visited the Sheridan area in 1984 and purchased polo ponies from there.
The ranchers’ wives’ club is my own creation, though the Sheridan Inn is an actual building and was the hubbub of social events back in the day. Buffalo Bill Cody was part owner of the inn and was reported to have auditioned acts for his Wild West show on the inn’s front porch.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency opened a branch location in Denver, Colorado, in 1886. James McParland became the superintendent of the Denver office in 1888. As one of the most famous of Pinkerton’s detectives, McParland is best known for infiltrating a gang of assassins in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. And while the position of head female detective is fictional as far as I know at this time in the agency’s history, Allan Pinkerton, the agency’s founder, did employ the first female detective in the U.S., Kate Warne, in 1856.
My hope for this story is that readers will enjoy Edward and Maggy’s adventure, their chance at love and their realization that we are all of unchangeable worth, regardless of what we do or what has happened to us.
I love hearing from readers. You can contact me through my website at www.stacyhenrie.com.
All the best,
Stacy
But if we hope for that we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it.
—Romans 8:25
To my editor, Elizabeth.
Thank you for believing in that first story and the ones that came after. I’ll be forever grateful for your outstanding help with this part of my writing adventure.
Contents
Near Big Horn, Wyoming, April 1898
Edward Kent studied the gaping hole in the barbed wire fence and the trampled posts. This wasn’t the work of an animal—at least not the four-legged kind. Anger heated his neck more than the weak spring sunshine did as he slapped his cowboy hat against his leg.
“How many horses wandered off?” he asked his ranch foreman, West McCall.
“Ten, maybe fifteen. Some of the boys are rounding them up now.”
Edward dipped his chin in a curt nod. “Good. See that one or two of the others repair the fence.”
“Yes, boss.”
“We’ll put as many of the horses in the main barn and the corral as we can at night, for the time being, so we can post guards.”
“Will do.” McCall mounted his horse and rode off in the direction of the large barn and the wranglers’ quarters.
After jamming his hat back on his light brown hair, Edward wrestled one of the toppled fence posts until it stood moderately upright. New wire and fresh postholes would fix the fence. But it wasn’t likely to fix
