Wife in the Mail Read online

  Dear Reader,

  It’s the most festive time of the year! And Special Edition is celebrating with six sparkling romances for you to treasure all season long.

  Those MORGAN’S MERCENARIES are back by popular demand with bestselling author Lindsay McKenna’s brand-new series, MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: THE HUNTERS. Book one, Heart of the Hunter, features the first of four fearless brothers who are on a collision course with love—and danger. And in January, the drama and adventure continues with Lindsay’s provocative Silhouette Single Title release, Morgan’s Mercenaries: Heart of the Jaguar.

  Popular author Penny Richards brings you a porgnant THAT’S MY BABY! story for December. In Their Child, a ranching heiress and a rugged rancher are married for the sake of their little girl, but their platonic arrangement finally blossoms into a passionate love. Also this month, the riveting PRESCRIPTION: MARRIAGE medical miniseries continues with an unlikely romance between a mousy nurse and the man of her secret dreams in Dr. Devastating by Christine Rimmer. And don’t miss Sherryl Woods’s 40th Silhouette novel, Natural Born Lawman, a tale about two willful opposites attracting—the latest in her AND BABY MAKES THREE: THE NEXT GENERATION miniseries.

  Just in time for the holidays, award-winning author Marie Ferrarella delivers a Wife in the Mail—a heartwarming story about a gruff widower who falls for his brother’s jilted mail-order bride. And long-buried family secrets are finally revealed in The Secret Daughter by Jackie Merritt, the last book in THE BENNING LEGACY crossline miniseries.

  I hope you enjoy all our romance novels this month. All of us at Silhouette Books wish you a wonderful holiday season!

  Sincerely,

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  WIFE IN THE MAIL

  To

  Dorothy Provine Day,

  who first made me aware of Alaska

  and gave me a goal to aspire to.

  Thank you.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Silhouette Special Edition

  It Happened One Night #597

  A Girl’s Best Friend #652

  Blessing in Disguise #675

  Someone To Talk To #703

  World’s Greatest Dad #767

  Family Matters #832

  She Got Her Man #843

  Baby in the Middle #892

  Husband. Some Assembly Required #931

  Brooding Angel #963

  ‡Baby’s First Christmas #997

  Christmas Bride #1069

  Wamed. Husband, Will Train #1132

  Wife in the Mail #1217

  Silhouette Romance

  The Gift #588

  Five-Alarm Affair #613

  Heart to Heart #632

  Mother for Hire #686

  Borrowed Baby #730

  Her Special Angel #744

  The Undoing of Justin Starbuck #766

  Man Trouble #815

  The Turning of the Teen #839

  Father Goose #869

  Babies on His Mind #920

  The Right Man #932

  In Her Oun Backyard #947

  Her Man Friday #959

  Anul Conme’s Wedding #984

  †Caution: Baby Ahead #1007

  †Mother on the Wing #1026

  †Baby Times Two #1037

  Father in the Making #1078

  The Women in Joe Sullivan’s Life #1096

  ‡Do You Take This Child? #1145

  The Man Who Would Be Daddy #1175

  Your Baby or Mine? #1216

  **The Baby Came C.O.D. #1264

  Suddenly…Marriage! #1312

  ‡‡One Plus One Makes Marriage #1328

  Books by Marie Ferrarella writing as Marie Nicole

  Silhouette Desire

  Tried And True #112

  Buyer Beware #142

  Through Laughter And Tears #161

  Grand Theft Heart #182

  A Woman of Integrity #197

  Country Blue #224

  Last Year’s Hunk #274

  Faxy Lady #315

  Chocolate Dreams #346

  No Laughing Matter #382

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  *Holding Out for a Hero #496

  *Heroes Great and Small #501

  *Christmas Every Day #538

  Callaghan’s Way #601

  *Caitlin’s Guardian Angel #661

  ‡Happy New Year—Baby! #686

  The Amnestac Bride #787

  Serena McKee’s Back in Town #808

  A Husband Waiting To Happen #842

  Angus’s Lost Lady #853

  Silhouette Yours Truly

  ‡The 7th. 2oz Valentine

  Let’s Get Mommy Married

  Tract on the Spot

  Mommy and the Policeman Next Door

  **Desperately Seeking Twin

  The Offer She Couldn’t Refuse

  ?Funna and the Sexy Stranger

  ?Cowboys Are For Loving

  ?Will and the Headstrong Female

  Silhouette Desire

  ‡Husband Optional #988

  Silhouette Books

  In The Family Way

  Silhouette Christmas Stories 1992

  “The Night Santa Claus Returned”

  Fortune’s Children

  Forgotten Honeymoon

  World’s Most Eligible Bachelors

  Detective Dad

  Silhouette Romance

  Man Undercover #373

  Please Stand By #394

  Mine by Write #411

  Getting Physical #440

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  lives in Southern California. She describes herself as the tired mother of two overenergetic children and the contented wife of one wonderful man. The RITA Award-winning author of thrilled to be following her dream of writing full-time.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter One

  He wasn’t here.

