Winfred Blevins

Bold men and women risked their lives in the vast western wilderness to carve a life for themselves...to hunt, to trade, to fight, to love. One such man was Robert Burns "The Dancer" Maclean, who found his destiny in the mountains above the Yellowstone, the swift river that rumbles through two majestic waterfalls flowing onto the vast plains of Montana. In this story, Mac's incredible courage and deep compassion make him a legend of the land, where

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Sam Morgan and his wife Meadowlark accompany legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith on an expedition into Mexican California territory. But while filled with adventure, their trek is also marked by hardships and tragedy.

Blevins's novel finds Sam Morgan picking up the pieces of his life a decade after he first left his home in Pennsylvania looking for adventure. When his lover, the widow Paloma Luna--who is dying of cancer--sets off to pray at the shrine of the Virgin de Guadalupe, Sam finds himself a mission of his own. Two Mexican girls have been abducted by Navajo Indians, and Sam heads off into the New Mexico wilderness to rescue them.

In 1840 mountain man Sam Morgan, his daughter Esperanza, and his people set out for California. At Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail, they encounter a terrified woman, Lei Palua, and take her under their wing unaware that her one-time lover and now bloodthirsty nemesis dogs her trail, vowing to kill her and all who stand in his way.