After a few moments Eve realized the kitchen was very quiet. She opened her eyes to find Willow smiling gently at her. Reno was watching her as though he had never seen a woman handle a baby.

«You do that very well,» Willow said.

Eve set Ethan back on the counter and began diapering him with matter-of-fact skill.

«There were always babies at the orphanage,» Eve said. «I used to pretend they were mine…a family.»

Willow made a low sound of sympathy.

Reno’s eyes narrowed. If he could have thought of a way to prevent Eve from telling her heart-tugging lies, he would have. But it was too late. She was talking again, and Willow was listening with wide hazel eyes.

«But there were too many older children in the orphanage. Each time the orphan train left, the oldest were shipped off to the West. Finally it was my turn.»

«I’m sorry,» Willow said softly. «I didn’t mean to bring up unhappy memories.»

Eve smiled quickly at the other woman. «That’s all right. The people who bought me were kinder than most.»

«Bought…?»

Willow’s voice faded into an appalled silence.

«Isn’t it time to put Ethan to bed?» Reno asked curtly.

Willow accepted the change of subject with relief.

«Yes,» she said. «He fretted all through his nap today.»

«May I put him to bed?» Eve asked.

«Of course.»

Reno’s eyes followed Eve every step of the way out of the kitchen, promising retribution for wringing his sister’s soft heart.

Ethan's cry came clearly into the kitchen, where Eve and Willow were just finishing the evening dishes.

«I’ll take care of it,» Reno said from the other room. «Unless he’s hungry. Then he’s all yours, Willy.»

Willow laughed as she wrung out the dishrag. «You’re safe. When I finished nursing him an hour ago, he was as full as a tick.»

Caleb’s voice came from the long table just off the kitchen where he and Reno had been working over the Leon journal and that of Caleb’s father, who had been a surveyor for the army in the 1850s.

«Eve,» Caleb called, «aren’t you finished polishing plates yet? Reno and I are having a devil of a time with your Spanish journal.»

«I’m on my way,» Eve said.

A moment later she walked up to the table. Caleb stood and pulled out the chair next to his own.

«Thank you,» Eve said, smiling up at him.

Caleb’s answering smile changed his face from austere to handsome.

«My pleasure,» he said.

Reno scowled at them from the bedroom door, but neither one noticed. Their heads were already bent over the two journals.

Reluctantly Reno went on into the room where Ethan howled over the injustice of being put to bed while the rest of the family was up and about.

«Can you make out this?» Caleb asked Eve, pointing to a tattered page.

She pulled the lantern a bit closer, angled the journal, and frowned at the elaborate, faded script.

«Don thought that abbreviation meant the saddleback peak to the northwest,» Eve said slowly.

Caleb heard the hesitation in her voice.

«What do you think?» he asked.

«I think it referred back to this.»

Eve turned back two pages and pointed with her finger to the odd symbols marching down the margin.

One of the symbols was indeed labeled with an abbreviation that could have been the same as the one on the other page. The letters were so faded it was hard to tell.

«If that’s so,» Caleb said, «Reno is right. It could be referring to the Abajos rather than the Platas.»

Caleb opened his father’s journal and turned pages quickly.

«Here,» he pointed. «Coming up from this direction, the terrain reminded Dad of a Spanish saddle, but…»

«But?»

Caleb flipped pages until he came to the map he had made combining his father’s explorations with his own.

«These are the mountains the Spanish called Las Platas,» he said.

«The Silver Mountains,» Eve translated.

«Yes. And where there’s silver, there’s usually gold.»

The excitement stealing through Eve showed in her smile.

«If you come in this way,» Caleb continued, «at a distance these peaks look a bit like a Spanish saddle, too. But you could say that about a lot of peaks.»

«Did they actually find silver in the Platas?»

Caleb shrugged. «They found silver somewhere on this side of the Great Divide.»

«Nearby?»

«No one knows for sure.»

Caleb pointed to scattered clusters of mountain peaks on the map. Some rose like islands from the red rock desert to the west. Others were part of the Rocky Mountains. At the base of one cluster, Caleb’s ranch was marked in.

Nothing showed at the base of the other mountains but question marks where old Spanishvistasmay have been located centuries before. Yet the land wasn’t quite naked of man’s presence. Drawn in with dashed lines, like the tributaries to an invisible river, rumored Spanish trails led down out of the mountain groups, came together in the canyon country, and headed south to the land that had once been called New Spain.

«But here,» Caleb said, pointing to the heart of the canyon country, «a week’s hard ride to the west, pack trains loaded with silver wore trails in stone that you can still see today.»

«Where?»

«Down on the Rio Colorado,» Reno said from behind them. «Only, the Spanish called it the Tizon in those days.»

Startled, Eve looked up so quickly her head nearly knocked against Caleb’s.

Reno stared at her, his green eyes shimmering with an anger that had grown every time he glanced out of the bedroom and saw the dark gold of Eve’s hair brushing against the thick black of Caleb’s hair as they pored over the journals.

Reno’s anger came as no surprise to Eve. He had been furious with her ever since Willow had insisted that they stay for supper and the night.

What did surprise Eve was the baby gurgling happily in Reno’s muscular arms. It occurred to her that she had rarely seen Reno without his nephew in the hours since they had arrived.

In a man as gentle and giving as her father had been, such pleasure in a baby wouldn’t have surprised Eve. In a man like Reno, it was a revelation that astonished Eve every time it occurred. Nothing in her past had prepared her for it. The hard men she had known were just that — hard. They used their strength for their own ends, and the devil take the hindmost.

Unfortunately, Reno reserved the gentle side of his nature for his family, period. Eve had no illusions that a saloon girl would get the benefit of his relaxed teasing and flashing, beguiling smiles. Nor would she get the benefit of the protective love that he extended to his sister.

Reno was obviously furious with Eve for insinuating herself into Willow’s house and Caleb’s courtesy. Eve knew it each time she looked up and saw Reno watching her with fierce green eyes.

At least he was careful not to let Willow or Caleb see his anger. Not that Eve thought Reno’s restraint was for her benefit. He just wanted to avoid raising any questions he didn’t want to answer about saloon girls and his sister’s home.

«Is that where we’re headed?» Eve asked Reno. «The Colorado River?»

«I hope not,» Reno said curtly. «I’ve heard the Spanish knew a shortcut between here and the Abajos. If they did — and we find it — we’ll cut several weeks off our travel time.»

Caleb muttered something under his breath about fools, lost mines, and a maze of canyons that had no name.

Oblivious to all, Ethan leaned forward and made a swipe at the bright scarf that was holding Eve’s loose chignon in place. When he missed, he protested. Loudly.

«Bedtime,» called Willow from the kitchen.

Eve slid the scarf from her hair. Immediately her chignon came undone, sending a cascade of dark golden hair down her back. She caught up her hair and bound it in a loose knot. Then she deftly reshaped the scarf into a doll with a knot for a head, other knots for arms, and a flaring skirt below.