December and Mae by SHARON SHIPLEY

Wyoming, 1889.
Rock-faced as a quarry, hewn of hard work and Wyoming Territory’s harsh environment, Luke at 54, a wealthy widower and overlord of forty thousand acres and a copper mine. His unwed sister rules their house and, she thinks, her brother’s morals.
Yet underneath, Luke’s loneliness for a woman of his own choosing, and no little longing for the warm, willing flesh of such, gnaws at Luke’s soul if not his fevered body. Enter a runaway, a starved waif far below his social standing. She stumbles onto his spread, willing, in her innocence, to do anything he wishes…