Book Description

Frank Boyd found the hazy but bright Atlantic morning most invigorating as he stepped upon the deck. Unbeknownst to him, not far away on this same immigrant ship travelled his future English bride. Frank and Estelle Tompkins decided to marry and undertake this new challenge of life in America together. They travelled the expanse of a great new land, taking their first-born with them. Their new perspective could not have been better, nor more promising, in sunny California. With the arrival of their angelic and blue-eyed, golden-haired Mary, it seemed that life was nearly at optimum for the Boyds - but then the crash of '29 altered their lives forever. It was onward to Oregon where an unkindly fate awaited the young Scotsman. Devastated and shattered, Estelle and her children came to know and love the mysterious Sam Jennings and his Indian friends, as well as the young cowboy Bob Clemm. In addition, an all-new arena opened to Mary Boyd when Demon entered her world and she became a renowned rodeo trick rider with no peers. "Well, you chose to be a rodeo star," Bob uttered as she rose to disengage him. And so Mary risked losing her first love to cousin Jennifer Tompkins. However, the war came and changed many lives: Cowboy Clemm, now turned marine, had to depart from those women he loved so well; and Mary's new course with the rodeo circuit had its own betrayal and pitfalls. The road back to Oregon was tiring and chancy for Mary who must now rid herself of the effects of forced passion, an unwanted child, even at the risk of her own life. In the heart and warm eyes of Jim Warren, Mary found the refuge that she so sorely needed at the nadir of her life. But her respite would be all too brief as the cold Nebraska winter spent its course. Mary, to her sorrow, learned of her brother's grim sacrifice, but now with her and Bob's love rekindled Mary must keep the faith as she reassembled her life once again in Oregon. With her brother torn from her life, a new miracle arrived in the form of Billy's unmarried Filipino "wife". Along with the beautiful Rosa Santos came Billy's son, and another obligation that only Mary's husband, Bob Clemm, could fulfill. As Mary basked in the warmth of her adventurous memories, she awaited the arrival of her first son, knowing that she had been to the greatest heights and the darkest depths, and yet emerged a star and a winner in so many ways.