âItâs 1884 Texas, not medieval Europe, for heavenâs sake!
Jude Finley Handley doesnât understand how anyone could think what that Hughes Barratt and his sons had done was right.
Even if that damned man insisted she and her brother had stolen Finley Creek Ranch right out from underneath the Barrattsâtaking her four nieces as a trade was just wrong.Â
Sheâs going to get her nieces back, even if it means the girls left their so-called new husbands behind forever.
Confronting that Barratt man right in the middle of his ranch might not have been Judeâs wisest idea, though.
He is bigger, strongerâĻ and they are all alone.
AndâĻ
Hughes Barratt is looking at her with a particular glint in his eyes that says he isnât quite finished with the Finleys, after allâĻ
â Act in haste, repent in leisureâĻâ
Maybe heâd been hasty, insisting Jacob Finley trade his four oldest daughters to his sons for that old ranch, but what was done is done now. The girls were married legal and proper. There is no backing out of it in the clearer light of day.
Hughes had been a little drunk and angry at the time. He may have overreacted, just a tad bit.
His boys would have eventually courted Finleyâs girls, anyway. This way, he just got things moving along quicker.
Besides, his boys knew how a wife should be treatedâtheyâd protect the girls, love them, and beâĻ honorable.
Once the girls forgave them, that is.
â There is only one problem with thatâĻâ
The girlsâ far too tempting aunt just threatens to keep interferingâĻ and when she nearly thunks one of his boys on the head with an iron skillet, Hughes has to deal with her, too. Before she hurts someoneâor herself.
No other man in Barrattville could hope to handle a spirited woman like Jude. And there is only one way to deal with a problem like her:
â Someone needed to make Jude a bride herself. â
Him, to be exact.Â
A Barratt man always knows the woman he wants. Hughes is no exception. He wants Jude, and heâll have her.
But while heâs trying to convince Jude heâs not the heartless beast she accuses him of beingâĻ the Finleysâ past troubles ride into Barrattville.
With murder on their minds. Looking for Jude most of all.Â
The only thing standing between Jude and a gang of vicious killers now is the one man she can never imagine trustingâwith her heart, her body, her niecesâĻ or her very lifeâĻ
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Jude & that Barratt Man is a Finley Creek historical romance novella set in 1880s Finley Creek, Texas. And is part of the larger Finley Creek series of romantic suspense books.
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