A Lyon's Share

Janet Dailey

Janet Dailey’s Americana Series

Dangerous Masquerade (Alabama)

Northern Magic (Alaska)

Sonora Sundown (Arizona)

Valley Of the Vapours (Arkansas)

Fire And Ice (California)

After the Storm (Colorado)

Difficult Decision (Connecticut)

The Matchmakers (Delaware)

Southern Nights (Florida)

Night Of The Cotillion (Georgia)

Kona Winds (Hawaii)

The Travelling Kind (Idaho)

A Lyon's Share (Illinois)

The Indy Man (Indiana)

The Homeplace (Iowa)

The Mating Season (Kansas)

Bluegrass King (Kentucky)

The Bride Of The Delta Queen (Louisiana)

Summer Mahogany (Maine)

Bed Of Grass (Maryland)

That Boston Man (Massachusetts)

Enemy In Camp (Michigan)

Giant Of Mesabi (Minnesota)

A Tradition Of Pride (Mississippi)

Show Me (Missouri)

Big Sky Country (Montana)

Boss Man From Ogallala (Nebraska)

Reilly's Woman (Nevada)

Heart Of Stone (New Hampshire)

One Of The Boys (New Jersey)

Land Of Enchantment (New Mexico)

Beware Of The Stranger (New York)

That Carolina Summer (North Carolina)

Lord Of the High Lonesome (North Dakota)

The Widow And The Wastrel (Ohio)

Six White Horses (Oklahoma)

To Tell The Truth (Oregon)

The Thawing Of Mara (Pennsylvania)

Strange Bedfellow (Rhode Island)

Low Country Liar (South Carolina)

Dakota Dreamin' (South Dakota)

Sentimental Journey (Tennessee)

Savage Land (Texas)

A Land Called Deseret (Utah)

Green Mountain Man (Vermont)

Tidewater Lover (Virginia)

For Mike's Sake (Washington)

Wild And Wonderful (West Virginia)

With A Little Luck (Wisconsin)

Darling Jenny (Wyoming)

Other Janet Dailey Titles You Might Enjoy

American Dreams

Aspen Gold

Fiesta San Antonio

For Bitter Or Worse

The Great Alone

Heiress

The Ivory Cane

Legacies

Masquerade

The Master Fiddler

No Quarter Asked

Rivals

Something Extra

Sweet Promise

Tangled Vines

Introduction

Introducing JANET DAILEY AMERICANA Every novel in this collection is your passport to a romantic tour of the United States through time-honored favorites by America's First Lady of romance fiction. Each of the fifty novels is set in a different state, researched by Janet and her husband, Bill. For the Daileys it was an odyssey of discovery. For you, it's the journey of a lifetime.

Preface

When I first started writing back in the Seventies, my husband Bill and I were retired and traveling all over the States with our home - a 34' travel trailer - in tow. That's when Bill came up with the great idea of my writing a romance novel set in each one of our fifty states. It was an idea I ultimately accomplished before switching to mainstream fiction and hitting all the international bestseller lists.

As we were preparing to reissue these early titles, I initially planned to update them all - modernize them, so to speak, and bring them into the new high-tech age. Then I realized I couldn't do that successfully any more than I could take a dress from the Seventies and redesign it into one that would look as if it were made yesterday. That's when I saw that the true charm of these novels is their look back on another time and another age. Over the years, they have become historical novels, however recent the history. When you read them yourself, I know you will feel the same.

So, enjoy, and happy reading to all!
 

Chapter One

"FOR heaven's sake, Joan! Stop being an old stick in the mud!" Kay sighed impatiently. "Name me one thing you have planned to do tonight that can't be put off until tomorrow."

Joan Somers refused to meet her room-mate's accusing gaze as she gathered the wrappings from her sandwich and the empty milk carton on to the canteen tray.

"That isn't the point. You know how I feel about blind dates," Joan stated.

"Ed can hardly be classified as a blind date. He's John's brother," Kay argued.

John Turner was Kay's fiancé, a likeable man, but in Joan's opinion, dull and unexciting. His one endearing quality was his devotion to Kay, a love that he managed to show in a hundred different romantic ways. Still, it was unlikely that Joan would find his brother's company any more stimulating than she found John's. He simply wasn't her type, although at twenty-three she was beginning to wonder if she had a type.

"Why don't you ask Susan instead?" Joan suggested, referring to the girl that operated the switchboard.

