The Sword and the Scalpel

Kate of Kentucky, begins in a Virginia frontier station in 1778 then moves to the bitterly contested wilderness of Kentucky. Ever since Daniel Boone and his men hacked out the Wilderness Trail, land-starved settlers had poured into the area that the Indian tribes had reserved for hunting. Despite a signed treaty, abetted by the British out of Detroit, the Shawnees and Delawares declared war on the settlers and Kentucky became known as the "bloody country."

Alone at seventeen following her father's death, Kate Mulherrin is forced to flee imperiled Randele Station, for her own protection, accompanied by the mysterious brother of the station owner. After a difficult journey by foot and boat, Kate and Micah reach the isolated farm of her sole remaining relatives, only to find them dead at the hands of marauding Indians.

Micah reluctantly decides to take her with him to his home in Kentucky. Following a perilous voyage down the Ohio River they encounter a camp of renegade turncoats who would kill for the information Micah holds secret then the final leg of the trip, by pack train, leads them to their destination at Logan's Station.

Kate has fallen in love with Micah and has reason to believe he loves her, but when he volunteers to serve with the ragtag army recruits and leaves without declaring his feelings, she is forced to admit she was wrong about him. Lacking the means to return home to Virginia her prideful dilemma is to marry someone, anyone, who will take her away from here before Micah returns. Meantime, she toils alongside those struggling to survive at the outermost edge of the wilderness.