To Mary Jo

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Prologue

      Town of Freedom 1882

       From the journal of Magda Claas—

      I have sisters, not of my blood, but of my heart. Women alone in a rough new land without protection, we formed a family. We settled in this valley bordered by high soaring mountains and traveled by men seeking wives. In this rough land, called Montana by the Indians, we’d come from all parts of the world. Some of us had thrown away hope, our lives ruled by men, yet it glimmered boldly when we decided to take this valley for our own and to call it “Freedom.”

      That is how I feel. These women, and more coming to the town we have created, are my sisters. We want to command our lives, to work hard and to be respected. We want love and husbands, too. We know now, after surviving a year in this beautiful valley, that we are strong and we have pride in what we have built. Not one of us will easily toss that away.

      So we cherish each other as would a family, and we set our conditions for the men who want us.

      Love? Will it come to each of us? Is it too much to ask of a woman’s life? There are bargains to be made, but it is the hope of every woman to find peace and love. Peace? I am told that there is no peace around me, for I am too busy with life.

      With dreams and conditions, we, the women of Freedom Valley, build our town. Let it be known through this rough land that we protect our sisters, and that any man wishing a bride must first come to us, her family. He must present himself as a prospective candidate, the same as he would come asking a father for a daughter’s hand in marriage.

      He must abide by our Rules of Bride Courting and meet the terms of the Women’s Council. We will have our due as brides and wives and we will come together as sisters, though marriage bonds have tied us to husbands.

      Magda Claas

      Town of Freedom, Freedom Valley

      Montana Territory, July 1882

      One

      My daughter, Kylie, is fourteen and has just threatened to kill young Michael Cusack, or at best, make his life unbearable. In a mood, she can make grown men shiver, but not Michael. Two years older and toughened by life, Michael is seeking curvier, more womanly fare. His father was heavy-handed and drunken, and Michael is not a boy, rather a scarred soul in a boy’s body. I’ve fed him and done for him what his pride would allow. But Michael isn’t the loving sort, trusting his heart to others, and he’s having none of either of my girls. Because he respects me, he will not toy with my daughters, much to their annoyance. Miranda is merely nettled, but Kylie will never forgive that trespass.

      —From the journal of Anna Bennett, descendant of Magda Claas and the mother of Kylie Bennett Patton.

      “Mom?” Unanswered, Kylie’s call echoed through the white two-story house. The mid-September night wind slashed autumn leaves against the windows, and memories whispered around Kylie.

      “Mom?” she called again, her heart tearing, for Anna Bennett would not be answering her children’s calls. She lay by her husband’s side in Freedom Valley’s small cemetery; a semitruck at a foggy intersection had cut her life short just eleven months ago. “You’re here, I know you are, Mom,” Kylie murmured.

      Kylie’s brother, Tanner, was now off on his honeymoon, remarried to his childhood sweetheart, Gwyneth. They would return to their ranch near Anna Bennett’s tidy, small farm. In her mother’s darkened house, Kylie stood by the windows, scanning the small sleeping town of Freedom. Its cluster of twinkling lights spread into Montana’s night stars. In the three days since Kylie had returned, she’d learned that little had changed in Freedom Valley. The Rules of Courting and the Women’s Council still managed to nettle the Bachelor Club, composed of single men banded together for protection.

      Kylie knew most of them; they were her brother Tanner’s lifetime friends. They were more like her brothers, since she and her sister, Miranda, had tried to make use of their frequent visits to Anna’s house. Only one of the tall, swaggering devastating males could really upset her—Michael Cusack. Back then, she’d wanted to leap upon him and tear him to pieces.

      Grown up and divorced now, Kylie didn’t want to think about Michael Cusack. Before her mother’s funeral and her brother’s wedding, she hadn’t seen Michael in years, purposely missing him on her frequent visits to her mother’s. An older, very tough looking Michael had been at Anna’s funeral and Tanner’s wedding. According to Leonard at the gas station, Michael had been back for three years and was running a small electric service company—while he tended the mysterious women and children who came to stay with him. Kylie tensed, nicked by the slight annoyance she always experienced when Michael’s name hovered around her. Through her early dating years, Michael had cut short her experimental escapades with fascinating men. One look at Michael’s dark, ominous expression and the fascinating men seemed to shrivel away. He had the hard, blunt face of a fighter, the mysterious jade-green eyes of a poet, a mouth that could be line-thin and cruel or curved with laughter and warmth. That tall, lean body moved restlessly, like a wolf prowling, never relaxing, always ready to spring. His black rough-cut hair and thick,