The Thorns on His Rose

A spicy Christmas novella.

Ohio. December, 1860.
Sheriff Charlie Calcut can count on two things every Christmas: his Mother feeding him until his pants don't fit, and endless teasing about his bachelorhood. Not this year. To appease his mother, he wrote letters home crafting a fake fiancee. But now he's expected to bring a real live woman home for Christmas, and the only one he can trust with this crazy plan is pants-wearing, hard-living Rose Hawthorne, better known as Thorny Rose.

There's a war coming, and Rose means to be long gone on the way to Oregon before it reaches Ohio. So she can't resist Charlie's offer to help her on her way, and to have one last holiday full of home cooking and a loving family--even if it's not her own.

Christmas festivities and cold nights pull them together with a passion neither expected, but is that enough to build a life upon? And when the whole world is going dark, can love be the light?