Audra's heart pounded with happy excitement when she awoke to daylight and realized the train was descending down the southern slope of the Siskiyou Mountains. Soon, it would enter the northern-most reaches of California's big valley: Her big valley. The force of her excitement surprised her.

She'd had to change trains at Portland's Union Station and was relieved to be able to board an overnight train bound for southern California with several stops along the way, one of them Sacramento. She had made the short train ride between Sacramento and Stockton many times as a young woman so had no anxiety about making the last leg of her journey.

As the sight of Spanish oaks and the soft, rolling hills surrounding the town of Red Bluff came into view, memories flooded her mind and soul and, for the first time in a long time, she let them.

When she returned from what was her first trip to Europe, she thought she was ready to get married. She and Carl Wheeler were engaged within a month of her return but soon she was having doubts about marriage to Carl and about life on a ranch when she met Charles.

Carl was a wonderful man, a friend of her brother's, but he was a local man with local visions and dreams. Charles, well, Charles was older, and so commanding, like her father had been. He was adoring and attentive, and he was also very wealthy with diverse business interests all over the world. Life with Charles, she thought at the time, would be exciting and glamorous and full of adventure.

She wasn't wrong about that, really. Looking back, however, she cringed at how Charles' attentiveness had turned into something she found relentless and confining. Obsession was not a word that came to her mind easily but it seemed the best choice.

She wondered how differently her life might have turned out had she put aside her desire for glamour and excitement and settled down to ranching with Carl. Would she have been happier than she was now? She wondered if she was happy enough now.

~~BBB~~

James made a sincere and formal apology to each adult and to each of his male cousins before the family said grace and ate dinner.

Will sat to Jarrod's right and asked a number of thoughtful questions about water rights and land use laws. This interest in law had persisted for a couple of years but always as it related directly to the ranch and not to abstract or general legal matters. Jarrod wondered if this second son of Nick's might follow his own path and choose not to remain on the ranch.

Emily wanted Will to pursue whatever interests he had and she harbored the strong suspicion that his interests were intellectual and not cattle, horses, and crops. Seeing him talk with Jarrod, she hoped Jarrod would inspire and encourage Will. And Nick's plans for the future of the ranch would simply have to be altered, just as his own father's plans had been.

At the children's table, Ellie and Leah talked about literature and poetry, particularly the work of Emily Dickinson. Vicky and Carrie also found some common interests in music and fashion and trying to understand men. And themselves.

Jane caught Emily's eye and nodded towards the girls, pleased the cousins seemed to be bonding better than during previous visits. Emily also noted Grace who sat, not with the other girls, but at the adult table talking about horses with Tom and Nick. Poor Grace, born a little too late to be a full-fledged member of the "girls' club," was always the third or fifth wheel, depending on how many cousins were present. It didn't seem to bother her much, though. She was one of those people who seemed quite comfortable with herself. It wasn't that she was haughty or snobbish in any way. It wasn't even that she was independent from other people so much as she was independent from what others thought she should be. It was a quality that made her proud father love her that much more.

~~BBB~~

Audra's train was delayed in Corning for a few hours but she wasn't concerned. She was closer to home now than she had been in years and she would get there. She had a bite to eat at a restaurant and sent a wire to her family saying she really didn't know what time she would get in.

Later, in Sacramento, she had to wait a few more hours for the train to Stockton. Stockton!