CHAPTER 1

The plane climbed steeply out of Ronald Reagan NationalAirport in Washington, DC. From her window seat in first class,Leslie Montgomery looked down on the familiar landmarks.Twenty-nine years, she thought. I can't believe he called it quitsafter twenty-nine years. Leslie felt tears stinging and willedthem away, pretending everything was fine when the flightattendant asked if she wanted a drink. She wasn't going to letHugh's decision ruin her plans—her dream. She had foundwhat she hoped would be the perfect place, the perfect town inMontana, to eventually retire in, and this was the trip when herdream would start to become real. Even without Hugh.

Maybe I should have worked harder to fix the marriage afterKelly left for college, she thought. But he didn't either. In anycase, it wasn't so bad that he had to end it. Especially withoutany warning. We had a comfortable life, even if it wasn't exciting.Twenty-nine years invested in a relationship, a family, a career, atown ... all turned on its head because he wants a divorce.

Leslie took a deep breath and a sip of her drink. She madeherself smile at the businessman beside her and made smalltalk. She could do this. By herself. Four days in Legacy Springsshould be enough to check out the town and find a place tobuy. And if not, she could go back again next month. She wasso busy at work that she shouldn't be gone at all, but she had toget away. Had to do something to feel like she was in control ofher life after Hugh's announcement. She opened the work fileon her lap and tried to concentrate.

The landscape below became more rural as the plane flewwest, the myriad greens of spring spreading across Ohio andIndiana. She wondered when she had fallen out of love withHugh. Or when he had fallen out of love with her. He said hewas in love with someone else. When did that happen? Was shejust too busy to notice or too lazy to care?

The what-ifs ran through her mind for the hundredthtime, but she knew it didn't matter. She had banked on thefuture instead of paying attention to the present. She hadalways pictured them growing old together in a small town inMontana with wide-open spaces and views of mountains allaround. Now she would grow old alone, but by god, she woulddo it in Montana.

Leslie gave up trying to work and pulled her tote bag fromunder the seat in front of her. She slipped the file inside andtook out a small book called Venus is Singing by her favoritepoet, Maggie Madison. She loved the way the cadences capturedthe essence of the West and the words always seemed to beperfect for whatever she was feeling.

She took a deep breath and tried to forget about Hugh. Sheopened the book to one of her favorite passages.

    The gift the mountains give
    Tranquility and peace,
    A place the mind can hold,
    Throughout the storms of life.

She closed her eyes and repeated the words to herself. She'dhad her share of storms, but nothing like this. Nothing that shefelt so powerless to change or that was so contrary to her planfor her life.

Eventually, she dozed a bit, waking when the plane'srhythm changed as they started the descent. Looking outthe window, she hoped they might be flying over LegacySprings, but there was a heavy cloud layer and she couldn'tsee anything until they were almost on the ground. She'dpicked Legacy Springs because it was a real town, not atourist destination like the other places she had considered.Close enough to an airport and some amenities but farenough away to have open space and cattle ranches. Andmountains. Everything she wanted. She couldn't wait to seeit in person.

Leslie felt a tingle of excitement as she got off the plane andwalked down a concourse lined with Western art. The airportfelt friendlier than in DC, and she realized it was because of thenatural wood and stone throughout. She found her rental carcompany, where even the counter was made of wood insteadof plastic.

"We've got you a nice little SUV," the agent said. "The carsare outside in the lot next to the terminal building."

"Thanks. How long do you think it will take me to driveto Legacy Springs? I've got an appointment at four and I washoping to get there early enough to check into my hotel andfreshen up a bit."

"Shouldn't take you much more than an hour unless thepass is bad. You should have plenty of time."

"What do you mean `unless the pass is bad'? Is thereconstruction?"

"No, but there might be snow. Just doesn't seem to want toquit this year. Don't worry. You've got all-wheel drive. You'recomfortable driving in the snow, aren't you?"

"Sure," Leslie said, although it had been a while. When shehad learned to drive growing up in Vermont, the roads wereoften snowy or icy, but she didn't get much practice in DC. Shesigned the form he had put in front of her and dated it. April 18,2008. I will remember this date as the beginning of my new life.Or, at least what I hope will be my new life.

She left the warmth of the terminal building and felt thecold stinging her face and hands. Luckily, the SUV wasn't fardown the row. She quickly threw her bag in the back and gotin, pushing the heat to maximum. The car thermometer readthirty-four degrees, and the steering wheel was icy cold. Thankgod, she'd thrown in a pair of gloves at the last minute, eventhough it had been almost seventy degrees in DC the past fewdays. The sky was dark and heavy, and there was still snow onthe ground anywhere that hadn't been plowed or shoveled.

