Frances of the Ranges; Or, The Old Ranchman's Treasure

The Texas Panhandle, 1910s. Frances Rugley rides her pinto across the short-grass plains when she hears it - the snarl of a mountain lion. What she finds in the coulie beyond the hills will reshape everything she thought she knew about her father, the legendary former Texas Ranger, and the secret treasure chest locked in his study. This is frontier fiction at its plucky, adventurous core. Frances is no delicate damsel waiting to be saved - she's the one with the bird gun loosened in her holster, the hair rope coiled on her saddle horn, riding toward danger while lesser souls would flee. When she discovers a young man under attack, she doesn't hesitate. She shoots. She saves. She walks away with powder burn on her hands and the first thread of a mystery that will run through the entire narrative. But Frances wants more than adventure. Beneath her capable horsemanship and steady aim lies a restless hunger for culture, for education, for a life beyond rounding up cattle and fighting off predators. Her father's treasure - tied to old Ranger partnerships and the blood promises of the frontier - represents something she desperately wants to claim as her own. The question becomes: what will she risk to take it?