Her hand was large, warm, and trembling.
“Caleb Mercer, you spent six months helping me believe I was worth loving.”
His eyes filled.
She continued.
“And all this time, you believed the only way to love me was to give away everything that belonged to you.”
He couldn't answer.
Evelyn leaned closer.
For a moment, their faces were only inches apart.
Then she whispered, “I never wanted this ranch as much as I wanted a home with you.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
He had imagined hearing those words a hundred times.
But now, with the deed lying between them, they hurt more than he could explain.
Because he knew something Evelyn didn't.
Victor Harrow was bringing the sheriff to the ranch at sunrise.
He intended to have Caleb arrested for stealing company records, remove Evelyn from the property, and sell the western pasture to a railroad construction syndicate before either of them could challenge his claim.
And the documents in the book weren't enough to stop him.
Not yet.
There was one missing witness.
One missing county record.
And one final secret about Evelyn's father's death that Caleb had been too afraid to tell her.
If they couldn't uncover the truth before the following afternoon, Evelyn would lose the land for a second time.
Only this time, she would know exactly who had stolen it.
And Caleb would be the man Victor blamed.
Six months earlier, Evelyn Hart had arrived at Willow Creek Ranch in a reinforced freight wagon during the worst snowstorm the valley had seen in eleven years.
She was traveling with a driver, two hired hands, and three trunks containing almost everything she still owned.
The wagon moved slowly along the rutted mountain road.
Snow gathered on the canvas covering, and the horses strained against the steepest section of the climb.
Evelyn sat beneath thick blankets on a broad, cushioned platform that had been built for her in Cheyenne. Her enormous body made ordinary passenger carriages unsuitable, and she had spent years learning to plan journeys around practical requirements that other travelers rarely considered.
She hated how often strangers treated those arrangements as entertainment.
At the last settlement, two men had stood outside the livery stable laughing while the driver adjusted the wagon's support frame.