Darcy Howsam has one last chance to be a respectable woman and to have a secure life: traveling along the Oregon Trail to become a mail-order bride for a miner in California. But when the man who paid her way to meet him at Ft. Laramie takes one look at her and rejects her, demanding his money back, Darcy finds herself alone and desperate. Gregory Quinlan has staked his future on moving west and building a life in Oregon. A wife isn’t part of his plan. But when Darcy finds herself in trouble, he steps up to be a friend to her. The two hatch a plan to convince her should-be husband to take her back, only the more they work together, the more Greg falls in love. But what good is love when Darcy belongs to someone else? Against the odds, on an epic pioneer journey, Greg must fight to fix the mistakes he’s made and win back the woman who won his heart with her smile. PLEASE BE ADVISED: Steam Level – Hot Trail Blaze is a prequel novella to BOTH the Hot on the Trail series and the Montana Romance series, by Merry Farmer.