"You outdid yourself this time, Cookie," Grady declared when he had disposed of his first piece. The others readily concurred.

The cook grunted sourly. "I never had nothing to do with them pies. Miss Felicity made them."

A moment of silence greeted this announcement, and then the room exploded with compliments and reaffirmations that they were all very glad indeed that Miss Felicity had come to visit.

Shyly, she lifted her gaze to where Mr. Logan sat, but when her eyes met his, her heart sank down to her shoes. He wasn't pleased. He wasn't pleased at all.

As Josh listened to the men raving over Felicity, his expression grew grimmer and grimmer. Even the pie-which was, he admitted grudgingly, the best he'd ever had-began to taste like sawdust as he watched them mooning over her. As delicious as the pie was, he knew she'd be a much sweeter morsel, and he guessed the rest of them knew it, too. At least none of them would pass up an opportunity to find out.

After what seemed like hours, the men finally finished off every last crumb of the pies. Ordinarily, at this point they would have adjourned to the front porch for a smoke, but today no one was about to move from the room as long as Miss Felicity was in it. Felicity picked at her pie, trying not to feel unnerved at the attention she was getting. After a few moments of hemming and hawing, Cody Wells, who had managed to claim the seat to her immediate right, thought of something to say to break the silence.

"Your wagon… it said you're a photographer," he ventured.

Felicity looked up. "Yes… that is, my father was," she admitted reluctantly, not wanting to pursue the subject of her late father.

As if sensing her wishes, he skirted that topic. "Do you know how to make pictures, too?" he asked hopefully.

Josh almost snorted at the idea of such a thing. "Don't be ridic-"

"Yes, I do," Felicity replied simultaneously, silencing Josh.

"I've always wanted to get my picture made," Cody reflected to no one in particular, and several of the other men chimed in with "Me, too."

Felicity glanced around the table. The men were perfectly sincere and pathetically eager in their enthusiasm. The tiny seed of an idea that she had been nursing began to sprout. Here was a perfect way to earn some money with which to repay Mr. Logan. He obviously didn't like the idea of her in his kitchen. "I'd be happy to make your pictures," Felicity said, eliciting whoops of pleasure from the men.

Felicity once again lifted her eyes to meet Mr. Logan's across the table. Her breath caught at the intensity of that silver gaze. Unable to quite read his expression, she knew a shivering unease at the thought that he might not approve this plan either. "That is, if Mr. Logan says it's all right," she amended.

"Don't be pestering her, boys. She's had a hard time of it, and she needs some rest," he said, effectively dousing everyone's enthusiasm.

"They aren't pestering me!" Felicity objected, but the sight of Mr. Logan's frown silenced her further protests. She swallowed the irritation that was rapidly building into anger over his interference in her idea and forced a placating smile to her lips. "I really don't mind. It's the least I can do after all you've done for me. This is such a fine-looking ranch, you really ought to have some photographs of it to have for your grandchildren to see," she said, repeating something her father had often said to convince reluctant customers. Of course, she didn't know if Mr. Logan even had any grandchildren or whether he ever hoped to have any, but it was an argument she knew to be effective. Mr. Logan didn't look all that convinced, though.

He wasn't, but mention of his future grandchildren struck a responsive chord. "Well, if you want to…" he said, a little reluctantly.

"Oh, I do," she assured him.

"How about tomorrow," someone suggested eagerly.

"No, I gotta wash my good shirt…" someone else objected.

"Wait a minute!" Josh silenced them. "You men have work to do tomorrow, and besides, Miss Felicity is still recovering. I think Saturday would be soon enough."

Felicity, who wasn't sure exactly what day it was today, asked, "How soon is that?"

"Day after tomorrow," Cody Wells told her, and from his expression she knew he was far from pleased about it.

Understanding his disappointment, she comforted him. "I have to check my chemicals anyway. I may need to get some fresh supplies before I can do the pictures. And we'll need to move my wagon to the ranch," she added, suddenly remembering that important detail.

"We'll fetch it tomorrow," Cody offered with puppylike eagerness. "The ground should be plenty dry by then."

Again Josh dampened everyone's enthusiasm by asking, "How much do you charge for making someone's picture?"

"Fifty cents a picture," she said, a little chagrined at having to discuss her fees so publicly. Naturally, she would never accept money from Mr. Logan.

From their murmurs, the men thought her price more than fair. For a few minutes the men discussed possible poses and the clothes they would wear, until Josh blandly suggested that the meal was over and Cookie might be wanting to clean up. Reluctantly, the men began to rise and carry their dirty dishes to the wreck pan by the kitchen door and make their way out of the room.

As he passed by where Felicity still sat, Cody Wells leaned over with a happy smile and said, "I'm real glad you'll be staying at least until Saturday, and not just for the pictures, either."

At any other time, Felicity would have blushed at such a flirtatious remark, but this time she hardly registered Cody's implied meaning. His words about her staying at least until Saturday had lodged in her mind, stirring up all sorts of unpleasant images.

Very soon she would have to decide where she would go when she left the Rocking L Ranch. For so long she had had just one goal, to get to civilization, to where other people were who could help her. Now that she was here, she suddenly realized that her problems were just beginning. Where was she going to go now? Not even one possibility came to mind, and Felicity found the blankness of that future horrifying.

She barely even noticed when some of the other men made parting remarks along the same lines as Cody's, and she only nodded absently in response.

"Felicity?"

Felicity looked up to where Mr. Logan still sat at the head of the table. The rest of the men had gone, and the two of them were now alone in the room. She waited expectantly.

Josh fought the urge to wince at the vulnerability reflected in those enormous blue eyes. He was a fool to keep her here. If he had a lick of sense, he'd be trying to think of someplace besides Blanche's to take her instead of planning activities for her here. "Felicity, we need to talk," Josh said, rising from his chair.

Felicity waited, watching as he moved toward her. He was so tall, so forbidding, and she felt her heart racing in her chest. What was he going to talk to her about? Nothing good, she knew, not from the way he had been glaring at her all during the meal.

She tried to meet his gaze as he lowered himself into the chair that Cody had earlier vacated. His grim expression did little to reassure her.

"Have you thought about where you're going to go and what you're going to do now?" Josh asked after a few seconds of silence.

Felicity shook her head.

"Well," he continued, with forced heartiness, "you must have some family, some relatives someplace. We could contact them and-"

"I don't have any family," she said.

"But you must," Josh insisted. "An aunt or uncle? Cousins?"

Felicity shook her head again. "No one. My mother died about ten years ago. If she or Papa had any relatives, I don't know about them, and now that Papa is…" Her voice quivered and she paused a moment. "Now there's no one," she concluded simply.