Bride (Bittner)

Raised in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee in the 1820s, sixteen-year-old Emma Simms dreams of the day she'll escape her life of poverty to start over in the big city of Knoxville. But when her mother dies, she's left with no one but her drunk, abusive stepfather, Luke Simms, and her dream abruptly becomes a nightmare. Luke plans to literally sell Emma down the river-to a notorious brothel in Knoxville. River Joe, the mysterious Cherokee-raised frontiersman, knew from the first time he set eyes on the beautiful Emma that he had to have her as his own. And one glimpse of the handsome, buckskin-clad stranger they call the "white Indian" ignites the flame of dangerous desire in Emma's heart. Their passion could consume them both, but their love may be the one thing that can save Emma from a fate worse than death.

Emma and Joe's daughter, Rachael Rivers, has returned to Austin to teach school after training for three years in St. Louis. In 1845, as Texas moves toward statehood, the Texas Rangers try to keep order. But one Ranger, the cruel and crooked Jason Brown, is more interested in having his way with the proper young schoolteacher. Brand Selby is a half-Comanche, half-white rancher with a small spread just north of Austin. From the moment he sees Rachael, he knows he wants nothing other than to win her heart. But hatred for the Indians runs deep in these parts, where renegade Comanches as well as outlaws and unscrupulous Comancheros still run wild and lawless. When Rachael rebuffs the advances of the Texas Ranger, he vows revenge. But Rachael and Brand's love has already been sealed, and not even the prospect of Rachael being cast out from her own kind, nor the threat of violence against Brand, can extinguish the flames of desire in their hearts.