Catherine “Cat” Everett has lost everything. She finds and adopts an abandoned, half-grown kitten. Unbeknownst to Harold Calloway, the man she has been writing to in Jubilee Springs with the intent of marriage, and enduring the disapproval of the railroads who do not allow pets to travel in the passenger areas, she decides to bring the kitten with her.When she arrives in Jubilee Springs, Catherine immediately falls in love with tall, lanky miner, Harold. She wants to marry him, but there is one “meowly” little problem.

Edmond Joseph “Eddie Joe” Hampton, foreman for the Jacobson Ranch in Monarch Bend, had his own reasons for encouraging his boss to marry and start a family. Once he signed up with the Colorado Bridal Agency while Lizett Millard was in Jubilee Springs on Independence Day, July 4th, he figured it will be easier to persuade his boss to allow him to build a separate house and live as a married foreman on the ranch if the man is enjoying his own wedded bliss. As wily as Eddie Joe can be, he has to work hard to stay ahead of his boss who has shown no interest in marriage. He knows he can pull it off—as long as his plot isn’t discovered too soon.Etta Crabtree, an impoverished young widow of an abusive first husband, cannot stay at her widowed mother’s home. She has been corresponding with Eddie Joe, and arrives in Jubilee Springs with other brides intended for the town’s miners. The miners claim they have priority on all brides coming to Jubilee Springs until all ten men who signed up for brides and mining company housing are married.Who will win Etta Crabtree’s hand in marriage, the cowboy or one of the miners?

Grandma Mary's traditional gift to each of her grandchildren: hand-pieced and hand-stitched quilts. Made with love and woven with memories, wisdom, and a family legacy of enduring love.Running from hostile Indians attacking Salina, Kansas in 1862, feisty Kizzie Atwell, Grandma Mary’s oldest grandchild, runs into freighter Leander Jones traveling the Smoky Hill Trail. He is as interested in her as his stallion is in her mare. The two join forces to prevent the Fort Riley Army captain from requisitioning their beloved horses for the cavalry. Avoiding bushwhackers and fighting off a thieving bullwhacker binds their bargain.In 1865, at the victory dance held at Fort Riley to celebrate the end of the Civil War, Kizzie is asked to participate in a fund-raiser to aid the Sanitary Commission helping injured and sick soldiers. It involves chaste sweetheart kisses in exchange for tickets purchased by officers and guests. As a contract freighter for the Army, Leander is invited. Much to Leander’s chagrin, before his chance to claim his kiss, Kizzie’s uncle steps in and puts an end to the kissing game.Is Leander out of luck, or will the bargain Kizzie and Leander made three years earlier to save their horses lead to a more romantic bargain sealed with a kiss?

Aaron Brinks, son of the Jubilee Springs mercantile owners, has been living in a small room above his parents’ store even though he is employed at the Prosperity Mine. When the mine owners announce they have contacted a mail order bride agency, and will allot company houses to the first ten miners who choose a bride and pay her way, he decides it is time for a house of his own.Shy Andrea Draper must escape her father’s ranch. Her father has discouraged all potential suitors because he does not want to lose his unpaid housekeeper, laundress, and the cook for him and his men. Then there is the problem of Lloyd McCreary, her father’s foreman.Learning her friend intends to go to Jubilee Springs as a mail order bride, going with her seems Andrea’s only option for escape. She agrees to marry Aaron even though she knows she is not worthy to be any man’s wife. While trying to convince him to be married in name only until he gains title to his house, at which time they can annul the marriage, Andrea’s father shows up to drag her home against her will.Learning what he is up against, Aaron must decide if it is just the house he wants, or if he wants Andrea.