Romantic Times
"Tenderness and passion and Ms. Hatcher's hallmarks."


Affaire de Coeur
"Ms. Hatcher is a magnificent writer whose stories crackle with energy and vitality."


Book Description
Lady Elizabeth Wellington travels from England to Montana to take a job as a rural schoolteacher, fleeing an engagement to a brutal man--and finds herself falling in love with a rancher who doesnt seem to be able to escape the memory of his first wife.


From the Back Cover
Dear Mary, New Prospects, Montana, is nothing like England—so terrifying and beautiful at the same time, and much larger than I dared imagine when you and I first embarked on our adventures in the New World. I have had the good fortune of becoming the town’s schoolmistress. Young Janie Steele is as precious as I imagined from her letters. As for her father, Garret Steele . . . Oh, I feel like such a fool! I’ve run halfway around the world to escape a man I loathed, only to discover I’m losing my heart to a man still in love with the wife he buried. The mayor, kind man, has been most attentive. But I wish he were someone else. I wish he were Garret. With affection, Your friend Beth Wellington In the big-sky country of Montana, the past doesn’t always stay buried. Circumstances have a way of forcing secrets into the open, sometimes bringing hearts together in unlikely ways, and sometimes tearing them apart. Dear Lady is Book One in the Coming to America series about women who come to America to start new lives. Set in the late 1800s and early 1900s, these novels by best-selling author Robin Lee Hatcher craft intense chemistry and conflict between the characters, lit by a glowing faith and humanity that will win your heart. Look for other books in the series at your favorite Christian bookstore.


About the Author
Published by Tyndale, Zondervan, WaterBrook, Multnomah, HarperCollins, Avon, Silhouette, and Leisure, there are nearly six million copies of her books in print in fourteen countries. A frequent speaker to writers' and women's groups, Robin is a past President of Romance Writers of America, Inc., a professional writers’ organization with over 8,400 members worldwide. In recognition of her efforts on behalf of literacy, Laubach Literacy International (now known as ProLiteracy Worldwide) named "The Robin Award" in her honor.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Coming To America: Dear Lady
Chapter One
Garret Steele gripped the saddle with his thighs and held on to the horn with his left hand as the buckskin gelding beneath him set its front legs, then darted in the opposite direction in pursuit of the wily calf. The heifer was as range wild as any Garret had seen, but he and old Buck had been herding cows together for many years. They werent about to be outsmarted by beef on the hoof.
Ten minutes later he had the calf roped, hog-tied, and ready for branding.
While Jake Whitaker, his hired hand, brought the hot iron from the fire, Garret removed his hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Then he reached for his canteen. Tipping back his head, he took a long swallow, washing down the dust.
Man alive, it was hot for May. He hoped they werent in for a long, dry summer. The cattle had wintered well, and Garret was looking forward to turning a nice profit come fall. But a drought could quickly change the face of things.
Always somethin, he muttered as he screwed the cap back on the canteen.
The stench of singed hair and flesh reached his nostrils, reminding him of the work still to be done before sundown. Tugging his hat low on his forehead with one hand, he stepped into the saddle. As soon as Jake freed the newly branded calf_--still bleating its complaint--Garret dragged his lariat into a large coil against his thigh, then turned Buck toward the herd.
A sense of satisfaction swelled in Garrets chest as his gaze swept the range. Satisfaction was what he always felt when he looked at what hed accomplished in the past eighteen years. Hed been nothing but a scrawny kid, still wet behind the ears, when hed come to Montana, when hed first laid eyes on this stretch of land and known he wanted to call it home.
Hed seen plenty of hard times while hed built his herd from a few head to its present size. And hed seen plenty of changes come to Montana, too. The railroad crawling across the plains and through the mountain passes. The coming of barbed wire. The town of New Prospects, popping up ten miles to the south of the Steele ranch, seemingly overnight.
Yeah, things were different, but this was where he belonged. It was his home.
Pa! Pa!
He reined in, twisting in the saddle to watch the approach of his daughter. Janies wild strawberry blond hair waved behind her like a banner, and her dress was bunched up around her thighs as she raced her pony toward him.
Wouldnt Muriel have a fit if she could see Janie now?
His teeth clenched as he shoved away thoughts of his dead wife.
Sliding her small bay mare to a halt, Janie said, I finished the dishes and my lessons, Pa. Can I help now?
He grinned even as he shook his head. You know how I feel about you bein out here while were branding. This is no place for a little girl.
Im not so little I cant help.
He recognized the stubborn set of her jaw. And what she said was true. Janie had taken care of many of the household chores since long before her mother passed away. Shed even learned to cook, at least well enough to keep the two of them from starving. But that didnt mean she belonged in the middle of a herd of cattle at branding time. It was too dangerous, and Garret would never risk harm to his daughter. Not ever.
Sorry, Janie. You know the rules.
But, Pa--
Janie ...
She scowled, her bottom lip protruding in an artful pout. Its not fair.
He was unmoved by her theatrics. Things rarely are.
Cant I just--
Nope. He jerked his head toward the ranch house. You get on back. Ill be finished in about an hour.
Janie hesitated only a moment, then, with a deep sigh of the oppressed, turned her pony toward the house and rode slowly away. His daughter would probably never know how hard it was for Garret to refuse anything she asked. Hed try to rope her the moon if she wanted it.
With a shake of his head, he nudged Buck with his heels and set off to rope the last of the calves instead.
Two hours later father and daughter sat down at the rough-hewn table in the log house they called home. Janie said the blessing over the steaks that had been fried with onions and potatoes, and Garret added his own Amen to hers when she was finished.
I got another letter from England today, Janie said as she cut her meat, but it took longern usual getting here. Lady Elizabeth must already be married to Lord Altberry by now. I hope shell write again soon and tell me about the wedding and the house where shes living.
Garret listened to the excitement in her voice, while feeling residual anger stirring to life. He hated it when Janie talked about England and the Wellingtons. He hated the way she fantasized about traveling abroad someday, and he blamed his deceased wife for putting the notion in Janies head to begin with. It was Muriel who had encouraged their daughter--only six years old at the time--to write to the earl, an old friend of Garrets father-in-law. It was Muriel who had encouraged the continuing correspondence between Janie and the earls daughter, and Muriel who had suggested Janie might one day go to England to visit Lady Elizabeth, perhaps to become her companion. It was Muriel who had dreamed of Janie marrying an English lord, like those eastern society women theyd read about in the newspaper.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dear Mary, New Prospects, Montana, is nothing like England--so terrifying and beautiful at the same time, and much larger than I dared imagine when you and I first embarked on our adventures in the New World. I have had the good fortune of becoming the town's schoolmistress. Young Janie Steele is as precious as I imagined from her letters. As for her father, Garret Steele . . . Oh, I feel like such a fool! I've run halfway around the world to escape a man I loathed, only to discover I'm losing my heart to a man still in love with the wife he buried. The mayor, kind man, has been most attentive. But I wish he were someone else. I wish he were Garret.

