Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

I am looking for a specific book - the first romance I ever read.

It was set in the west. Hero was traveling back to his ranch and stopped for some hospitality. Hero and heroine were forced to marry at gunpoint. Heroine, at the time, has chicken pox and hasn't bathed in a while - very poor family. I can't remember if it's her step-father that forces them to wed or regular father. She takes care of her younger siblings and I remember that the hero noticed that she had clean nails, despite the rest of her being mostly unwashed with scabs all over.

They leave the same afternoon and travel to hero's ranch. Heroine sent off with rose soap and a poultice that she must smear on her face to prevent scarring. Hero informs her that he has a widowed lover and that they are wed in name only. We find out that the heroine is actually quite lovely and has nice red hair and fine figure. Hero begins to fall in love, yadda yadda. He never goes to see his former lover except to say that it's over. She then concocts a plan with a fired ranch hand (who blames the heroine for his circumstance) to abduct the heroine so that she can have the hero all to herself.

I remember the story very well but can't, for the life of me, remember the title, author, character names. I think maybe the hero's name was Jake, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Can anyone help me figure this out? The book was definitely written before 2001.

Samantha, there is a group that deals solely with finding out the names of books, here is the link -

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

Samantha,This sounds like a good book,I`d like to read it.
There is a place to post and ask the members if they know the book on Romantic Times Book discussions too.Good Luck

Samantha, I wouldn't mind knowing the name of this book if/when you find it!

Also, you could post this question in the Historical Romances group; they have a thread and those ladies are pretty good. I'd post it, with at least the tags of "chicken pox" and "shotgun wedding" in the topic title: Help! Looking for...(HR Books)

The book is Hawke's Pride by Norah Hess