Declan Brodie, the hero of Kaki Warner's Heartbreak Creek is a widower, a man who desperately needs help with his mountain ranch and four children. Reluctantly, he posts an advertisement asking for a "sturdy" mail-order bride. After Edwina Ladoux marries him by proxy, he's unhappy with the "bedraggled, rail-thin" woman who steps off the train from Louisiana. For her part, Edwina assumes he's an irritating ranch hand, as she tells her sister within earshot of Declan: "He's a cretin…. Dumber than wet mud. A giant mute with the brains of a flea and the personality of a pound of rancid acid." It hardly need be said that the lively Southern Edwina is not an instant fit for the role of rancher's wife. "I like to dance and play and laugh," she says later to Declan: "You don't. It'll take some adjustment." Edwina is not sturdy nor hardworking, but she is joyful and inventive, and Declan, for all his taciturn resistance, falls in love. Heartbreak Creek is a terrific entry into the "convenient marriage" genre, in which courtship follows marriage, is tailor-made for the "lone wolf" theme. Marriage to Edwina not only lures Declan to dance (and laugh), but brings him back into the community. Like humans, most wolves need the company of others to thrive.
