Elise Begley – Steel Horse Saviors – 2017 A to Z Challenge – Day 2

Copyright – ALPINE ACRES PUBLISHING – 2017 Steel Horse Saviors is about three Civil War veterans, two Yankees and one Rebel, who take their steam locomotive west to seek their post-war fortune. In the process they encounter Clementine O’Grady a auburn-haired beauty fighting to save the family business.

Doctor Elise Begley is a young woman thrust into her first solo practice in the Midwest of post-war America. She is a contemporary of Clementine O’Grady because each is trying to assert their proper place in a male-dominated culture while finding their footing as the leader of their career path.

Begley has been a doctor in another place further east, so the experience she had was directed toward a different set of ailments than she sees in a more frontier-like setting. Her good looks are immediately appreciated by the Saviors, who are more flamboyant than most of the similar aged suitors in the town. Elise shares Clementine’s skepticism of the Saviors’ true intentions in Penley River.

Here is an excerpt:

Elise wiped the sweat from her brow as she worked fast to try to save Hiram Jones’ leg. It was another horrible crush injury, the fifth in the last sixty days. O’Grady Timber & Lumber was trying to compete one to one with Rollins Lumber, but the equipment they had did not stack up well. Elise wasn’t trained as a psychologist, but she found herself more and more providing that service to her good friend and owner of O’Grady Timber &Lumber, Clementine O’Grady.

Clementine was a realist. She knew the future of her company was bleak. The combination of an inability to match her competitor along with the more frequent occurrence maiming injuries was beginning to limit the pool of available labor.  Clementine admitted she was aware Quentin Rollins was trying to force her to sell, but her own inability to get out of her own way was just as likely to doom her business.

Come back for the next post, which will introduce you to Clementine O’Grady, the strong and beautiful owner of O’Grady Timber & Lumber, the company the Steel Horse Saviors will try to save.