More from Laura...A Wylder Undertaking!!! Coming March 3!!!

When town undertaker Gus Wright accepts delivery of a client's fancy casket, he certainly doesn't expect to find a beautiful young woman hidden inside. And when she throws herself on his mercy, his gentlemanly nature kicks in. He offers assistance despite his suspicion there's trouble brewing.

On the run from a heist, Phoebe Corbet has a fortune in jewels following her, along with just a few pesky problems. If she can use Gus Wright as a refuge until her accomplice turns up, she'll do so. If she finds herself seduced by his unassuming manners and gentle kindliness, who could blame a girl? The tricky part will be convincing him there's a reason destiny has thrown them together.

Excerpt:

 

He backed off a half step, his gaze consuming the casket’s contents. As corpses went, well—

This one sure was beautiful.

She lay on the padded interior of the casket—which was, indeed, covered with satin—like a princess in a bower. To be sure, she looked like nothing so much as the heroine of one of those tales Gus heard when young, back in Scotland—the one, maybe, who could be wakened with a kiss.

Or no, the other one, who had skin like snow.

Pity and dismay gripped him in equal measures, that a lass so young and lovely should be lying dead, and with not a mark upon her that he could see. He wondered madly if she’d been preserved, perhaps with the chemical called formaldehyde, that they used back east.

Corruption had not yet set in. Her face, a perfect oval, appeared very pale for being framed by coal-black hair, a mass of waves upon the satin. Her lashes, just as black, lay in perfect twin fans, as if drawn on. Her lips looked deep pink against such stark pallor.

In contrast to her beauty, the clothes she wore might have been those of a lad. A rough cotton shirt, plain brown vest and a pair of britches concealed her from his eyes.

Britches, of all things. What woman ever went to her grave dressed in britches?

 

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