Amelia Otterchild Mackenzie has grown up caught between two cultures: her father, a Scottish trader, fell in love with a Native American woman when his ship docked at York Factory on the Hudson Bay. When Amelia was only a baby her father left for the far west, promising to return, but he has never been heard from since.
For years Amelia's mother waited loyally for her husband, and though she eventually remarried and had another dghter she then died of measles. When her stepfather also leaves, motherless Amelia must care for herself and her beloved sister, Charlotte Bright Eyes.Amelia has never seen a horse until the great red stallion Foxfire rescues her from a river in flood. But as her natural skill with horses becomes clear she forges a friendship with Foxfire's owner, a young Englishwoman.
Could this be the key that will lead Amelia to her missing father and the home for which she desperately longs? When her spirit guides tell her the time is right Amelia sets off, but the journey west is a long and perilous one . . .
Set in the wild Canadian pioneer days, and full of period detail about the uneasy coexistence of the Native American peoples and European settlers, this is a thrilling and evocative read.
