num_pages: 148
description: Beatrice Collier has had a hard life. Born into poverty she was orphaned at six and raised in a state-run facility. As a child she never knew the joy of the holidays. When she turned eighteen she married for security rather than love. Having never really known true affection she had no inkling what she was missing.Ten years into their marriage Beatrices husband was killed in a freak accident in the textiles factory where he worked leaving her alone again at twenty-eight. With no real education and jobs at a premium she finds work as a womans companion to support herself. When her current employer dies shes once again out of work. Rather than search for another job she answers an ad for a mail order bride and sets out on a cross-country journey from her Pennsylvania home to the state of Washington.Maxwell (Max) McCauley owns four hundred acres of prime property and makes his living as a horticulturalist overseeing the largest privately owned acreage of Western White Pines in the western U.S. Well educated a stickler for detail his expertise is in demand making him far too busy to properly court a woman. Yet his home needs a womans touch. He needs a womans touch. Rather than waste time searching for a wife in an area where women are still few and far between he asks his housekeeper to do whatever it takes to find him a suitable wife. The older woman takes her task to heart placing advertisements in a half dozen newspapers.However her brutally honest ad about Maxs business and often inclement weather in Washington state repels more women than it attracts. And at the end of the week-long advertisement there are only two applicants.Max wasnt sure what he was expecting when his housekeeper told him that the woman shed chosen for him was a widow. However it definitely wasnt the strong-willed independent spitfire with dark red hair and the most magnificent golden eyes. His previous plan to stay at arms-length until they got to know one another went out the window within twenty minutes of Beas arrival. Despite her outwardly attractive appearance theres a sadness to Bea he cant quite identify.Beatrice cant believe what shes reading when she receives the telegram offering her the chance to become Mr. McCauleys wife. Perhaps at last shell find a real home with a man who can support her and with whom she can work side-by-side.Her only concern is how hell react when she tells him the one secret shes been keeping from everyone for as long as she can remember. As much as she dreads the admission she knows they cant marry until shes confessed. Will he send her packing on the first train headed east when he finds out the truth?
language: English
title: A Christmas Baby for Beatrice
publisher: Books From a Romantic's Heart Publishing