Hunting Down the Horseman

“You weren’t in any shape to raise a child alone,” Grayson said. “You had little choice given your situation.”

She cut her eyes to him and he fell silent again. “The father of my child was married.” Her back stiffened visibly. “He wasn’t going to leave his wife. I was hurt. I told him the baby had died. It wasn’t until recently that I told him the truth.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Everyone was staring at Kate. Except Shane. His back still to them, he appeared to be gazing out the front window as if uninterested. Or had he already heard this?

Jud felt his chest tighten. “What happened to your baby?”

Kate turned toward him. “Adopted by a local family, she grew up in Old Town Whitehorse.”

Jud did the math. “So she would be in her mid-twenties.”

“Twenty-six,” Kate said.

He could see what was coming. “Does she know who you are?”

Kate nodded.

“Of course, she was surprised,” Grayson said. “So it is going to take some time to get to know her and her to know us.”

“So when do we get to meet her?” Dalton asked.

The silence said it all.

“You’ve already met her,” Kate said. “Her name is Maddie Cavanaugh.”

Jud shot a look at Shane.

“Shane’s fiancée?” Lantry demanded, glancing at his older brother, as well. Shane still didn’t say anything or look in their direction.

“I take it Maddie is upset,” Jud said, stating what he knew was the obvious.

“She’ll come around,” Grayson said, always the optimist.

“I wanted you all to know so you understood that it might be tense when Maddie is around. She’s having trouble forgiving me. I’m having trouble forgiving myself.”

For the first time, tears shone in her eyes, but she seemed to hold them back with sheer determination.

“Are you worried about the legal ramifications, Kate?” Lantry asked, always the lawyer.

“No,” Grayson said. “She is Kate’s daughter and will be treated like any other member of this family.”

“But the wedding is still on, right?” Jud asked.

Russell shot him a warning look.

Juanita announced dinner was ready as if on cue, but no one moved.

“This calls for margaritas,” Grayson announced.

Kate touched his arm. “Maybe after dinner,” she suggested.

Everyone except Shane headed in for dinner. Jud hung back. “I wasn’t only thinking of myself just now,” he said to Shane.

“I know.” Shane got to his feet. “We should join the rest of the family.” He looked like hell. Clearly this was taking a toll on him.

“Maddie will come around. You know she will,” Jud said. “She loves you. It would be a damned shame if you let this come between you. You’re made for each other.”

Shane smiled. “Not to mention the pressure it would put on you to tie the knot.”

“Yeah,” Jud said smiling ruefully. “Not to mention that.”

EVE WISHED she didn’t know her two younger sisters so well. The moment she’d seen Faith’s face on her return from her ride, she’d known something had happened.

Whatever it had been, Faith was keeping it to herself. Eve had noticed right away that Faith had been thrown from her horse. There was dirt ground into the seat of her jeans and into the elbows of her Western shirt.

This wasn’t anything new. Over the years Faith had returned many times from rides fighting to hide the fact that she’d been thrown. Often also trying to hide her hurt pride.

This time, however, Faith seemed jubilant, and that had Eve as perplexed as anything. She would have thought a man was involved, but at this point in Faith’s life, she seemed to prefer the company of her horse.

Eve looked up at the knock at her screen door to find her twin brother, Bridger, standing just outside. She couldn’t help thinking about the first time she’d seen him.

Unlike her, he’d known he was adopted. He’d even known he’d had a twin sister. Their shared blood had thrown them together as they’d tried to find out the truth about their illegal adoptions.

“Hey,” he said as he met her gaze through the screen. He was dark haired like her. Eve had always known she was different from her mother, father and two sisters, who all had blond hair and blue eyes. Now she knew why.

“Just the person I wanted to see,” she said as he came into the house, and she gave him a hug.

“Faith must be home,” he said, glancing at the supper she had started. Eve had remodeled her grandma Nina Mae’s home down the road when Nina Mae had to go into the rest home with Alzheimer’s.

The Bailey ranch house sat empty except when Faith was home. Eve didn’t want her sister, who insisted on staying at the ranch house, to come home to an empty house, so she spent time here trying to make it a home for Faith.

Faith had taken their parents divorce the hardest. Now their father lived in town with his girlfriend and their mother in Florida.

“You’re an awfully nice sister,” Bridger said as he sat down at the kitchen table where everyone always congregated.

Eve would have argued how nice she was. She felt she’d let down her family because from the time she was very young, she knew she was different and resented it, always searching for her real self. Her real family, as she thought of them. She’d just wanted someone who looked like her. Now she had Bridger, at least.

“Any luck?” Bridger asked picking up one of the papers spread out on the kitchen table.

“I called all of the Constance Smalls I’ve found so far,” Eve said pouring him a cup of coffee before sitting down at the table with him. Later she would try the C. Small listings.

“You realize she probably married and changed her name. Her name might not even have been Constance Small. She could have lied about that, given she was a runaway.”

“I know.” Eve could hear Bridger’s reservations. Once they’d found out that Constance Small was probably a runaway, he seemed to back off in the search.

She couldn’t blame him. It did feel hopeless. Even if Eve lucked out and found the woman, she’d probably wish she hadn’t.

“So? Did Laci have her baby?” she asked, changing the subject.