Each Bright River Author:Mildred Masterson McNeilly Oregon settlers were not prepared for Kitty Gatewood. She was little and exquisite, extravagantly out of place amid these buck-skinned pioneers. Her story has the thrilling ring of truth because it is based on exhaustive research, because Mildred Masterson McNeilly is herself a true daughter of the West, and because her narrative skill glows w... more »ith that nebulous quality - a woman's intuition.
In 1845 men stirred to a new battle cry -- "54-40 or fight." Polk became President on the strength of it. Starving, wind-red men and women - Americans on the march--streamed into Oregon.
And The British watched, biding their time. The Indians waited.
Curt Fletcher and Sunset Lee were Americans built on the giant scale of Oregon; they were friends. They loved differently but they loved with whole hearts. It was Curt who rode to avenge the Whitman Massacre -- Sunset who got there first, pledging his own life as hostage for the survivors. Together they baited the elegant officers of the British Hudson's Bay Company, sharing a common vision of American statehood. It ws not strange that they should want the same woman, Kitty Gatewood, who left the luxury of a South Carolina manor in search of her girlhood sweetheart.« less