With affection, Your friend Beth Wellington

In the big-sky country of Montana, the past doesn't always stay buried. Circumstances have a way of forcing secrets into the open, sometimes bringing hearts together in unlikely ways, and sometimes tearing them apart.

Dear Lady is Book One in the Coming to America series about women who come to America to start new lives. Set in the late 1800s and early 1900s, these novels by best-selling author Robin Lee Hatcher craft intense chemistry and conflict between the characters, lit by a glowing faith and humanity that will win your heart. Look for other books in the series at your favorite Christian bookstore.

Author Biography: Best-selling novelist Robin Lee Hatcher whose many awards include the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction, the RITA Award for Best Inspirational, and RWA's Lifetime Achievement Award, is the author of over forty contemporary and historical novels and novellas. Published by Tyndale, Zondervan, WaterBrook, Multnomah,HarperCollins, Avon, Silhouette, and Leisure, there are nearly six million copies of her books in print in fourteen countries. A frequent speaker to writers' and women's groups, Robin is a past President of Romance Writers of America, Inc., a professional writers' organization with over 8,400 members worldwide. In recognition of her efforts on behalf of literacy, Laubach Literacy International (now known as ProLiteracy Worldwide) named "The Robin Award" in her honor.

SYNOPSIS

Lady Elizabeth Wellington travels from England to Montana to take a job as a rural schoolteacher, fleeing an engagement to a brutal man—and finds herself falling in love with a rancher who doesn't seem to be able to escape the memory of his first wife.

FROM THE CRITICS

Romantic Times

Tenderness and passion and Ms. Hatcher's hallmarks.

Affaire de Coeur

Ms. Hatcher is a magnificent writer whose stories crackle with energy and vitality.

Library Journal

In this rewrite of a previously released 1996 secular romance of the same name, Hatcher (The Shepherd's Voice) reaffirms her calling to the Christian market. In 1897 Lady Elizabeth "Beth" Wellington flees an arranged marriage in England to become a school teacher in New Prospects, MT, the home of her young pen pal Janie Steele. Janie's father, Garrett, expects that Lady Beth will want to be waited on hand and foot, but Beth surprises him by moving into a tumbledown cabin. As Beth settles into her new life, her feelings for Garrett grow while she fends off the mayor's hot pursuit. With more emphasis on the role of the church in the developing West and deeper religious introspection for the main characters, Hatcher easily shifts to a new market with a title that will appeal to Tracie Peterson's fans. For all collections.

Internet Book Watch