Betrayal....Synopsis

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It's November 1970, and a hike in Washington’s Cascade Mountains becomes a struggle to survive for Trevor O’Hanlon, a newspaper reporter, and Abby Teague, a Seattle Librarian.  Strangers, tossed together by dangerous circumstance, they take refuge from a snow storm in a hidden mountain cave.  There, in an antechamber, they discover an old leather pouch.  Inside the pouch is an incomplete love letter dated 1869, a photograph of an Indian woman standing by a cavalry officer, and a simple gold wedding band.

Intrigued by their find, Trevor and Abby strike a seemingly innocent agreement to unravel the mystery behind the artifacts.  That agreement opens challenges, choices, and discoveries that alter their lives.  But first, they must wait-out the snow storm, face‑down a Grisly bear, navigate an underground river, swim a subterranean lake, stumble through a narrow, volcanic tube--after losing their only light source--and survive a sixty foot leap to safety.

To solve the artifact mystery, the couple visit Fort Lewis, Washington--an army base south of Seattle--where the installation's museum director helps them discover the location of the photograph:  Fort William T. Sherman in the old Washington Territory.  Remarkably, parts of Fort Sherman still exist, now preserved as a Washington State Park.  They cross the Cascades and visit the park.  Discoveries there yield clues that help them learn the artifact's heartbreaking secrets.

Interspersed with Abby and Trevor’s adventures, travels, and discoveries, are flashbacks to 1869 where the reader meets the couple in the photo, Benjamin and Rachel.  The reader watches the "artifact story" story unfold in "real time" as, simultaneously, Abby and Trevor untangle it one hundred years later.

They discover that in 1869, Washington Territory has one renegade tribe raiding white settlements and farms in the Klickitat river valley near the Cascade Mountains.  The unscrupulous commander of Fort Sherman, Major Conklin, is assigned the mission to bring the tribe under control…by any means necessary.  Conklin sees the tribe's destruction as a significant step‑up the career ladder.

Benjamin, a young, idealistic cavalry officer newly assigned to the Pacific Northwest, meets Rachel, an Indian woman raised by whites at Fort Sherman.  The couple soon fall in love, but face problems as Conklin tries to force Rachel to disclose her people’s location.  She claims ignorance, but in truth has been passing military secrets to the tribe—unbeknownst to Benjamin.  When an army scout stumbles upon the tribe’s encampment, Conklin plans a surprise attack and orders Benjamin to arrest Rachel for, “security reasons.”  Benjamin learns of the arrest and tells Rachel. The couple must resolve their conflicting loyalties and decide what is--or is not--betrayal. 

Eventually, Rachel escapes, makes her way to her people and warns them of the attack, believing they will leave before the Army arrives.  However, to Rachel's horror, the tribe's council chooses to wait in ambush for the unsuspecting soldiers.  Through a series of events, Benjamin, originally not a part of the attacking group, is forced to lead the Cavalry assault--which has become, thanks to Rachel's information, an Indian ambush.  Again, loyalties are challenged and choices about betrayal are made that affect the couple's lives and future.

As Abby and Trevor painstakingly uncover the story, they recognize a strong attraction for one another.  But, like Benjamin and Rachel, they too have choices and challenges.  Trevor is a borderline alcoholic, in peril of losing his job, and a commitment-phobic womanizer.  At Twenty-Three, Abby is ten years his junior, in a career quandary, and unhappily married to Bob Teague.  Teague is a soldier in Viet Nam and a man with a history of violence toward women.

The reader meets the not very likable Teague when--interleaved with the other two story lines--the setting flashes to Bien Hoa, Viet Nam.  Teague, a helicopter pilot, avoids flying missions and is suspected of cowardice by his colleagues.  What his comrades don’t realize is he uses his non-flying time and his position as unit supply officer to smuggle drugs to the United States.  Through a series of betrayals, he’s wounded in action and sent home to Seattle where he tries to finish his drug deals at Fort Lewis and confronts Abby and Trevor.

In the end, both couples learn that they are the choices they make, and sometimes, betrayal is the only choice.