Natalie Merriman's world has fallen apart. Leaving her family's ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills, she travels to Omaha to pursue her education. Her goal is to return home as a country school teacher but she is miserable. She has little in common with the other students, who consider her a country bumpkin. So do some of the faculty, even though Natilie is far better educated than most of the others. When Natalie meets Ezra Caldwell, a second year student, she finds a kindred soul. Ezra is quite different from the cattlemen she grew up among, more gentle and refined. He is kind to Natalie, and he treats her as an equal, something she has never experienced. When Ezra asks for her hand, she accepts.

Even so, Natalie's father strongly objects. When she invites Ezra to her family home over Christmas vacation, Ike Merriman dislikes him from the start. Ike wants his daughter to marry a neighboring rancher and kicks Ezra out of the house. When Ezra leaves, Natalie goes with him. Not having any place to go, they marry and finish the school year. Then Ezra is offered a job in Colorado and the couple decide to visit Natalie's family on the way. Yet a late blizzard stops the train and Ezra becomes ill. Not long after they arrive in O'Neill, he dies and soon after, Natalie discovers she is pregnant. With her dreams shattered and sick with grief, Natilie returns to her family.

Trouble soon follows. Ike has not given up the idea of her marriage to his neighbor. The pressure becomes so great that Natalie is forced to leave her family again, this time on Christmas Eve. With her baby due at any moment, she rides off into the night and is caught in a ground blizzard. Trying to reach shelter, she is rescued by an unlikely pair of angels who carry her to to the safety of a dilapidated line shack. There her child is born on Christmas Day. Yet Natalie's odyssey is far from done. For her angels turn out to be US Marshals and Natalie finds herself the middle of a manhunt. By Avery Adair.

Was it greed that killed them all, or was it the power of an ancient curse? Jack Bear doesnÕt know. Nor does he care. Falsely accused and on the run, he heads west. All he wants is to be left alone to live in peace. Fate intervenes in the form of a salty soul named McAdams who saves Jack's life. Then fate intervenes again through an act of kindness to a dying priest. The padre tells him of an ancient treasure hidden in the mountains. Yet the treasure is cursed and anyone who tries to keep it for himself will die.

Jack Bear discovers the bitter truth of this when he finds himself an unwilling angel of death to the men who tortured the priest and stole the treasure map. When fate puts the map into his hands, Jack is tempted to burn it. Yet he does not, and even though he recovers the gold for its rightful owner, Jack finds he must pay a terrible price. Set in the Southwest of 1846, just before the Mexican War, Abbot's Gold is an American odyssey of heroic proportion. By Joe Pete Blackwolf