This Golden Valley — Francine Rivers

Quick to laughter, quick to tears, dark-eyed Moira Cavendish was the belle of Charleston--and the despair of her Aunt Miranda, who thought her orphaned niece too impetuous for a proper Southern lady.

Aunt Miranda was right. Moira's destiny waited in a wild new land. She had already lost one brother to the "gold fever" sweeping America, and when her younger brother also left for California, Moira did what no "lady" would ever do--she stowed away on a clipper ship and followed!

What she found was passion and adventure beyond her wildest dreams...in the burning touch of the seaman, Random Hawthorne, who kindles a new flame within her...in the terror of a High Sierra cabin as claim-jumpers threaten her brothers' lives...in the arms of the man who takes her beyond ecstasy to discover the greatest treasure of all!