Agate Beach Press

The only thing young Christian Kehler intends to do this spring is to ride his horse around the Rhineland countryside with his friend Donnig behind him on Greybon’s back.

To his distress, he is soon torn from his homeland in war devastated Germany and taken to a distant, barbaric country ruled by an empress named Catherine who has enticed his people with offers of free lands, homes and more. His parents and neighbors quickly accept and escape before Emperor Joseph closes the borders.

While the Rhinelanders are struggling to establish the colony near the Volga River that will become their home, their benefactress, Empress Catherine, is enduring a faithless lover and fearing the court intrigues of spies and false friends that may threaten her life.

Christian is determined to make a good life for himself in this new land, pleased to have the friendship of a   Rhineland youth, a Russian blacksmith and a Gypsy woman. . . but as he matures he is secretly torn between loyalty and desire, loyalty to his friend and the fierce love he feels for his friend’s fiancée.

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