Marrying the Mountain Man's Best Friend

In the wild mountains of the Montana Territory, the Coulter ranch is a place of family, loyalty…and a hidden fortune.

Two Stones has lived most of his life as an outsider, shifting between two different worlds—the orderly village of his Salish family and wild mining towns. Though he’s not fully accepted anywhere, he’s made a name for himself trading between the tribes and the miners, even making a trusted friend or two along the way.

When he arrives in Virginia City a week before Christmas, the last thing he expects is to be summoned to the bedside of one such friend, whose dying request is that Two Stones marry his daughter. Two Stones knows she’ll never accept him as a true husband, but she needs his protection. At least she’ll be safe in the Salish village with his parents while he continues doing the one thing he's good at, locating specialty trade items. Staying always on the trail—alone.

After escaping the controlling clutches of her deceased husband’s family, all Heidi wants is to rebuild her life her way. Yet when she reaches the Montana Territory to reunite with her father, she doesn’t know what’s worse—arriving mere days before his death or hearing his dying wish that she marry a Salish brave he trusts. Two Stones may be a good man…but to marry him? Yet when she barely escapes an assault, it’s clear her father was right. She’s not safe alone in Virginia City. She’ll have to make the best of things as the wife of a native.

The journey to Two Stones’s village proves far more perilous than he anticipates, yet Heidi’s resilience reveals a depth of character he didn’t expect. As they near the end of their trail, Two Stones begins to realize this inconvenient marriage might really be a Christmas gift he’ll always treasure.

From a USA Today bestselling author comes a mountain novella filled with a marriage of convenience, desperate escape from danger, and the Christmas miracle of love that heals wounded hearts.

This novella is also published as part of Christmas Bells and Wedding Vows: A Marriage of Convenience Anthology.