Onora: Prairie Roses Collection, book 56

by Linda Carroll-Bradd

Herne Bardwick, blacksmith, has loved Onora since they were teens but he was too slow in revealing his feelings and she married another. With the birth of her child last year, Herne decided to join a wagon train heading to Oregon to start a new life. Two days before departure, he spots a plume of smoke in the direction of Onora’s house. He finds her slumped on the front steps to the shotgun house and pulls her away from the flames. Fingers burned and hair singed, she mutters “my baby, my baby” before she faints. He carries her to his cousin’s house where Doctor Latimer tends her burns.

Pain in her hands and her chest awaken Onora to a world she doesn’t recognize. The kind doctor and his wife are strangers, as is the tall man who stares with such caring in his eyes. Why can’t she remember her name or how she came to be injured? Believing these people have her best interests at heart, she agrees to a marriage of convenience and to joining a wagon train west. With burns that will need time to to heal, she can no longer…do what? How had she made a living? She’s lucky to have this quiet man willing to escort her to a new future.

As the wagon train moves farther west, Herne sees signs Onora’s memory is returning, and guilt weighs on his shoulders. What will happen when she recalls her former life and looks at him in horror at the subterfuge he’s enacted?

177 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2026

About the author

As a child, Linda was often found lying on her bed reading about characters having exciting adventures in places far away. Upon reaching a landmark birthday, she decided to write one of those romances she loved so much. Easier said than done. Perseverance paid out and twelve years later, she received her first call from a publisher and a confession story was published. Now Linda writes heartwarming contemporary and historical stories with a touch of humor, and many have a tie to her previous home of Texas.
Linda enjoys writing from her cabin in the mountains among the cedar and pines with her husband of 34 years and their two much-loved dogs.

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

This was absolutely a great book and by a great author. I highly recommend this book and author. I can’t wait to read the next book by this wonderful author.