Текст книги "Charmed by His Love"
Автор книги: Джанет Чапмен
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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 21 страниц)
no rush, as we’re waiting on a special delivery,” he added,
that warmth turning amused—although she had no idea
why.
“You’re getting a special delivery, too?” Peter cried. He
stuck out his tongue. “See, ows wus gwape.”
Peg gave him a nudge. “Don’t talk with your tongue out,”
she said with a laugh. She looked from Robbie to Alec,
then down at her boys. Oh God, she’d never left them with
virtual strangers before. “Um, do you want to go sit on the
tailgate of the pickup with the men?”
Both boys vigorously nodded, and Peg didn’t know if she
was excited that Jacob wasn’t even hesitating or worried
that she was hesitating instead.
“And just as soon as you’re done with your business,”
Robbie continued to her, “you could also join us while we
wait for our delivery.”
Jacob tugged on Robbie’s pant leg. “The fairies don’t
deliver in the daylight,” he said with great authority, adding
a nod for effect. “’Cause you’re not supposed to see her, or
she won’t leave nothing in the mailbox or under your pil ow.”
Robbie smiled. “This fairy is a he, and his name is
Gunter. And I don’t believe his delivery wil fit in a mailbox or
under your pil ow.” His eyes crinkled with his smile.
“Because we’re waiting on a trailer of draft horses.”
Both boys gasped. “You got the fairy to bring you
horses?” Peter cried, immediately turning to Peg.
“ Mommm, we gotta get a boy fairy, ’cause they bring better
stuff.” He turned back to Robbie, having to crane his neck
to see him. “How do we cal your fairy? Or can we write him
a letter like we do Santa Claus? Hey, Santa’s a he, too,
and he always brings us good stuff, not just suckers and
quarters.” He turned to glare up at Peg. “Girl fairies ain’t as
good as boy ones.”
Apparently seeing Peg winding up a good scowl, Alec
squatted down with a chuckle and opened his free arm. “I
beg to differ, Pete,” he said, standing up with Peter on his
arm and looking him level in the eyes. “Some of the nicest
stuff I’ve gotten came from girls.” He shot Peg a wink. “If
you’l excuse us, I do believe it’s time for a tactical retreat
and a smal discussion on genders.” He waited for her nod,
then walked toward the church dooryard.
“Jacob?” Robbie asked, also squatting down and
opening his free arm. “Would you care for a lift, or do you
prefer to walk?”
“I like being tal ,” Jacob said, walking into his embrace.
The boy looked at Peg when his chauffeur straightened. “I
stil like girl fairies, Mom, ’cause I like that they’re sneaky
just like you.”
Peg felt her cheeks turn three shades of red. “You think
I’m sneaky?” she asked, keeping her eyes on her son for
fear of the laughter she’d see in Robbie’s. “Why?”
“’Cause you been finishing Daddy’s house without
nobody knowing.”
Peg relaxed, figuring that was innocent enough.
“And I seen you sneaking them cuton pages out of the
newspapers last week when Mr. Ezra wasn’t looking.”
Peg stepped back with a gasp. “Jacob! I … I—”
“Come on, Mr. Thompson,” Robbie said with a chuckle
as he strode away with the little snitch. “I do believe it’s time
we retreated as wel .”
Peg turned to the building and covered her blistering
face with her hands. Jacob had seen her stealing coupons
out of the newspaper? “Ohmigod, I’m going to burn in hel ,”
she muttered, “and my babies are going to end up there
with me.”
“What was that, Peggy? Who are you talking to?”
Peg spun around to find Christine Richie eyeing her
quizzical y. “Oh, I was just talking to myself, Christine,” she
said, hiking her purse up on her shoulder, then pul ing down
the hem of her jacket. “I was trying to remember what I’d
written on my shopping list because I forgot it at home.”
Christine’s eye lit up. “Did you hear about our new fund-
raiser? We’re going to redo the park this summer, so the
town wil look as grand as that resort Livy and her new
husband are building.”
“I heard,” Peg said with a nod.
