Across from it stood a blacksmith's shop, a modest boardinghouse, and a saloon whose swinging doors seemed to open every time a horse stopped nearby.
The town had fewer than eight hundred permanent residents, but the surrounding ranches brought a steady stream of farmers, drovers, traders, and travelers through its streets.
The woman had never been farther west than Kansas.
She had spent most of her adult life living with an aunt in Missouri, working as a bookkeeper, seamstress, and occasional tutor.
Her parents were dead.
Her closest remaining relatives had homes of their own.
And after years of listening to people describe her as intelligent, useful, and kind, she had begun wondering whether anyone would ever describe her as desirable.
She was extraordinarily beautiful.
Her face was round and softly shaped, with rich chestnut hair, full lips, expressive brown eyes, and a smile that transformed her entire appearance.
But her body was larger than almost anyone she had ever met.
At thirty-two, she weighed approximately seven hundred and seventy pounds.
Her dresses required more fabric than ordinary garments, and she depended on a skilled seamstress who understood how to shape clothing around her enormous waist, full arms, and broad shoulders.
Travel was difficult.
Ordinary carriage seats were often too narrow.
Staircases could become exhausting obstacles.
She had learned to plan each journey carefully, allowing time for rest and making arrangements for accommodations that other people took for granted.
She was not helpless.
She could manage her own affairs, keep complicated accounts, negotiate with merchants, and make decisions more carefully than many men who considered themselves superior to her.
But the world was rarely designed with her needs in mind.
And people were often cruel about the things that made her life difficult.
She had received her first marriage proposal at twenty.
The man wanted access to the small inheritance left by her father.
When she refused to sign over control of the money, he disappeared.
At twenty-four, a widower with three children had courted her for several months.
He praised her kindness and her ability to manage a household.