Posts with the custom taxonomy term Abduction

When the Pilot Falls by April Hayman

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1923 – California

In 1923, there aren’t many pilots, but Willie Labeau didn’t let that stop… her.

A bear of a man, Hugh Taylor, needs a stunt plane pilot, and despite their rocky introduction, Willie sets off for golden California and a new life as his pilot. There’s just one little thing she has to do in addition to flying.

Leave his past alone. Period.

When the flame of her own curiosity becomes fanned by encouragement from Willie’s sister, the feisty pilot can’t help but do just a little investigating.

And Hugh vanishes.

Friends rally around her, and with all the information she can find in hand, Willie sets off to rescue Hugh and battle the evil family holding him hostage.

A fierce air race, a sincere act of humility—are they enough to free Hugh and give Willie a chance to be with him… forever?

 

 

Songs in the Night by Lynnette Bonner

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1890s – Washington State

Aurora McClure would like nothing more than to march into Parson Preston Clay’s church and give him a kiss that would knock him into the next county. But since she’s not that kind of woman, and he’s shown little inclination toward her, she’s decided to run instead. Leaving town will be infinitely better than remaining where she will need to continue fighting her feelings. If only she had peace about the decision!
 
Parson Preston Clay sits at his desk and glares at newcomer Kane Carver, who’s just asked for permission to call on Aurora McClure. His jaw aches. He’s been suffocating his feelings for Aurora for years because his calling requires long hours with low pay and it’s not the kind of job for a family man. Yet . . . staring at Kane, he realizes if he doesn’t act, he might lose Aurora forever.
 
But just when he sets aside his hesitations, a woman from his past—his distant and nefarious past—rides into town. And though he’s far from the same man he once was, she hasn’t changed a bit. She thinks he’s running a con and wants him to use his safecracking skills to help her break into the bank. When he refuses, how far will she go to ensure his cooperation? And how much will Preston be willing to compromise when she takes Aurora captive?
In the darkest hours of the night, he desperately cries out to the only One who can help him. The One who gives songs in the night.

Take the next stagecoach to Wyldhaven, where the coffee’s perked hot, the sheriff likes his apple pie fresh from the oven, and adventure invariably waits just around the next river bend.

The Vanishing at Loxby Manor by Abigail Wilson

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1816 – England

Her friend is missing.

After five years abroad, Charity Halliwell finally returns to Loxby Manor, the home of dear friends—and her lost love. No longer a young girl, she is now haunted by a painful secret and the demise of her dreams. Instead of the healing and happiness she hopes to find, she encounters a darkness lurking in the shadows of the once-familiar house. When her friend, Seline, disappears the very night of her arrival, Charity is determined to uncover the truth. 

Her only hope is the man who broke her heart.

Branded a coward, Piers Cavanaugh has lived the last five years as an outcast far from his family home. When his sister presumably elopes with a stable hand, Piers joins forces with an unlikely partner—the one woman he thought he’d never see again. Together they launch an investigation that leads to strange nightly meetings in the ruins of an old abbey and disturbing whispers of a secret organization. The more they learn, the more desperate the situation becomes. 

The house seems determined to keep its secrets.

As they struggle to piece together the clues, Charity and Piers also endeavor to rebuild their friendship. One cryptic letter changed everything between them. To find happiness they will have to overcome the grief and shame keeping them apart. But first they must discover why Seline vanished and confront the growing fear that she may never return. 

Courting Misfortune by Regina Jennings

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1898 – Illinois

Calista York needs one more successful case as a Pinkerton operative to secure her job. When she’s assigned to find the kidnapped daughter of a mob boss, she’s sent to the rowdy mining town of Joplin, Missouri, despite having extended family in the area. Will their meddling expose her mission and keep Lila Seaton from being recovered?

When Matthew Cook decided to be a missionary, he never expected to be sent only a short train ride away. While fighting against corruption of all sorts, Matthew hears of a baby raffle being held to raise funds for a children’s home. He’ll do what he can to stop it, but he also wants to stop the reckless Miss York, whose bad judgment consistently seems to be putting her in harm’s way.

Calista doesn’t need the handsome pastor interfering with her investigation, and she can’t let her disguise slip. Her job and the life of a young lady depend on keeping Matthew in the dark.

The Longest Road by Dan Walsh

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1857 – Virginia/Traveling

It’s October, 1857, just a few years before the Civil War. After recovering a month in New York from the shipwreck that almost took their lives, John and Laura Foster finalize plans to return home to San Francisco. Knowing they must return, both are dreading the voyage. Their plans suddenly change when they learn of a tragedy involving their beloved friend and former slave, Micah. His youngest daughter Hannah, still a slave in Virginia, has been mercilessly torn from the arms of her husband and sold to a wicked slaveowner from the Deep South. Her brother Eli knows Hannah will never submit to the evil schemes of this slaveowner. Unsure of how to find her, John and Laura embark on an epic journey—together with Micah and Eli—hoping to somehow rescue Hannah…before it’s too late.