Christine’s smile turned pained. “I know we talked about
a widow’s fund and al , but …” She suddenly brightened
again. “But I heard you’re expanding your gravel pit, and
word is you’re going to be a rich woman by the end of the
summer. Oh, Peggy, we’re al so happy for you.”
“Thank you for that. Wel , I guess I better get go—”
The octogenarian grabbed Peg’s arm in a surprisingly
strong grip. “Wait, there’s something you have to know.
Phyl is Jenkins told Janice after our Grange meeting that
her husband and Chris Dubois have gotten themselves al
worked into a thither over that resort being built, and she’s
worried they’re going to cause trouble.”
“But they’re locals,” Peg said in surprise. “Aaron Jenkins
was born in Spel bound Fal s, and Chris moved here from
Turtleback over twenty years ago. What’s their gripe?”
“They don’t like that Livy’s new husband came in here
and bought up al the land for miles around, and Aaron and
Chris are going around tel ing everyone that he’s going to
shut down the forest to logging to keep it pristine for the
resort guests.”
Peg snorted. “More like they’re afraid he’s going to shut
down their night-hunting instead of their day jobs. Chris was
a year ahead of me in school, and even back then al he did
was brag about the ten-point buck he’d bagged the night
before.”
Christine sighed. “I can’t believe he’s been able to stay
one step ahead of the game wardens al these years with
that big mouth of his. Everyone knows he’s a poacher, but
nobody seems to be able to catch him.”
“That’s because he never keeps the meat or the mounts;
he sel s them to some buyer out of state.” Peg shook her
head. “It seems if there’s a dol ar to be made, Chris finds
the quickest and most il icit way to make it. Everyone
knows he’s the one who found that bird’s-eye maple worth
thousands of dol ars on state park land and had it cut down
and dragged off before anyone realized it was missing.”
Christine nodded up the road. “He and Aaron were just in
the Drunken Moose, and they started in about how that
resort’s going to change our entire way of life.”
“For the better,” Peg growled.
“Yes,” Christine said. She leaned closer. “But I’m
tel ing you this because I heard your name come up in their
conversation.”
“My name? Why?”
“Chris said … wel , he said if Bil y were alive, he wouldn’t
be sel ing his gravel to build that road up the mountain.”
“He sure as hel would!”
Christine pursed her lips and looked around. “Chris is
just angry because his mother sold you that land instead of
signing it over to him, and he claims you al but stole it from
Annabel e for what you paid. And,” Christine continued,
squeezing Peg’s arm again when she tried to defend
herself, “he’s saying that just as soon as you’re done
stripping that land bare, you’re probably going to build a
fancy marina to service the resort because you’re right on
the fiord now.”
“Oh, for the love of– They’re only hauling out of my pit
until they open their own on the mountain. I’m not going to
be rich even by Spel bound standards.”
“I know, honey,” Christine said, patting the arm she’d just
been squeezing. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up, is
al . Most of the people here and in Turtleback Station want
the resort, but it only takes a few to make a lot of noise.”
She went back to squeezing Peg’s arm, and Peg hoped
she was that strong when she was eighty. “But I think you
should start locking your doors, what with you and your
babies being way out there al alone.” She suddenly
frowned. “Speaking of babies, where’s Pete and Repeat?
I’m not used to seeing you without them glued to your side.”
“They’re having lunch with some of the men who are
working at my pit,” Peg said, gesturing toward the church.
“They’re sitting on the tailgate of a truck over there.”
Christine shook her head. “It’s too bad they have to grow
up without a daddy. Little boys need a man in their lives.”
She patted Peg’s sorely abused arm again and gave her a
smile. “But everyone sees what a wonderful job you’re
doing with them, and with those beautiful girls of yours. I
raised my Robert up alone from the time he was twelve, you
know. It’s a sad truth that the only work we have up here is
logging and trucking, and that they’re dangerous jobs. That
is, if our men don’t go off to war and get kil ed; either way,
they’re dead and we’re left to go it alone.” She patted
Peg’s arm again. “But you’re young and pretty, Peggy;
don’t wait too long to find yourself another good man. Bil y
would want you to be happy.”
