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Chapter 1
“Are you sure that’ssolid?” Mabel Lefrak eyed the barnyard muck dubiously.
As a large animal vet, she didn’t notice the tangy smell of cow manure that hung heavy in the air, but she’d been in her share of mucky places, and to her at least, the slop in Carol Smith’s barnyard looked like it could swallow a person whole.
“Yes. I’m quite sure. I had my nephew put that box in the shed last fall. He walked right over without any problems.”
There was a difference in precipitation between the fall and spring seasons in North Dakota, which could have a rather large impact on whether Mabel was able to walk across it, or whether she got sucked into Middle Earth.
But Carol had mentioned she had an antique that quite possibly had belonged to the great Annie Oakley. Animals might be Mabel’s first love, but anything Annie Oakley was a close second. She just hadn’t been able to figure out how to make a living by reading and studying about the famed sharpshooter. So she became a vet instead.
That made as much sense as pretty much everything else in her life so far.
“All right. If you say so,” Mabel said, even though the reason she chose to proceed had more to do with getting her hands on something Annie might have touched and less on Carol Smith’s word that the ground between the edge of the barn where they currently stood and the shed that housed the box was solid.
Not that she didn’t trust Carol. After all, she’d agreed to move in with her to help her out until her nephew was able to move in or, from what Mabel understood, move her out, since the nephew had a business in Chicago and she couldn’t imagine he’d want to move to North Dakota.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Famous last words. Except they weren’t as Mabel picked her way carefully over the cushy but firm ground.
It didn’t help that Billy, the Highland steer who typically hung out in the town of Sweet Water but, for some reason, had chosen to visit Carol today, stood in a spot where his hooves had sunk in so the mud was up to his knees.
“What are you doing here, Billy?” Mabel said as she moved past him. She’d have to ask Carol after she made it back. Billy didn’t really belong to anyone. The whole town took care of him, and in return, he brought in tourism dollars, since he’d developed a bit of a reputation as a matchmaking steer.
“You’re wasting your time here,” Mabel murmured. But Billy didn’t seem to care and kept on chewing his cud, his eyes half-closed.
She wished she were as calm as he was, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the mud in the barnyard was a lot deeper than anyone thought and that one wrong step would have her sinking up to her armpits.
She had to breathe a sigh of relief when she made it to the storage shed. She’d never actually heard of anyone getting stuck in a barnyard and needing to be pulled out by a crane or something, but she’d watched cows step through mud up to their underbellies and a farmer that she’d worked with once had lost an entire boot in deep muck.
Still, all she had to do was grab the box and walk back and she could say she survived.
Opening the door of the shed, she peered in.
“There aren’t any lights,” Carol called from her—safe—spot on the other side of the barnyard.
“Okay,” Mabel called, distracted. The shed was piled floor to ceiling with boxes and bags and oddly shaped items that looked like they’d been packed in by a professional. Not a centimeter of space was wasted.
“It’s on the right. It’s about this big.”
Mabel looked over her shoulder. Carol had her hands up, indicating the box wasn’t super huge. She turned back around, looking for something about that size on her right.
Stacks of boxes and some things covered with a sheet met her gaze as it slid sideways. She bit down on her lips, squinting in the dim light, her heart beating just a touch faster than normal. She could be within seconds of touching something that once belonged to Annie Oakley.
There. On top of a pile of boxes, uncovered, alone, a deep mahogany rectangular box resided, almost like a queen on her throne.
Reigning over a barnyard of muck and a shed full of...whatever a person who was almost seventy took with them when they moved from Oklahoma to North Dakota.
Mabel stepped toward the box, picking it up reverently. Annie Oakley could have touched this very box.
Almost overcome by curiosity about what, exactly, was in the box, she resisted the urge. She couldn’t open it without Carol.
Instead, she tucked it carefully under her arm and walked out of the shed, closing the large wooden door carefully behind her. If the things were worth moving from Oklahoma to North Dakota, they were worth taking the time to make sure the door was closed and they wouldn’t be exposed to the elements.
Maybe it was her excitement over the box, or maybe it was the fact that Billy had moved a little to the left from where he’d been standing and she didn’t notice it right away. Maybe it was just something that was bound to happen.
Whatever it was, Mabel took a slightly different path through the barnyard on the way back from the shed. An unfortunate decision on her part since she was just a little over halfway through when she took a step...and the ground gave way beneath her foot.
