Chasing the Sun Read Online Free Page A

bisected the valley floor. Birds darted through the trees that crowded the canyons. Newly budded aspens shivered in the gentle breeze. Cattle littered the flats, greedily munching the green shoots pushing through the dirt and growing heavy with the calves they would drop soon.
    She smiled, breathing in the sweet scents of damp earth and new grass, lulled by the music of birdsong and trickling water, and enjoying the clean, cool breeze after three years of foggy, sooty air in San Francisco.
    Nowhere else did spring bring such a dramatic rebirth of life and hope and energy as it did in this starkly beautiful place. She reveled in it, committing each glorious scent and sound to memory to sustain her through the long years ahead. The cycles of RosaRoja Rancho had been born and bred into her, and she loved them almost as much as she loved God.
    The road began to level off. She saw they were approaching the southwest boundary line, and being so close to the place where she had lived for most of her life made her heartbeat quicken with both anticipation and dread.
    Should she have told them she was coming? Would Jack be there? Would the Wilkins family understand her decision, or had the brothers left all the destruction behind and moved on?
    When she had left three years ago hoping to have her crippled hip repaired, everything had been in chaos. The feud between the Ramirez and Wilkins families had finally ended, but at a terrible cost—the rancho nearly destroyed by fire, her brother dead, Jessica and her son sent back to England by Brady Wilkins, while he and his brother, Hank, struggled to start over again. Throughout the long months of her recovery after surgery, she had prayed for each of them every night, these generous people who had been dearer to her than her own blood kin. Would they welcome her now, after the anguish she had caused the youngest brother, Jack?
    “What the hell?” the driver muttered, yanking back on the brake so hard the buggy lurched.
    Clutching the arm rail for balance, Sister Maria Elena saw a man standing in the road ahead, a rifle cradled in his arms. Another man, also armed, stood behind him, leaning against the cairn of stones that marked the ranch boundary, while a third man, little more than a boy, sat on a boulder, watching them. The only horses she saw were in a small rope-strung corral set far back from the road.
    “Howdy,” the man on foot said as he strode toward the stopped buggy.
    Muttering under his breath, the driver reached under the seat for his rifle.
    “ Está bien, ” Sister Maria Elena said, smiling to reassure him. “ Conozco a este hombre. I know this man. He is a friend.” Lifting a hand in greeting, she called, “ Señor Langley , cómo está usted? How are you?”
    The man in the road hesitated then lowered the rifle to his side. “Miss Elena? That you?”
    “ Sí. It is good to see you after so long.”
    “Well, I’ll be.” Grinning, Langley continued toward the buggy. He had been with the rancho for many years and was one of RosaRoja’s most trusted hands. If he was still here, then hopefully the brothers would be as well.
    He stopped beside the buggy, looked at the driver, then peered down the road they had just traveled. “Jack with you?”
    Hiding her disappointment behind a smile, she shook her head. “No. I hoped he would be at the rancho.”
    “Haven’t seen him since the two of you left.” As Langley’s faded blue eyes looked her over, a frown drew his gray brows together. “Are those nun clothes?”
    “Novitiate.”
    “Well, I’ll be.” He scratched at the whiskers on his jaw. “The folks at the house know about this?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Well, I’ll be.” Apparently having run out of words, he stood blinking and scratching until the man seated beside her shifted impatiently.
    “You mind?” the driver said. “I got to get back to Val Rosa by dark.”
    “Right.” Leaning his rifle against the buggy wheel, Langley lifted his hands to