Judith and the Widower

Judith Strode has buried a husband, kept a Philadelphia sewing room alive on fourteen cents a shirt, and raised a four-year-old son on her own. Then a lawyer climbs her stair with a court order. Her late husband's uncle has the law, the money and a decree that says the boy belongs to him. So she takes the name Carver, packs a blue army greatcoat and a tin of brass eagle buttons, and joins a wagon company bound for Oregon, where no Pennsylvania judge can reach her. Joel Brannock, the scout who leads them, is a Clackamas rancher with a young daughter and a grave on Laurel Hill. He has promised himself he will never again love a thing the road can take. Across two thousand miles of river crossings, fever, and mountain snow, a patient man with a paper follows the company, a neighbor sells a secret, and the rules of the trail say a woman who runs from process can be put off the wagon train. The closer they come to Oregon, the less either of them can pretend that the journey is only a way out. When the company reaches the last and worst mountain, Judith must stand in an Oregon court and claim her son, and Joel must learn that loving her means trusting her to stand there herself. A slow-burn historical romance about a widow, a widower, two children.