Grace (Brides of the Rio Grande Book 1) by Peggy McKenzie

Will her lies be her demise? Grace Sinclair is in trouble. When her adopted sister, Faith, is forced to defend her honor against an over-ardent saloon patron, she shoots him in self-defense. But who is going to believe four orphaned females living and working in a saloon are innocent of anything. Grace is convinced that the only chance of saving them all is to leave town in hopes the law will think her guilty and hold the other three girls harmless. A friend suggests a ruse of leaving town as a mail-order bride and that plan worked like a charm. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the plan worked a little too well. John Malone didn’t send for a mail-order bride, but somehow he found himself wed to one. Grace is a feisty city woman who showed up out of nowhere with a written marriage proposal signed by him. He tries to explain he didn’t send for a bride and that wasn’t his signature, but no one believes him. Now, one of Creede’s prominent attorneys is forcing him to keep a promise he didn’t make, and when his new bride is arrested for murder, he’s in jeopardy of losing his reputation and his ability to make an honest living. He has a decision to make, but will his heart let him? Before this is over, it will take all of Grace’s courage and all of John’s faith to overcome the secrets, lies, and betrayals standing between them and their chance at happiness, but will it be enough?