She ushered me into a big, open living room. I was expecting it to look like Aidan’s Swiss Avenue house, but I was wrong. This room had no polished floors or stained-glass lamps, and yet it was just as inviting. Everything in it was made for practical living, and by the looks of the furniture, it had seen a lot of living over the years. Brown, well-worn leather armchairs with silver studs along the seams stood on either side of a huge, stone fireplace. Strewn on the rough, wooden floor were rugs made of animal pelts. I stared at them, almost expecting them to rear up and growl at me. I looked away and up at the walls, where stuffed animal heads gazed down at me, and from the ceiling hung a chandelier made of antler horns.

“Them critters won’t bite you.” Mayflower laughed. “I’m guessing you never saw the likes of this back in Ireland.”

I shook my head.

She took off her hat and threw it down on a chair. “I’ll go and see if there’s anything to eat in the kitchen. Maria, Manuel’s wife, didn’t know we were coming. She most likely went home to their cabin. She stays out there when Hans and I are away.”

“Please, don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’m not hungry. I just need to go to bed.”

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of bacon frying. For a minute I thought I was back home in the Donegal cottage, and Ma was cooking breakfast for Da. But when I threw back the red, white and blue quilt and slid my feet down onto a straw mat beside the four-poster bed, I remembered I was a long way from Donegal. Mayflower was waiting for me when I came into the kitchen. A brown-skinned woman with a smooth, broad face was setting a plate of food in front of her. Sitting across from Mayflower at a big, wooden table, its surface covered with scars and cigarette burns, were three men I supposed were ranch workers.

“Oh, there you are, honey. Come and set yourself down. This here is Maria, Manuel’s wife, and these are our ranch hands.”

The men nodded at me, their eyes cast down, the way the shy boys at our village dances always did. Maria smiled, exposing two gold teeth, and went to fetch another plate of food. I’d never seen so much food before. Apparently, a ranch breakfast consisted of bacon, eggs, potatoes, steak and grits. No matter, I cleaned the plate in no time, then looked around, embarrassed.