The Shepherd's Trail

Ten years after the American Civil War, Theresa returns to her Montana home after having spent most of her growing up years back East in a girls’ school. She returns to her father’s ranch as a young widow with a small son. The Quentin ranch, she immediately realizes, is not the solace she had hoped it to be. She finds herself thrust into the center of rancher-prejudice against farmers and shepherds, which could escalate into a full blown range war if a peaceful solution is not found. As she renews her childhood friendship with the shepherd, Amos Cyril, she is threatened by one of her brothers and ordered by her father to cut off the friendship. With a deep need for making friends with the people of the church, which Amos pastors, she further angers her family, since the church is made up of farmers. There she meets the “war veteran nurse” Florence Fielder, who is now the school teacher for the farmers’ children. Finding herself at the mercy of a family of farmers who have been treated badly by the Quentins, she—a “rancher princess”—learns what prejudice feels like from the receiving end. She is mystified over her brother’s intense search for their mother’s old diary—a search that threatens Theresa and her son. Just what is in the diary? And who searched her room for it? Who poisoned the shepherd’s dog? Why is the sheriff doing nothing to bring those to justice who burned down the shepherd’s house? Is there no one that she can trust—except for God and the shepherd Amos Cyril?