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find someone in Coryville?” Will shrugged into his coat, then glanced out the window at the city of Oakland looming on the horizon.
    “You know I’ve hired four governesses in the past month,” James admitted. “And they were all from Coryville. Remember? The first one was a former faro dealer, the second one was a former saloon girl. Our third governess was a Chinese laundress from the mining camp, and the last one a widow of one of the miners. Not a one of them met my qualifications. But …”
    “But you felt sorry for them and offered them a better-paying job,” Will finished for him.
    James gave a curt nod. “But only because it was convenient for me at the time.”
    “I noticed they didn’t stay very long, but you never told me what happened to them.”
    “The faro dealer was in the habit of sleeping all day. She quit because she didn’t like the early morning hours. I fired the saloon girl for sampling my Scotch and brandy reserves and because I discovered that when she took the Treasures out for their daily walk, she walked them downtown and left them sitting in their carriages on the boardwalk while she stopped in the saloons for a couple of beers. The Chinese laundress didn’t understand why I wanted the Treasures in the first place. She kept encouraging me to sell them and buy myself some sons, so I let her go. And the last one …” James reread the telegram. “Who knows?” He pinned his gaze on Will. “We had already had several discussions regarding our differing views of child-rearing. No, this time I think I’ll do better to look in San Francisco.”
    “I think you’re right,” Will agreed. “Now, I’d better see to the unloading. Don’t forget to give my love to Mrs. G. and the Treasures.”
    “Aren’t you stopping by the house?” James asked, hoping Will would be a calming influence on his housekeeper, Mrs. Glenross, and help provide a distraction for the Treasures.
    “Nah.” Will shook his head. “You decided I should accompany the supplies up to the high timber camps and check on the progress of the track while I’m there. Remember?”
    “I changed my mind,” James told him. “Send someone else.”
    “Too late, Jamie,” Will shot back, halfway through the door of the salon. “I’m already gone. There’s no one else to send. Good luck finding a new governess.”
    He’d need more than luck, James decided. He’d need amiracle. Because finding a governess for his three rambunctious girls was next to impossible.
    Fortunately, James already had someone in mind and the perfect reason to scour San Francisco searching for her.

Four
    “ WE’VE GOT ANOTHER one.” Helen Glenross, James’s Scottish-born housekeeper, met him at the front door with a blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms.
    “Already? That’s wonderful, Mrs. G.” James didn’t look up. He stomped the dirt from his shoes on the front steps of his two-story Georgian-style brick home and shook the few flakes of a light spring snow off the brim of his hat and the shoulders of his coat, then stepped over the threshold.
    Mrs. G. closed the front door behind him as James dropped his leather satchel, removed his heavy wool topcoat and hat and hung them on the hall tree, and wandered into his study. “Will gave me your telegram on the ferry. I didn’t expect to find another one so soon. Tell me, Mrs. G., now that you’ve hired a new governess, have you decided not to quit?” He picked up the stack of mail on his desk and began to sort through it.
    “On the contrary,” she replied, finally grabbing James’s undivided attention. “Not only have I decided to quit, but the way things are going around here, I may leave tonight.”
    James whirled around and faced his housekeeper. “I don’t understand.”
    Mrs. Glenross carefully thrust the blanket into his arms. “This should explain it.”
    James let go of the mail. Envelopes bounced off his trouser legs, and fluttered to the hardwood floor unheeded as he