Dangerous Legacy by Valerie Hansen

Author:Valerie Hansen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

The leisure time Flint shared with his son and the women flew by. If he’d had his choice, Maggie would not have insisted on going home alone. She stubbornly rejected the idea of letting him accompany her even though her own mother urged it.

“All I’m going to do is my usual chores, just like every other day. Wolfie will warn me if there’s a problem.”

“And chase off a dangerous pack of wolves?” Faye asked.

“If necessary. Flint never did find any sign of predators when Wolfie got hurt, so there’s a good chance there never were any. Everybody knows a trapper like Elwood can make animal noises better than most animals can. I sure wouldn’t put it past him to do it to scare me. Or to try to stir up trouble.”

“That would explain the boot prints I found,” Flint said. “Is he likely to have doctored your dog for you?”

Maggie said, “No” without hesitation. “But Robbie might have.” She made a silly face. “And, no, I did not put him up to tying Wolfie to a tree so one of the Witherspoons could shoot a Crawford, okay?”

“I never really thought you did. I was just...”

“Mad at me. I know. You had good reason.” She paused, checking to make sure her son was playing with the dog instead of listening. “But try to see it from my side. You left Serenity without a word and I didn’t hear from you afterward. Why should I have tried to find you to tell you about Mark?”

Scowling, Flint looked first at Faye, then back to Maggie. “I left you a note. And I wrote letters, at least in the beginning.”

“You never.”

“Ask your mother.”

Both of them faced Faye, whose cheeks and nose had turned the color of a bad sunburn. “It wasn’t my doing.”

“Mother!”

Teary-eyed and wringing her hands, Faye tried to explain. “You know how your father could be. He was as hateful as the rest of my kin—and he’d only married into our feud. Everybody kept insisting that you were better off without Flint. After a while I guess I started to believe it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You and Mark filled a terrible void in my life after Frank died, and I knew if I fessed up you were liable to leave me all alone.”

“I don’t believe this.” Looking stunned, Maggie turned to Flint. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were glad to be rid of me.”

“You couldn’t have asked me?”

“How? I knew you’d joined the service, but that was all. I didn’t even know which branch at first.”

“Bess and Ira did. You could have approached them.”

“With a baby in my arms? That would have gone over like a lead balloon. Besides, what makes you think they’d have told me?”

“Bess would have, at least back then. Now I’m not so sure. Ira has turned into a mean old cuss since I’ve been gone. And she tends to back him up, even if he’s wrong.”

“I’m sorry about that, too,” Maggie said, “but at least his failings brought you back.

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