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Tilda was escorted by Josh to a room in a building that echoed with rustling feet and voices. They’d ridden into a large log barn, where Josh tended his horse. They then made their way past a long bunkhouse and two rows of cabins.

Next was the dormitory. The building seemed huge. Not compared to New York’s buildings, of course, but compared to the rest of the ranch. The place smelled of savory food and chalk, books and sawdust.

Josh took her upstairs, where he guided her through a warren of small bedrooms, maybe five or more of them. Some doors stood open, and she could see two bunkbeds in each room. Four children shared a room.

Tilda’s throat felt thick as she remembered the sleeping quarters of several New York City orphanages. They were miserable and overcrowded, stiflingly hot in the summer and brutally cold in the winter. What food they were given was sparing and none too tasty.

Having to share with only three other children struck her as a luxury. They’d have room for twenty children on this side, and Josh said the other half of this schoolhouse had rooms for the boys.

Tilda had accompanied twenty children to Dorada Rio on the train.

Depending on how many children were already at the ranch, they might well have room for all of them to live comfortably here.

She thought of Josh telling her she’d have to sleep with him and felt her cheeks heat up.

At the same time, a smile curved her lips.

She understood now what he’d meant, but the man appeared to have little skill when it came to talking to a woman.

Then he led her to a private room. He swung open the door and gestured for her to enter.

“You won’t need to go to work today,” he said. “But if you wish it, you can sleep here tonight. Or you’re welcome to stay in the ranch house with Annie, Zane, and Michelle. We have a housekeeper’s apartment that’s empty right now. You’d be comfortable there and also have privacy.”

“You don’t stay in the ranch house?” Tilda asked.

“I have a room beyond that wall.” He pointed at the south wall of the room.

“I guess you’d call me a guardian for the boys’ rooms. We have a few cowhands who are good with kids, and they’re willing to step in if need be.

Our foreman, Shad, is the most dependable of the bunch.

If you stay here, you’ll sleep in a private room next to a dozen or so girls.

” He paused and added, “There’s more than that with the youngsters you brought.

They’re six years old to sixteen, I’d say.

Younger than that, Michelle leaves them in the hands of the Child of God Mission in San Francisco.

Older than that, we help them advance their education, if they’re interested, or find a job if they’re so inclined. ”

“You help them?”

Josh nodded. “That’s right.”

Tilda saw a hallway beyond him with doors leading to each child’s bedroom.

She should have sent him on his way, but she was nervous.

Oh, she fooled no one, least of all herself.

Truth was, she was flat-out scared. She didn’t want to be shoved into this perfectly lovely room and left alone.

Her life had taken one strange turn after another since she’d lost the MacKenzie boys on the orphan train.

Now she stood looking at this room she’d be given all to herself. She’d never had something so lovely and spacious before.

“The orphans ... that is, the boys, did you say they work on the ranch or as lumberjacks?” That didn’t make much sense.

“Those are possibilities. We’ll employ them if they show an interest in ranching.

They can work to gain cowboy skills and take a job here at the ranch since we’re always in need of new cowhands, as some move on.

Or they can go with the training they received and work on some other ranch.

They can train for other things, too. Michelle works with our students to find their special talents and guide them toward training for that talent.

We’ve had one student show an interest in college, maybe to become a doctor.

Several of the older girls want to be teachers, and one has taken over Ellie’s classes since Ellie started helping Brody.

A few have even gone to sea. Being a sailor once, I can talk with those interested and help them figure out how to proceed.

I know a few people involved in shipping and can help the boys find jobs. ”

“I understand why cowpokes, but why lumberjacks?”

“We’ve got a good connection to the industry. Michelle is one-third owner of one of the biggest lumber operations in California.”

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember. “I rode the train from San Francisco to Dorada Rio with Michelle, and she never mentioned that.”

Josh shrugged. “No doubt she was busy at the time. And you were too, wrangling all those children.”

Tilda smiled. “Good point. We were all really busy. She didn’t tell me much about herself. She seemed more inclined to ask about me.”

Josh stepped aside and let her enter the room. He stayed outside, as if entering the spacious room with her would be improper.

She saw a good-sized bed with a pretty blue quilt and a chest of drawers with a stack of books on top.

On the floor lay an oval rug that picked out the same color of blue as the quilt.

There was a window behind the bed. She glanced out the window and could see the ranch house from here.

There was a row of hooks on the wall for her clothing, and across from her, an open door revealed what looked like an indoor water closet.

Tilda was amazed at the notion of having her own room.

She’d had one at the Muirheads, but she’d had to share it with stacks of packing crates.

Yet she couldn’t summon the courage to sleep just next door to the children.

