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The Bachelor’s Bargain
Copyright © 2006 by Catherine Palmer. All rights reserved.

Cover illustration copyright © 2006 by Cliff Nielsen. All rights reserved.

Designed by Jessie McGrath
Edited by Kathryn S. Olson
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations in the epigraph and Miss Pickworth’s Ponderings are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organization, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Palmer, Catherine, date.
  The bachelor’s bargain / Catherine Palmer.
    p. cm.
  eBook ISBN 978-1-4143-2923-9
  I. Title.
  PS3566.A495B33 2006
  813'.54—dc 22                                             2006011425

Printed in the United States of America

12 11 10 09 08 07 06
7   6   5   4   3   2   1

For the newest member of our family, Phyllis Miller Cummins. I love you, and I’m so grateful God brought you into my father’s heart. Welcome!

The LORD directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
Though they stumble, they will never fall,
for the LORD holds them by the hand.

                                         Psalm 37:23-24

And we know that God causes everything to
work together for the good of those who love
God and are called according to his purpose
for them.

                                                   Romans 8:28

Contents

Acknowledgments

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Miss Pickworth’s Ponderings

Miss Pickworth Poses Problems

A Note from the Author

About the Author

Acknowledgments

MY THANKS to everyone at Tyndale who helped bring Miss Pickworth and her friends to life: Kathy Olson, Ron Beers, Becky Nesbitt, and Karen Watson. Also those in sales, marketing, public relations, author relations, and all who see my books from manuscript to bookshelf. My gratitude also to Anne Goldsmith, who now works elsewhere but is certainly not forgotten. I also thank my husband, Tim Palmer, whose guiding pen is always the first to cross the pages I write. Thank you, honey. Bless you, Andrei and Geoffrey, for loving and supporting good ol’ Mom. May God richly bless you all.

And most of all, thank You, Lord, for holding me by the hand.