If you’d like to do further reading about the Sioux Indians, there are many research books on the subject. Begin with one of my favorite authors, Mari Sandoz, and her classic: Crazy Horse.
As for the abandoned wagon train, it is one of those true and still unsolved mysteries of the old West. According to Captain Eugene F. Ware, in his book, The Indian War of 1864, he and an army patrol really did find a deserted wagon train of sixteen wagons all circled up in a desolate area about thirty-five miles above Julesburg, Colorado Territory. According to then Lieutenant Ware, the wagons appeared to have been there for years. There was no sign of violence, no skeletons of either people or animals. Although there was a lot of publicity concerning the discovery, no one ever solved the mystery.
The Crow and the Pawnee were indeed enemies of the Sioux and scouted for the soldiers. You’ve met Terry’s younger brother, Asataka, as army scout Johnny Ace in my earlier novel, Cheyenne Caress.
Some of the other characters mentioned in the book you’ve just read also had their own novels. Rand’s cousin, Quint Randolph, came from Nevada Nights, the Cheyenne Dog Soldier, Iron Knife, from Cheyenne Captive, and Cherokee Evans, the Galvanized Yankee who escaped from the Effie Deans, was the hero of Quicksilver Passion.
Some of you will wonder about the handsome Pawnee scout, Terry, or Wagnuka’s missing half-breed son, or what happened to the beautiful slave girl that Jon Erikson’s mother sold. They’ll all turn up in future books of this very long saga.
You may be more familiar with the song, “Greensleeves,” as the Christmas carol, “What Child Is This?” How old is the song? Shakespeare mentions it in The Merry Wives of Winsor, and it was ancient then.
As far as our country’s most beloved national cemetery, Arlington, where both the Unknown Soldier and President John F. Kennedy are buried, it was indeed General Robert E. Lee’s Virginia estate.
When the Sultana riverboat sank on the Mississippi in April, 1865, more people died than on the Titanic, but the tragedy is not nearly as well-known.
Yes, the Union army did get desperate enough in 1864 to recruit six thousand captured Southern troops into joining their army and going West to fight Indians. There’s an excellent research book on the subject by Dee Brown: The Galvanized Yankees. The most famous of these soldiers was Henry M. Stanley, who would later become a reporter and go to Africa looking for a missing white man, and upon finding him, utter these famous words, “Doctor Livingston, I presume?”
As for the ship that carried the Galvanized Yankees to New York to catch their trains West, the Continental, history was not yet finished with her. In 1866, the Continental would again carry a unique cargo; a shipload of mail-order brides from the East coast on the long journey to distant Washington Territory. Washington at that time was wild frontier country, full of danger, hostile Indians, very few white men, and almost no white women.
The Continental and her cargo are the subject of my next Zebra novel. What kind of man would send for a bride he’d never met? Our hero was rich, moody, and darkly handsome; a half-breed bastard who craved respectability. He also wanted sons and an aristocratic lady to preside over his frontier empire. He didn’t expect a love match and he didn’t even care if she were pretty. What he did require was that she be from a fine family, have a spotless reputation, and be capable of producing children. In return, she would have wealth, position, and his name.
That’s what he ordered. What he got was a pretty Irish whore, on the run in fear for her life. Only sheer desperation forced her to take another woman’s identity and board the Continental for a place she’d never heard of to marry a man she’d never met.
Her name was Sassy Malone. For all you who loved my short story in Zebra’s 1991 holiday collection, Christmas Rendezvous, and wrote to ask what happened to Ginny’s missing uncle, Mike Malone, and his family, this is their story.
Half-breed’s bride. For Sassy, will this be a devil’s bargain or a marriage made in heaven? One thing is certain, their passionate conflict will set those Washington woods blazing like wildfire. Should a woman try to hide her past from the man she loves? And if he learns the truth, can a proud man ever love her enough to forgive and forget?
I invite you to board the Continental with Sassy and share frontier adventure and fiery passion in the wilderness of Washington. That handsome, dark half-breed is waiting for you both.
To all you readers who have cared enough to write me or the Zebra editor asking for more of my stories ...
Pilamaya. Wakan Tanka nici un.
Georgina Gentry
Married to a mixed-blood Choctaw Indian, and the mother of three, GEORGINA GENTRY was born and reared in Oklahoma, where she still lives in a house built on land war parties once roamed. Winner of numerous awards for the authenticity of her novels, she spends winter months writing and summers attending rodeos and pow wows. Her previous Zebra historical romances include Bandit’s Embrace, Cheyenne Caress, Cheyenne Princess, and Nevada Nights. To her many fans, she says in Cheyenne, “Hahoo naa ne-mehotatse.” (Thank you and I love you.)
There is a large photo on my wall of a moment frozen in time for all eternity of a handsome, green-eyed, black-haired man lifting and whirling a petite and deliriously happy bride. This novel is for our daughter, Erin, who loves the song, “Greensleeves,” so much that it was part of her wedding music. And also for Mark, our son-in-law May you two always be as happy as you are in that portrait.
ZEBRA BOOKS
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Copyright © 1992 by Lynne Murphy
ISBN: 978-0-8217-3896-2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
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