“I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for my next victim,”
Peg said with a laugh, capturing Christine’s hand and
giving it a gentle squeeze before slowly backing away.
“Thanks for the heads-up. I’l be seeing you,” she said,
spinning away and al but running into the Bottomless
Mercantile & Trading Post.
Peg lost her smile the moment she got inside. Dammit to
hel , she didn’t need to be the brunt of Chris Dubois’s
anger, and that pompous ass Aaron Jenkins had better not
show his face anywhere near her pit, either. Because to hel
with Duncan’s dictate; if she spotted those two chest-
beating jerks on her property—especial y after dark—she
was peppering them with birdshot.
“Wel , now,” Ezra said when he rounded a corner
and nearly bumped into her. “Who stuck a bee in your
bonnet?” Ezra—who Peg had learned just ten days ago
was actual y Olivia’s grandfather—looked around and even
behind her. “Where are the little heathens?”
“Having lunch with Alec MacKeage and Robbie MacBain
on the tailgate of Robbie’s truck.”
“Jacob is?” Ezra said in surprise.
Peg nodded and final y smiled. “Those men Mac hired
are miracle workers. Jacob didn’t even hesitate to go with
them today.” She winced. “I did instead.”
“Aw, Peg, you don’t need to cut the apron strings clean
through yet, but it can’t hurt to stretch them a little. I’ve met
al those men, and your boys couldn’t be in safer hands.” He
pul ed her down an empty aisle when several gray-
headed tourists walked in and started ohhing and ahhing over the assortment of just about anything a person needed
crammed into every nook and cranny in the store. “There’s
something I have to tel you. There’s talk—”
Peg held up her hand with a laugh. “Get in line, Ezra. It’s
taken me half an hour just to get from the post office here
because everyone has had to tel me about the talk in
town.” She turned serious, and just barely stopped herself
from patting his arm. “It’s okay; anybody can say anything
they want about my aiding and abetting the new resort, I
don’t care. I’m just so happy that my gravel ran north and
not west that I’m one second away from running down the
center of the road yel ing whoopee!”
Instead of laughing with her, Ezra’s clouded blue eyes
turned pained and he shook his head. “But I’m worried it’s
not going to stop at just talk. Sam and I have moved into
Inglenook while Olivia and Mac are gone so we can keep
an eye on things. Sam’s afraid the few naysayers are going
to try to get their point across in a newsworthy way.” He
touched her sleeve. “There’s plenty of room in the main
lodge, Peg. Why don’t you and the kids come and stay with
us until they’re done hauling out of your pit?”
“Duncan said he’s going to post guards to protect
the equipment, and through the week he and his men wil
be camped just down the road. I’m fine, Ezra, and I don’t
want my children to think anything’s wrong or that we have
to run away and hide at the first talkof trouble.”
“Last I knew, sugaring a fuel tank to seize up an engine is
a tad more than just talking about doing something.” He
shook his head. “I don’t know what Mac had to promise
Olivia to get her to leave this Saturday with al the hoopla
going on here, but I have to say I’m glad she’s going.”
“It’s just because the idea of the resort is new, Ezra, and
everyone’s stil trying to reconcile that we have an inland
sea instead of a lake now. And al these scientists and
tourists are making people think this is what it’s going to be
like from now on. But once everything settles down, so wil
the naysayers. In fact, we’re going to start our own pro-
resort committee, and I think it’s better that Olivia and Mac
won’t be around for the next two months. With no actual
target, people wil get over it faster. And once we keep
pointing out that the resort is a good twenty miles away and
up on a mountain, they’l al calm down.”
He blew out a sigh and suddenly smiled. “I agree. Okay,
girl, what can I sel you today?” he asked, rubbing his hands
together.
“Just some paper plates,” she said with a laugh. “And
since you’re so busy, just put it on my tab and the first
gravel check I get I’m coming in and cleaning up my bil .
And,” she growled, “the total better match the slips I’ve
been keeping.”
