Camilla's Daughter

Book excerpt: Escaping from a mother intent on her marrying a "suitable" man in Charleston, Camilla goes west to visit her uncle, a cook on a ranch. Camilla is stunned when a woman hands her a baby girl and then disappears. At a way station, she decides to leave it with the way-station's owner. An unkempt little girl tells her the baby wouldn't be safe, to take it with her. When Camilla leaves the next morning, the girl is hiding in the stage coach. When Camilla arrives at the ranch, she finds a sullen owner who begrudgingly lets her stay in the ranch house because she's his cook's niece. Sparks fly when she sees that he'd rather have anything interrupt his life than a woman and two little girls. Blake doesn't like the feelings this beautiful woman and her two daughters stir up in him—yet, he's furious when another man decides that Camilla would make the perfect wife...