I would also have loved to learn more about Hannah's husband and was disappointed when she burned the letter that might have explained it, as well as not seeking the information when she got home. However, I do understand that she was not ready to know and not ready to let him go. I think she was under so much stress at the fort that it was impossible to take on more. Later, when she was home, she was still too unsettled and not ready to face the cold, hard facts of his death. I wasn't real surprised to have this resolved, because you have already established a pattern of skipping years and events in earlier books.
What did surprise me was the abduction of Jennet and not really having had a motivation established for it. Whoa! That was out of the blue! Of course, we were led to be suspicious of this priest, but if he "didn't want to bed" her, then what did he want her for? So...it's a mystery to be solved in the next book along with why Luke needed Hannah to go with him instead of someone else. Perhaps as was mentioned in your message, it has just not all jelled (or been revealed might be a more literary term )yet. I'm looking forward to the next installment in this saga and hope it contains lots of Simon and more of Luke (looks like the odds are good for more of him).
Thanks so much for all the pleasure you've given me and all of your fans. Frances

Frances -- thank you, I'm so glad you've enjoyed the story thus far. I think you'll find that the next book does indeed finish what was left unsaid in Lake in the Clouds.

Oh and, I'm glad you like Simon. It seems he's not universally admired, for some reason I don't quite understand. I certainly like him.

Sara,
I agree with Francis in everything. The reason why I like your books is that they convey a reality. I loved reading other letters that the characters read in your books. To have Hannah burn this particular one.....you have me totally.....I don't want to read a book that ties up everything! Its not real that way. What makes an interesting book are not always the things that are included but the spaces, hesitations and things left out.
I have been reading a lot of Hemingway lately.....he, when you can find something where he is talking about his writing craft, he says he wants not to explain the story to the reader but to have the readed experience the emotion for him/herself as the story is unfolding....the story moves forward with our (the readers) emotional involvement moving with it....
you probably have heard this but one time in his early writing life in Paris his wife lost a whole suitcase full of all of his writing drafts plus all of the carbon copies in a train station......imagine to find it again...imagine never to find it and keep wondering what was in it and if the suitcase is in someone's attic. One more Hemingway thing...his first love a nurse he met in Milan during WW1 BURNED all of his MANY letters to her because her new Italian aristocratic boyfriend made her!!!! Then after she dumps Hemingway the Italian dumps her! Life is like this.
Have you ever read Possession by AS Byatt? Great book about recovered letters that scholars never thought existed...
I too love Simon.
Cynthia in Florida

Have I read Possession?!? One of my favorite novels. I reviewed it, briefly, here.

You make some interesting points, I'm going to pull them out into a full post. And thanks for the kind words.

(spoilers)

I didn't read Lonesome Dove, but I saw rented the miniseries about 10 years ago and I was completely horrified. I'd never seen a Western quite like it and the thing I remember was that feeling over and over again of, "Oh my god! They fuck'n killed him!" Not just with Gus but also when Blue Duck kills that kid and Janey, or when they hang Jake. I keep meaning to rent it again to see if I still have that, "Holy crap!" response every time something like that happens.