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Sandhurst."
    "Yes, I must go. There are countless arrangements to be made, not the least of which involves informing Manypenny that he will accompany me to Wyoming in your place. D'you suppose he'll be able to contain his joy?" A familiar sardonic smile played at the corners of his mouth. He shook his old schoolmate's hand and said lightly, "I'll see you in a year, and you may squire Lady Clem anyplace you like during my absence!"
    Sir Charles Lipton-Lyons felt his eyes moisten as he watched the Marquess of Sandhurst wheel Thor around and weave his way among the carriages and horses that thronged the Row. When Geoff paused at the corner near Albert Gate, he looked back and tipped his hat, hair agleam in the sunlight.
    Suddenly overcome with bittersweet regret, Charles put a hand to his mouth and called out, "Godspeed, Geoff! Don't forget to write!"

 
     
     
    Chapter 2

     
    Sunshine Ranch,
    near Cody, Wyoming
    April 1902
     
    Lying under plush down-filled quilts in her new brass bed, Shelby wriggled and stretched and considered the day that was spread before her like a wonderful treat. Dawn was edging closer; ice-blue and plum light seeped into the night sky outside her window. In a few more minutes she could jump out of bed, build up the fire, pull on her clothes, and start the fragrant breakfast that would feed six men and herself.
    The ripening morning invariably brought more pleasure.
    Shelby usually put off her work with the ledgers and statements that were piled on her desk, instead saddling up with Titus, Ben, and their four young ranch hands, Jimmy, Marsh, Cal, and Lucius. In May they'd have their first big roundup and brand all the new cattle and calves, but for now there were other tasks to occupy the days. Fences remained unfinished, stray horses and cattle had to be coaxed out of the hills, and others who had wandered into treacherous mudholes in search of the water they'd craved all winter had to be rescued.
    Shelby made a rousing attempt at being one of the boys and was ecstatic to be outdoors on horseback, deep in the splendor of the Wyoming springtime. The Sunshine Ranch was located in the valley that traced the south fork of the Shoshone River. Snow-crowned mountains rose up behind the ranch and beyond lay the magnificent Yellowstone National Park.
    Rolling onto her back in bed, Shelby closed her eyes for a moment and remembered the day she and Uncle Ben had arrived at the railroad station a mile and a half away from the scrappy town of Cody.
    Faithful old Titus Pym had met them with the buckboard. Looking around as they lurched out of town, Shelby felt her sense of trepidation grow. How romantic Cody had sounded when Buffalo Bill had described it! This windswept settlement, built on a sagebrush-dotted shelf of land, was not what she had expected. The buildings were generally rough clapboard affairs, the streets were muddy and littered with tumbleweeds, and silent cowboys and blanket-wrapped Crow Indians paused beside hitching posts to stare at her. Shelby was dressed in a practical dark skirt, a white shirtwaist with a high lace-edged collar, and a coat, but she was aware that her looks were singular enough to attract attention. She'd have been happy to hide her luxuriant rusty curls under a wide-brimmed Stetson hat and her annoying curves under baggy shirts, pants, and chaps if it meant that people would stop looking at her.
    The road they followed southward was barely discernible; it came and went, generally following the Shoshone River. Even though the relentless bouncing nearly tossed her out more than once, Shelby found that the panorama unfolding before her awestruck gaze more than compensated for any discomfort. Homesteads and ranch houses appeared, tiny dots ringed by toy trees, dwarfed by the distant mountains that seemed to reach toward the edge of heaven.
    The Sunshine Ranch, as it happened, was located nearly ten miles from Cody, and the going was slow. During the long ride, she found herself