<I>New York Times</i> bestselling author Joan Johnston, who "writes brisk romance chock-full of compelling conflicts and strong local color" (<I>Publishers Weekly</i>), evokes the grandeur, excitement, and danger of the American frontier in this sweeping historical novel. <P> When Kinyan Holloway's husband is killed in a range accident, she has no idea how she and her children will manage. Torn between the Sioux world in which she was raised and maintaining her husband's ranch - the largest in the Wyoming Territory - she knows only that somehow she will not just survive but preserve her children's heritage for them. <P> Into her life rides Benjamin Colter, a scarred stranger who's fast with his gun. Colter has tried to put vengeance behind him, but the past seems destined to catch up with him. What he wants now is Kinyan Holloway - and her ranch - but he can get them only if he defeats a deadly rival and agrees to become a father to three children who awnt more from him than he's able to give.