Elizabeth St. John was a determined, independent woman running away from her past, hell-bent on securing a future for the young female entertainers traveling with her to Colorado Territory. Ben Cronin was a wealthy, self-made mining magnate whose wealth and good looks made him any woman’s dream. Beth, Betsy, Elise, Lizzie – Elizabeth had used many names as she fled from England to New York, Boston, San Francisco and Colorado Territory... moreElizabeth St. John was a determined, independent woman running away from her past, hell-bent on securing a future for the young female entertainers traveling with her to Colorado Territory. Ben Cronin was a wealthy, self-made mining magnate whose wealth and good looks made him any woman’s dream. Beth, Betsy, Elise, Lizzie – Elizabeth had used many names as she fled from England to New York, Boston, San Francisco and Colorado Territory. Haunted by the past, she couldn’t forget to look over her shoulder from time to time. She didn’t dare allow herself the luxury of falling in love. A man was the last thing she needed. She was quite capable of taking care of herself. Besides, she had her hands full managing her all-woman troupe of singers and dancers and trying to hide a man falsely accused of murder. Ben Cronin was of a different frame of mind. One look at Elizabeth, one moment of hearing her play piano and he knew she was a special lady, one who had touched his heart. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman—smart, witty, gloriously independent and irresistibly alluring. Yet every time he tried to get a little closer, she backed away. Still, Ben hadn’t become the most influential man in Georgetown by running from a challenge. It was a man’s world and women could not even vote, but Elizabeth knew that behind every successful man stood a woman. If men were the backbone of the nation—she knew that women were its heart and soul. In the East a women’s lack of equal rights was circumscribed by entrenched tradition, but she was certain that the West represented a clean slate upon which the progressive idea of sexual equality could be inscribed. less
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