Dear Lady

June 1, 1897

Dear Mary,
New Prospects, Montana, is nothing like England -- so terrifying and beautiful at the same time, and much larger than I dared imagine when you and I first embarked on our adventures in the New World.

I have had the good fortune of becoming the town's schoolmistress. Young Janie Steele is as precious as I imagined from her letters. As for her father, Garret Steele ... Oh, I feel like such a fool! I've run halfway around the world to escape a man I loathed, only to discover I'm losing my heart to a man still in love with the wife he buried.

The mayor, kind man, has been most attentive. But I wish he were someone else. I wish he were Garret.

With affection,
Your friend Beth Wellington