The Square Heap

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In 1875 Missouri Territory twenty-five-year-old Lucy is desperate for a life of her own beyond the relentless caretaking of her brothers and their broods. When she answers a mail-order bride advertisement she's prepared for hardship. But nothing prepares her for Roan Shields... or the ramshackle ten-by-ten shack he lives in called </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Square Heap</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Roan is a quiet widower with two motherless children-and an unsettling charm. He's kind respectful... yet keeps Lucy at arm's length both physically and emotionally. As she adjusts to backbreaking farm chores and the chaos of frontier motherhood Lucy is determined to make the best of her new life. But then more children-Roan's-begin showing up each the product of past entanglements he refuses to explain.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Just as Lucy begins to piece together the oddities surrounding her new husband Roan returns from a mysterious hunting trip with a dangerous companion: Dan'l Skinks a man whose very presence darkens their homestead. Suddenly Roan changes. He's more affectionate-too affectionate for Lucy's taste. And what was once a yearning on her part turns into a fear of the man she once longed for.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When a stranger arrives with questions Roan won't answer Lucy's intuition turns to suspicion and dread. Who </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>is </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Roan Shields exactly? What happened in those woods? And how far will he go to protect his secrets?</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As the walls close in Lucy must figure out how to protect herself and the children in her care. Because in this wild remote land love is always a dangerous risk but trust can be the most deadly gamble of all.</span></p>