This story had it's beginning in the first novel, Bugler In The Mountains, set in 1897 in an era of adventure and of our nation's phenomenal growth. The implementation of the telegraph, telephone and transcontinental railways provided vast new means of communication and travel. The town of Bugler was little changed by these new advances as the story begins, except that the Union Pacific Railroad tracks now ran alongside the village and a small depot was built there with telegraph service and a station agent. Due to a rock slide of some proportions blocking the tracks farther on, Elise Merrimac was stranded in Bugler along with the other passengers and crew of the train. She was fleeing from a disastrous broken engagement and resultant gossip to visit her mother's sister Letitia in California. In Bugler, she found a peace and a caring community which extended to the strangers as well as among themselves. Later, in a persistent rancher and artist, she discovered a sincerity and quality of character which eventually overcame her more recent resolve to never again trust a man. Their developing love and devotion for one another extended to well-known and newly introduced characters in the story. In The Aspens, as the shared skills and gifts of the inhabitants of the town enhanced the survival and comforts of one another, so the varying personalities add color and spark to the story. It is my hope you will be moved by ever changing elements which provide moments of surprise, joy, warmth, sorrow, other budding romances and new beginnings as the story continues in If My People.