Hope’s Captive
Soon after the Civil War, Zach McCallister’s wife runs off with another man, taking his son with her out West. She and her lover are killed by rampaging Indians, who kidnap the child. When Zach meets Caroline, they are both looking for the Cheyenne. Zach believes they are the tribe that has his child. Caroline, an ex-captive, wants to take medicine to her beloved Cheyenne family, recently broken out of their reservation. (Caroline’s initial abductors were Kiowa who raped and mutilated her.) Rescued by the Cheyenne, Caroline has been released to her white family. Predictably, there is no welcome, so she is now traveling across the prairie with a wagon load of supplies for the starving, hunted Cheyenne. Understandably, before Zach and Caroline give way to passion, there are difficulties to overcome. The author has researched the Indian wars to provide setting, and uses a few Cheyenne customs for window dressing. Neither characters nor dialogue belong to the period, but that won’t matter to staunch fans of the genre.
