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Emily passed him a glass of water and wished she could throw it over him—a whole bucket of water, preferably.

She was angry, confused, and afraid, all at the same time.

The rainmaker she had so fervently hoped for was the very man she’d feared ever seeing or hearing from again.

She couldn’t comprehend that they were the same person, couldn’t yet make sense of what it might mean for them all.

The years had not been kind to him. The striking olive-skinned face she remembered was now thin and lined and weathered.

Shadows traced his eyes, the mischievous sparkle they used to hold now lost. Gray flecked his once jet-black hair.

There was some relief, at least, in seeing no resemblance to him in Dorothy.

Emily observed him carefully, assessing his character and temperament, watching for any clues as to his real intentions.

There was still the slightest chance that this was all a coincidence, that there was nothing suspicious about him being in Kansas, yet she distrusted him, doubted every motivation he had for being there.

On the other hand, he was Annie’s great love, Dorothy’s father, and the town’s last hope.

She felt dizzy with emotions, her mind spinning with questions.

She needed to act quickly, establish the facts before Henry returned.

She kept the conversation brief and functional. Dorothy had been briskly dispatched to collect the eggs and brush the old mare.

“I believe you’ve made a long journey to be here,” Emily said as she kneaded the bread dough. She had to keep busy, had to do something to stay calm.

“Yes! And this is why I fall asleep in your barn!” Again, the disarming smile. “I am sorry again for the trouble, Miss Emily. I did not mean to alarm you. Miss Adelaide told me I would find her here, and to rest until she comes.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t mistake you for a hobo. I’d have shot you if it had been necessary.”

“Then I am glad it was not.”

For a moment, they studied each other. A standoff? A truce? Neither of them was sure who should make the first move.

There was a momentary pause as Dorothy returned with the eggs, Toto at her heels. She placed the basket on the table and smiled, a little shyly, at their guest. Emily’s heart ached to know the truth behind the smile he offered in return.

“Can you really make it rain, Mr.Stregone?” Dorothy asked. “Miss Adelaide said you have magical potions. And rockets. Where are they?”

He glanced at Emily before answering Dorothy’s questions. “Some of the magic is chemistry. Elements and compounds. Explosives do the rest. All my equipment is in my truck, behind the barn.”

“But what else?” Dorothy pressed. “You said some of the magic. Where does the rest come from?”

At this, he laughed. “You ask the right question! The other magic, dear child, is belief. That is where the real magic happens.”

Emily couldn’t bear to listen to another word. “Did you brush the horse, Dorothy?” Her tone was brusque. Her shoulders were tense, her hands clasped tight in front of her, her entire body stiff and brittle.

“I forgot. I’ll do it now. Come along, Toto!” Dorothy ran outside again.

Emily looked at Leonardo. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

“She is a very sweet child,” he said eventually. “You raise her well.”

Emily couldn’t stand it any longer. She leaned against the sink, hands gripping the edge as she kept a close eye on Dorothy through the window. “You know, don’t you.”

For a moment, silence.

Emily waited, breath held.

“That Dorothy is my daughter? Yes, I know.”

The words settled on Emily like pinpricks. She took a deep breath as the impact of his words settled around her. There was no going back now. She must confront it, whatever the outcome.

“How long have you known?” She kept her back to him, determined to maintain her composure.

“Since she was the baby. Annie told me.”

“How did you find her? Us? After all this time.”

“You have many questions!”

Yet the only question that mattered, she couldn’t bring herself to ask: Why? Why had he really come here, and what did he want?

She thought about the official forms she’d signed at the attorneys’, and the copies that Henry kept in his desk drawer. She could use them to warn him off, if necessary. He couldn’t take Dorothy away from them. Surely?

“It is a shock, I know,” he continued. “The great surprise for you. I understand…”

At this, she turned to face him. “No, Mr.Stregone. You don’t understand. You can never understand.”

The sound of a motorcar approaching caught Emily’s attention.

Henry.

She told Leonardo to stay where he was as she hurried outside, desperate to tell Henry something—she wasn’t entirely sure what—before he entered the house.

“Henry! Thank goodness you’re back. There’s something I need to tell you…”

He gripped her arms, a broad smile on his face. “I already know! He’s here, isn’t he. The rainmaker. I saw Hank in town. Told me he’d called in at the general store, asking which was Gale Farm. Is he inside?”

Emily hurried after him, her mind whirling as he strode purposefully toward the house. She hadn’t seen him this enthusiastic in an age. “Henry! Wait! There’s something else!”

But he wouldn’t be stopped. He was already inside.

“Well, if it isn’t the Remarkable Rain Man himself, sitting at my table!”

Leonardo stood up as Henry shook his hand. “Leonardo Stregone, at your service!”

“Henry Gale. And am I glad to see you! If there ever was a good omen, I reckon it’s a man who can bring the rain, sitting in your home!”

Emily stood in the doorway, her heart in her mouth.

She’d imagined—feared—this moment so often, that to see Leonardo now, shaking Henry’s hand, was almost unbelievable.

He was a good few inches shorter than Henry, reminding her of the scrappy young boy who’d climbed to the top of the human pyramid formed by his uncles and brothers.

But what he lacked in stature he more than made up for in personality.

He oozed confidence and carried the same air of charismatic charm she remembered from his circus days.

