He isn't sure what possessed him to put his name in the hat for the 'Wife Lottery,' but when he wins Bailee - his favorite of the trio of women - he thinks he might have won the jackpot. So when Carter was old enough he went back to his family's farm and has lived there alone ever since. He was taken in by the preacher and his wife, but they never treated him very kindly.

With the shortage of women in town, he concocts a scheme to turn the women into wives for the three lucky local men who win his 'Wife Lottery.' Bailee agrees, but when the man whose name she chooses doesn't even speak to her, she wonders if this is going to work after all.Ĭarter McKoy's parents were murdered when he was a small child and he was found by the sheriff with their bodies. The sheriff isn't sure he believes their story and isn't able to find a body, but with the women having confessed, he has to pronounce some kind of punishment. Bailee fights back and believing she's killed yet another man, she and her friends immediately turn themselves in to the sheriff when they get to Cedar Point. Turning her wagon south, she's determined to find a settlement in Texas before their meager supplies run out, but when they've nearly reached their destination, the women are accosted by a rough-looking man who tries to take both their wagon and one of Bailee's friends. When the wagon master throws them all off the train as unfit for polite company, all seems to be lost, but Bailee is a fighter who isn't about to give up. She'd managed the hard trek by herself until she met and befriended two other women - one ill after losing her husband and baby to a fever and the other accused of being a witch - who are equally alone as she is.

Evernight Teen Summer Kick-off Blog HopĪfter accidentally killing a man, Bailee Moore was sent west on a wagon train by her father who no longer wants to have anything to do with her.

Cosmo Red Hot Reads from Harlequin Launch.

The Texan's Wager by Jodi Thomas