  Sydney Elliot looked into the heart of the group of people gathered in front of the gate, welcoming the passengers disembarking Flight No. 17—her flight—and didn’t see him. Didn’t see the man she had flown more than two thousand miles to meet for the very first time.

  The man whose proposal of marriage she had accepted only two weeks ago.

  With effort, Sydney squelched the tiny bout of nervousness that threatened to grow into a full-scale, giant-size panic attack.

  It was all right. He’d come. He’d promised he would be here and he would be. Time was just a relative thing; wasn’t that something he’d written to her? That time up here in Alaska didn’t mean the same thing it did in the other forty-nine states? It moved slower, more languidly, like a fish sunning itself in the stream after the first thaw.

  All around Sydney people were being welcomed, hugged, kissed. Just in front of her, a woman was embraced by a huge, burly man while two children wiggled between them, eager to share in the homecoming, in the love that was so visibly there.

  The scene warmed her. It was what she had come for. To find love again, or perhaps for the first time. To find a place for herself where she was needed.

  What if he’d changed his mind?

  What if he didn’t come?

  Trying to still the small, gnawing doubt within her that could, at any second, mushroo
m into something far less manageable, Sydney scanned the area, hoping to see a tall, broad-shouldered man hurrying through the doors in the rear of the terminal. Hurrying toward her.

  There was no one like that.

  Sydney shifted her carry-on luggage to her other hand. The strap was beginning to bite into her skin. There was no reason to panic. He’d obviously been delayed. After all, it wasn’t as if he could just roll out his door to reach the airport. Ben Kerrigan lived some hundred miles away and, as he’d said in his last letter, at this time of year, even though it was fall, the road to Anchorage wouldn’t be readily accessible by car. Ben had written that he’d have to fly his plane from Hades to get here.

  Maybe he’d had to refuel first. Or maybe he’d gotten a late start. There were a hundred reasons why he wasn’t here. She just had to pick one to focus on.

  For a second Sydney shut her eyes to pull herself together. Panic wasn’t her normal way of dealing with things. Ever since she was a little girl, she’d always been the levelheaded, practical one.

  How levelheaded and practical had it been to uproot her entire life, pack it into a moving van and take off for the Alaskan terrain just because a man she had never met had asked her to marry him?

  A smile curved her mouth as she recalled her best friend Marta’s exact words on the subject. “Are you out of your mind?”

  But she wasn’t out of her mind, Sydney assured herself. She’d never been more serious, never been more sure of anything in her life than when she’d handed in her resignation to the principal of the elementary school where she taught, terminated her lease, sold most of her furniture and contracted Over The Hill Movers to move the most precious of her possessions not just over the hill, but halfway across the country.

  Funny how fate managed to manipulate things. If she hadn’t been in her dentist’s office and picked up the magazine with the article about Alaska in it, she wouldn’t be here. Ben had written the article and she had been completely captivated by his vitality. When he’d said that waking up in Alaska was like being reborn each morning, she knew she’d found her answer, her chance to turn things around for herself. She’d wanted to thank him for opening her eyes, so she’d written him a letter in care of the magazine. Less than a month later, there was a letter from him. After that, there were many letters, and over the course of eight months her future was finally forged.

  Something had come to life in Sydney each time she’d read Ben’s letters over the past eight months. Letters filled with the wonder of the place where he lived. Letters that made each moment in life seem like an adventure—fresh, exciting and precious out here in this pristine world. They reminded her of the letters that her Aunt Faye used to send to her father. Aunt Faye had made her life in Alaska. There was that same enthusiasm coming through. Ben’s letters had also revealed his uncanny sensitivity for her feelings. A sensitivity that, in her time of need, had reached out to her. It was as if this man, living so far away in his icy domain, understood her. More than that, he understood what she needed. To be part of something, to be necessary, and to be loved.

  The words in his letters made her feel that she could be all three. There was no question in her mind as she’d accepted his proposal that Dr. Ben Kerrigan was her soul mate.

  There was also no question that he was still not here.

  Sydney sighed as she struggled to ignore the strange, discomfiting premonition of dread, of something being wrong, that whispered insistently across her mind.

  It was just prenuptial jitters, with a dash of jet lag thrown in, nothing more. She had to get hold of herself or else, when he did arrive, he’d take one look at her, turn on his heel and flee.

  The group around her thinned. Very soon, there were no more passengers disembarking Flight No. 17. Except for the attendant closing the doors behind her, Sydney stood alone.

  The look in the woman’s eyes when she turned around told Sydney that there would be no stragglers coming off her plane. It was empty.

  As empty as Sydney suddenly felt.

  A genial, sympathetic look crossed the attendant’s face as she approached Sydney. “May I help you?” The gently asked question resounded of kindness itself.

  Sydney almost asked her if she knew Dr. Ben Kerrigan, but there was no earthly reason why the young woman should. He didn’t practice here. Anchorage was large by Alaskan standards. It was Hades that was small. Everyone there knew who Ben Kerrigan was. The doctor who, along with his brother, ran the only medical clinic in a hundred-mile radius.

  Sydney merely shook her head.

