★★★★½ I don’t know how many times I’ve read this book, but not recently. I wanted to see if it still held its appeal, since my tastes have changed over the years. Though just a smidgen dated, Caroline and the Raider is the third, last, and best (IMHO) of the Orphan Train trilogy, by Ms. Miller written in 1992. Goddess, I wished she still wrote like this. Her books have changed over the years, and I still pick them up, but I liked her “voice” better back then. Or maybe it is because it is a historical romance, with the added bonus of being a western; combined, these two make for my favorite genre. Plus, it has a wonderful dog named “Tob” who likes his whisky too much; it's fun guessing what that acronym means.

Caroline Chalmers is one determined schoolmistress, convinced her fiancé, Seaton Flynn, is innocent of a stagecoach robbery and murder; she seeks out Guthrie Hayes at the Hellfire and Spit Saloon (I just love that name, LOL!) and has the audacity to ask him to break her intended out of jail. Though it is more than a decade after the Civil War, Guthrie would just as soon everyone not know he broke a group of prisoners out of a desolate Yankee prison. I like that Guthrie gives in gradually to Caroline, first saying “No!” outright to the prim little dynamo, then that he’ll interview the witnesses, and so on down the line – to his eventual capitulation.

When Caroline states she wants to go with him, again he takes a firm stand, and can’t hold it when she follows along behind, creating another favorite of mine: road trip! They travel some rugged Wyoming terrain, have some narrow escapes, and end up making love in some unusual places: from rolling in the hay of an abandon barn, to boulders and tree branches (!) – these are two stubborn people who refuse to admit their love. Guthrie is determined to hold on to his dream of Adabelle Rogers, a woman with whom he has a “particular promise”. I sometimes felt he was a hare’s breath from hanging onto this ideal too long, was pretty bossy and chauvinistic toward Caroline, and directed the course of their relationship too much; but, then I remembered Caroline is just as single-minded in her belief of her betrothed – and most everything else she decides to do. What can I say? **shrugs shoulders** It worked for me.