The Time for Healing by Ramona K. Cecil

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1824 – Missouri

Ginny Red Fawn McLain, a Shawnee medicine woman, is thrust back into the world of her birth family twelve years after her abduction. While she eschews the Christianity preached by her birth uncle who found her, Ginny’s heart refuses to shun his friend and fellow Christian minister, Jeremiah Dunbar.

Jeremiah Dunbar is immediately smitten with his friend’s long lost niece. But unless Ginny Red Fawn joins Christ’s fold–something she adamantly resists–any future with the woman he loves is impossible.

Amid an atmosphere of contempt and distrust, dreams and cultures clash. Ginny and Jeremiah are left to wonder whether their burgeoning love has any place in God’s plan.

The Peasant’s Dream by Melanie Dickerson

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Medieval – Germany

In this reverse Cinderella story, a poor farmer’s son, who dreams of using his talent as a woodcarver to make a better life for himself, falls in love with a duke’s daughter and must fight for a chance to win her heart.

Adela is the youngest daughter of Duke Wilhelm of Hagenheim and is never allowed outside of the castle walls. She loves her family, but she sneaks away one day to the market in the town center. There she meets a handsome young man and wonders what it might be like to fall in love with a poor farmer with a kind heart instead of marrying the man her family is suggesting for her.

Frederick earns the income for his family and defends his mother from his father’s drunken rages. He also uses his talent and creativity to carve figures, animals, and scenes into wood, and he’s asked to carve these scenes into cathedral doors when his talent is noticed. Frederick is inspired by the sweet and beautiful Adela, but he has no knowledge of her true identity. When he gets swept up into a plan to kidnap the duke’s daughter, both are shaken by what they learn about the other.

With the heartbroken Adela resigned to an arranged marriage with her noble suitor, Frederick must decide what he’s willing to risk for love.

Love’s Mountain Quest by Misty Beller

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1867 – Montana Territory

Young widow Joanna Watson is struggling to make a new home for her five-year-old son, Samuel, in the little mountain town of Settler’s Fort. When she returns home from work to find Samuel and the woman watching him missing, with no lawman in town, she enlists a man she prays has enough experience in this rugged country to help.

Isaac Bowen wants nothing more than a quiet, invisible life in these mountains, far away from the bad decisions of his past. But he has a strong suspicion of who’s behind the kidnapping, and if he’s right, he knows all too well the evil they’re chasing.

As they press on against the elements, Joanna fights to hold on to hope, while Isaac knows a reckoning is coming. They find encouragement in the tentative trust that grows between them, but whether it can withstand the danger and coming confrontation is far from certain in this wild, unpredictable land.

Morgan’s Medicine by Julia David

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1851 – California

In 1851, being kidnapped off of a ship might be the worst thing for an innocent young woman. For Emery, she thought it was her salvation until the kidnappers only took her and left her younger sister on the ship.

When angry miners seek revenge on the greedy baron, Arnold Snider, who stole their savings, they believe they have kidnapped his wife. It’s simple if he gives their gold back, he can have his wife back. But how will the trade work when they realize they’ve taken the wrong woman?

Keeping the mistaken identity to herself, Emery is left with a recluse miner. Will the secret help her get her sister free or land her back in the hands of the cruel Arnold Snider, a man she despises?

Doctor Morgan Hastings wants to take his mining friends by the neck. How could they ride off leaving a young woman on his porch, shackled and bound? How can he help her when she looks at him like he’s the enemy? Why won’t she let him help her get back to the ship, to her husband? Just when Morgan can’t stand the confusion any longer, Emery does something that shocks even a doctor recovering from the war.

Minute by minute choices, gripping emotions, and surrender. Can Morgan and Emery heal from the past in time?

Will a thread of faith be enough to see the light and love that awaits them?

Heartless by Tamara Leigh

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1066 – England

A battle. A crown. The conqueror. The conquered. Medieval England—forever changed by the Battle of Hastings. And the rise of the formidable Wulfriths.

A HEARTLESS NORMAN

Chevalier Maël D’Argent lost more than his striking looks when he aided the Duke of Normandy in taking the English throne from King Harold. As much by his own actions at the Battle of Hastings as those of the enemy, he lost his sire and his honor in breaking faith with his family. Believing himself unworthy of forgiveness, his ruined face the least due him, Maël now serves a ruthless man bent on subduing Saxons resistant to Norman rule. But when his mission to safeguard King William’s dignity leads to the rescue of a curiously familiar Saxon woman who causes the empty place inside him to strain its seams, he discovers he may not be as heartless as the one he serves—nor resistant to the wiles of one he ought to count an enemy.

