An errant thought idled past. She hoped she got to see Russell Corbett on a horse before she left town. The man was classic cowboy. What the devil was he doing on a four-wheeler? She shook her head, disappointed to have her illusions about the West and real cowboys crushed.

This time tomorrow she would be flying back to Chicago. Russell Corbett would be just a memory, the only pleasant one she feared she would take from Montana.

With growing dread, Dulcie turned back toward the house and the job ahead of her. Russell Corbett was wrong. It wasn’t morbid curiosity that drove her. She just hoped he was wrong as well about the rotten floorboards and the critters nesting inside.

Among the documents her parents’ lawyer had given her she’d found a key. She’d assumed it was for the front door. Taking it from the pocket of her new canvas pants, she tried it in the lock. The key turned as if the lock had been opened only yesterday—not over twenty-four years ago.

A still, breathless silence had settled in along with the heat. Dulcie listened for a moment to the steady, quickened beat of her heart, then grasping the knob, she slowly turned it and felt the door begin to swing in.

Chapter 5

“What do you know about the old Beaumont place?” Russell asked his father when Grayson met up with him later.

Grayson seemed distracted for a moment as he pulled his gaze away from the cloudless sky. “Not much. Why do you ask?”

“I just met the owner. At least she claims she’s the owner. She says she might be putting the place up for sale.”

Grayson studied his son. “She? This isn’t the city girl you were telling us about at supper, is it?”

“One and the same.” He shook his head. “She’s over there now exploring that old house.”

Grayson looked worried. “By herself? Son, do you think that’s wise?”

Russell snorted. “I think it’s crazier than hell. But the woman doesn’t take advice well.”

His father laughed. “What woman does? Maybe it’s the way you gave it though. If she’s serious about selling that property, I definitely think we should make an offer. That land connects up with ours and has laid fallow all these years. I think we could get a pretty good wheat crop out of it, not to mention the property’s got water on it. Why don’t you see what she wants for the place,” Grayson said, rubbing his jaw.

Russell studied his father for a moment in the dim light of the barn. “You talk to the other ranchers and farmers?”

Grayson nodded. “We all kept telling ourselves that we’re bound to get some moisture, but every day it seems to be hotter and drier. If we don’t get some rain soon...”