The Truxtons Historical Romances Series by Rebekah Johnson

Would-be engineer Georgia Truxton devises a thrifty substitute for expensive football safety gear for her brother Cooper’s team, but when he catches her fitting a uniform with their long-time friend Leopold Rigby and an inconveniently placed measuring tape, he offers a Leo must pretend to court Georgia to quiet the simmering gossip around their friendship, and he won’t tell their father.Leo knows any pursuit of Georgia’s love is pointless... moreWould-be engineer Georgia Truxton devises a thrifty substitute for expensive football safety gear for her brother Cooper’s team, but when he catches her fitting a uniform with their long-time friend Leopold Rigby and an inconveniently placed measuring tape, he offers a Leo must pretend to court Georgia to quiet the simmering gossip around their friendship, and he won’t tell their father.Leo knows any pursuit of Georgia’s love is pointless. A scandal buried in his past means he will never meet her family’s approval. The courtship charade is to teach them to play by the rules, but with the girl he loves pretending to love him back, he might throw caution—and a fifteen-year friendship with Cooper—to the wind.One relationship grows into love and two others unravel after Leo comes clean. Furious about her brother’s interference, Georgia makes her choice clear—until Cooper disappears with an ace up his sleeve that could tear Leo from his sister’s side once and for all.------Cooper's tone softens. “You used to talk with me about everything.”“Everything’s changed, hasn’t it?” I ask, mocking him. “What turned you into a stuck-up old man with all this talk about my honor and reputation, when you were never like this before? And treating Leo like I haven’t known him since I was two years old.”My brother drags his hands through his hair, making a tangled mess of it as he curses under his breath. “Georgia, you cannot possibly understand the position you’ve put me in.”“It’s no position at all. No one saw us, and nothing happened.”“What I saw looked like he had his hands in your hair and your back on the bed, and whether that happened or not, that’s what it looked like. You two were stupid enough to make that scene. And if I can’t stop you from behaving like a thoughtless child around a man I love and trust like a brother, how am I to assure Papa that you’ll be fine at a football match surrounded by a thousand young men? Do you want to stay on my arm every minute, everywhere you go, or would you like some measure of freedom without causing a scandal?”“It’s nothing I wouldn’t have done with you.”He slams a hand onto the stair railing. “Georgia, he is our friend but he is not your brother. You cannot be alone with him in your room. You cannot touch him however you like. You act on impulse when you get comfortable, and as far as it goes with Leo, that ends today.”------“She has you to talk to now.”Cooper doesn't look up when I laugh. “Hardly.”“Yes, perhaps her view of you is less than brotherly.”“If that’s the case, maybe it’s because she was blackmailed into thinking of me in a different way.” I whistle blithely at the ceiling. “Didn’t I tell you I might prove irresistible in the end?”He jams his helmet and padded shirt into his bag and glares at me. “I was acting out of love for both of you. What you called friendship was getting out of hand. Someone needed to rein you in before you ruined her chances with any decent suitor who didn’t wish to waste time tripping over your obvious affection for her and hers for you.”“So you legitimized it? So wise.”“No one minds a competitive courtship. A courtship ends when someone wins. You cannot win this, and you know why. Yet you act like this is some personal spite I wish to inflict on you. less

