WESTWARD HO! Charlotte Dalton had been let down by the men in her life. Dismissed by her abusive father as a plain-brown sparrow who would never attract a man, she'd been left untouched by her timid husband, and then widowed on the trail west before she truly knew what it meant to be a wife. Abandoned by her bullying brother-in-law to face the challenges and dangers of the passage across the plains, she vowed she'd be better off making her new life in the fertile Sacramento Valley without any man by her side. But all that was about to change as she was swept into strong, caring arms, teased by knowing green eyes, until she could no longer resist the temptation of becoming. Luke Ashcroft's Woman .