Madeline

Returning home to Knights Ferry from normal college, Madeline Denham again realizes some people, including her parents, know things about her she doesn’t. Much to her dismay, during a community social, a well-dressed man she's never met before asks her to dance and then forces an unwelcome kiss upon her. Fortunately, an attorney she met on the train traveling home comes to her rescue.

After inheriting his mother’s Calaveras County property, James Hennessy finds growing fruit trees and a small table grape vineyard competes with his love of practicing law. He often represents farmers and ranchers intent on stopping the hydraulic mining that is clogging the area’s rivers and streams that provide much-needed irrigation water. He’s also on his local school board. At a dance, he again meets the delightful normal school graduate to offer her a teaching position.

Madeline hires James to help uncover the secrets that plague her. However, will what they learn drive him away? What about her young twin brothers who want to grow up to be cowboys? To keep her from ever being their schoolteacher, they plan to corral a good husband for her. If need be, they’ll rope him and Madeline together to get them to the altar.

Madeline is my third romance in a series of related books, each of which may be read and enjoyed as a standalone story. The other two are Kendrick, Bachelors & Babies series, and Cole, Cupids & Cowboys series.