He looked so affronted that Peg waggled her finger in the
air as she sauntered away, smiling secretly as she
remembered Olivia saying Ezra kept undercharging al the
locals accidental y on purpose, and that it would break his
heart if he knew they knew. And Olivia had told Peg to
actual y give him grief for overcharging. “And don’t forget
you agreed to double my coupons.”
“Sure thing, missy,” he cal ed after her with a harrumph.
“Right after I double the price on those paper plates.”
Peg sidled past a gathering of tourists checking out the
fishing supplies—that she noticed Ezra had already
changed to more saltwater rigging—and snatched a
package of plates off the shelf and headed right back for
the door. Because honestly, she was feeling a tad naked
without Peter and Jacob glued to her side.
Peg waved the plates at Ezra talking to customers on her
way outside and, being afraid that she’d run into someone
else just dying to tel her what was going on, she kept her
head down as she rushed toward the church. She stopped
at the end of the last building to peek around the corner,
and her heart rose into her throat when she saw Jacob
perched on Robbie’s shoulders as Robbie sat on his
tailgate eating his lunch. Her younger twin was pointing out
at Bottomless, talking a mile a minute. Peter was sitting
beside Alec, half of a man-sized sandwich in his hand,
eating and talking and gesturing with the sandwich.
God help her, she had to swipe at her eyes when
everything went blurry.
Not wanting the little miracle to end just yet, Peg slowly
turned away and headed for her van parked at the other
end of town. She’d drive back to the church and pick up the
boys—making sure they thanked Robbie and Alec for
sharing their lunch with them—and reach the Inglenook
turnoff in time to meet the bus so it didn’t have to drive
another six miles one way just to drop off her girls. And if
those rain clouds held on to their raindrops until after dark,
she was having another campfire with the kids tonight. A
private campfire this time, though, because she stil wasn’t
ready to face Duncan—because she’d swear her lips were
stil tingling from his stolen kiss.
Peg picked up her pace when she saw the tractor-trailer
rig idling into town and realized that instead of a logging
truck it was actual y a large horse carrier. She stopped to
gape as it went by—along with every other person around
–and saw the nose of a monstrous horse pressed up
against the barred window.
Wait; hadn’t Robbie said the special delivery they were
waiting for was draft horses? Good Lord, was he using
them to haul logs out of the woods alongside the harvesters
and skidders? Peg started running to her van so she could
go get the twins out of the men’s way, figuring they must be
waiting to lead the truck driver to Inglenook where there
was a huge barn that was almost empty now because most
of the horses had gone back to the coast since the camp
wasn’t running this summer.
Peg tossed her purse and the paper plates across the
driver’s seat onto the floor and jumped in, only to stop with
the key half-slid in the ignition when she smel ed fumes.
She looked in back but everything was its normal messy
self and sniffed again, deciding it smel ed chemical y. She
tripped the hood latch and got back out and walked around
the front of the van, but stopped in the act of lifting the hood
when she noticed something on the front passenger fender.
Peg walked around the side of the van and nearly fel in
the ditch when she stumbled backward, clutching her jacket
as she read the words spray-painted the entire length of the
lower side of her van. She glanced right and left and then
turned to face the woods as she slowly backed up onto the
road. She looked toward the path and saw people on the
trestle, but nobody she recognized.
She started shaking. Oh God, what if the twins had been
with her? There was no way she could drive this van home
looking like that and … saying what it did. She shoved the
van’s hood closed, rushed around and reached in and got
her purse, then ran down the road trying to decide what to
do.
Oh God, she couldn’t let anyone see that side of her van!
She stopped at the end of the horse trailer parked in front
of the church and leaned a hand on the tailgate to catch her
breath, deciding to cal her mom to come get the boys and
go meet the bus while she got rid of the van. Peg took one
last deep breath as she straightened. Yeah, she’d hide it on
some tote road for now and decide what to do about it
tonight when she had more time to think. She walked
around the end of the trailer just in time to see Jacob—stil
on Robbie’s shoulders—reaching up to the bars to pat the
large nose pressed against them.
