Brides with Secret Babies on the Smoky Hill Trail
(2026)(A book in the Widows, Brides, and Secret Babies series)
An omnibus of novels by Zina Abbott
A box set of Zina Abbott’s three romance novels from the Widows, Brides and Secret Babies series. Along with a few connected characters, all are set between 1865 and 1870. All include travel by stagecoach along the Smoky Hill Trail in Kansas Territory.
Mail Order Roslyn
Bullied by her aunt and guardian to travel to Junction City to marry, once she discovers the intent of her prospective husband, Roslyn refuses. After being told there are no jobs for a decent woman with a baby, she jumps at the offer to assist a stagecoach station manager’s wife.
After Elam lost most of his left leg during the War Between the States, he has been reduced to existing the best he can. All he has to his name is a Spencer repeating rifle, which he knows how to shoot well. Realizing Roslyn intends to travel to and live on the frontier prone to attacks by hostile Cheyenne, he now has a purpose. He will go, too, to protect the pretty woman and her baby.
Mail Order Lorena
Lorena, a reverend’s daughter from the South, makes the mistake of accepting help from her late husband’s half-brother. She finds herself trapped in a Salina saloon working as a cook while waiting for him to return from a freight run. Once both she and the saloon owner learn that her brother-in-law is dead, she soon must deal with her wages being withheld, the threat of a secret being exposed that could result in her losing what she values most, and being forced into prostitution.
Eustace, owner of a successful horse-breeding farm in Georgia, finds himself on the losing end of the War Between the States. After selling what he can, he accepts a job as a head stock tender at a stagecoach station on the Kansas frontier—anything to earn enough to pay the taxes owed on his land. To avoid the Union soldiers at neighboring Fort Ellsworth, he spends his time off in Salina, including the saloon. He refuses the three prostitutes who solicit him, but his interest is caught by the plainly dressed woman who only appears to replenish glasses or clean up spills. When the saloon owner offers for Eustace to be the first to take Lorena upstairs for an entire night, he finds the temptation too strong to resist. Will he debauch her, or will he realize the former Union soldier saloon owner is intent on degrading him as much as her?
Mail Order Penelope
Her mother dead and her home gone, Penelope and the son she conceived before her husband died travels to Pond Creek to marry a man she met through correspondence. In spite of warnings from an Army surgeon that, due to the danger, she should turn back, she insists on continuing. It is only when she arrives at Monument Station that she learns the truth about her intended. However, with nothing to return to, and no funds to go anywhere, what should she do?
Marcus, an Army surgeon, quickly decides the pretty widow is stubborn and irrational. Yet, when he needs help performing surgery on several injured soldiers, he soon values her resourcefulness and abilities. Present when she learns the truth about her intended, he helps her consider other options. However, the thought that her working with Steward Polly as the Fort Hays hospital matron might result in Penelope becoming the next Mrs. Polly leaves a sour taste in Marcus’s mouth.
Genre: Inspirational
Mail Order Roslyn
Bullied by her aunt and guardian to travel to Junction City to marry, once she discovers the intent of her prospective husband, Roslyn refuses. After being told there are no jobs for a decent woman with a baby, she jumps at the offer to assist a stagecoach station manager’s wife.
After Elam lost most of his left leg during the War Between the States, he has been reduced to existing the best he can. All he has to his name is a Spencer repeating rifle, which he knows how to shoot well. Realizing Roslyn intends to travel to and live on the frontier prone to attacks by hostile Cheyenne, he now has a purpose. He will go, too, to protect the pretty woman and her baby.
Mail Order Lorena
Lorena, a reverend’s daughter from the South, makes the mistake of accepting help from her late husband’s half-brother. She finds herself trapped in a Salina saloon working as a cook while waiting for him to return from a freight run. Once both she and the saloon owner learn that her brother-in-law is dead, she soon must deal with her wages being withheld, the threat of a secret being exposed that could result in her losing what she values most, and being forced into prostitution.
Eustace, owner of a successful horse-breeding farm in Georgia, finds himself on the losing end of the War Between the States. After selling what he can, he accepts a job as a head stock tender at a stagecoach station on the Kansas frontier—anything to earn enough to pay the taxes owed on his land. To avoid the Union soldiers at neighboring Fort Ellsworth, he spends his time off in Salina, including the saloon. He refuses the three prostitutes who solicit him, but his interest is caught by the plainly dressed woman who only appears to replenish glasses or clean up spills. When the saloon owner offers for Eustace to be the first to take Lorena upstairs for an entire night, he finds the temptation too strong to resist. Will he debauch her, or will he realize the former Union soldier saloon owner is intent on degrading him as much as her?
Mail Order Penelope
Her mother dead and her home gone, Penelope and the son she conceived before her husband died travels to Pond Creek to marry a man she met through correspondence. In spite of warnings from an Army surgeon that, due to the danger, she should turn back, she insists on continuing. It is only when she arrives at Monument Station that she learns the truth about her intended. However, with nothing to return to, and no funds to go anywhere, what should she do?
Marcus, an Army surgeon, quickly decides the pretty widow is stubborn and irrational. Yet, when he needs help performing surgery on several injured soldiers, he soon values her resourcefulness and abilities. Present when she learns the truth about her intended, he helps her consider other options. However, the thought that her working with Steward Polly as the Fort Hays hospital matron might result in Penelope becoming the next Mrs. Polly leaves a sour taste in Marcus’s mouth.
Genre: Inspirational
Used availability for Zina Abbott's Brides with Secret Babies on the Smoky Hill Trail