"Welcome to Montana, Leslie," she said out loud once themirrors were adjusted and she'd found her way out of the rentalcar lot. She was finally here.

From the highway, the landscape was beautiful. Sheconcentrated on the cloud-shrouded mountains she couldbarely see in the distance and the fat snowflakes that hadstarted accumulating on the windshield. There were only afew other cars on the road, and she shivered slightly. Shecouldn't remember the last time she had traveled somewhereby herself. It felt odd not to have someone with her. Not tohave Hugh attached, sitting in the other seat.

Well, she thought, now I really am alone.

She could feel the tears start up again, and her chesttightened. She didn't want to feel that way; she wasn't going tofeel that way. She wanted to be happy. With a practiced effort,she straightened her shoulders and pushed the feelings aside.She forced herself to smile and looked ahead, seeing the roadagain, seeing what was in front of her. Who would have thoughtit would still be snowing in April?

* * *

"Stop leaning on me, you old bugger, or I'll punch you inthe stomach and make you sorry." Peg Hamilton leaned hershoulder against the thick, brown hindquarters of the horse,lifting the left hind leg and bracing the hoof onto her knee soshe could clean it. She had broken this horse as a colt, and theyknew each other well. Which was why she wasn't surprisedwhen he tried his favorite trick of leaning his twelve hundredpounds into her as she pried mud away from his shoe.

Peg finished the cleaning and then patted the nose of the oldhorse before feeding him a carrot. Heading back to the house,she stopped by the breaking corral, where Manny Watkins, heroldest hand, was working with a young mustang that had beenrounded up during the annual federal effort to cull wild horsesfrom the open range. Breaking them took an extra effort, butif you managed to win them over, they were the best workinghorses. And their stamina was unmatched.

The sides of the small breaking corral were high, woodenslats, and she squinted through the cracks to see Mannyholding the horse tightly, forcing him into obedience,and battling him step-by-step. The horse's head rearedcontinuously up and down, up and down, like an oil wellpumping; the snorts from his nostrils punctuated themotion. Manny believed in the old ways. For years, Peg hadtried to convince him that talking softly to a horse wouldget better results, but even though Manny respected Peg'sway with the horses, he continued to literally swear by hisown methods.

Peg looked at her watch. If she was going to get into townthis afternoon to run those errands, she had better leave soon.She shoved her hands into her pockets to keep them warm. Itlooked like it might start snowing again too.

Inside, she grabbed a pair of gloves and her purse beforeheading back out to Lee's pickup that was parked in front of thegarage doors. She didn't want to take time to move the truckto get her smaller sedan out of the garage, so she slid in andadjusted the seat.

The snow was coming down hard by the time she got totown half an hour later. She parked in the grocery store lot butdecided to go down the block to the fabric store first. She bentforward into the wind, the tips of her ears freezing where theypoked above the scarf wrapped around her neck. Crystallinesnowflakes landed lightly on the long braid streaked with graythat hung down her back.

She stepped into the store, stamping snow off her boots.

"Hi, Peg," the woman behind the counter said. "How areyou today?"

"I'm fine, Elaine." Peg loosened her scarf. "I'm makingoutfits for the grandkids, and I need black thread and about ayard of accent fabric."

"Sure." Elaine grabbed a handful of the spools and placedthem on the counter. "What kind of fabric?"

"That green plaid up there would be perfect." Peg pointedat a bolt on the top shelf.

"I'll get the ladder."

"No need. I can reach it." Peg went behind the counter andpulled the bolt from the shelf.

"Need anything else?" Elaine rolled the cloth out to measureit.

"Just a shoulder to cry on. I listed forty acres of the ranchwith Judy Baker last week, and it makes me sick that I had todo it. I only hope she can't sell it."

"Oh, don't be silly. Of course, it'll sell. And you'll be happywhen you get the money. What do you need with all thatproperty anyway? Someone might as well get some use out ofit."

"Unfortunately, I do need the money. That latest scare aboutmad cow disease has the beef market way down again."

"Did you hear that Angus Foley signed one of those contractsto let them drill on his property? He's supposed to keep it quiet,but you know how news travels here." The shears slid throughthe fabric with a zipping sound.

"No, I hadn't heard that. That's not good news. I'm surprisedat Angus. He's usually got a good head on his shoulders."

"Money talks. Have they been round to see you?"

"No, and they'd better not set foot on my property. I haveno use for speculators." Peg paid for her purchases and pulledthe scarf tightly around her neck. "Say hi to the family for me.Thanks."

