Chapter 41

"Yes, there's someone else, I'm afraid," Abegail answered in a small voice, her thoughts going to that waterfall cascading outside the Genting Highlands open pavilion of her lover tribal chieftain.

Abegail's return to the Water Creek Ranch for the duration of the war years was a period of fantasy isolation from the world gone mad around them punctuated by shocking reminders that they were part of that world.

Jezzica proved to be a real delight for Abegail—the daughter she had always wanted but that the Spanish flu had ripped out of her arms. Abegail didn't know how she ever could have gotten the notion she'd had that being the daughter of a Hollywood movie star would make Jezzica's adjustment to life in the Water Creek valley an impossibility. The ranch did, indeed, need Abegail's guiding hand, but Jezzica had done very well in managing both the ranching part and the celebrity entertainment part of the business. The clientele now was slightly different than it once had been, being com