Dear Reader, I wrote Forget Me Not because I wanted to revisit one of my favorite childhood landscapes, the wild mountains of Wyoming. It is a place where anything can happen, and does. In those mountains Alana and Rafestruggle against their tangled past of tragedy and betrayal. Together they solve the twin mysteries of a savage death and the terrifying blankness of amnesia. Together they find danger, forgiveness, and transcendent love. Beautiful Dreamer is my love song to the men and women of the modern American West. A woman called Hope is fighting to keep alive a ranch that is dying for lack of water. A mysterious drifter known as Rio comes to her and offers to find water on her land. She accepts, never knowing that she will find in Rio a man to match her dreams, a man who gives her everything and takes nothing, a man who believes he loves only the wind sighing over the land, calling his name, calling him away ... Dear Reader, I wrote Forget Me Not because I wanted to revisit one of my favorite childhood landscapes, the wild mountains of Wyoming. It is a place where anything can happen, and does. In those mountains Alana and Rafestruggle against their tangled past of tragedy and betrayal. Together they solve the twin mysteries of a savage death and the terrifying blankness of amnesia. Together they find danger, forgiveness, and transcendent love. Beautiful Dreamer is my love song to the men and women of the modern American West. A woman called Hope is fighting to keep alive a ranch that is dying for lack of water. A mysterious drifter known as Rio comes to her and offers to find water on her land. She accepts, never knowing that she will find in Rio a man to match her dreams, a man who gives her everything and takes nothing, a man who believes he loves only the wind sighing over the land, calling his name, calling him away ... New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell has more than eighty titles published to date with over twenty-four million copies of her books in print. She lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with her husband, with whom she writes novels under a pseudonym. Her favorite activity is exploring the Western United States to find the landscapes that speak to her soul and inspire her writing. Forget Me Not and Beautiful Dreamer By Elizabeth Lowell HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2005 Elizabeth Lowell All right reserved. ISBN: 0060847719 Forget Me Not Chapter One When the phone rang, Alana was almost relieved. Though it was before dawn, she was wide awake. Since she had come back from Broken Mountain, she had slept very little, and never peacefully. Kicking aside the tangled sheets, Alana turned toward the phone. It was too early for anyone she knew on the West Coast to be up and about. That meant it was probably her brother in Wyoming calling to see how she was. Calling to see if she remembered what had happened on Broken Mountain. "Hello," Alana said, keeping her voice steady with an effort. "Sis? Is that you?" "Hi, Bob. How's Merry?" "Counting the weeks until February," said Bob, laughing. "If she gets much bigger, well have to put her in a stall with the brood mares." Alana smiled at the thought of petite, blond Merry tucked into one of the heated stalls Bob kept for his prize mares. "Better not let Merry hear you say that," Alana warned. "Hell, it was her idea." Bob paused, then said, "Sis?" Alane's hand tightened on the phone. She had heard that tone before, little brother to big sister, a smile and affectionate wheedling. He wanted something from her. "When are you coming home?" Bob asked bluntly. Alana's heart began to beat too fast. She. didn't know how to tell her brother that she was frightened by the thought of returning to the ranch where Broken Mountain rose steeply, mantled in ice and darkness. Before her last trip to Broken Mountain, Alana had loved the ranch, the mountains, the silence, the heights, and the clouds swirling overhead. She had loved the memories of Rafael Winter?Rafe reflected in every lake, every fragrant forest, sunsets and sunrises sweeping across the land like fire, the wind's keening harmonies echoing the music Rafe had made on his harmonica. Alana had come to love the land even more because she and Rafe had been part of it, lovers suspended between sky and mountains, more beautiful than either, timeless, burning with the sun. But now those mountains terrified Alana. Now the memories of Rafe were a brittle, cutting armor that she pulled around her like the colors of dawn, hoping to drive away the horror and darkness that crawled up out of the abyss of those six missing days. "I don't?" Alana began. Her brother interrupted before she could refuse. "I've already talked to your agent," Bob said cheerfully. "He told me you've refused to accept any concerts and won't even took at the songs he sends to you." "Yes, but?" Bob kept talking. "So don't tell me how busy you are," he said. "If you're writing songs agai