The sun hung to westward, its warmth fading, leaving rivulets of sweat drying on Jesse’s neck, sticking his shirt where the straps of bullet-bag and knapsack crossed. Grasshoppers whirred beside the trace, leaping clear of trampling hooves that crackled the weeds. Grime coated the foot drovers too, spread out through the summerfattened herd, armed with rifles and staves, eyes darting glances at the crowding wooded slopes. Though Jesse hadn’t ridden rear guard since midday, the choke of that same dust gritted his Riding behind the drove at the mercy of its dust, Cade had a kerchief tied across his mouth and nose, hat pulled low to shield his eyes. Looking back across their brown and brindled ranks, he spotted Cade and the packhorses rounding a bend in the river trace, where sunlight still speared the hazy air in moted streaks of gold. To let patience have its perfect work in him. As for staying power.with miles to go before he’d be shed of those forty beeves, he was making a studied effort Jesse had the first two, one balanced across his thighs the other tired, fly bitten, and dusty between them. To Jesse Bird’s reckoning, any man charged with driving forty head of Overmountain cattle to market best have three things in his possession-a primed rifle, a steady horse, and a heap of staying power.

'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. But could this challenging frontier life be what her soul has longed for, what God has been leading her toward? As pursuit draws ever nearer, will her faith see her through the greatest danger of all-loving a man who has risked everything for her? With one life left behind and chaos on the horizon, Tamsen struggles to adapt to a life for which she was never prepared. The State of Franklin has been declared, but many remain loyal to North Carolina. With trouble in pursuit, Tamsen and Jesse find themselves thrust into the conflict of a divided community of Overmountain settlers. As the two cross a vast mountain wilderness, Tamsen faces hardships that test the limits of her faith and endurance.Ĭonvinced that Tamsen has been kidnapped, wealthy suitor Ambrose Kincaid follows after her, in company with her equally determined stepfather. But shedding her old life doesn't come without cost. Forsaking security and an arranged marriage, she enlists frontiersman Jesse Bird to guide her to the Watauga settlement in western North Carolina. In an act of brave defiance, Tamsen Littlejohn escapes the life her harsh stepfather has forced upon her.

Frontier dangers cannot hold a candle to the risks one woman takes by falling in love

The pursuit of tamsen littlejohn