A FALSE ABBESS

In the guise of Abbess Mary Sarah, the illegitimate Mercia has served the Saxon resistance for years in anticipation of learning who sired her. At last ordered to cast off the habit and veil, Mercia is told that revelation of her parentage hinges on acceptance of another role that could see her sacrificed by the noble family who refuses to acknowledge her. When she resists and is abducted by Saxon allies, her savior proves the scarred Norman warrior who spared her following the great battle. Once more, something sorrowfully empty in Sir Maël makes her long to fill his emptiness with what little she possesses, even if his captivity renders it impossible for him to forgive one as deceptive as she. Even if she never discovers who she is…

The Scottish Lass by Susan Page Davis and James S. Davis

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1854 – At Sea

Pirates capture a beloved crew member of the Vera B., but Alice Packard and her female sailors believe there is always hope.
In Java, Fiona Campbell is kidnapped and taken aboard a stolen ship. The mutineers beat Captain Stark and cast him ashore, but keep the ship’s first mate, Tommy Mercer. They force him to navigate to a distant island, where they hope to recover a treasure. Captain Stark seeks help from Captain Alice Packard and the female crew of the Vera B., not telling her the pirates’ captain told him to bring the ship of women to him. While her friends search for her, Fiona concentrates on staying alive. The pirates warn her that if she misbehaves, Tommy will bear the consequences. Can Alice and her intrepid sailors rescue them? And what about Stark and his two men—can they be trusted?

An Uncommon Woman by Laura Frantz

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1770 – Frontier Virginia

Unflinching and plainspoken, Tessa Swan is not your typical 18th-century woman. Born and bred on the western Virginia frontier along with her five brothers, she is a force to be reckoned with.

Quiet and courageous, Clay Tygart is not your typical 18th-century man. Raised by Lenape Indians, he returns a hero from the French and Indian War to the fort that bears his name, bringing with him Tessa’s long-lost friend, Keturah, a redeemed Indian captive like himself.

Determined to avoid any romantic entanglements as fort commander, Clay remains aloof whenever he encounters the lovely Tessa. But when she is taken captive by the tribe Clay left, his hand–and heart–are forced, leading to one very private and one very public reckoning.

The Piper’s Pursuit by Melanie Dickerson

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1424 – Germany

A plague of rats. A giant beast outside the village walls. A host of missing children. And one young woman determined to save her people.

In 1424 Hamlin, Katerina faces threats from all sides. An outbreak of rats has overtaken the village, a mysterious beast is on a killing rampage of the village’s children, and Katerina’s evil stepfather is a dark presence inside the walls of her own home. Katerina is determined to hunt and kill the Beast of Hamlin herself before more lives are lost.

When Steffan, the handsome but brash duke’s son, comes to town seeking glory and reward, Katerina decides he might be the ally she’s been looking for—even though the only gentle thing about him seems to be the sweet music he plays on his pipe. But there’s more to Steffan than she suspects, and she finds herself drawn to him despite her misgivings.

Together Katerina and Steffan must stop the enemy from stealing the children of Hamlin. But their interference might create an even worse fate for the entire village.

Christmas Bride by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana Territory

Josh Kinsley’s parents have not heard from him in two years. He’d headed west to escape a broken heart but is now a prisoner in a mine. He plots and plans his escape. But he must act before he is ready to flee his prison when a young woman is brought, kicking and screaming, into his captor’s cabin. Knowing what horror awaits her, he knows he must make an immediate escape and take her with him. He will help her because it’s the right thing, but he has no intention of falling in love again.

Katie Webster is alone in the world. At home, marriageable men are scarce. All she wants is her own home and family, so agrees to be a mail-order bride. Instead, she ends up being a pawn in a gambling game. The future looks very dire. Being grabbed by a man and hurried into the woods seems every bit as risky. She will never again trust a man but going with Josh seems preferable to what awaits her in the cabin.

As Josh and Katie are forced to survive winter in the wilderness, they must learn to trust each other. But will their adventures help them admit their growing feelings or will the danger keep them apart?

Lane Steen by Candace West

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1908 – Arkansas

To let go of the past she must confront it.
When Lane Steen discovers her father kidnapped her years ago, her fractured world shatters. A different world and a new family await to welcome her if she’ll only take the chance.
Will they love her? Or will she trade one hostile home for another?

Perhaps the journey will only raise more questions.

