Book 11 in the Magnificent Devices steampunk series!
"What do you propose, sir?"
He held her astonished gaze as he went down upon one knee. "Why ... I propose.
Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, so that I may accompany you to San Francisco de Asis and help you stop this war?"

Gloria Meriwether-Astor, determined to end the invasion her father and a power-hungry diplomat started, has found safety with the witches of the river canyons in the Wild West. But how can one young lady without so much as a hat to her name challenge a kingdom? Confronted with the solution - marriage - she has two choices: accept the help she needs, or return to Philadelphia alone and a failure.

So, in the company of riverboat captain Stan Fremont - the dashing rogue she must now call husband - she sets off for the capital to negotiate with the Viceroy. But with an entire country mobilizing between herself and her objective, the attempt could mean her life - and the life of the one person she is beginning to care for ...

"She makes hard choices because they're right, because of principle, because of morality - perhaps even out of a need to change her family and her business's legacy: but Gloria's is ultimately the most unselfish path and that is unexpected." - Fangs for the Fantasy, on Fields of Air