Trouble and Grace

Leah Atkins has long ago made peace with her spinsterhood.

At thirty-six years old, she has been a schoolteacher for nearly two decades and is perfectly happy in her routine. Living with her cousins, the Robinson family, teaching a classroom of children, enjoying her flowers and books over the years have given Leah a beautiful life.

But when the Robinsons tell her they are emigrating to the Oregon Territory, Leah’s perfectly crafted life is turned upside down. She has to make the choice between saying good-bye to the only family she has and leaving her students. Though the frontier life was never what Leah wanted, neither can she bear being alone, and so packs up to head west along with the family. Even once the choice is made, she is not sure it’s the right one.

Will Leah be able to find peace again in the west or will the struggle and deprivation of the Oregon Trail make her wish she had never left home?