Who is her father, really? And what happened to him? Will she ever be able to forgive him so that love can heal her heart?
Valley Creek may be her prison, but perhaps it holds the unexpected. True love, purpose, grace, and redemption.
Join Lane on her search for the truth today!

True Freedom by Carol Ashby

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118 – Rome

The chains we cannot see can be the hardest ones to break.

When Aulus runs up a gambling debt to his father’s political enemy, he’s desperate to pay it off before his father returns to Rome. His best friend Marcus suggests they fake the kidnapping of Aulus’s sister Julia and use the ransom money. But when the man they hired kidnaps her for real, Aulus is catapulted into a desperate search to find her.

Torn from his childhood home by Rome’s conquering armies and sold as a farm slave to labor until he dies, Dacius’s faith gives him strength to bear what he must and serve without complaining. After a deadly accident makes him one of Julia’s litter bearers, he overhears Marcus advising her brother to kidnap her. When Dacius almost dies thwarting the kidnapping, a Christian couple take them in to keep her brother from finding them before her father returns.

But pretending to be free again makes returning to slavery more than Dacius can bear, while acting like a common woman opens Julia’s eyes to dreams and destinies she never knew existed. With her brother closing in and her father almost home, can she find a way around Roman law and custom to free them both for the future they long for?

Unexpected Champion by Mary Connealy

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1868 – Nevada

City dweller John McCall never expected to be out in the High Sierras of 1868 on a wild-goose chase to find the Chiltons’ supposedly lost grandson. But now that he’s out here, things have gotten even more complicated, mostly due to wildcat Penny Scott. She’s not like any woman he’s ever met–comfortable in the woods, with a horse, and with a gun.

When Penny and John are taken against their will by a shadowy figure looking for evidence they don’t have, both realize they’ve stumbled into something dangerous and complicated. With their friends and family desperately searching for them, Penny and John must make a daring escape.

When they emerge back into the real world, they are confronted with a kidnapper who just won’t stop. They must bring a powerful, ruthless man to justice, even as this city man and country woman fight a very inconvenient attraction to each other.

Second Chances by Carol Ashby

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122 – At Sea/Rome

Must the shadows of the past destroy the hope of the future?

In AD 122, Cornelia Scipia, proud daughter of one of Rome’s noblest families, learns her adulterous husband plans to betroth their daughter to the vicious son of his best friend. Over her dead body! Cornelia divorces him, reclaims her enormous dowry, and kidnaps her own daughter. She plans to start over with Drusilla a thousand miles away. No more husbands for her. But she didn’t count on meeting Hector, the widowed Greek captain of the ship carrying her to her new life.

Devastated by the loss of his wife and daughter, Hector’s heart begins to heal as he befriends Drusilla. Cornelia’s sacrificial love for Drusilla and her courage and humor in the face of the unknown earn his admiration…as a friend. Is he ready for more?

Marriage to the kind, honest sea captain would give Drusilla the father she deserves…and Cornelia the faithful husband she’s always longed for. But while her ex-husband hunts them to drag Drusilla back to Rome, secrets in Hector’s past and the chasms between their social classes and different faiths erect complicated barriers to any future together. Will God give two lonely hearts a second chance at happiness?

Caught by Surprise by Jen Turano

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1883 – New York

Miss Temperance Flowerdew is on her way to work when a stranger suddenly grabs her off the street and sends her on a Chicago-bound train before she can figure out what happened.

When Mr. Gilbert Cavendish is called upon to rescue a missing woman, he follows the trail to Chicago only to discover that the woman is his good friend Temperance. Before they can discover who was behind the abduction, they’re seen alone together by a New York society matron, putting their reputations at risk.

Gilbert is willing to propose marriage–except Temperance will have none of it. She’s finally stepped out of the shadow of her relations and won’t give up her independence. But when it becomes clear the misunderstanding in Chicago has escalated into a threat on her life and followed her to New York, accepting Gilbert’s help in solving the mystery may lead to more than she ever could have dreamed.

Give Me Thine Heart by Andrea Boeshaar

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1814 – England/At Sea

Moira Kingsley loathes the man her uncle, the Baron Tyrus Kingsley, wishes her to marry. When at her engagement party she meets Mr. Samuel Stryker, she soon guesses he’s from the American Colonies. After she stumbles onto a deep secret, Sam must make an impossible decision. Kill her or kidnap her?

Ultimately, he whisks Moira from England and she considers herself saved from a fate worse than death, especially after discovering her fiancé’s darker side. But will she be safe in the war-torn United States? However, it’s the on the voyage there that Moira learns she possesses attributes she’d never imagined existed within herself.

She also becomes increasingly aware of the man who is both her abductor and rescuer.

This book was originally published in the Timeless Love: Romantic Stories That Span the Ages collection.