Conestoga Winter

This is the second book in the Wend Eckert/Forbes Road series. Insurrection sweeps the border settlements Young sharpshooter and gunsmith Wend Eckert returns to the Pennsylvania border settlements from his service as a scout during Pontiac's Rebellion. He is determined to take revenge against wealthy Indian trader Richard Grenough and his henchmen---the men who were responsible for the death of his family. But Eckert finds that the Ulster-Scot settlers of Sherman Valley and Paxton are infuriated by the refusal of the pacifist government in Philadelphia to help defend the border country from rampaging war parties. In frustration, rogue militiamen from Paxton attack the the peaceful Conestoga Indians of Lancaster in the belief that they have been providing assistance to the hostiles. Wend suddenly finds himself at odds with friends and neighbors as he tries to save his former school friend, Charlie Sawak of the Conestoga tribe. Over the long winter, Wend travels the Cumberland Valley to uncover the long tentacles of Grenough's conspiracy and finds the trader helped incite the attack on the Conestogas in order to distract attention from his treasonous operations. Wend realizes that he must resort to violence to bring justice to the outlaw trader. Then, in the midst of his private war, the young man finds himself romantically entangled with a woman who is the lover of his greatest enemy. Finally, on a winding, mountainous stretch of Forbes Road, Wend Eckert and his enemies meet in a climactic battle to the finish.