Goldspun Promises — Elizabeth Gregg

At 17, Tressie Majors is stranded in a soddie on the high plains when her mother dies in childbirth. Reed Bannon flees a Yankee soldier after stealing his horse. He was shot and is almost dead when he arrives at the soddie while Tressie is burying her mother.

Tressie desires only one thing. To pursue her father who abandoned the family to go in search of gold at Alder Gulch near Virginia City. She nurses Reed back to health in the hope that he will take her west, but he leaves without her because he fears for her life if she goes with him.

She follows and the two have an adventurous trek to Virginia City and on through the gold fields in search of her father. Tressie must get over her hate and need for revenge and Reed must solve his problem of being wanted by the law and the army before the two of them can have a life together.

Also published as Montana Promises written as Velda Brotherton