Amanda explained their plans. According to Jamie’s menstrual cycle, the first attempt at insemination could be made the following week and would be done by the fertility specialist here in Austin. Should any further attempts at insemination be necessary, a fertility specialist in Amarillo would perform them. Jamie would receive a ten-thousand-dollar advance payment today and have the week prior to the insemination procedure to get her affairs in order. After the procedure, she would be flown to the ranch in their private plane.

“I’d rather drive,” Jamie said. “I have my grandmother’s car.”

The room got very quiet. Mr. Abernathy, Lenora, and Toby all looked nervously at Amanda. “But I thought Lenora had explained the terms of the contract to you,” Amanda said in her same soothing voice, but the look on her face was one of displeasure-a look that made her seem less lovely. “Once the contract has been signed, you will not be allowed to drive a vehicle.”

“But I have several things I need to take care of over the next week. And I’ll need my car after the baby is born.”

“It can be stored here in Austin. We’ll see that you have transportation back to Austin after the birth of the baby.”

“Everything I own is in that car,” Jamie explained. “I would just feel more comfortable if I had it with me at the ranch.”

“Very well,” Amanda said with just a touch of irritation in her voice. But the smile had returned to her face. “If the car is that important to you, Lenora can arrange for it to be transported to the ranch. And you can go ahead and run your errands. Just remember that you will be drug-tested before the insemination procedure, and from the minute you are inseminated, you will be closely supervised, Jamie. I want you to understand that. We want this baby so very much and will make sure that everything possible is done to assure a successful pregnancy.”

“Does that mean I will have no privacy?” Jamie asked.

Amanda shook her head. “Not at all, dear. But we do expect you to adhere to our wishes, and I hope you can see things from our viewpoint. Everything we know about you says that you are an exemplary young woman who has every intention of fulfilling her end of the bargain, but we have to make sure of that for our own peace of mind. Once we have ascertained a level of trust, you will have a reasonable amount of privacy, but you must realize that you are never to leave the premises unaccompanied or communicate with anyone outside the boundaries of the ranch.”

Jamie nodded and swallowed a dose of reality. These people seemed nice enough, but they were not going to be her new best friends. This was a business deal. She was a brood mare. They were paying to use her womb.

She had no best friends. She had only herself.

“I’d like to get a dog,” she said, surprising herself. Where had that come from?

“I beg your pardon,” Amanda said, a frown marring her smooth forehead.

“I want to bring a dog with me.”

“I didn’t realize that you had a dog.”

“I don’t. Not yet, at least. But I will by the time I leave for the ranch.”

“I see,” Amanda said, her lovely smile back in place. “Well, I think that’s a fine idea. Now, before we sign the contracts, I would like for us all to join hands and pray for the success of our endeavor.”

Amanda stood and waited while everyone else followed suit. She reached for Jamie’s hand and that of her husband, who in turn reached for Mr. Abernathy’s hand. That left only Lenora, who seemed unsure as to what she was going to do. Mr. Abernathy held his hand out to her, and with a shrug, she joined the circle, and Amanda began her prayer. “Our heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us this innocent young woman. Bless the journey we are beginning with Jamie Long this day and continue to guide our footsteps as we carry out your bidding…”

The complete adoration in Amanda’s voice struck a cord in Jamie’s mind. She had heard that voice before. She opened her eyes and regarded the woman’s uplifted face. Her expression was one of pure rapture. Jamie had seen her before. On television. Praying, just as she was now.

Jamie joined the others in echoing Amanda’s “Amen.” Amanda opened her eyes and greeted Jamie’s gaze with a beatific smile.

Amanda’s prayer had touched Jamie’s heart. These were godly people. She would be safe with them.

THEIR LAST NAMES were different. She was Amanda Tutt Hartmann, spiritual leader of the Alliance of Christian Voters. He was Toby Travis and apparently also involved in the Alliance. They were constantly exchanging looks and touches, which led Jamie to believe that they were very much in love. The ring on Amanda’s finger was a simple gold band. For some reason that impressed Jamie. It seemed more sincere than an ostentatious show of diamonds.

With the contracts signed, arrangements discussed, and an envelope in her purse containing a ten-thousand-dollar cashier’s check and a post-office-box number, Jamie shook hands with Amanda and Toby. In a daze, she walked to the nearest bank.

It was really happening.

The plan she had hatched out of desperation had come to fruition. She was both relieved and…

And what?

Afraid, perhaps.

But what did she have to be afraid of?

Well, for one thing, pregnancy itself. And her own emotions. She was setting sail on an uncharted sea.

She opened a checking account and with a new checkbook, an ATM card, and more cash than she had ever carried in her life tucked in her purse, she walked back to the office, her mind racing ahead as she thought of all the things she needed to take care of during the upcoming week.

When she entered the law office, Lenora looked up from her computer. “You okay?” she asked.

Jamie nodded.

“The procedure-an inner-uterine insemination-is scheduled for Monday morning, and you will be required to give a urine specimen for a drug test before it takes place. Afterward I will be spending every minute with you until I deliver you to the airpark on Tuesday morning, at which time you will be flown to the ranch.”

“I want to check out of the hotel this afternoon,” Jamie said, “and move to someplace that will let me keep a dog.”

“I guess that’s okay. Just let me know where you are as soon as you’ve made the change, and I’ll arrange to have the room billed to the office. So, what kind of dog are you going to get?”

“A lonely dog.”

“Good idea,” Lenora said.

Jamie sat at the table in her hotel room and wrote checks to pay off her credit cards, a task that left her feeling giddy with relief.

It took her less than thirty minutes to pack and check out. She threw her suitcase on top of the pile of assorted possessions stored in the backseat of her car and drove first to a post office and then to a motel just across the river that claimed to be pet-friendly in its Yellow Pages ad.

Once she had checked in, she grabbed a sandwich and headed north on I-35.

The monument company was located near the cemetery. The late-afternoon sun beat down unmercifully as the stonecutter showed her through the display yard. Jamie chose a simple monument that looked much like the one Granny had placed on her husband’s grave all those years ago.

In the air-conditioned office, Jamie wrote out an inscription-just her grandmother’s name and dates. There was no way to say in a few words what an incredible woman she had been and how much she had been loved by the granddaughter she had raised. “But I would like for you to carve a bird over the inscription,” she told the stonecutter. “My grandmother loved birds.”

Her business concluded, Jamie drove into the cemetery and placed a rose on her grandmother’s bare grave. “I won’t be visiting you again for a long time, Granny,” Jamie said, “but I’ll think of you every day.”