Revelation of Hearts (Stacey and Shane Mcleod, #3) by Rikki Dyson Page B

come to the ranch next weekend.  It’s terribly important,” Jessie told Lora.
    “What’s this all about?”
    “We’ll tell you when you get there.”
    Whatever the mystery was it would have to wait until the next weekend. Lora now knew, to take the old river road into Rawhide. She was greatly surprised to find the road to the ranch was much improved.  It was now a gravel road, quite navigable. When she saw the house, she thought she must have taken the wrong road. Here was this big two-story house sitting in the middle of a pasture.  It was obvious it wasn’t finished, but it was livable.
    Jessie and Sam came out to meet her as she drove up and stopped out front.
    “Well, what do you think?” Jessie asked.
    Lora could tell by the look in their eyes, that what she and they were seeing was two different houses, so she would not burst their elusion. “It’s magnificent,” Lora said. “When did you do all this?”
    “Over the past year and a half,” Sam said. “My uncle and grandad have been helping us.”
    “We don’t have the porch on yet,” Jessie said, “But it’ll get there. It will be a verandah porch that will go all the way around the house. Come, Aunt Lora, we wanna’ show you the inside.”
    To get to the front door, it was necessary to maneuver three very large flat rocks they were using for steps. Two were stacked on each other. Inside were large bare rooms. Excitedly, Jessie said, “Just visualize Aunt Lora, this is the living room.”
    It was a big bare room with a fireplace. To the right was another room, also bare, except for a rock fireplace. “That’s gonna’ be our den,” Jessie said.  Lora glanced at the staircase. Jessie noticed and said, “We’ll show you upstairs later, but first you have to see Sam’s office.”
    The office was toward the back of the house on the right.  It was another bare room with a large rock fireplace. “This is going to be your medical office?” Lora asked.
    Sam, looked at her as if she were slow-witted and said, “No, Aunt Lora, this is my ranch office.”
    Across the hall was a large room with nothing in it.  Not even a fireplace.  Jessie said with her arms out, “This is our dining room.” The kitchen was worse, it was big too, and it had a sink and part of a cabinet as well as an old stove and a refrigerator.
    “How do you manage out here, you have no gas or electricity?”
    “No, problem,” Sam said. “We have propane.”  Jessie stood beaming beside him. 
    Lora laughed and said, “You two must have pioneering blood in you. What about a bathroom?”
    Sam smiled and said, “Septic tank.”
    Jessie took her aunt’s hand and said, “Come upstairs, you’re not gonna’ believe it.” She was right. There were no walls, just bare frames showing. “We’re gonna’ have four or five bedrooms up here as well as two, maybe three bathrooms. Isn’t it wonderful?”
    Lora put her arms around her niece and said, “Yes, my darling, it’s absolutely wonderful.”
    “Do you remember the big hole in the ground when we first came out here?” 
    “Yes, of course. How could I forget that?” 
    “Well come look, we have a surprise for you.”
    Lora wasn’t sure she could handle more surprises. The basement turned out to be the best-furnished part of the house. There were two main rooms. “Do you live down here?” she asked.
    “Yes, of course we do, when we’re here.”
    Sam knocked on the separating door, and a young Chinese man walked through. “Aunt Lora, we would like for you to meet our new friend, Chen Le,” Sam said.
    The young man bowed and said, “I am greatly honored, Aunt Lora.”
    Lora was quite taken aback, but put her hand out and said, “How do you do, mister Le.  It’s very nice to meet you.” 
    “No, Aunt Lora, his name is Le Chen,” Jessie said.  “In China, last names are first. Come, we’ll go upstairs and tell you all about everything.”
    “It’s cooler down here. Can’t you tell me