Her uncle demanding that one of the four Archer brothers step forward to marry her. So her heroic ride to warn them just in time turns into a compromising reputation-killer. And she wasn't counting on her cousin giving into the pressure of revealing her whereabouts. The problem? She doesn't have the time to ride out there and back before nightfall. So what's a woman to do? Well, she does try going to the sheriff-or the deputy?-but when she's not taken seriously, when she's instead ridiculed for being a silly woman with a vivid imagination, she does what she must: she rides out to the Archer land herself to warn them. He WANTS the Archer land, and since the Archer brothers won't sell, won't negotiate, won't budge, he's decided that if he burns their barn down, it will be a good first step to getting what he wants. And the sign, when it comes, is definite: she not only overhears him calling her a cripple, she overhears him making unethical arrangements to acquire land. Meredith prays for a sign, an indication one way or another if she should marry the man her guardians have chosen for her, or, if she should be stubborn and refuse their choice.

They have arranged a marriage for her with an up-and-coming businessman, Roy Mitchell. The novel opens with Meredith all grown up and living with her aunt and uncle who are her guardians. Second, because it left a scar on her leg and the damage to the bone prevented it from growing as it should one leg being slightly longer than the other. First, because she can't forget Travis Archer, he is forever her hero, the stuff of her dreams, despite the fact that that isolated incident is the only time she's seen him. The incident stays with her, as you might imagine. In the prologue, Travis Archer saves the then-ten-year-old Meredith, her leg having gotten trapped in a hunting trap. Short-Straw Bride is a Christian historical romance it is set in Palestine, Texas in the 1880s. This isn't my first Karen Witemeyer book however, it is the first Karen Witemeyer book that I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED. 'Do what?' 'Marry a man who wants me only for the land I can bring him.' Cassandra pulled the hairpin from her mouth and secured another section of Meredith's braided chignon. 368 pages.įrom the prologue: Ten-year-old Meredith Hayes balled her hands into fists as she faced her tormentor, 'Hiram Ellis! Give me back my lunch bucket this instant!'įrom chapter one: 'I don't think I can do it, Cass.' Meredith peered up at her cousin through the reflection in the vanity mirror.

Short straw bride