As a fourteen-year-old orphan boy moves west with a wagon train after losing his parents and being taken on by a wagon master with the proviso the boy lie under him, in an encounter with a young, virile savage, the boy learns there are deeper pleasures to experience from ravishment.
The small-farm valley in Idaho on the western slope of the Grand Tetons was devoid of fit men in 1943. They were all off fighting the war. The job of getting in the harvest and taking care of business was left to the women and older men and boys too young for the war, like 14-year-old Jimmy and Sam. Sam is being covered by the town lawyer who would also like to cover Jimmy. A disabled veteran, Jack Fox, is added into the mix. He is quite able for the women and for Jimmy too.
This story was written for a story-writing competition, which it didn't win. It is the morning of the day before the wedding of a young girl in a country village in Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. (A 'verst' is half a mile, and YES, it CAN be done!)
In the unforgiving frontier town of Dustwater Creek, life is harsh and danger waits around every corner. Young and clever, Lysandra Bale must navigate a world ruled by strength, cunning, and courage. Fierce-willed and unyielding, she faces the trials of the West with intelligence and determination, shaping the people around her and turning even the most difficult circumstances into opportunities to survive and thrive.