Chapter One

Camille Angelique Dupree stood on the boardwalk in San Angelo, watching the drunken stagecoach driver attempt to load the luggage. She winced as he dropped a valise for the third time, prompting an angry exclamation from the owner, Mrs. Watson. Unlike the other passengers and the ticket agent, Camille remained outwardly calm, projecting an image of serenity that came partly by nature and mostly by training.

Her dear departed mother's oft-repeated admonition echoed through her mind. Always remember that you are descended from two of the oldest and finest families in Louisiana. You are a lady, and a lady does not display her temper, particularly in front of her inferiors.

Not that Camille considered the stage driver or anyone else as inferior. Life had taught her the lesson her mother had never quite understood - that being born to wealth and privilege did not make one person better than another. Character mattered far more, especially when one was left with nothing else.

Sighing in resignation, she stepped down to the dusty street, intending to ask a young clerk standing nearby to have her luggage returned to the hotel where she had stayed the past few days. Though anxious to reach Willow Grove, risking her neck to do so was sheer foolishness. There would be another stage in a day or two, with a different driver, she hoped. "Mama, he'll kill us all!" The shrill voice rose above the argument between the ticket agent and driver.

"Calm down, Joanna." Mrs. Watson rapped her teenage daughter's shoulder with a closed fan. "Going into hysterics will not help."

"But what can we do?"

Camille stopped beside them. "