I read this book as a teenager in the early 1990s. It was a paperback, but I don’t think it was a Harlequin.
Hero
- An American soldier/person of importance
Heroine
- An American from an upstanding family who were sympathetic to the plight of the Native American Indians
Location
- America
Era
- During a war – not sure which one, but it involved Native American Indians
Main plot
- Hero and heroine marry in a traditional Native American Indian ceremony.
- Heroine is given a necklace with a carved wooden charm (I think a turtle) in lieu of a wedding ring.
- Heroine is kidnapped on her wedding night. She suffers a head injury and gets amnesia and finds out she is pregnant while imprisoned.
- The hero finds her, but she does not recognise him.
- The hero claims her and they are married in a traditional Christian ceremony.
- Heroine gives birth to their child – a girl – and regains her memory.
Other plot twists
- Heroine’s brother is fighting in the war. He secretly marries a Native American Indian known to the family. Heroine’s brother is killed in the war, and his wife dies in childbirth, and the heroine cares for their child – a son named Andrew (I think) after his father (the heroine’s brother).
- One particularly gruesome scene where a preacher is tortured and burned.