Set in the mountains of Colorado a few years after the Civil War, two half-Indian, half-white sisters are forced to fend for themselves when their house, and family, go up in flames. Fourteen-year-old Jolene Culhaine and her twelve-year-old sister Elizabeth go out and try to survive on their own. But, it's not easy.
Elizabeth gets kidnapped, and Jolene is on her own, searching for her sister. While tracking the people who have taken her sister, Jolene meets an Irishman whose family died a few years ago while he was away in California, searching for gold. Or did his family die?
After the sisters are re-united, they come upon an Irishwoman and her son. Could they be the Irishman’s family? The girls become mixed up in something more complicated than they would have liked. Then Elizabeth leaves to go to Oregon with their uncle. Jolene stays in Colorado, and soon finds that two men in snake-skin boots are watching her. One night, they steal into Jolene’s hotel room and take some of her letters from the Irishman, who had long since left, but is keeping in touch. Do these two men have something to do with the Irishman?
Jolene leaves town and is ambushed. Then, she is put into a life-and-death situation, and is afraid she will never see a human face again. But, to her surprise, a young cowhand comes to the rescue. He becomes more involved with Jolene than he figured he would. He comes to the rescue of the Irishman, and both Jolene and the young cowhand stay on to live with the Irishman.
Then Elizabeth comes back. There had been a disaster on the way to Oregon. And then one of the kidnappers reappears. And it seems as if Elizabeth has a crush on him. Will things ever stop happening? |
