Lost on the Mountain

In "Lost on the Mountain" Laya Whisten sat and watched the life fade from her husband Cal as he was dying with scarlet fever. She was left to run a 2000 acre spread, called the Swinging W Ranch. She'd made a solemn promise to herself when Cal died that she would never get married again and she had kept that promise for 8 years. Until she met sheriff Cole Walters, of Butte Montana. She had risen on a cold December morning, made a circle on the window pane to see out, finding a menagerie of snow and ice cycles everywhere. She was headed to her cabin in the mountain and knew she had to get there before nightfall. She spent every winter there gather stray cattle, holding them in the barn until she could bring them back down the mountain during the spring. She saddled Nick, her favorite horse and headed into the timber line. When she was about three miles from home the snow became heavier making it difficult to see where she was going. She had heard a whimper coming from a bush near the trail. She slid off her hoarse to investigate and found it to be a baby wolf. The little wolf refused to let her pick him up until she had fed him several biscuits from her saddle bag. They formed a bond of love, which would last on through the years. He protected her, and found her, when she was lost in a blinding snow storm in the mountains. Her and the wolf pup encountered a grizzly bear on the way back to the cabin, as they were coming from sheltering Nick in the barn when they first arrived. During the night as she dozed in her rocking chair in front of the fireplace, she awoke to a noise outside the cabin. Thinking the grizzly had returned, she grabbed the gun from over the fireplace and silently eased to the window. She saw a silhouette of a man over the saddle of his horse. Laya found a bullet lodged in his right shoulder and knew that she had to get it out. She later finds out he is sheriff Cole Walters of Beatue, Montana and he had been chasing the outlaw who had burned his home three years earlier, with his wife and child trapped inside. Both died in the fire. Cole fell in love with Laya the minute he opened his eyes and saw her sitting by his bed waiting for him to regain consciousness. Even stressed from her administration of taking the bullet from his shoulder, she was the most beautiful person Cole had ever laid eyes on. It took a long time to win Laya over and return his love, but Cole refused to give up. He had to have her.