The Weight of Lost Letters, by Sandra Fox Murphy

he story of Margueritte and Weldon begins in the canyons of the Texas Panhandle, a place often perilous in 1893. It begins in winter as a mail courier is robbed and killed in the Llano Estacado on his return trip to Quitaque near the Caprock Canyon. Meanwhile, Margueritte Stehling waits for a letter from her beau, Weldon Dowd, in Comanche County. Weldon courted Margueritte as he came and went on the cattle drives to Kansas City, and as he headed home, he’d promised to send a train ticket to Comanche County so the two could wed at the Dowd family ranch. When no letter arrives and fearful she’s carrying Weldon’s child, Margueritte agrees to marry a cowpuncher at the Goodnight Ranch. This takes her life on a path rife with sorrow and joy.

The Weight of Lost Letters is the prequel to The Dalhart Girls. The life of Shelby’s grandmother, Margueritte, is on a path toward the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, but the menacing times of the early twentieth century are not kind to Margueritte or Weldon, and Providence tests Margueritte’s faith at every turn.