The Grass Widow

Aidan Blackstone has nothing. A thousand miles from home, sent to the frontier by a family that doesn't want her back, her only hope for survival is distant relatives who say they'll take her in. As a familiar civilization fades into the distance, she is nineteen, unmarried and pregnant, and has no reason to think that the year 1876 won't be her last. But she's not met at the Washburn, Kansas, train station by the Bodett family. Only the daughter, Jocelyn, is there to greet her. Aidan finds herself bound for the Bodett farm, where influenza has wiped out the rest of the family, leaving young joss in perilous financial straits and their only source of food and shelter at risk. Joss, in her brother's clothes and severely lacking in social graces, has no time to mollycoddle a pampered, pregnant New England lady. It's work or starve, literally. There are no servants, no laborers - just a failing farm, impending winter and the two of them to face it together. The Grass Widow showcases the ingenuity, determination and courage of women's frontier spirits in a passionate, sensuous love story. Originally published in 1996, Nanci Little's wonderfully detailed and researched novel picks up with the generation of women where Patience and Sarah left off. Anidyr Bycall is frozen in her past, regretting words never spoken to the woman she loves and the one impulsive act that cost her all her dreams. Running from the courts of public and academic opinion in Fairbanks, she has landed in Key West. The nights are hot but she is colder than the glaciers she once explored. Tending bar by night, she spends her days immersed in the research of her only remaining passion in the ice fields of Alaska. But trends may be improving when news from home hints that those she harmed may have moved on, and she can at least recover the papers and books she left behind. The respect and affection she once saw in Eve Cambra's eyes is gone beyond recall. When a few innocent questions raise Ani's doubts about what really happened three years ago, she realizes she may have a chance to clear her name and reclaim her career. But there's no data to suggest that Eve has thawed and that the fire they once shared can be rekindled. In this romantic story of the icy north, Karin Kallmaker explores the passion that can melt even a frozen heart. Aidan Blackstone has nothing. A thousand miles from home, sent to the frontier by her family who don't want her back, her only hope for survival is distant relatives who say they'll take her in. As a familiar civilization fades into the distance, she is nineteen, unmarried and pregnant, and has no reason to think that the year 1876 won't be her last.But she's not met at the Washburn, Kansas, train station by the Bodett family. Only the daughter, Jocelyn, is there to greet her. Aidan finds herself bound for the Bodett farm, where influenza has wiped out the rest of the family, leaving young joss in perilous financial straits and their only source of food and shelter at risk. Women flock to Key West for beaches, margaritas and other women. Anidyr Bycall is there because it's 5000 miles away from Fairbanks. Tending bar by night, she spends her days immersed in the research of her only remaining passion in life: the ice fields of Alaska