“What’s wrong?” Alec asked the moment he turned and
saw her. He walked over with Peter in his arms. “You’ve
been running,” he said, looking over her shoulder, then
back at her. “What’s wrong?” he repeated softly.
“Nothing,” Peg said with a winded smile. “I was just down
at the other end of town when I saw the horse trailer, and I
ran up here to relieve you of your two little helpers.” She
shrugged, mostly to loosen the knot in her pounding chest.
“I have to get going anyway, to meet the bus at the
Inglenook road.”
“Mom, the horses are going to Inglenook,” Jacob said
excitedly as Robbie walked over. “And Mr. Robbie said we
can rideon them. But only if you say it’s okay.”
Peg looked at Robbie. “Logging horses don’t mind
letting people ride them?”
“They’re not harness drafts,” he said, appearing
offended. “They’re mounts.”
“Why would anyone ride such large horses?” she asked
in surprise.
“Because we’re large men,” Alec said with a chuckle. “If
you’re meeting the bus at Inglenook, the boys could ride
with us if you’d like.”
“Yeah,” the twins said almost in unison.
“Pleeeze?”Jacob added.
Oh God, leaving them while she was a stone’s throw
away was one thing, but letting them go with the men? “Um,
I have an errand to run.” Damn, she’d lied herself into a
corner she just realized. “So I was going to have my mother
come meet me at the end of the Inglenook road and take
the children home.” And she stil had to figure out how to get
herself home.
Alec’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “We can save your
mother the trip by watching the boys and then Charlotte and
Isabel until you get back. That is, if you’re comfortable
leaving them with us.”
Oh God, was she? “My errand might take me an hour or
two to run.”
“Olivia’s at home,” Robbie reminded her, his smile not
quite reaching his eyes as his gaze searched hers. “Is the
van running okay? Because Gunter’s pretty good with
engines,” he said, waving at the young man standing at the
front of the rig.
“No. No, it’s running just fine. There’s just something …
personal I have to do without the children.” She sighed and
shoved her hands in her pockets so he or Alec wouldn’t see
them shaking.
“Pete was just tel ing me that he’s going to school on the
bus this fal ,” Alec said. “And that he’s worried you’re going
to miss him something fierce. This might be good practice
for both of you.”
Robbie reached down on his belt, unclipped his cel
phone, and held it out to her. “Take this, Peg, and you can
cal Alec’s phone and talk to either of the boys any time ye
want during your errand.”
Peg pul ed a hand out of her pocket, quickly took the
phone, and clutched it to her chest. “They … they can be a
handful sometimes.”
Alec chuckled, jouncing Peter. “I think we can handle
them. What do you say, Mr. Pete? Are you going to pul any
tricks on us?”
Apparently taking the question seriously, Peter vigorously
shook his head, then looked at Peg. “Please, Mom? We
want to go with the men.”
Peg saw Jacob vigorously nodding agreement with
Peter, and she blew out a sigh and did her damnedest to
smile. “Okay, you can go, and I’l be right there to pick you
up in one hour.”
“You take as long as ye need on your errand,” Robbie
said. He nodded at her hand. “And cal us every five
minutes if ye want. Alec’s number is programmed in. And
so is Duncan’s.”
“Where is he?” she asked, unable to believe she’d
forgotten about him.
A sparkle came into Robbie’s eyes. “Up on the mountain
with Mac.”
“Oh. Oh!” she repeated when she remembered Olivia
tel ing her what they did up there. “Um, I’m going now.”
“Good-bye, then,” Alec said with a chuckle when she
didn’t move.
“Mommm, leave,”Peter whispered. “We got important
work to do.”
Peg was pretty sure she had something important to do,
too. “Oh! Okay, good-bye,” she said, turning away only to
turn back and walk up to Robbie and pul on Jacob’s sleeve
to get him to bend down. But it was hopeless; she stil
couldn’t reach Jacob’s cheek—that is, until Robbie
dropped to one knee. “Bye, big man. Be good.”
She kissed Peter in Alec’s arms. “You be extra good,
you got it?”
