Kona Winds

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

THE CAR TIRES crunched over the narrow, snow-packed street emptied of traffic by the late midnight hour. Warm air blasted from the heating vents inside the car, but it couldn't hold back the invading cold from outside.

"Brrr! I wish I were back in sunny California." Julie Lancaster clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering.

"It's only the first of January. Winter has just begun," warned Marilyn Stuart, who was driving.

"Don't remind me!" Julie snuggled deeper in her heavy parka and moved her chilled feet in a more direct line to the heating vent blowing on the floorboards.

A native Californian, Julie had lived in the Boston area for the past five and a half years. The company her father worked for had transferred him here just before the start of her senior year in high school. At the time, Julie had vowed that as soon as she had graduated she was returning to California to attend college, but a certain young man had changed her mind. That romance waned into nothing her first year in the Boston college. After that, other considerations kept her there—mostly the increased financial burden of transferring to a California college where she couldn't live at home and where tuition costs would be higher.

"Home sweet home," Marilyn announced as the car rolled to an idling stop at the curb.

Julie's mouth gaped in a tired yawn that she couldn't stifle. Her back and legs protested their weary soreness when she attempted to move. "I don't know whether to soak my feet or just fall into bed," she sighed. Almost eight straight hours of standing and walking had made her feet feel like two swollen, throbbing appendages at the end of her legs.

"At least the tips were good tonight," her fellow worker consoled.

The way Julie felt, she had earned every penny of the money in her uniform pocket, but she didn't say so. "Thanks for the ride home, Marilyn." Her hand hesitated on the door handle. Tired as she was, there was a matter that Julie had intended to discuss with Marilyn, but she had forgotten it until this moment. "Listen, if you're going to keep chauffeuring me back and forth from the restaurant, we're going to have to come to some kind of agreement about the gasoline."

"Your place is on my way home," her co-worker said shrugging.

"Maybe so, but it's worth something to me not to have to stand out in the cold waiting for a bus," Julie argued.

"We'll talk about it." Marilyn postponed the discussion to another time.

Julie was so tired that she let her. "Good night." She pushed the door open and stepped onto the shoveled walkway to the house.

Despite the teaching degree she had, Julie hadn't been able to obtain a position in her chosen field. While her good looks and easygoing manner were assets as a waitress, they had proven to be a hindrance when she applied for teaching posts. All her life, Julie had wanted to teach American history at the high school level. Her interviewers had all expressed grave doubts about her ability to control a classroom when she didn't look older than her students, but without experience, she hadn't been able to disprove the doubts. It was a depressing circle.

The one bright spot was the substitute teaching post she had with one of the Boston public schools. Through it, she hoped to gain the needed experience, but so far, the teachers had been disgustingly healthy and minus any family emergencies. Only twice had Julie been called in. She wouldn't have obtained that post if it hadn't been for the strong recommendation she had received from the parents of a teenaged girl she had privately tutored.

In the meantime, she supported herself by working nights as a waitress. It practically eliminated her social life, but she was usually too tired to be overly concerned about that.

The house was dark as she approached, except for a flickering square of light coming through the sheer curtains of the front window. She inserted the house key in the lock, turned it and pushed the door open. Standing in the doorway, she turned and waved to Marilyn who had waited at the curb to make sure she had got safely into the house.

Over the low rumble of the car's engine as Marilyn drove away could be heard the sound of a television discoursing its late-night fare of old movies. It was the same greeting Julie always heard when she entered the closed-off entryway with its staircase to the second floor. She glanced at the door where the sound was coming from and the corners of her wide mouth lifted briefly. Mrs. Kelly, her landlady, was addicted to television, especially the late, late movies.

A month after Julie had received her college diploma, her father had been transferred again, this time to Florida. She could have gone with her parents, but she had decided it was time she were wholly independent. In June of this past year, she had rented the apartment from Mrs. Kelly, which consisted of one large room with a bath.

The second floor of the old house had been converted into three rooms to let. Because of her working hours, Julie knew her fellow lodgers only by sight. Both worked during the day, which precluded much opportunity of forming close friendships. The two other women seemed nice, but Julie didn't know either of them well.

With a last glance at the front door to be sure the night lock was bolted, she moved to the stairs. The second step creaked under her weight. Before she reached the third step, a door opened and Humphrey Bogart's voice was clearly recognizable from the television sound coming from the room.

"Julie—it is you. I thought I heard the door," Mrs. Kelly declared in a very Bostonian accent.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Kelly, I didn't mean to disturb you." Julie paused on the stairs.

Her landlady was in her sixties, widowed, with an abundance of pearl-gray hair piled in a bun on top of her head. Typically it was askew. Mrs. Kelly claimed to be five feet tall, but Julie doubted it. With the added height advantage of the staircase, she thought that the older woman looked even shorter. There was something about the woman that reminded Julie of a leprechaun. Maybe it was the constant twinkling in her eyes.

"You didn't disturb me." Mrs. Kelly waved the apology aside. "I've been listening for you."

"You have?" Julie murmured inadequately, hoping her landlady wasn't going to invite her in to share some hot chocolate. Julie had accepted such invitations in the past, but tonight she was just too tired.