  “My ride’s been delayed,” she murmured. Until he finally arrived and found her, she had to get her things together. She licked a very dry lower lip and looked at the woman inquisitively. “Your baggage claim area is…?” With a comforting hand on Sydney’s shoulder, the flight attendant turned her around and pointed to a huge white arrow suspended from the ceiling. Its sole function was to indicate the location of the down escalator.

  “To your right as you get off the escalator. You can’t miss it,” she promised.

  Sydney wasn’t all that sure about that. She had a tendency to get lost very easily, even when things were clearly marked. That was another reason Marta had thought her coming out here insane.

  “Give it up, Sydney. Nobody’s a mail-order bride anymore, for crying out loud. Think,” she’d all but begged two nights ago as she’d watched her pack. “You’re going off into the wilderness, Sydney. You know what you’re like. You’ll get lost in the first damn snowdrift that crosses your path.”

  Sydney had laughed at the woman she’d known ever since her senior year in college. She’d taken no offense at the anger in Marta’s voice, knowing that Marta only had her best interest at heart.

  “Snowdrifts don’t cross your path, Marta,” she’d said, closing her last suitcase firmly and flipping the locks. “They’re stationary.”

  “They have more sense than you do, then,” Marta had moodily declared.

  Maybe they did at that, Sydney thought now.

  A moot point; she was here. This was going to be her new home. A fresh start. It was what she needed, what she wanted.

  She focused on that.

  Feeling somewhat better, Sydney shouldered her purse, shifted her carry-on back to her right hand and made her way to the escalator.

  It’s going to be all right, Sydney promised herself soothingly. Ben’s just late. Happens all the time here. Probably.

  People marked time differently in Alaska, that was all, she told herself again. Life had a more basic, less complicated purpose here. Wasn’t that what had drawn her to Alaska to begin with? That, and Ben’s letters. Or, more to the point, the man she’d discovered within the letters. An exciting, charming, intelligent man who made her feel alive again. The fact that the photos he’d sent showed him to be extremely good-looking was a bonus that fate had seen fit to throw in. If he’d lived anywhere but here, Sydney knew that Ben would have had his pick of anyone he wanted. But women were scarce in Hades, Alaska. And Ben had picked her.

  At least she wouldn’t have to worry about him running off just before the wedding and breaking her heart the way Ken had, she thought.

  Gingerly, balancing her carry-on in front of her, off-setting it with the weight of her large, crammed purse, she stepped onto the escalator. As the metal stairs rhythmically made their way into the ground floor, she scrutinized the area, looking for any sign of him.

  Dr. Ben Kerrigan was everything she had ever wanted in a man. Sydney’d known that a month into their correspondence, known from the way he wrote about his life out here with the unbridled joy of a child discovering everything for the first time. That, coupled with his dedication to his work, had made him perfect in her eyes.

  So he was a little late, so what? In the grand scheme of things, that didn’t mean anything. He’d be here soon enough.

  Sydney was positive that Ben Kerrigan wasn’t the type of man to go back on a promise. She had willingly bet her soul on
it.

  What was he doing here, looking for some woman who shouldn’t even have been on the plane? If she’d had a single spark of sense in her head, this woman would have changed her mind, turned in her airline ticket, and stayed put.

  He’d arrived late, almost not coming to the airport at all. And he didn’t want to be here, he wanted to be at his clinic, working. Or even at home, awkwardly wrestling with the new role of fatherhood into which he’d suddenly been thrown.

  Being a doctor in Alaska was a full-time job. There was no time for anything else. Which was why Barbara had left. Alaska in the first place he reminded himself. Because he’d given too much of himself to his practice and not enough to her. Now that his ex-wife was dead, where the hell was he going to find the time to raise the two children she’d long ago stolen out of his life?

  Not that he was any good at raising anyone. Look at the poor job he’d done of raising Ben after their parents had died. Ben had turned out to be all charm and little substance.

  Shayne sighed, struggling with his anger.

  How could Ben have done such a fool thing? Such a stupid, thoughtless thing? How could he have proposed to one woman—sight unseen—and then run off at the last minute because his ex-love Lila had come back into his life?

  “I hope to hell you’re enjoying yourself, Ben, because I’m sure not,” he muttered under his breath as he made his way through the terminal.

  The last place he wanted to be—the very last place—was the Anchorage Airport, looking for some woman who, if she did show up, probably didn’t look a damn thing like the photograph he’d thought to take with him at the last minute. The one tucked away inside his pocket.

  The photograph had to be a fake, taken of someone else, someone this “Sydney” woman knew. Nobody who looked that damn good would agree to marry a man she only knew on paper, a man she’d never met. More than that, nobody who looked that good would be willing leave civilization behind to come to what his late wife had referred to as “this godforsaken wilderness.”

  Shayne struggled to contain the impatience that mounted within him. Didn’t he have enough to handle without this? He had two children in his life, children he barely knew. Children who looked at him with wary, distrustful eyes, probably because of all the things their mother had told them about him. Their divorce had been a bitter one. Bitter because he’d wanted her to remain, because he’d been so hurt that she could leave him so easily. Bitter because Barbara had taken off for New York and her affluent family without a backward glance, Sara and Mac in tow.