"Plush, green pasture grasses stretch out forever before the beauty of rugged, majestic mountains on the horizon, and moonlit skies are scattered over with glimmering stars: Adelaide Plume's Colorado cattle ranch home is akin to heaven itself. Paired with the blessings of a loving family and a cherished, bosom friend, Adelaide's life is bright, secure, and filled with satisfied happiness. Moreover, her father's recent hire of handsome cowboy, Chance Flannery lends an entirely new exhilaration to Adelaide's already picturesque existence. And yet Chance's arrival at the ranch sends Adelaide longing to cast off the appearance of childhood and be seen instead as a refined young woman. The fact that her bullying older brother insists on executing a series of humiliating pranks upon her serves only to frustrate Adelaide further. For how will Chance Flannery ever see her as anything more than a clumsy, tousled schoolgirl when he is forever finding her in awkward circumstances? Still, the town's traditional festivities to be held for Christmas offer Adelaide hope--hope that a transformation of appearance might alter Chance Flannery's perception of her, hope that she will at last be seen as a woman and no longer a child. Nonetheless, an unseen, menacing threat begins to creep into the life Adelaide holds so dear. When all she loves is imperiled, will she stumble into harm's way, just as she always has at the hand of her impish brother? Or will Adelaide become the woman she desires to be and find a strength that even she never knew she possessed?"--Page 4 of cover.