High-Caliber Cowboy by B.J. Daniels

Author:B.J. Daniels [Daniels, B.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488032226
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Anna moved to the window overlooking the lake. Brandon stared at her slim back, too shocked to speak.

“Sarah says she never saw my mother again,” Anna continued. “She sneaked back upstairs and pretended she knew nothing. The next morning, my father said the baby was stillborn and that my mother had left. No one was to ever mention her name in the house again or speak of the baby.”

Brandon had heard about Anna’s mother, Helena VanHorn. The woman was said to have been beautiful, with long black hair and a face like an angel. Obviously that’s where Anna had gotten her beauty. But like everyone else, he’d heard that she’d run off. He hadn’t known anything about a baby.

“Sarah never breathed a word, afraid of what my father would do to her. She left his employ shortly after that. She was dying when she wrote the letter and said she couldn’t go to her grave with the secret. She’d heard I wrote for a newspaper in Maine and sent it there. But the letter got lost and didn’t find me until nine years later.”

Her story left him horrified. “The nanny’s sure she heard the baby cry?”

“Yes. She was in a room directly above my mother’s,” Anna said.

“What happened to the baby’s body?” he asked joining her at the window.

She shook her head. “I can only assume he got rid of it and locked my mother up in Brookside.”

“Is it possible she’s still alive?” Brandon asked.

“I doubt it. When Brookside closed, my father would have made sure she was never allowed to tell her story and there was no other place for her to go that he wouldn’t be found out.”

Brandon went cold inside at even the thought that any of this could be true. Mason VanHorn had a reputation for being a bastard and Brandon had seen firsthand how vindictive he could be. But he couldn’t imagine the man doing something so heinous to his own wife.

“You don’t believe it, do you?” she said, putting the envelope away. He could hear the hurt in her tone.

“I’m sorry, but you have to admit this is one hell of an accusation. You’re sure that this woman who wrote the letter didn’t get it all wrong? For all you know, she might have been suffering from dementia. None of this might be true.”

“That was my first thought. That’s why I contacted Sarah’s niece, who was with her when she died. Sarah was rational and very much in control of her senses when she wrote the letter. The niece didn’t know what was in the letter, but had mailed it at her aunt’s request nine years ago. If the letter hadn’t gotten lost, I might have been able to talk to Sarah before she died.”

Brandon moved around the room, too restless to sit. “My God, do you realize what you’re accusing your father of here?”

“Yes. And not just my father. He had to have had help that night.”

“Dr. Ivers would never go along with this,” Brandon said.

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