Accidental Family by Lisa Bingham

Author:Lisa Bingham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-12-04T16:43:57+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Charles carefully maneuvered his horse through the snow, keeping his mount to the portion of the trail that butted up against the mountain. Here, the drifts remained in shade and stayed frozen and firm. The last thing he needed was for his mount to stumble in the loose powder and come up lame.

He’d been riding for several minutes, going slowly, his eyes sweeping the path ahead of him, looking for the slightest sign that Jenny had come this way.

The chances of finding anything were slim. It had snowed several times since the night of her murder, and the winds had been strong. Even now, a veil of flakes fell in front of him, allowing only a few feet of visibility.

Grimacing, Charles hunched deeper into the collar of his coat and jammed his hat more firmly on his head.

If he’d thought things through, he would have waited until the weather cleared. The wind was growing sharper, stronger, driving the snow against his cheeks. Beneath him, his horse grew skittish and kept tossing her head as if to tell Charles that they were going the wrong direction.

“I know, girl. I know,” he murmured, patting the animal on the side of her neck. “We’ll just look inside the cabin and then head for home.”

Home.

For the first time in his life, Charles felt an inner glow at the word. Willow and the twins had definitely done that. They’d taken the cold bachelor’s quarters and made them feel like a haven.

How was such a thing possible? He really didn’t know much more about Willow than he had before they’d married.

No.

That wasn’t quite true. He might not know the exact place of her birth or her favorite flower, but he knew the important things. She was loving and gentle, resourceful and brave. She was the kind of woman that any man would be proud to claim as his own.

And she was his wife.

At least for the time being.

He squinted into the storm until, at long last, Charles could see the dim outline of a structure up ahead. Veering his mount in that direction, he urged the beast to hurry. If Jenny had left any kind of trail to track, it was buried now. The only way to check out his hunch would be to look inside the building itself.

He waited until the mare had stepped beneath the roof’s overhang, then he swung to the ground, his limbs jolting from the drop. Charles hadn’t realized how cold he’d become. His joints seemed to creak from the low temperatures and his extremities were already growing numb.

Just a few more minutes. Then he could go back.

He looped the reins around the branch of a scrubby pine tree. Then he gazed around him. He wasn’t sure if it was the wind, the snow or the thought that this could have been the last place Jenny had come for shelter, but the spot between his shoulder blades prickled with uneasiness.

He touched a hand to the holster he’d strapped to his hips, then slid the rifle free from its scabbard.

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