She did her grocery shopping, gassed up, and was almosthalfway home when she realized she had forgotten to stop at thehardware store. The snow was falling even harder now, and thewind had picked up considerably. Better to go back now than haveto drive all the way in again tomorrow, she thought, pulling overto the side of the road to let cars pass before making a U-turn.A few shafts of shimmering light illuminated the horizon aheadwhere the Hamilton ranch nestled, the mountains on either sideof the open valley now obscured by the storm. Although Peghad spent most of her life here, she never tired of the landscape,the ever-changing weather, or the magical light. Thank you,she said in a silent prayer. Thank you for reminding me that thebeauty of this land does not belong to any of us to buy or sell. Itwill always be here, no matter what.

She turned the truck around and headed back into town.

* * *

Senator Sam Curtis walked through his rambling ranchhouse to a large room at the back that served as his office. Itwas a cold and snowy afternoon, so he made a fire in the oldstone fireplace. He sat behind the huge mahogany desk that hadbelonged to his father, opened the bottom drawer, and pulledout a thick file marked "Subsurface Mining Rights." He hadn'tlooked at it for months and needed to refresh his memoryon the issue before tonight's meeting. He wanted to be fullyprepared.

He leaned back in the worn leather chair and looked out thewindow at the horses huddled together in a corner of the pasture,snow accumulating on their manes. Being home in Montanaenergized him and made him happy to be a US senator. If onlywe could run Congress from our home states instead of sittingin DC, he thought, the nation would be better off. Lobbyistswouldn't have the same influence. The good of the country mighttake precedence over party politics. And I sure wouldn't miss allthat travel time. Flying back to Montana at least every otherweekend and sometimes more often was a grind. Of course,even when he was home, he spent a lot of time flying or drivingto events around the state, making sure he was in touch withthe people who had elected him. But that was his job, and heloved it.

Sam opened the file and began to read. First, the newspaperclippings, then the letters from constituents asking for help,and finally, the collection of court cases. He'd had a thrivinglaw practice when he ran for the Senate and took pride in hisability to quickly grasp the legal underpinnings of any issue hewas dealing with.

After about an hour, he glanced at his watch. He would needto leave soon for the dinner meeting in town with Macfarlaneand Harbinger. Sam shrugged his shoulders from front to back,trying to relieve the tension in his neck. I have to be careful withthis one, he thought. They wouldn't have invited me to dinner ifthey didn't want something.

Sam barely knew Andrew Macfarlane, president of XandexExploration, but ran into him periodically at business functionsand fundraisers since Xandex and Macfarlane were definitelyplayers in Montana. Sam was pretty sure that Macfarlane'scampaign contributions were insurance in case he wantedsomething someday, not actual support. But despite that,Macfarlane was always professional and pleasant when they met.On the other hand, Cortez Harbinger, the Xandex lobbyist, wassomebody who made his jaw tighten up. Harbinger had beenaround for a long time and Sam had never heard anything goodabout him either in Montana or DC. Luckily, he'd managed tokeep Harbinger at arm's length, and he didn't intend for thatto change now.

Sam finished reading and put the file back into the bottomdrawer. He looked at the photo on his desk of himself and hiswife, Karen. Palm trees framed the two of them holding handsacross a table on a Costa Rican beach, a spectacular sunsetbehind them.

I miss you so much, he silently said to the photo. The picturehad been taken a year after the breast cancer diagnosis, at thebeginning of the long, but eventually losing, battle. Karen haddied almost three years ago. He thought about how she wouldhave counseled him before a dinner like tonight's—aboutcorporate greed and the need to protect the environment.She had always stood on the side of the environment, buckingconservative Montana politics, and he had often heeded heradvice: "Do right, Sam."

He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk.Do right, Sam, he thought. Sometimes easier said than done.

CHAPTER 2

Leslie drove toward Legacy Springs, excited to see if the townlooked like what she had imagined or if the Internet photos had,as so often was the case, captured the one good thing about aplace while ignoring the rest. So far, so good, she thought as shedrove over a small pass and down into the far end of a wide valley.The rental car agent had gotten her worried about the drive, butit was fine. Snow covered the road, but the visibility was good.She could see mountains on both sides of the valley, but shecouldn't tell how big they were since the tops were shrouded ingray clouds.

She drove a long straightaway from the pass into town, herexcitement growing. One minute, she was driving past openpastures with horses looking at her across wooden fences, andthe next, she was in a scene that could have been a movie set.She immediately loved the feel of the place, the tired storefrontslooking very homey in the snow. Just like in the pictures. Exceptthat it was snowing and freezing cold in April while cherryblossoms were blooming in DC. She wondered if she was beingdumb about the weather—she'd only been to Montana forskiing in the winter and to the vacation dude ranch in theheight of summer. She easily found the chain motel on theedge of town, but by the time she got to her room, she wasfreezing again. The room was like a refrigerator, so she foundthe thermostat and turned the heat on full blast.