This novella is the third book in the Forbes Road Series. The advance into the Ohio Country is on October 1764: A powerful British force crosses the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt to march against the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee tribes of Ohio, now in their second year of savage insurrection against British rule and colonial settlement. The expedition includes battle hardened regulars of the Royal Americans and the Black Watch, supported by tough Virginia and Maryland riflemen and provincials of the Pennsylvania Regiment. At their head is the man the tribal chiefs fear the most: Colonel Henry Bouquet. He is a brilliant mercenary officer who skillfully blends European and Indian tactics to make his men the match of tribal warriors. Bouquet is determined to force the warring chiefs to peace negotiations or defeat them in battle. But the colonel faces an enemy he can never conquer: The impending onset of winter weather which could trap his force in the wilds of the Ohio Country, far from its base of supply and ultimately spell disaster for the expedition. Beautiful, auburn haired Mary Fraser is a sixteen year-old orphan of the Black Watch and former lover of frontier gunsmith and rifleman Wend Eckert. Now recovered from the near fatal wound she received at the Battle of Bushy Run, the highland girl accompanies the expedition as a nurse, her heart broken because she has lost Eckert to another woman through an ugly trick of fate. Little does she know that her name will soon be linked to scandal with that of traitorous merchant and political manipulator Richard Grenough. Moreover, Mary's selfless and valiant attempt to protect Eckert's five year old son --- a captive of the Mingo Indians --- from mortal danger lands her deep in trouble with the officers of her regiment. Suddenly she finds her reputation in shambles and the future life she has labored so hard to achieve in grave jeopardy. The outcome of the campaign and Mary's fate will be decided by bloody skirmish on a narrow trail deep in the Ohio Country.