Dorothy Wiley Knihy

In 1818, the bravest of the brave settled a narrow strip of land along the Red River in Texas. A place where death and life held equal strongholds--the new leading edge of the West was an exceedingly dangerous place. For Samuel Wyllie, his family's land south of the Red River at Pecan Point was a nearly sacred place, as beautiful as heaven must be. He has big plans for the future and will do what it takes to carve a new life out of the wilderness. Louisa Pate and her young brother Adam, new arrivals in the settlement, are subjected to the tyranny of a cruel father. He intends to marry her off for profit and power to a brash filibuster who plans to challenge the Spanish for control of Texas. She also faces a frontier teeming with Indians, raw wilderness, deadly quicksand, and men who would use her for their own gain. Denied any chance for happiness, she is determined to survive and protect her little brother. And she will do what she must for Adam's sake, even enter into a loveless marriage. But even on this lonely frontier, Louisa is not truly alone. Time and again, Samuel boldly stands between her and disaster. The vastness of Texas is not big enough to hold his courage or his love. Yet love is not easily won and life in the West challenges them both. Help comes in the form of a unique trapper named Old Bill, a solitary, spirit-like Caddo brave named Kuukuh, and Samuel's father and three brothers