Heart of Gold - Olene Quinn

Gold Country, California 1885

When Ada Jackson's groom is shot dead at the altar, her future dies with him. Though she was only half-married, the salacious gossips of Harmony Ridge don't care. Ada is no longer allowed to serve as the mistress of the one-room school house. Stripped of her calling, she is left in a cloud of grief with no prospect of having her own children. Her father, however, has a plan. A marriage between his daughter and his business partner, Callum Oake, would bring a vast fortune to his family. Yet, the man in question is an unconventional match at best.

Callum has sworn never to marry. If his orphanage upbringing, his service in the Civil War, and his experiences in the rugged hills of the west have taught him anything, it's that people hurt you. Solitude does not. Though he does his best to fight off Malick Jackson's suggestions of marriage, he is no match for his manipulations. Almost before he knows what has happened, he finds himself wed.

Bound by mutual respect as well as their vows, Ada and Callum agree to try to love one another. But, when a ghost from their past returns to torment them, can their fledgling relationship survive?

Heart of Gold is a sweet romance and Book One in the Harmony Ridge Historical Series. Each book may be read as a stand-alone.