Maudie Hamilton’s politician suitor dumped women’s suffrage from his platform, but dumping him in return wasn’t enough. Furious and armed with her former beau’s insider knowledge and strategy, Maudie is out to find the perfect candidate to champion her cause and challenge him in the upcoming election since she cannot do it herself.Bored with society and daydreaming of escape out west, Cooper Truxton isn’t exactly the right man for the job... moreMaudie Hamilton’s politician suitor dumped women’s suffrage from his platform, but dumping him in return wasn’t enough. Furious and armed with her former beau’s insider knowledge and strategy, Maudie is out to find the perfect candidate to champion her cause and challenge him in the upcoming election since she cannot do it herself.Bored with society and daydreaming of escape out west, Cooper Truxton isn’t exactly the right man for the job. He has a reputation as a rogue and a quitter, but he’s also got a prominent family, a web of connections, and enough charisma and energy to captivate any crowd. When Maudie—his sister’s best friend—attacks him for wasting his privileges when women have no rights, he says he’ll run for office only if she’ll run his campaign.After a string of failed romances, Maudie’s focus is on her causes. Cooper, a declared bachelor with a history of vice he’s hiding from the voters, thinks he’ll have no problem keeping his deepening feelings for her to himself. But when a careless slip sets off a rumor that could destroy the campaign only a few weeks before Election Day, he’s forced to show his hand a little earlier than he intended.He tells her it’s all part of the campaign strategy—but it might take winning the race to win her heart.------I am enjoying this so much. Cooper Truxton really is the finest sort of good-natured man, rogue that he is, and he is impossible not to like. With a voice as caramel in tone as his eyes are in color, a little banter is more pleasant with him than with any other man. My dearest friend’s brother, safe and familiar and oh-so-funny, is exactly who I needed to see tonight.“While my devotion to you is unquestionable, dear Cooper, I can hardly go alone.”“I meant you should come to school. To the women’s college in Raleigh. And join me at all the games, naturally, where I will whine to you that I would have been the best quarterback the school has ever seen, were it not for me breaking my wrist twice last year.”I flutter my lashes at him. “You believe I should sign myself up for a college education just to cheer with you and listen to your grumbles at football matches.”“Yes, that’s what it boils down to, I suppose.” He winks again. “I told you, we are often of like mind, Miss Maudie, and now that I have plopped that idea into your pretty head, you won’t be able to escape it.”“I cannot decide what looks more desperate. Chasing you to Raleigh to be your personal cheerleader, or demanding payment in full tonight for all the dances you owe me.”“Plundering all my dances would be most unladylike.” He gently turns me back toward the house where the orchestra is beginning a song. “And I do love an unladylike lady.”“My reputation will be in tatters if I dance seven times in a row with such a rogue.”His hand slips to my waist as I lift mine to his shoulder, and even though we are still on the terrace, we fall into the steps without thinking. “You will do wonders for my reputation, though,” he says. “That the impeccable Maudie Hamilton, so choosy she has declined not one but three proposals of marriage, should grant me her attention immediately elevates me from rogue status to a mere cad.”His wicked smile sets me giggling. “I suppose you’ll have to remain a rogue or a cad, then. Have you a scale for such things?”We spin in the steps of the dance among the trees and the starlight. less

Victoria Harper’s passion for surgical nursing isn’t compatible with romance. No hospital will hire a married woman, and if she marries her first love, she’ll be relegated to rolling bandages.Pragmatic, persistent Matthew Berger knows Victoria would always resent him if she gave up her career to marry him before she was truly ready. After three declined proposals in five years, he built a life alone rather than try to fill the space she left behind... moreVictoria Harper’s passion for surgical nursing isn’t compatible with romance. No hospital will hire a married woman, and if she marries her first love, she’ll be relegated to rolling bandages.Pragmatic, persistent Matthew Berger knows Victoria would always resent him if she gave up her career to marry him before she was truly ready. After three declined proposals in five years, he built a life alone rather than try to fill the space she left behind.During the Great War, adventure beckons overseas. Victoria’s work at a base hospital in France keeps her almost busy enough to forget the man she gave up to follow her passion—until he arrives on an ambulance from the Western front with a devastating injury, an ocean of memories, and a flicker of hope. As Matthew recovers and their old flame reignites, Victoria’s dreams point her in a direction she never considered. The devastation of war might show her how to prove a married woman’s worth. Old rules could be broken, but only if she has the courage to break them—and if Matthew will give her one more chance to say yes.-------“I don’t think I can marry him, girls.”Ingrid tried to sit up. “What?”“It’s good to put the hurt feelings aside and appreciate his friendship, but the same problem exists today that existed when I left, and it’s the same one you’ll all face, too. Married nurses don’t do what we do. Most married women don’t work at all.”Nora tapped out a staccato scale on the piano, treble down to bass, one note per name. “Maggie. Catherine. Aurelia. Eliza. May. Iris. Annabelle. Jane. And that’s just from our little hospital in the last year. You get married, you go home. Red Cross policy.”“And there’s no work for them at home, either,” Frances said. “Back in London, even with a war on, they won’t hire a married woman in the hospitals. It is just a shame the world is not very accommodating to married women with brains. If we are widowed, our minds are miraculously restored, we are cured of our hysterics, and we are useful again.”“But for Victoria now, that’s it?” Ingrid asked. “Here is Matthew after all this time, like fate. Can it really never be?”Victoria turned and met her gaze. “It has only been a few days. I enjoy his company but I must be realistic. The world has changed, but if the needs of war and half a million wounded men don’t make a married nurse acceptable then I don’t know if it’s changed enough.” less