The First Dance
A Barnaby Skye Novel
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The First Dance takes beloved mountain man Barnaby Skye's family to its third generation in North America.
Miles City, Montana. 1885. Barnaby Skye's mixed-blood son, Dirk, has just married a beautiful Metis girl, Therese. But Dirk's position as a civilian translator for the U.S. army threatens to shatter their union.
Montana ranchers wrestling with livestock theft and the incursion of settlers into their range have persuaded the army to send the Metis people back to Canada. The military enlists Dirk to translate between the two sides in the brutal campaign.
Unable to reconcile her love for Dirk with the pain he is inflicting on her people, Therese flees on their wedding night. Heartbroken, Dirk rides off with the army.
Therese has a powerful vision. She is inspired to build a church that will be a gathering place for her people and a symbol of their resistance to deportation.
The suffering refugees--driven into the wilderness by Yankee soldiers and cruel ranch vigilante gangs--find a friend in Dirk and an inspiration in Therese. In their common cause, the lovers are reunited
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though series anchor Barnaby Skye dropped dead a couple of books ago, the Sky's West series lives on as it chronicles the life of Barnaby's son, Dirk, a mixed-blood school teacher and civilian translator for the U.S. Army in 1885 Montana. Much like in The Owl Hunt, in which Wheeler explored the shameful treatment by whites of Native Americans, he exposes the prejudice against people of mixed blood, especially the Metis, a predominantly French-Cree people driven south by the Canadian government. Dirk is sympathetic: while he is tolerated for his linguistic skills, he knows he will never be accepted because of his mixed blood, and after his new Metis bride, Therese, runs away on their wedding day, Dirk is ordered to join an army expedition to force the Metis back north to Canada, a task he hates and cannot understand. He's soon dismissed for insubordination and quickly decides to aid the Metis. Therese, meanwhile, is guided by a saint to build a church for the Metis. Aided by a mysterious Irishman and a crafty and sympathetic U.S. marshal, Therese and Dirk's separate efforts achieve surprising results, but at great cost. This sad, tragic tale finds in Dirk a character worth following.