She supposed that made her a coward. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d faced such a truth.

“One of the ranchers’ wives is staying here for now. Why don’t you come back to the house and eat with us and sleep in the ranch house?”

It was like Josh had read her mind. That might make him sensitive, and he was paying close attention, or else she’d made some dreadful expression that had displayed her pure terror. Considering what he’d said earlier about sleep, sensitivity seemed doubtful. She suspected she’d pulled a face.

“We’ll let Hannah handle the youngsters tonight.

She’s probably already here, helping get the meal served.

The children eat together in the largest classroom downstairs.

You’d be a stranger to them, and that may not be comfortable for you.

But tomorrow you can meet them and maybe begin to figure out what all you can teach them.

You can decide if you’re ready to sleep over here after that. ”

“I think I’d like that. Thank you.”

Josh gestured back in the direction they’d come, and she preceded him past the bedroom doors and down a flight of stairs to the ground floor.

She heard chatter and the clinking of utensils.

The children eating. She remembered all the times she’d been hungry growing up and was so pleased to see these children living and thriving in a land of plenty.

The sun had sunk low in the sky while they’d been inside. As they stepped out into the warm summer evening, the sunset glowed vividly with splashes of blue, red, and purple.

“Wait, stop.” Tilda reached out and caught Josh’s arm.

She was stunned by the beauty around her.

“You’ve got a wonderful place here. The weather is beautiful.

Horses and cows, pretty buildings all over.

I have a city woman’s idea of what a ranch should look like, and the lush grass and all the people around here don’t fit that image.

” She thought of the traffic of New York City.

“You can’t imagine how this touches me after years of living among the crowds and noise back east.”

Red cattle with white faces grazed across gently rolling hills and in a valley broken here and there by outcroppings of rock.

Tilda went on, “Even though I rode out here on the train from San Francisco, this is the first time I’ve seen such a valley. It goes on forever. I was so busy watching the children and then clinging to my horse, I didn’t appreciate the scope of it until now.”

A corral with dozens of horses was on the far side of the barn. A few cowhands carried out farm chores in smaller yards that held pigs and chickens. Except for the whitewashed schoolhouse, the buildings were all built of logs.

“Jilly, the redheaded sister, built all of this? And railroad tracks up a mountain?”

“Well, the ranch house was already here, as were the barn and bunkhouse.” Josh pointed as he spoke. “We also had the pigpen and chicken coop there and a couple of the cabins. But mostly, with all of us pitching in, yes, of course.”

“It’s a beautiful place.” With all of it set against the lowering sun, it was enough to take her breath away.

Josh swept his arm toward the east, and she turned. She’d hardly noticed the mountains that towered there.

“Out there somewhere is the treasure Thayne and Lock’s Grandpa MacKenzie wrote about.”

“Out there? In that vast, endless mountain range?”

Josh smiled. “It does seem endless. Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated. You can study the journal, and maybe your understanding of history will help us get a better idea of what we’re looking for.”

“Where are the boys?” She realized then that she hadn’t seen anyone since they’d hung back from the group they’d ridden from town with. Despite all the buildings, with the exception of a few cowhands, she’d been alone with Josh almost since the moment they’d arrived at the Two Harts.

“Michelle asked them if they wanted to sleep in the ranch house tonight.

They slept in the dormitory with the other orphan boys until Brody got here.

He was away from home in New York City, going to a medical college in Boston.

Unfortunately, once he finished his training and went back to New York, he found his mother dead, his father dying, and his brothers missing.

He followed their trail, and it led him here to the Two Harts.

“Once Brody arrived, they settled into the rooms over the doctor’s office—two bedrooms and a kitchen.

We don’t have room for the boys in the dorms, not with the new children.

And I’m sure they’d be fine in their regular rooms, but with Brody gone, it didn’t seem quite right.

I can’t believe I was about a year older than Thayne when I went to sea and traveled the world.

I sure didn’t think I was a kid at the time.

“The two of them ran off from the orphan train in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and made their way to San Francisco with no help. Now we want to protect those poor young rascals, teach them and offer them some adult supervision here at the Two Harts. So Michelle invited them to eat with us and sleep in the house.”

Josh looked at her, and their eyes met for a long moment. He smiled, and Tilda returned the smile.

“Anyway,” he continued, clearing his throat, “just because they managed to get here alive doesn’t mean they have a lick of common sense.

They’ll stay in the house until Brody gets back.

They ran to the doctor’s office to change their clothes and wash up.

I suppose they’re already in the house by now. It’s time for supper.”

Feeling grateful, Tilda nodded and walked with him the rest of the way to the house.