Courting The Sheriff's Daughter (Historical Romance Story)

Book excerpt: Simon Malone was racked with grief when his wife passed away suddenly in childbirth, taking their still-born son to the grave with her. Filled with hopeless grief and seeking any thrill, he turned to a life of crime with his friend Bill. Fed up with working on the railroads, they both turned to train robbery and even picked up an extra hand along the way. Not sure of Tommy’s character, they allowed the young boy to journey with them in their grand heists. Stopping into a town for a brief respite, they had a very eventful night at the town saloon. One patron dead and one of the saloon ladies found strangled, the town sheriff and his brazen daughter rush in to investigate the crime. Their eyes met across the room and Simon knew he had to meet this curly-haired, opinionated beauty. Scarlet had always managed to get her way, which is how she avoided being forced into settling on one of the town men and assisted her father on grand investigations of crime. This is also how she got away with ignoring her father’s protests that she assist in the saloon murder. Ignoring the town gossips, she walked through life without much of a care, until she met the green-eyed mystery man named Simon. When their bank heist goes terribly awry, Simon rushes in to save Scarlet, exposing the truth about him and ruining any hope of love with the goody-two-shoes sheriff’s daughter.