There was a derisive roundness to Kay's sparkling brown eyes. "Have you ever known Susan to have a free hour on the weekends? That girl has more men around her than a bunch of nude bathing beauties," her room-mate replied scornfully. "She'd never have a Friday night open."

"That's true," Joan agreed. A twinge of self-pity reminded her that she was the only one who seemed to spend most of her weekends in her apartment—alone.

"You simply have to go tonight," Kay pleaded. "John only found out this morning that Ed was flying in to meet me. There isn't anyone else I can get on such short notice."

"He's coming in to meet you," Joan emphasized. "Why don't the three of you just go somewhere for dinner?"

"Ed, is John's brother, not his uncle!" Kay declared rising to her feet and following Joan as she left the table.

Joan glanced at her watch. "Let's discuss it after work tonight," she stalled. "I have to get back to the office."

"I can't wait until five o'clock." Her room-mate ignored the hallway that branched to their right, the hallway that led to the computer department where Kay worked, and followed Joan into the sector of the private offices of Lyon Construction. "John is picking me up after work and we're going straight to O'Hare Field to meet Ed when he gets off his plane. I have to know now."

Joan was backed into a corner and she knew it. Even as she held back her agreement, she knew she was going to give in to her friend's persuasions. She had no valid reason not to agree. Joan prided herself on being practical and logical, which made her superstitious avoidance of blind dates seem childishly silly.

Simply because she had met Rick Manville on a blind date four years ago and had fallen victim to his charm only to discover there were many other victims to keep her company, there was not any reason to think she would make a fool of herself again. There had been more humiliation than hurt when she had realized she was just another girl to him. Looking back she could see how very callow he had been, but at the time, Rick had seemed manly and strong. It had taken a truly strong and self-assured man to make her see that, though.

"Joan, you simply have to come tonight," Kay insisted again in a pleading tone. "John and I are counting on you."

Her gaze studied the cocker spaniel look of the pert brunette beside her as Joan paused at the outer office door. In so many ways, she and Kay were such opposites. Kay, with her dark pixie curls, was slight, petitely built, bubbling with an outgoing personality while Joan was statuesque and full-figured, her long amber hair coiled in a practical bun on the back of her neck. Her eyes were a warm brown but without that special sparkle of Kay's. Her attitude was as friendly as her room-mate's, but quieter and less obtrusive. It was difficult for Joan to meet strangers on a social basis, especially men. Kay would enter into a project with madcap abandon while Joan would efficiently organize each step.

Instead of trying to find a way out of the blind date, Joan knew she should be leaping at the opportunity to have a night out. Too many weekends she had spent alone lately. Still, it was difficult to force the words of agreement through her lips. She pushed open the door to her office and walked in, with Kay on her heels.

"You can't let us down," Kay repeated. "We want to—"

The rest of her sentence was lost as she caught sight of the man standing beside the open drawer of the filing cabinet. Kay's face was immediately wreathed with a bright smile.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Lyon."

But her cheery greeting didn't alter the rugged planes of his face as he nodded curtly in Kay's direction before his sharp blue gaze swung to Joan. There was an aura of boundless energy and an unshakable stamp of command and competence, simultaneously unnerving and reassuring.

"Miss Somers, will you please tell me where in this mess I might find the Statler file?" His fingers raked the thick brown mane of his hair before his hand returned to his hip in a challenging position.

The criticism, completely unwarranted, raised Joan's chin a fraction of an inch in defiance. She walked crisply to the metal cabinet where he was standing.

"Perhaps, Mr. Lyon, if you would stay out of the files, they wouldn't be in such a mess," she replied, and began reinserting the partially removed folders. "In the first place, the Statler file wouldn't be in this drawer since this is strictly material suppliers."

With the drawer in reasonable order again, she closed it and pulled open the one beneath it, aware of the tall, broad-shouldered figure towering at her side. At the rear of the alphabetical index under 'S', her fingers fumbled through the folders, the smaller letters of the name tabs blurring before her eyes.

"What's the matter, Miss Somers?" Her employer's wry voice sounded above her head. "Can't you find it either?"

"Yes, I can find it." Joan stiffly straightened and walked to her desk.

Her tortoiseshell glasses of amber and brown were lying beside the telephone. She had often laughed that she could see a country mile, but not an inch in front of her nose. At this moment, she didn't find her dependence on glasses for reading at all humorous.

"But I, unfortunately, can't read the name tabs without my glasses." she stated as she slipped on the glasses and walked back to the cabinet.