One early August evening Mayflower came rushing up the steps of the veranda, her face flushed. Hans and I gave each other a knowing look. What new gossip was she bringing from Dallas, we wondered.

Mayflower sank down into one of the rocking chairs, breathing hard and mopping her brow with a handkerchief. When I looked closely at her face sudden fear rose up in me. Something was terribly wrong.

“What is it, Mayflower?” I said.

“Oh, Lordy, Delia,” she managed through ragged breaths, “you won’t believe it, but lightning has struck twice.”

“What are you talking about, Mayflower?” Hans stood up and reached for his wife’s hand. “Take your time, my love.”

“She’s gone again.”

“Who?”

“Lily. She’s just up and disappeared faster than a prairie fire in a tailwind. One minute she was setting in the Kearney Hotel talking to Francine and the next she was gone. Miss Francine can’t talk for crying. Folks’ first thought was she’d gone back to the Dallas house, but they were wrong. Just grasping at straws, I guess. Poor Rosa’s praying up a storm. Folks everywhere’s out looking for her. And I can’t imagine what poor Aidan is suffering. He’s . . .”

I sprang up. “But why, Mayflower? Why would she do such a thing?”

Mayflower sighed. “I told y’all she’d stopped talking, but Rosa said she kept drawing pictures of a ranch, and then she drew you, Delia, and wrote your name beside it.”

“What did she mean, Mayflower?” I said, my heart thumping. “What was she trying to say?”

Mayflower looked straight into my eyes. “I’d say after she saw you at the picnic, she was missing you and wanted to come to the ranch to find you. That little girl loves you, Delia.”

“I didn’t think she’d seen me at the ranch,” I said. “She was busy playing with the other children.”

“Most likely she saw you riding off and watched her daddy follow you.”

“You don’t think she just wandered off somewhere like you said she did when she was little, or when she wandered across to the hotel when we were in Shotgun City?” I looked up hopefully at Mayflower, but I could see by her face I was wrong.

“Not this time,” she said. “There’s been no sign of her all day.”

The three of us were silent for a minute, letting the news sink in. Then Hans was suddenly all business.

“I will gather the ranch hands together and we will search every inch of this ranch. Mayflower and Delia, you stay here at the house in case she appears.”

He made to leave, but I put up my hands to stop him.

“I can’t stay here and do nothing,” I cried. “I have to help search for her. Please!”