Silence filled the cab of the truck as Lester drove to Hartmann City.

At the store, Jamie wandered around a time then sat on a bench and drank her cup of tepid vending-machine hot chocolate while Lester visited with the cashier. After Jamie put the cup in the trash, she walked over to the pay phone. Lester and the cashier were both watching her.

There was no slot for her coins. A sign on the front of the phone said PHONE CARDS ONLY. She walked over to the cashier. “I need to buy a phone card,” she said.

“We have to go,” Lester said, taking Jamie’s arm.

“But I need to make a phone call,” Jamie said, jerking her arm away.

“I can’t let you do that,” he said.

On the short drive to the ranch house, she didn’t bother with conversation. She watched glumly while Lester put the truck in gear and headed for the stretch of gravel road that separated Hartmann City from the ranch-house compound. As they approached the security gate, he fished around in the compartment in the door, patted the pockets of his jacket, and felt in the crevice between the seat and the seat back. Then he leaned forward and felt under the seat. “Damn!” he said. “What have I done with the remote? Do you see it anyplace?”

Jamie scrunched down in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. It was his problem, not hers. She had wanted to think that Lester was a friend of sorts, but she had no friends at Hartmann Ranch.

He pulled to a stop in front of the gate, got out, and looked behind the seat. Then he slammed the door, walked over to the intercom, and pressed a button. Jamie watched while he conversed with someone at the security office and the gate began its slow opening arch. Lester continued talking. Probably he was telling on her. The bad girl who tried to make a phone call. Or maybe he was reporting the lost gate opener.

“I probably dropped the damn thing when I had to pull you out of the ditch,” he said as he got back in the truck. “I’ll have to drive back there and look for it.”

“You didn’t pull me out of the ditch,” Jamie reminded him. “I got myself out.”

Once through the gate, Lester drove a little faster than usual, using speed to sooth his frustration. Just before reaching the circular drive to the ranch house, he braked abruptly, and the missing opener came sliding out from under the seat. Jamie glanced at him to see if he had noticed, then surreptitiously dropped one of her gloves on top of it.

When the truck came to a stop, Jamie made a show of looking for the missing glove, then bent over and scooped up the glove and opener together.

Even as she performed this act, she wondered what exactly was motivating her. Perhaps it was just that the opportunity had presented itself. Most likely she would never have any use for the device, but if at some future moment in time she found herself needing to open a gate and drive a vehicle through to the other side, it would be good if she had the means to do so.

“Come on, Ralph,” she said and jumped out of the truck without a thank-you or a good-bye. Before opening the front door, she thrust the opener in her pocket.

When she entered the great hall, she found it abuzz with activity. Boxes of decorations were scattered about the room, and the house staff and gardeners were busy decorating the tree and hanging garlands. Someone had set a boom box on a table, and Elvis Presley was singing “White Christmas.”

Miss Montgomery, wearing a heavy white sweater over a navy dress, was overseeing the decorating. She offered a small nod in Jamie’s direction but did not invite her to join in. Everyone else avoided eye contact with her as she self-consciously wound her way among the boxes on her way to the stairs. She was not a member of the ranch family. She would not be included in their Christmas celebration.

Jamie wondered if Amanda and her husband would celebrate Christmas at the ranch. And Gus Hartmann.

Jamie would be curious to see Amanda. Would she be wearing maternity clothes, or had the problem she’d alluded to during her last visit brought an end to her pregnancy?

If she really had been pregnant in the first place.

As she climbed the stairs, the sound of Elvis singing about glistening treetops and sleigh bells in the snow filled the vaulted space of the great hall. She’d never experienced a white Christmas, which probably wasn’t an unusual occurrence in the Texas Panhandle, but Jamie couldn’t bring herself to care one way or the other if she woke up to snow on Christmas Day. She wished there were some way to banish the day from her calendar. She thought of melancholy prisoners in their jail cells on Christmas Day longing for their families and better times. That’s how it would be for her. Except that she didn’t have a family to long for. “Oh, just stop it!” she told herself as she and Ralph walked past the chapel. Ralph looked up at her. “Not you, sweetie,” she said, bending to stroke his head. “I need to stop it. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s self-pity. I have my health and my darling dog,” she said. Then, thinking of Sonny Hartmann, she added, “And a future.”

Back in her apartment, she put the remote gate opener under the lining of her grandmother’s sewing stand alongside the other items hidden there. Then she picked up the phone.

Listening ears or no, she had an almost pathological need to speak to someone from the outside world. And Lenora had encouraged her to call if she had any concerns. Well, she had some now. Of course, maybe all she needed was to hear how stupid her misgivings sounded when she said them out loud. “I need to make a call to the office of attorney Bentley Abernathy in Austin,” she said.

“I have no authorization for you to make a long-distance call,” the man’s voice said.

“How do I get authorization?” Jamie asked.

“You need to speak with either Chief Kelly or Miss Montgomery.”

Jamie put down the phone then fumed for a while, walking back and forth and working up a head of steam. Then she headed back downstairs, anger coursing through her veins, ready for a confrontation.

Square-shouldered, she made her way through the boxes and bustle. People with startled faces were stepping to one side, allowing her to pass. When she reached Miss Montgomery, she said, “I need to speak with you.”

Jamie had expected a reprimand. Instead the housekeeper nodded. “Let’s go into the library,” she said.

Jamie followed her. Every eye in the room was on them as they crossed the hall.

In the library, Miss Montgomery closed the heavy double doors. She turned and, wearing an uncharacteristically benevolent look, said, “I understand that you tried to make a phone call.”

“My, word certainly travels fast around here,” Jamie observed.

“I know you are upset, Jamie, and you have every right to be. I am so sorry. I should have explained things more carefully.”

Taken aback by the woman’s unexpected apology, Jamie studied Miss Montgomery’s face, trying to judge her sincerity. “I was told that I had to have permission to make a phone call,” Jamie said. “Okay, I request permission to make a phone call. I want to call the secretary in the legal office where the contract with that all-important privacy clause was created. She already knows who I am and why I’m here.”

“The contract states that you are not to have any outside contacts while you are here at the ranch,” Miss Montgomery said. “Surely you can understand that. Nowadays so many telephones are equipped with caller ID.”

“But Lenora already knows that I’m here,” Jamie insisted.

“But someone else might be listening on the line. I’m sorry, dear, but I just can’t allow it. I should have reminded you that communication of any sort violated the contract, but I didn’t want to upset you-not in your condition. Pregnancy is such an emotional time under usual circumstances, and your circumstances are unusual.”