Kathryn Amelia Rose: Perseverance

Now look at the description:

Kathryn or Kate as she prefers to be called, flees her home at the urging of her dying mother because her step-father is leering at his seventeen-year-old step-daughter. For three years she travels disguised as an old prospector and his mule before she prepares to die in the high elevations of Luke’s Stone Fence Ranch. Luke sees her startled mule knock her over a cliff and refuses to allow the old man to die like his sister, injured and alone. Her life takes several unexpected twists and turns as she continues to flee the step-father who seems to be right behind her at every turn.