Authors: Janette Kenny

Cowboy Come Home (31 page)

BOOK: Cowboy Come Home

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A chill passed through her at the thought.

“Are you cold, dear?” Mrs. Gant asked.

“Just a case of nerves,” she said. “It’s a lot to take in at once.”

Dade tucked his hands under his armpits and eyed her, and for an instant she feared he could look clean through her and see she was spinning a mile-long yarn. “You end up with a good family?”

Painful memories of the first family who’d taken her in threatened to torment her, so she blocked them from her mind and focused on the Nowells instead. “They treated me well enough, though it was clear I was just the companion to their crippled daughter.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized Mrs. Gant had put two and two together. “I had no idea that Eloisa Reynard was your foster sister.”

Maggie forced a smile, for nobody here knew that Eloisa was in fact Caroline Nowell, the “Silver King’s” daughter. “We thought of ourselves as best friends.”

“You were fortunate,” Dade said.

If only he knew the truth! But that was a secret she had to keep. Just like she had to keep up the pretense of being Daisy Logan.

“Eloisa was a delight, and that made living there enjoyable,” she said, and that was the honest-to-God truth.

The hell didn’t come into play until her foster father had to pay up what he owed, and Whit Ramsey refused to honor the agreement of taking Harlan Nowell’s crippled daughter’s hand in marriage.

According to him, Whit Ramsey wanted Maggie.

If Whit had been a decent man and courted her, she might have considered his suit. But he was an overbearing snob and a lothario to boot.

She refused to marry him, but Harlan Nowell informed her she had no choice. She owed him for taking her in.

Maggie detested Nowell, and she didn’t have much more regard for his wife. But she loved her foster sister and had hesitated over abandoning her.

“You can’t marry him,” Caroline had said after the last argument Maggie had had with Harlan Nowell. “Leave. Go far from here and never look back.”

“I’m afraid what will happen to you,” Maggie had said.

Caroline had laughed. “I’ll grow old alone. No man wants to get saddled with a cripple.”

“Never say never.”

The long winter had proved true Maggie’s suspicions about Whit Ramsey. He came to visit often though he usually ended up secluded in the library with Nowell, but even on those rare occasions when he stayed for supper he paid Caroline no attention at all. In fact, he’d often make some excuse and leave the room when she entered in her wheelchair.

So Maggie and Caroline planned out what she should do. Which, given the fact she’d told Lester she’d return to Placid, pretty much set the stage.

In the meantime, she went along with Harlan Nowell’s plans for a big wedding this spring and suffered Whit’s attentions.

The second the weather cleared and she found a chance, she ran away—ran here to Lester. Even then she’d backtracked and paid a painted lady to use her real name and take the train west. For if Whit got wind that Maggie Sutten was here, he’d come after her.

“You said there was nothing left for you in Burland,” Dade said, bracing a shoulder against the doorjamb. He gave the impression that he was relaxing and exchanging idle chitchat, but Maggie wasn’t fooled.

He was fishing.

“That’s right,” she said, and summoned up a sniffle.

“What happened to your foster family?” Dade asked.

“They came down sick with a fever over the winter,” Maggie said, thinking that was the easiest way to keep her lies from getting too tangled. “Father survived it. Mother didn’t.”

Mrs. Gant made appropriate sounds of distress. “Did dear Eloisa pass over too?”

“No!” The thought of Caroline dying made Maggie sick, though as it had turned out she’d lost the only friend she’d had anyway. “No, her father sent her east to live with an aunt and receive treatment at a hospital.”

Another lie, but again it’d divert attention away from Burland, the Nowells, and Whit Ramsey.

Mrs. Gant embraced her in a smothering hug again, and Maggie was just too weary to resist. “You poor dear, losing most of your foster family and your beau.”

“It’s been a trial,” she said, and felt tears sting her eyes over Lester’s death.

She’d genuinely liked him. But on the train ride here she’d finally decided she couldn’t marry a man she didn’t love. Not Lester Emery. And surely not Whit Ramsey.

“Now then I’m going upstairs and get your old room ready.” Mrs. Gant smiled at them, and Maggie noted the moisture in the older woman’s eyes. “For the first time in years this house will have a real family living in it.”

Maggie forced a smile and hated that she lied to this kind woman who seemed hungry for family. As for Dade ... Well, if lying sent a person to hell she was halfway there.

“I’d about given up hope of finding you,” Dade said after Mrs. Gant took herself off, his voice going rough with emotion.

Maggie squirmed, truly bitten by guilt. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you.”

Sorry she didn’t know what had happened to Daisy. And sorry that she was going to destroy his dream of a family without any explanation. But she couldn’t keep up this charade.

She couldn’t get too close to Dade Logan either.

The man was simply too big and too discerning for her peace of mind. And if she was honest, he stirred feelings in her that were best left sleeping. Feelings a woman would never feel for her brother. Feelings that would surely give her lie away.

No, she didn’t dare get too close or too comfortable around Dade Logan.

As much as she wished otherwise, she couldn’t remain here long either. Harlan Nowell would come looking for her, and he might do worse than drag her back to Burland and marry her to Whit Ramsey.

A chill tripped down her spine at the thought of being sold off like cattle. There had to be a trustworthy man she could confide in, a man who’d help her escape Whit Ramsey for good.

Her gaze flicked to the tall imposing man beside her. Dade Logan?

Those clear brown eyes of his had seen a world of trouble. According to Mrs. Gant’s tale, he knew how to use that gun strapped low on his hip.

Yes, he was the type of man who’d risk his life to save his sister. But she wasn’t his kin. She couldn’t intentionally make him a target for Harlan Nowell’s wrath.

For a few days she’d be safe here in Mrs. Gant’s boardinghouse. She could plan what to do. After she’d gained Dade Logan’s trust and he let down his guard, she’d make her escape.

It was the only way. She knew Harlan Nowell was in a bind. He needed her to satisfy a debt, and he’d move heaven and hell to bring her back.

Or silence her.

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ISBN: 978-1-4201-2554-2