Gilbert Girls

When Emma Daniels's well-to-do family finds itself destitute, she answers an ad for the Gilbert Company seeking young women to be waitresses at hotel restaurants along remote railroad lines out west. The rules for a Gilbert Girl are strict: work hard, act respectably at all times, and no courting allowed. None of them present a problem for Emma, at least until she meets the hotel's builder, Monroe Hartley.

The Crest Stone Hotel is the perfect place for a man like Thomas Drexel to hide. Wanted for crimes he didn't commit, Thomas hopes he can blend in as a handyman at the newly opened hotel. But his past threatens his future when one of the hotel restaurant's waitresses discovers his identity. Caroline Beauchamp ran from Boston to escape an arranged marriage to a despicable man. She's safe in the hotel, hidden from those who want her to return home. Yet she finds herself drawn to Thomas and compelled to help him prove his innocence, even if she risks her position as a Gilbert Girl to do so.

Penny May would do anything to forget her past, even traveling all the way to the Colorado Territory to become a Gilbert Girl. Learning to be a good waitress wasn't easy, but Penny is happy with her new life and friends at the Crest Stone Hotel. At least until the handsome and infuriating county sheriff arrives in search of his kidnapped sister.

Dora Reynolds is just another Gilbert Girl at the Crest Stone Hotel, and she needs it to remain that way. If anyone found out who she truly is, she'd lose her friends and her position. But when money begins to disappear from the hotel's safe and a handsome new desk clerk arrives, she finds her security-and her heart-under threat.

Elizabeth Hartley Campbell arrives at the Crest Stone Hotel, widowed and searching for the brother she hasn't seen in seven years. Distraught to learn he's left, she takes a job as a Gilbert Girl at the hotel's restaurant. She quickly befriends the other girls and finds comfort in helping the hotel prepare for Christmas—until a wayward cowboy wanders in from the snow and sits at her lunch counter.

Edie Dutton left Kansas with nothing but a few pieces of clothing, a handful of stolen bills, and a forged letter of reference. Since then, she's found a home as a Gilbert Girl at the Crest Stone Hotel. Even despite her transgression at the hotel last fall, she has a second chance to live the life she wants. But Edie Dutton is not her real name, and arriving along with all the newcomers to town comes word that her past may be on its way to put her future in jeopardy.