Solitude Lost is the story of Clay Bannister, a man who enjoys living by himself in the cabin he built high up in the mountains thirty miles from the nearest town. Though many people would find his existence to be a lonely and meager lifestyle, it suited Clay perfectly.

This perfection was not to last. Clay suddenly found himself snowbound in his cabin on the mountain, with a woman he did not know, who seemed to have a questionable, if not shady, past. He learned that getting rid of this woman would be a harrowing experience before spring began to bud. Clay found himself willingly drawn in to her shady past shortly after their arrival in town. You will find their very different backgrounds, views of life, and snappy interactions to be not only interesting, humorous at times, but also a realistic snapshot of life itself.

SYNOPSIS

Solitude Lost is the story of Clay Bannister, a man who lived alone in the mountains several miles from the nearest town. His peaceful afternoon was shattered as a shot rang out. This eventually brought a woman he did not know to his cabin. From this point Clay and the lady were snowbound for the remainder of the winter – a situation that did not set well with either of them. While Clay remained a gentleman and the woman remained a lady, it was at times not easy to do while trapped in the small one-room cabin Clay had built for himself.

Eventually, as spring drew near, Clay set out to take this woman to town. He was eager to regain his solitary lifestyle. But in town, events transpired which drew Clay into her past, a process that Clay willingly undertook. As the story unfolds, Clay learns that her past is really not “checkered” as he once thought it might be. He sought help from the townspeople and found little. So Clay took the matter into his own hands.

EXCERPT

“That still don’t explain why the guy on the hill was trying to kill you.” Clay enjoyed this conversation, but it was time for all this talking to go some place. It seemed that they were just rambling around and getting nowhere. “I don’t know why he wanted me dead! It just makes no sense to me.” “How did you wind up on this mountain, anyway?” “I got tired of just waiting at the hotel when I felt that I ought to be doing something. So two days ago, I hired a guide to take me to the ranch where my friend had worked last summer. The ranch is about fifteen miles out of town—a hard day’s ride, especially in the snow. My guide had just told me we were about three miles from the ranch when he was shot in the back. From the angle he was hit, that bullet could have been meant for me!” she paused and shivered as the scene was replayed in her mind’s eye. “I just turned my horse and buried my heels in his sides. I had no idea where I was headed. I just knew I needed to get away from the gunshot up on the hill.”
“Where’s your horse?”
“He broke his leg. I was pushing him too hard in the snow and I guess he stepped off in a hole. It wasn’t long after that when you heard the shooting up on the hill.” Angie found herself looking at Clay in a totally different way—maybe because of the genuine look of concern she was sure she was seeing on his face. She thought, “He may be more than meets the eye, after all.”