“I got it,” Peter said, wiping her kiss on his shoulder only
to stop when he realized what he was doing. “Good– bye,
Mom.”
Peg gestured with the cel phone as she turned and
headed back to her van. “They can cal me if they want, too.
It won’t interrupt my errand.” She started walking backward.
“And thank you.”
She turned and started running, once again focusing on
what she needed to do. But at least now she had a cel
phone to cal someone for a ride. So other than being the
owner of a heap of scrap covered with vile words that she
needed to get rid of, at least things were looking up in the
little boys being around big strong men department.
Now, if she could just figure out how to actual y use the
phone, because honest to God, this was the first time she’d
ever even held one.
Chapter Twelve
Duncan stared down at the cel phone in his hand, tempted
to throw it against one of the stal doors. What in hel was
Peg doing—other than lying through her teeth?
“So what did she say?” Alec asked.
“She said she’s just coming in the Inglenook road.” He
glanced at Peg’s four children brushing two of the horses
tied in the aisle and frowned at Robbie. “Ye have no idea
what was bothering her earlier, or what her personal errand
was?”
“She had the look of someone being hunted at first,”
Robbie said. “But then her worry turned to leaving the boys
with us.”
“Which itself shows how cornered she obviously felt,”
Alec added, “to agree to let us bring them here and also
watch the girls.”
Duncan looked out the barn door and noticed the rain
had final y slowed to a drizzle. “She sounded cold. And she
–” He strode to the end of the aisle when he saw the car
crest the knol and watched it turn a circle into the parking
lot and stop.
Peg got out and bent down to thank the driver, then
closed the door and started toward the barn as the car
drove off, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets as she
hunched her shoulders. Christ, her pants were muddied al
the way to her knees, and if he wasn’t mistaken she was
limping slightly. She suddenly stopped halfway to the barn
when she spotted him just as Alec and Robbie came up to
flank his sides.
“She’s been walking a muddy road for several miles,”
Robbie also observed quietly. “And she looks soaked
through and chil ed to the bone.”
She started running toward them, which apparently hurt
enough that she slowed back to a hurried walk. “Are the
kids in the barn?” she asked as she approached, not
making eye contact as she tried to veer past them.
Duncan stepped into her path, making her stop—
although she didn’t lift her gaze to his. “Where’s your van?”
“I sold it to a junk dealer.” She tried to move past him.
“Charlie, are you in there?”
He stepped in front of her again. “Who brought ye here?”
She final y looked up, and it was al he could do to hold
his ground against the desperation in her eyes. “Somebody
heading in the same direction I was. Charlie?” she cal ed.
“Get out here, please. Could you go see if Olivia can give
us a ride home?” she asked when al four children came
running out of the barn.
“Never mind, Charlotte,” Duncan said, giving Peg a look
that dared her to argue. “I’l take ye home.”
“Mom, we’ve been brushing the horses,” Pete said,
rushing to her. “You gotta come see them. They’re huge!”
“Tomorrow, Peter.” She reached out to take Jacob’s
hand. “Come on, guys, we need to go home.”
“I’l get our book bags,” Charlotte said, heading back into
the barn at the same time Peg turned away and headed
toward Duncan’s truck.
“Where’s our van?” he heard Peter ask as he and Isabel
ran to catch up to her.
“I sold it. We’l get a new one next week,” Peg said, her
voice trailing off as she rounded the front of his truck and
opened the back door to let the kids in.
Isabel suddenly ran back with something in her hand.
“Mom said to tel you thank you for letting her use your cel
phone,” the girl said, handing it to Robbie and then rushing
away just as Charlotte ran by with their book bags.
“Any idea what’s going on?” Duncan asked, watching
Peg climb in the passenger’s seat as Charlotte got in the
back. He heard the engine start and saw Peg fiddling with
the buttons on the dash—he assumed to start the heater.
He looked first at Alec, then Robbie. “Because I agree with
that hunted look.”
“She told us her van was parked at the other end of
town,” Robbie said, “but that it was running fine.” He
shrugged. “It’s possible she did sel it.”
