Heart of the Falcon by Francis Ray

Author:Francis Ray
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780312614300
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 2011-07-21T07:42:46+00:00

Chapter 11

It was all Madelyn could do to keep a smile on her face as she turned back to the children. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that no one had noticed her reaction to Daniel’s leaving.

She just hoped they didn’t all pounce on her at once. She couldn’t take that. Tears pricked her eyes. She was not going to cry. She was not.

Not once, no matter how hurtful the offense, had she ever cried in public. Not when Kali Jefferson invited every girl in the sixth grade to her birthday party except Madelyn; not when her date at the senior prom left her to take another, more willing girl home; not when she was repeatedly treated like a nonentity at Sinclair.

Not once. She was stronger than this. A tear formed, hovering on her lower eyelid.

“Madelyn, I need your help setting up things on the back porch,” called Victoria.

Madelyn glanced up, blinking rapidly to clear the tears away. Not once, because she’d always known her family was one hundred percent behind her. Not once, because she had been taught to let no obstacle stand in her way. She sniffed. But Lord, she had never hurt this deeply before.

She sniffed again, her hands digging into the empty pockets of her sundress. Where was a tissue when she needed one?

“Madelyn, come on. I’ll meet you on the back porch,” Victoria told her, then started for the house. Kane followed.

Her heart sank. Interrogation time.

After walking only a short distance with his wife, Kane kissed her on the cheek and went to stand by his brother. “Baby sis, you better hurry or I might decide to take care of things in my own way.”

Madelyn took off. It was a subtle warning. She was being offered a reprieve. The interrogation—and she was sure that was what it was going to be—would come later.

By the time Victoria reached the screened back door, Madelyn had it open for her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, he still wants to talk with you,” Victoria said.

“Matt, too.” Shannon Taggart walked up to them. “So do we smuggle you out the front door, or do you want Victoria and me to make the supreme sacrifice and find some other way to take our husbands’ minds off their big-brother routine?”

Victoria’s hazel eyes narrowed mischievously. “Speak for yourself about sacrifice.”

Madelyn laughed as the three of them entered the house. Her brothers’ wives were beautiful, loving, and unpretentiously wealthy women in their own right. Victoria owned a chain of six upscale lingerie boutiques called Lavender and Lace. Shannon had inherited her wealth, yet continued to work as a nurse practitioner on a voluntary basis in Jackson Falls where she and Matt lived.

What endeared them to Madelyn was their unfailing love and devotion to their husbands. Husbands who loved them just as much. Her smile died. That was something she might never have.

Shannon’s hand gently touched Madelyn’s. “Your business is your own, but for what it’s worth, some men aren’t easy to love or understand.”

“Women, either,” Victoria added.

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