It wasn’t hard to see why Annie had fallen for him, or why Henry absorbed his every word now, or why Dorothy—charmed by her mother’s special friend—returned from the barn as soon as she’d done her chores, eager to see more of this magical rain man for herself.

Worried that the child would say something in front of Henry, Emily bustled her outside again to fetch the washing from the line.

“There are so many chores today,” Dorothy said, a small frown on her face.

“Yes, there are. Now, off you go before another duster rolls in and dirties everything all up again.”

Emily busied herself as the two men settled into conversation.

Henry asked Leo about his methods and techniques, fascinated by the science behind it all.

Leo asked Henry about the farm and the drought and the dusters.

They talked about silver iodide and salt powder and nitroglycerine, then about combustion engines and irrigation.

“I follow the principles of concussion theory,” Leo explained. “I learn it from the war. The noise and chemicals released in explosions disturb the weather patterns. Always, after a military battle, comes the rain. My aerial bombing—the same! And finally, a little magic and good fortune helps.”

“Magic?” Henry looked a little puzzled. “I was hoping there would be more science than magic!”

“Mr.Stregone used to perform in the circus,” Emily added, desperately trying to keep one step ahead in case Leo said something that would reveal his connection to Annie, or worse, to Dorothy.

If Henry knew Leonardo was the man Annie had loved, maybe everything else could remain a secret.

“In fact, he is the Amazing Aerialist I’ve told you about,” she said, forcing a smile. “Can you believe it!”

Henry looked at her. “ Annie’s aerialist?”

Emily’s heart thumped in her chest. It was a risk, but she had to say something to disarm Leonardo, to lead him to believe that Henry knew as much as she did. “Yes! Isn’t that something?”

Henry looked at Mr.Stregone and back at Emily, his face full of surprise. “Is that so! Well, I’ll be darned. Of all the farms across the Great Plains, and this is where you land. It is a small world indeed!”

Emily breathed a sigh of relief. Henry was too enthused about the rainmaking experiment to dwell on the past. The risk had paid off.

“Circus performer turned rainmaker. Is there anything you can’t do, Mr.Stregone?” Henry continued.

Leonardo glanced toward Emily.

She stared back at him. “Well, Mr.Stregone? There must be something?”

Leonardo at least had the decency to look contrite.

“There is plenty I cannot do, Mr.Gale, but I learn to adapt. The circus is not what it was. People cannot afford a ticket, and we cannot afford to feed the animals. We are all scattering now, like the seeds.” His Italian accent had been softened by the years, but it was still there.

“When Miss Adelaide said she can take me up in her Jenny, and I detonate the dynamite to bring the rain, we make even more the rain, and even more the money!”

“It must be a hard life, moving from town to town, sleeping where you can, no home of your own,” Henry said.

“My home is here, and here.” Leo tapped his head and his chest. “I do not like to settle. Like the tumbleweed, I turn and turn until I stop somewhere.”

Henry laughed. “The free life of a man without a wife and children! You’d better not say any more, Mr.Stregone. You will make me envy you!” He planted a kiss on Emily’s cheek to assure her he was only teasing.

She turned to the basin to wash her hands, unable to prevent the huff of breath that escaped her. “A life without responsibility, or consequence? Wouldn’t we all envy that.”

“I think I have offended your wife, Mr.Gale!” Leo looked at Emily, his eyes searching hers. “I am still a child. I do not grow up, even as a man. I am like the Peter Pan. Forever a boy.”

As he spoke, Dorothy returned, catching the end of the conversation. “I like Peter Pan! It’s one of my favorite stories.”

Leo smiled. “?‘Second star to the right…’?”

Dorothy’s face lit up. “?‘And straight on ’til morning!’?”

Emily closed her eyes to steady herself, rattled by this shared moment between the two of them.

“You are most welcome to sleep in our barn, Mr.Stregone,” Henry said. “While you’re here, performing your experiments.”

Emily turned and wiped her hands on her apron. “But Adelaide is in the barn, Henry. I’m afraid you will have to find somewhere else to stay, Mr.Stregone.”

Henry was taken aback. “Emily! Are we forgetting our manners? I’m sure Miss Watson won’t mind. They are business partners now, after all. And not forgetting that Mr.Stregone is an old friend of your sister’s. We would be delighted to have you, Leo.”

Emily stalled. There was nothing else she could say.

Leonardo seized the offer gladly. “You are very generous. I will repay you with the rain.”

Henry put his hands on his hips. “You’ll do it for free?”

Leo laughed. “We are both men of business, Mr.Gale! A discount, perhaps, in return for your kindness.”

Henry looked at Emily. “What do you say, Em?”

Dorothy jumped up from the chair. “Please, Auntie Em! Please say yes!”

Emily couldn’t think straight. Annie’s secret, and the secret she had kept from Henry, had finally caught up with her.

She had reached the inevitable, unavoidable fork in the road, uncertainty and worry in both directions.

If she told Henry now, she might put everything at risk.

If she didn’t, would he ever forgive her?

As hopeful expectant eyes looked back at her, her gaze settled on a photograph of Annie on the dresser.

“Very well,” she said, ignoring the nagging sense of dread that whirled in her heart.

“Then it is agreed!” Leo stood up, dipped his fingers into his glass of water, and flicked drops into the air before bowing with a theatrical flourish. “Ladies and gentlemen! The Remarkable Rain Man, at your service.”

At that moment, Adelaide opened the door and stepped inside.

“Leo! You made it!”