“But when MacClaren was seventeen, he ran away from home and took passage on a ship to New York. When he reached there, he earned his living the way he’d earned it all his life. On the street corners and in bars sketching. He even started to paint and saw his work begin to come to life. But he couldn’t afford the paints and time it took so that led him to another adventure. He started to work for the railway. First in New York and Boston, but then he realized they were building railways all over America. Sometimes the pay was better if you went out west. He found it far more interesting. Cowboys, Indians, and gold miners, and buffalo…”

“And Cowboy Bob catching the dangerous train robbers,” she murmured.

“Yep, you got it. MacClaren started to do the illustrations for the dime novels. If you check the credits on that novel, it was written and illustrated by D. B. Ward. That was one of the first novels MacClaren wrote and illustrated. He sent a copy to Fiona as a present.”

“He kept in touch with her?”

“She was both family and friend to him. Neither of them could give up that tie. MacClaren traveled all over the West and had adventures and love affairs and did everything that young men dream of doing. He made his living doing the dime novels and occasionally he painted a portrait or landscape. But principally he was involved with life and learning how to best live it.” He shrugged. “And then he heard from his old friend Fiona about Jamie’s plans for her. Now, how could Cowboy Bob ever let that happen to the only family he’d ever known?”

“He came back to her?”

“And because they were both clever and determined, they managed to find a way to fool Jamie into hiring MacClaren to paint Fiona’s portrait. But somewhere along the way friendship became love and they had another problem to face when they realized that Jamie would never permit Fiona to break off with Graeme. He’d hunt her down no matter how long it took. What a conundrum.”

“And?”

He chuckled. “That will be the next installment. But I promise you that it didn’t involve Fiona being thrown down a deep well in the forest.”

“I may strangle you,” Jane said.

“But it did involve her bringing MacClaren to this mountain hideaway. So enjoy the anticipation, and next time I’ll end the story for you.”

“Maybe I’ll find out on my own. I still have the letter.”

“And that would provide your own distraction. I’m sure Caleb would consider that fair. That would work…if the letter tells you the entire story.”

“You’re impossible. Good night, Rodland.”

“Wait. Caleb is holding out his hand for the phone. He wants to talk to you.”