So there's this girl named Rachel Isaacs. She lives with "Momma Ella," a former-slave that Rachel's father adopted into the Isaacs family. Mrs. Isaacs got run over by a bull shortly after Rachel was born, so Momma Ella has taken care of Rachel like all her life. It's early fall at the beginning of the book in the year 1885 in Dogwood, Texas. Rachel's dad passed away sometime in the summer, so Rachel is trying to prove to herself that she can manage their ranch on her own. (I love books like this! This is so Hattie Big Sky!! Except Hattie Big Sky takes place in Montana...but the time period and setting are like totally similar :D)
Anyway, a little bit after Mr. Isaacs passes away, Rachel finds this letter that he wrote to his best friend Mr. Clayton Campbell in El Paso. Mr. Campbell has a son slightly older than Rachel, so the two fathers arrange a marriage between Rachel and Mr. Campbell's son Travis. Not only do they arrange a marriage, but Mr. Campbell promises Mr. Isaacs that Travis will come and help Rachel with the ranch, since her father is ill.
Ok, fast forward. Cows are being stolen from Rachel's fields and a part of her ranch was set on fire. That same day this guy comes to her farm and says he's Travis Campbell. Skip a lot. Rachel doesn't want him to stay because 1) she doesn't want help on her ranch, she wants to prove to herself she can do it alone 2) she is "intended" to marry Samuel and doesn't want Travis meddling with that. Travis asks if he could at least just spend the night in the barn since he is really tired from traveling on horseback from El Paso to Dogwood, something like that. The Travis Campbell meets initially ends up being some guy that faked his identity. She meets the real Travis Campbell.
Skip a lot of little details. Rachel lets Travis stay on the ranch for "protection" from the dudes who are stealing cattle and lighting her home on fire. Samuel is not ok with this, duhhh. Momma Ella, throughout the story, contemplates her love lost. She fell in love with Lionel, the "slave" (he wasn't treated as a slave, more like part of the family) that belonged to the Campbell family, but she never knew if he still loved her or if he still remembered her. Rachel's best friend is Abby, but closer to the middle of the book, there's tension between the best friends. Rachel finds out that Travis has a girl he's going to marry back in El Paso named Kate Lowell and that Travis accidentally killed his best friend Zachary (who was Kate's fiance before Travis). SUCH DRAMA! But I'm not even done yet.
Rachel and Travis slowly fell in love with each other, but they kept denying it because they were both supposed to marry other people, but then they each realized that they really didn't love the people they were supposed to marry. It's so ridiculous. On Rachel and Samuel's wedding day, as Abby was walking down the aisle (before the bride), Rachel noticed how Abby and Samuel look at each other and then she realized that they love each other. Samuel started to whisper something in the minister's ear...right when...DUN DUN DUN!!! Travis busted through the door yelling, "Rachel! I can't let you do this!!!!" He picked her up and stole her away from her wedding. She tried to fight it and started yelling mean things at him, and as they were escaping, Samuel caught up to them, then he and Travis got in a fight. As they were fighting, a carriage stoped right beside them, and out hopped, none other than Miss Kate Lowell herself with Lionel, Momma Ella's lover, escorting her. CRAZINESS!!
Samuel and Rachel realized they never loved each other. Samuel was fond of Abby, and only proposed to Rachel because he felt like he needed to protect her after her father died. Travis and Kate talked and they apologized for never really loving each other the way a man and wife should love each other; Travis only proposed to her because he felt like it was his duty to her since he killed her fiance. Kate only said yes because she was so overcome with grief that she needed somebody to be there for her. She split and went back to El Paso. Lionel and Ella confess that they have continued to love one another in the 20 years they've been separated. So things are all fine and dandy, except Rachel was upset that Kate was around because Rachel didn't know that Travis doesn't love Kate or whatever.
Kate was trying to leave on the morning train to get back home. Travis was going to bring her to the train station, but he stopped to get Kate's things inside the house. He tried to propose to Rachel, but because she was still angry with him, she refused. Later, the household found out that Travis got shot, so then Rachel was all frantic like and told him that she really did love him and that if he didn't die, she would marry him that same day.
Well, they get to the doctor and the doctor is all like "He won't die! Go get some other guy to get the guy who shot Travis and stole your cattle!" So Rachel went out to go get the Constable at the little general store thingy, but then she gets held at gunpoint by one of her hired hands. Ends up there's gold on her land and some guys have been trying to take it from her. So all in all, they catch all the bad guys and all the people that love each other marry the people they love. It's nuts!!!!! But a very intriguing plot, I must say. I love stories in the 1800s, especially on the American frontier or in countryside England. :D
I'm going to bed. Too much drama for 4 hours. I am overwhelmed. :)
1 comment:
Sounds like a crazy fun book! (Man, why do I never come up with good ideas like this??)
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