Travis Yancey: A Western Romance
Morris Fenris
eBook
(Changing Culture Publications, Feb. 25, 2015)
Travis Yancey, newly installed U.S. Marshal, has been asked by President Andrew Johnson to take on a special assignment. One of the presidentâs friends and campaign contributors has recently died, under suspicious circumstances, and Travis is called upon to investigate what might be a murder. There is no time to sightsee around Washington, D.C. Travis returns to the small town of Chico, in Arizona Territory, scene of a family wedding. Working under presidential authority, he hires a crew to accompany him on this mission: twin brother Thomas, also a U.S. Marshal, and his new wife, Elizabeth; brother John, former Pinkerton Man; brother Matthew, a deputy sheriff from San Francisco; and Cochinay, native tracker and Elizabethâs half-brother. With everyone prepared and their necessities gathered together, they set off on the trek to Rancho Riata, near San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. Martha Waring, second wife and now widow of Henry, and her two stepdaughters, Rosamond and Olivia, welcome the posse to their ranch. However, Henryâs lawyer, Richard Hotchkiss, is not so welcoming. In fact, by the next morning, when Travis is ready to begin his inquiries, the lawyer has inexplicably decamped, along with Henryâs secretary, Reuben Harwood, and his ranch manager, Bentley Lawton. The hunt is on, to find not only these three Waring employees, but also the mysterious âChief,â who exists somewhere in the background and may have been involved in Henry Waringâs death. Travis is aided in the investigation by his own posse and by Rosamond Waring, a spunky sassy girl wearing wire-framed spectacles. Travis, confirmed bachelor and vehement opponent of marriage, finds himself falling hard for Rose. All the more so when, on her own, she deliberately enters the lionâs den, leaving him torn between apprehending a gang of desperadoes and rescuing the woman he loves.