Nothing Short of Wondrous by Regina Scott

No matter how carefully she moved, she was always aware a grizzly could be waiting around the bend. A stampeding herd of buffalo and the thermal dangers of the park could be avoided. She wouldn’t let him see the chill that went through her at the mention of the hump-backed bear. “And grizzlies, buffalo, and scalding water,” he added. And all around you’ll find crystal clear creeks, roaring rivers, and thundering falls.” To the north of it is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Directly east of us across the plateau is Yellowstone Lake and beyond that the Absaroka Range. South another five miles, and you’ll reach Old Faithful, one of the biggest geysers in the park and the most reliable for timing. “We sit in the lower part of a basin filled with geysers, some twenty miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs and your commanding officer’s tent city. She nodded toward the inn, where a group of her most recent guests had come out onto the wide veranda to gaze at the grandeur. “Think of the plateau as a big circle,” she advised him. She had no trouble, but she’d lived here for four years, ever since Toby had convinced her to use the money her parents had left her to invest in the inn. “It’s not easy to find your way around here.” Most of the cavalry officers wore spurs, the silver or brass winking and rowels chiming as they walked.

He knocked mud off the heel of his black boots. That man hasn’t moved off his sofa in thirty years, much less toured Yellowstone.” “Guidebook? Which one did they give you? Wylie isn’t too bad, though you have to watch his directions or you could end up going over the falls. “At least, that’s what the guidebook claimed.” “More than one hundred and fifty degrees,” he said with a glance at the nearest bubbling paint pot, which helpfully belched out another cloud of steam. Do you have any idea how hot that mud is?” “Feel free to stop by the Geyser Gateway for dinner. Having her own set of cavalrymen patrolling the natural wonders might be useful, so long as they didn’t blunder in where they shouldn’t. She knew better, and she’d been watchful lest the same trouble start here. Wear claimed they had been set by his enemies.

Since his arrival, his men had been busy battling the wildfires raging over parts of the park.

So that was how Harris was going to manage the vast acreage. I’ve been ordered to patrol this part of the park with my men.” He took off his hat, showing short-cropped brown hair streaked with gold, and inclined his head. Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Nothing Short of Wondrous by Regina Scott