  Then the outlaw aims his rifle at Beau and gets the drop on him, and Beau is sure he's going to die before he can marry Dani. 

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