The truth was that he was beginning to feel that his dream would never happen. And far from exciting him, as they had Theodore, the political events of the year had disappointed and depressed him. Why hadn’t Lincoln called for a railroad right away? Now that the South had gone secesh, what was everyone waiting for? Collis was stretched to the limit on credit, and beyond, and unless the new administration gave them the go-ahead within the next few months, he could see the glorious Sierra Pacific Railroad announcing itself bankrupt without a single inch of track laid.

One evening in April, when the warm winds of early summer were blowing across the Sacramento Valley, Hannah stepped out on to the back veranda and found Collis sitting in the rocker, his legs straight out, his hands in his pockets, and a cheroot clenched between his teeth. She stood beside him silently for long minutes, her face gentle, her hair drawn back in combs, her pink dress turned lilac by the dusk.

‘You’re unhappy, aren’t you?’ she asked him at last.

He took the cheroot out of his mouth. ‘Unhappy?’

‘You’re expecting something from life that life won’t give you. What is it? Is it fame? Or is it just affection?’

He looked at her. ‘You give me all the affection I could wish for.’

‘I can’t give you fame.’

‘I’m not sure that I want it. I just want to be fulfilled.’

‘You will be,’ Hannah assured him, resting her hand on his shoulder.

He reached up and laid his hand over hers. ‘I wish I could be as confident as you are. Every letter I get from Theo is full of hope and reassurance, and yet what have we actually done? We’ve found a railroad route over the Sierras, we’ve surveyed it, and we’ve filed the papers. All at our own expense. So now what happens? Do we have to wait for war? Do we have to dig our way through the mountains with our own bare hands?’

‘Collis,’ said Hannah, ‘you mustn’t lose faith.’

‘I know,’ he told her. ‘But it’s damned difficult not to, sometimes. I used to have visions of that railroad. I could see the rails themselves, stretching all the way towards the horizon. But now, whenever I think about it, the rails just melt away in front of my eyes, as if they were cast out of nothing but ice.’

‘Collis …’ said Hannah. ‘God will find a way.’

‘God?’ he asked her. ‘Don’t you think you and I have called on God a few too many times already?’

‘You don’t think that He would help us again?’

Collis released her hand, stood up, and walked across to the rail of the veranda. There was a row of apple trees in the small, dusty yard, and their leaves had caught the last of the daylight, so that they flamed like torches against the lavender-coloured sky.