The Archer Family Ranch, Books 1 - 5 (PAPERBACK)

Rosemary Archer sighed at the happy faces in the shadow of the tall, brick schoolhouse, both young and old, almost all of them eating ice cream at the fundraiser for Tombstone’s growing schoolhouse. School would be starting in a couple of weeks, and as in other growing Western towns, the funds allocated for schooling local children was not quite keeping pace with private ventures—saloons, theaters, and restaurants most among them.

Rose looked up at the bell at the top of the school, smiling at the memory of having spent her school years in this very building. She closed her eyes and the images were so vivid that she almost heard the school bell ringing, the wind in her pigtails as she ran toward it. She never wanted to miss a single minute, her books tied together and flopping behind her as she raced toward the open doors. 

“Where are you, Rose?” Rose’s eyes flew open to see the smiling face of her friend, Suzanne, each of her hands holding one of identical twin girls.

“Why are you standing there with your eyes closed?” Lily, one of the five-year-old blonde twins, asked. 

“Shush, now, Lily.” Suzanne gave her daughter’s hand a squeeze. Lily’s brows drew together and she looked up at her mother. 

“Why? She was.” Lily pulled her hand from her mother’s and crossed her arms over her chest, her bottom lip extended as far as it could be.

“You look silly with that face,” Lucy, her twin sister, said as she regarded Lily around her mother’s full skirts.

Rose laughed at the clear difference in personality of the twins, thankful that there was at least that to know which one was which. Without that, with their identical faces and the same long, golden hair it would be impossible to tell. 

“How could you tell them apart before they could talk?” she asked Suzanne. 

Suzanne shook her head slowly. “We couldn’t for the longest time. I had to get them different color rompers until we could. Even now, if they don’t want us to, it’s difficult.” She craned her neck, surveying the crowd. “I need to introduce myself to the new headmaster and apologize in advance as they start school this year,” she said with a chuckle and another affectionate squeeze of the twins’ hands.

“Mama, can we have some more ice cream?” Lucy gazed up at her mother with warm, pleading eyes that Rose thought could probably melt anyone’s heart.

“I can’t do that now, love. I need to sell some more raffle tickets to buy new books.” She turned again, her eyes cast toward a group by the tree. “If I could just find your father...”

“Oh, Suzanne, let me take them. I’d love to,” Rose said. She was met with delighted squeals and a look of gratitude from Suzanne as she reached for the twins’ hands. She headed toward the tables where mothers were serving bowls of what she hoped would be peach ice cream—her favorite—and passed by the small play yard of the schoolhouse. Rose glanced over at a small group of children sitting under the large pecan tree that had provided the only shade in the play yard behind the school for as long as she could remember.

“Girls, do you know who those children over there are?” she asked, confusion clouding her face. “Why aren’t they here having ice cream?”

“I don’t know,” Lucy said as she turned to look in the direction Rose had nodded her head. 

“I don’t either, but let’s go get them,” Lily said. “Everyone should have ice cream because we don’t get to very much.”

Rose stopped in her tracks after the three of them had walked several steps toward the small group of children under the tree. Her eyebrows rose as her eyes met those of a young boy, about the age of the twins, his eyes growing wide as he saw her approach. Her heart pinched as he turned, said something to the group and they scattered as if they were spores of a dandelion blown by the wind.

“That’s odd,” she said under her breath, watching as they turned the far corner of the schoolhouse and disappeared. 

“I haven’t been able to speak to them yet,” said a deep male voice behind her and she started in surprise. 

Turning back toward the ice cream—and the voice—Rose found herself looking up at one of the tallest men she’d ever met, a full head taller than she was, and followed his concerned gaze to where the children had been. 

“Hello, Mr. Tate,” the twins said in unison, and Rose suddenly realized she was standing in front of the new headmaster, the man the school committee had brought all the way from Boston. The memory of her father’s assessment—tall, seemed decent, well-educated and no cause for concern—flashed through her mind as she tilted her head and looked into his deep, brown eyes. She hadn’t asked at the time, but she wondered now what her father had meant by no cause for concern.

The handsome man in front of her removed his bowler hat, a lock of wavy, brown hair falling forward as he placed his hat on his chest and took a small bow. As he stood and replaced his hat, he said, “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Mr. Tate, the new headmaster.”

Rose smiled as Lily giggled and said, “We just said that, Mr. Tate.”

“Well, it bears repeating as a formal introduction, Lucy,” Mr. Tate said.

Rose tried to stifle her laugh with her hand as she knew what was coming. “I’m Lily, Mr. Tate. When will you ever learn?” Lily said as she pulled her hand from Rose’s and ran over to the ice cream table, having lost all of her remaining patience. 

“Come on, she’ll eat all the ice cream.” Lucy tugged at Rose’s hand, pulling her away from the adult introductions and toward the peach ice cream.

“Very nice to meet you, Mr. Tate,” Rose said over her shoulder as she turned to see him staring after her, his lips turned up in a grin and his head cocked to one side as she disappeared into the crowd.