Читать книгу The Rancher's Temporary Engagement - Stacy Henrie - Страница 8

Dear Reader,

On a research trip to Wyoming for one of my other Love Inspired Historical Westerns, I visited Sheridan and the nearby small town of Big Horn. The beautiful landscape and a lovely preserved 1890s ranch house looked like the ideal spot to set a story.

Those weren’t the only reasons I set Edward and Maggy’s story near the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, though. Like Edward, a number of gentlemen from the United Kingdom settled in the area and established horse and polo pony ranches. The British Cavalry did, in fact, contract with ranchers in the area to supply horses for use in the Second Boer War. And though that war didn’t start until 1899, for the purposes of my story, I have the Cavalry interested in Edward’s horses the year before. Also of interesting note, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited the Sheridan area in 1984 and purchased polo ponies from there.

The ranchers’ wives’ club is my own creation, though the Sheridan Inn is an actual building and was the hubbub of social events back in the day. Buffalo Bill Cody was part owner of the inn and was reported to have auditioned acts for his Wild West show on the inn’s front porch.

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency opened a branch location in Denver, Colorado, in 1886. James McParland became the superintendent of the Denver office in 1888. As one of the most famous of Pinkerton’s detectives, McParland is best known for infiltrating a gang of assassins in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. And while the position of head female detective is fictional as far as I know at this time in the agency’s history, Allan Pinkerton, the agency’s founder, did employ the first female detective in the U.S., Kate Warne, in 1856.

My hope for this story is that readers will enjoy Edward and Maggy’s adventure, their chance at love and their realization that we are all of unchangeable worth, regardless of what we do or what has happened to us.

I love hearing from readers. You can contact me through my website at www.stacyhenrie.com.

All the best,

Stacy