Stanton: Journeys of The Heart Collection — R. William Rogers

After the loss of his dearly-loved wife of six years to an ailment the doc said was ‘consumption', James Stanton finds himself torn between the memory of her and the guilt-ridden turmoil inside him that prevents him from committing to another woman.

Waylaid, robbed and beaten by Coyote Bill Patterson and his ruthless band of thugs, Stanton struggles to survive his injuries and the hardships of the Uncompahgre Plateau while he does his best to make it back to Horsefly Bench and his outfit, the Swinging S.

Badly injured and weak with fever, he is unable to go any farther. Barely clinging to life, he is found and nursed back to health by the recently-widowed, Stacey Cox. It is shortly after that when his world begins to turn upside-down once he realizes that he is experiencing feelings for her, feelings that are romantic and in direct conflict with the memory of his beloved Ella.

Unwilling to readily give in to what is in his heart that threatens to forever erase Ella's memory, he becomes embroiled in exacting justice on Coyote Bill and his henchmen for not only the way he'd been beaten and left for dead, but the outright murder of Stacey's husband, as well.