Kathleen Rowland Writes Romantic Suspense: Spotlight on #historical #romance #excerpt by Robyn Corum @robyncorum Melinda Heads West and stay tuned for this author's favorite quotes!

Meet Robyn Corum and her book, Melinda Heads West, published by Crimson Romance. If you enjoy reading a paperback, you're in luck!

What happens when a feisty young woman travels west in 1880 to pick up a family deed? If it's small-town Melinda McCorkle, you can count on luck to take a hike. Mindy is travelling with six strange men in a hard-riding stagecoach. When the coach breaks down, they're forced to walk the thirty-five miles remaining to her destination. That would be enough to try anyone's patience, but then the company is set upon by thieves and murderers in the form of the evil Byler brothers, and the stakes are raised.

Fortunately, Mindy makes the close acquaintance of two “gentlemen,” Luke Wilhite and Gary Boone, who try to help her through these dangers.

Luke is tall and fair, while Boone is taller and dark. Mindy feels an immediate attraction to Boone, but he's married! Or is he? Who will finally win Mindy's affection?

EXCERPT:

Melinda Heads West

Chapter One

The stagecoach bumped along the narrow gulch road. Mindy’s head and shoulder throbbed from the number of times she’d been slammed against the hard wooden door beside her, but she refused to allow herself to lean against the unwashed, tobacco-stained person next to her. Pinching her lips, she straightened in the seat, adjusting the green paisley cotton skirt she wore.

Patience and faith will get you through anything, Mindy reminded herself with a measured breath.

Lifting the oiled leather curtain to peer out the window, she jerked swiftly back, covering her mouth in revulsion. “There’s... there’s...” Mindy started, staring at the other passengers in the cramped quarters. She was unlucky enough to be riding along with four unwashed males. Patience and faith... patience and faith...

“Yeah, we know...” said one of the men lazily. “You don’t particularly want to look out the coach on that side, ma’am. We’re traveling over the Coosa Gully. Nothing but a sheer drop off for about three miles.”

Mindy’s stomach heaved, and she fought to control it. This task wasn’t supposed to be so difficult. All she had to do was pick up a deed to a property. Yes, said property happened to be located three states away from her home in Mississippi. And yes, it was true that she’d never been more than twenty miles away from home before this trip. But it had all sounded so simple!

Yet she’d been poked, prodded, accosted by strange men, lied to, swindled, left by the side of a road only tumbleweeds traveled with any frequency, and had almost been arrested by the crookedest sheriff that ever lived.

If she survived this trip – and that wasn’t a certainty – Mindy vowed she could handle anything else life would throw at her. Certainly though, she soothed herself, the worst was behind her!

That is, if the coach didn’t plunge off this rocky path; if she didn’t die from the fine stink of her fellow passengers; if she could hold her rolling stomach. There were only thirty-five more miles between her and The Blue Saloon, where the deed awaited; she could hold out that long or die trying. And in that case, Mindy decided, pinching her small lips together tightly, she planned to have her dead body delivered to the saloon, just for spite.

She almost smiled, but then caught one of the men across from her begin to grin back. Shooting him a mean look, she turned away.

Mindy had been asleep for some while when the commotion started. The coach was rocking and bouncing like a wild buck.

She jumped in her seat, screaming, thrashing her arms for something to hold on to – oddly enough, the other passengers didn’t seem as repugnant now. “Oh, mercy!” Mindy cried. “We’ve done it! We’re goin’ over! Do something! Do something!” One hand locked onto the shirt of the man to her left, and she pulled him around to face her. “I’m not gonna die this way, you hear? I ain’t ever climbed a tree! I ain’t been married! I ain’t been kissed!”

Mindy’s short life flashed before her eyes, just as she’d always heard happened in moments like these: splashing in the creek as a child, going to church services with her family, disobeying her parents, picking on her little brothers, playing mean tricks on her sisters. Suddenly, she was full of remorse and in the middle of a heartfelt prayer when she heard the man across from her clear his throat a second time.

“Ur, ma’am? Like I say, we’ve lost a wheel, is all. I reckon you can save them prayers.”

Mindy paused, hands uplifted. She opened one eye. Now that she focused a bit, it was clear that the stagecoach was easing to a controlled stop. Perhaps the driver could be convinced to allow her to stay behind when the coach was repaired. She had managed on her own before, she could do it again.

As the hot, red flames of embarrassment climbed her body, Mindy tried to think back over what she had done, had said, but she couldn’t remember. Suffice it to say, the yellow in her had come out waving banners.

“If a single one of you says a word,” Mindy said, staring at each man in turn, “I’ll scratch your eyes out.” She hoped she sounded fierce enough.

***

BIO: Born in Decatur, Alabama in 1962, Robyn has been entranced with words as far back as she can remember -- the way they sparkle and dance on a blank white page. She dabbles in poetry, fiction, non-fiction and in a wide variety of genres.

Robyn is married to her own White Knight and Hero, Reggie, has three perfect children, one amazing son-in-law and two perfect grandgirls. She also enjoys photography, reading (of course!) and anything creative. She despises cleaning and ironing.

Favorite Quotes:
"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." -- Goethe

"Books fall open and you fall in." -- unknown

TWITTER HANDLE: @robyncorum

BOOK COVER: (Attached)