“Before she had a replacement?” Duncan whispered so
he wouldn’t roar. Dammit to hel , what was she hiding? He
shook his head. “I’m guessing she ditched it on some old
tote road for some reason, and that’s why she’s soaked
and covered in mud.” He looked at Robbie. “I need to go
back to Pine Creek tonight, so could you look into the
missing van for me tomorrow … doing whatever in your
power it takes to find it?”
Robbie nodded. “I’l find it.”
Duncan turned to Alec. “I’m going to drive the wheeler
back and leave my pickup for Peg.” He smiled tightly. “But
I’l let you wait until tomorrow to tel her, because I doubt
she’s open to hearing it from me right now. You keep an
eye on her while I’m gone, and see if ye can find out in town
what may have happened.”
“People have a tendency to shut up when someone from
away walks in,” Alec said. “Why don’t we just ask Mac to
help?”
Duncan snorted. “Because the bastard’s too busy not
interfering in people’s lives.” He started toward his truck,
but stopped and looked back. “Oh, and Alec, while you’re in
town tomorrow, see if ye can’t find us a camp cook. The
one I had lined up cal ed me this morning and said he
couldn’t make it for family reasons.”
His nephew nodded. “I’l do what I can on both counts.”
Duncan jogged to the truck and climbed in to dead
silence but for the blast of the heater fan. He looked in back
to see the twins sharing a seat belt in the middle between
the girls, then silently put the truck in gear and headed out
of the parking lot. The ride to Peg’s house was just as
silent, making him wonder what she’d said to the children.
Christ, she was visibly shivering.
He pul ed in to her empty driveway, and Peg had her
door open before he even shut off the truck. “Thank you for
the ride,” she said before softly closing the door. She
opened the back door. “I’l start supper once I get out of the
shower, and you al wash up at the kitchen sink. Charlie,
help the boys put on their pajamas.”
“No bath tonight?” Peter asked as he slid out.
“Not tonight. But take a washcloth to your face and
hands, because you’ve been handling horses. Go,” she
said, giving Jacob a nudge when he tried to say something.
Duncan got out, watching the kids troop onto the deck
and into the house like good little soldiers as he fol owed
Peg up the stairs and pul ed her to a stop. “You need to tel
me what’s going on.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I can help you.”
“Yes, I’m sure you can. But I can’t get in the habit of letting
someone else solve my problems.” She made a valiant
effort to smile past her chattering teeth. “No matter how
broad … wel , because I can’t,” she finished on a growl,
spinning away.
He caught her sleeve and turned her back around,
wrapping her up in his arms—partly to keep her warm but
mostly just to piss her off. “I’l find that van if I have to drive
down every tote road between here and Turtleback
Station.”
“No, actual y, you won’t, because despite some people’s
opinions, I’m a lot tougher and smarter than I look.” She
patted his chest. “Just worry about guarding your
equipment, Duncan, because honestly, I real y don’t feel up
to the task toni—”
He kissed her just to shut her up, and he didn’t stop until
he felt her start to tremble—and not from the cold, either.
He lifted his head and smiled at her glare.
“Stop doing that,” she whispered in a shaky growl.
“I feel I should warn ye that I’m also a lot tougher and
smarter than I look. And, I’ve just recently been told, a quick
study when it comes to anticipating a person’s next move.”
He lowered his head until his nose was nearly touching
hers. “By the same bastard who also pointed out that I’m
real y quite contrary.”
He kissed her again when she tried to protest, partly to
piss her off but mostly to let her know he wasn’t ever going
to stop. He did cut this particular kiss short, however, when
he felt her trembling again and realized she was nearing
the end of her control.
“It’s okay, Peg,” he whispered against her wet hair when
she hid her face in his jacket. “I’l eventual y find out what
happened today, because whether ye like it or not, I have
no intention of letting you deal with whatever’s going on al
by yourself.”
“You need to leave me alone,” she said into his jacket,
“because this isn’t going anywhere, Duncan.” She looked
