Thin Moon and Cold Mist: Women of the West (Women of the West Series)

Review "Robin Heatherton has to be the strongest creation since Sir Walter Scott's Diane Vernon in Rob Roy. A work without flaws." -El Paso Herald Post "Gear invests this story with historical detail and intriguing plot twists...Enlightening...Lively." -Publishers Weekly "An accurate rendering of the North American past...a heroine's tale with wide, breathless fictional strides." -Kirkus Reviews Product Description Robin Heatherton is a spy for the Confederacy. Disguised as a young boy, she infiltrates Yankee forces during the Battle of the Wilderness, but when her cover is compromised, she must crawl back to her own lines with vital intelligence. Meanwhile, Union Army Major Thomas Corley, obsessed with Robin ever since her espionage work led to the death of his brother, has vowed to track her down, and to kill her. Her husband dead at the hands of the Yankees, Robin flees with their five-year-old son into the untamed reaches of the Colorado Territory, where she'll try to work a gold-mining claim-helped only by gruff, handsome Garrison Parker, a Union veteran with no respect for women. She'll teach him some...unless Corley finds her first. About the Author Kathleen O'Neal Gear is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She has twice received the federal government's Special Achievement Award for "outstanding management" of our nation's cultural heritage. Kathleen O'Neal Gear and her husband, W. Michael Gear are co-authors of the First North American Series and Anasazi Mystery Series (USA Today bestsellers) and live in Thermopolis, Wyoming. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Thin Moon and Cold Mist CHAPTER 1May 1864. Robin crawled through the underbrush on her hands and knees, quietly, like a cougar stalking prey, and inched her way into a tangled fortress of deadfall. Logs and other debris lay three feet high. She stretched out and pillowed her head on an old gray trunk. The wood had been weathered by decades of rain and wind. The bark was all gone. Worms had gnawed curving trails in the flesh of the trunk and soft green tufts of moss had taken root; she traced them with her powder-blackened hand. They seemed so delicate, so alien to this battlefield. It took sheer force of will to keep her eyes focused on the loveliness of the moss when, over her head, golden sparks flitted glimmering as they blew through the scrub oak boughs on their way to the fire-dyed heavens.The blazes had begun at dusk, when the wind picked up, and now burned out of control all over the Wilderness. Billows of orange-colored smoke gleamed above the tree tops. They had a strange, eerie beauty, but exhaustion so weighted her she could barely keep her gaze focused on their sparkling glory. She'd been awake for almost forty-eight hours straight."Virginia, my poor Virginia," she murmured in a soft, hoarse voice, and the coughing fit that had been building in her chest erupted violently.She pulled herself to a sitting position and buried her face in her blue sleeve to cover the sound. The action brought forth an agony of aching muscles. The fit took several seconds to pass, and she was terrified that someone would hear.Throughout the night, desperate commanders had struggled to keep their lines together despite the darkness and spreading fires. The shells that whined across the sky paid tribute to the few artillery batteries that had managed to get into position. The denseness of the scrubby waters brought enemiesface-to-face before they realized it, so the shooting never really halted, and the screams of the wounded and dying formed a horrifying base note to the fire's crackling symphony.When she could catch her breath again, Robin blinked at the fireflies winking in the branches. So beautiful. Their greenish yellow light contrasted sharply to the red-orange of the sparks tumbling through the sky beyond.She watched them; they reminded her of campfi
ASIN: 0812536576
VSKU: RDV.0812536576.G
Condition: Good