E.E. Burke's Best of the West featuring a new release from Cynthia Breeding

Meet the gunslinger...

Abigail Clayton arrives in post-Gold Rush San Francisco as a mail-order bride to Travis Sayer, a man she’s never met, but married by proxy.  Rather a desperate measure, but a fresh start is just what she needs…  except that her new husband is dead.

Luke Cameron has been hunting the scoundrel who swindled his grandmother out of her life savings.  He’s finally cornered him in San Francisco. Travis Sayer runs a general store—no doubt purchased with fraudulent funds.  Luke intends to force him to sell, resorting to blackmail if necessary, only the man gets himself killed first. Now he’ll have to resort to a more devious plan.

What he isn’t prepared for is the lovely widow who has a plan of her own which doesn’t include selling the store or believing the concocted story he weaves.  She suspects he’s conning her and she ought to know. She barely escaped arrest in New York for doing the same thing.

Excerpt:

   Luke Cameron observed Abigail Clayton-Sayer’s reaction to his announcement. If he’d not had a gunslinger’s keen sense for an adversary’s slightest movement or shift in gaze, he might not have noticed the dilation that made her blue eyes suddenly look violet nor the quick, short intake of breath which made her breasts heave under the high-necked, proper cotton dress she wore.  Her facial expression was an impassive as a poker player and coupled with what he’d witnessed on the street two days before, he wondered again what her background was… and whether she was involved in Sayer’s scams. 

   Beautiful women often turned out to be Jezebels.  He should know.

   And then there was the fact that she’d married-by-proxy before she came West. Most mail-order brides waited until they’d at least seen their future husbands before tying the knot.  Had she known Sayer before?  Had she known about his schemes and decided she wanted to make sure she got half of what he’d swindled? 

   That she planned to stay and run the store meant she was ambitious.  Not that Luke would fault her for that, but how far did her ambition extend?  Would she be willing to collude with Sayer’s secret accomplice? 

   Time would tell. 

   But Hell’s blazes!  Did Abigail Clayton-Sayer have to be so damn alluring?  Her face was devoid of paint, nor did cloyingly sweet perfume cling to her. He caught only the fresh scent of soap and perhaps a bit of rosewater wafting from her hair. Even in the prim, high-collared calico she wore, he could detect delicate curves in all the right places. Her golden hair was pulled back in a proper chignon, although a few tendrils had escaped, no doubt from the wind on her way over.  His fingers itched to undo the pins and spread that golden halo with his hands as her sapphire eyes turned indigo with desire… 

   Luke gave himself an inward shake and refocused.  

   Right now, he had one foot in the door with his forged documents, thanks to a Pinkerton operative in San Francisco.  He doubted Sayer ever had plans to expand. The store was probably just a cover to launder money.  However, Luke’s original plan of exposing the man’s fraudulence to force him to sell the store and turn over the profits—if he didn’t want to get the authorities involved—was no longer doable. Now he had to find the accomplice, which meant he needed to have a connection to the store.

   “I’m sure you’ll find the papers in order.”  Pinkerton operatives were nothing if not efficient.

Meet the author

            Cynthia Breeding lives on the bay in Corpus Christi, Texas, with her not-at-all-spoiled Bichon.  She enjoys walks on the beach, horseback riding, sailing, and traveling across the big pond. 

            In an earlier life, she taught high school English and eventually went into educational administration, finishing that career by adjuncting at a local university.

            It’s much more fun doing historical research and writing romantic novels!

Contact Information:

www.cynthiabreeding.com

Twitter: @BreedingCynthia

Facebook: Cynthia Roepke and Cynthia Breeding

E.E.: What is your favorite fairy tale?

Cynthia: Not a fairy tale exactly, but the Arthurian legends.  I fell in love with Lancelot reading a children’s book when he rode in on a white horse to bring Gwenhwyfar to Camelot.

E.E.: What turns you off like nothing else?

Cynthia: The “F” bomb.  It is SO overused.  I think authors/screenwriters/directors who use this word for shock value are taking the lazy approach to writing.  The word is trite, uncreative, and misused as five of the eight parts of speech.  Use your imagination and come up with something better.

E.E.: What is the first story you remember writing?

Cynthia: When I was eleven years old, I penned a story about a girl and her horse (what else???) and titled it “An Award for Jo”.  Years later, I found the notebook while cleaning out my mother’s house.  Interestingly, it actually had a pretty decent plot.  I did some revising and published it (“Nostagia Road”) under the name of Cynthia Roepke.  I recently added two more books—“Down Nostalgia Road” and “End of Nostalgia Road” to make it a trilogy.

E.E.: If you could interviewing one person, who would it be?

Cynthia: Queen Elizabeth.  I’d love to hear what she would have planned as a career had she not become the heir to the throne.

E.E.: What dreams were realized as a result of writing?

Cynthia: My first book, “Camelot’s Destiny” (Kensington) won the “Heartbreaker of the Month” award with Rhapsody Book Club in 2006. Barnes and Noble also did a full window display for my book signing.  What a thrill!

E.E.: What do you do to relax?

Cynthia: There is nothing better than having a glass of wine while sitting in the cockpit of an anchored sailboat, watching dolphins play as the sun sets and listening to the water gently lapping against the hull.

Thanks for joining us today, Cynthia. Best of luck with your new release!