Murder Fir Christmas (13 page)

“I understand.” She got up slowly from the stairs as Peter ran out of the house. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye, Peter.”

The boy had been with Rose again while his father had been helping her. Bonnie waved as they got in the truck and left the house. Then she went inside, took off her jacket and tennis shoes, and sat down by the fire.

“What should we eat for dinner tonight?” her mother asked.

“Something hot,” Bonnie replied sleepily. “With something hot to drink. I’m still freezing.”

* * *

It was dark outside when she woke. The clock on the mantel struck seven p.m. Bonnie yawned and got to her feet.

The little wolf sat silently between her and the kitchen.

“What are you doing in here? How did you get out of the kennel?”

“Oh. You’re finally awake,” Rose said. “I’ve had your dinner warming on the stove. I was starving and ate without you, I’m afraid. But I’ll sit with you while you eat. Is your wolf hungry?”

“He’s not my wolf. Did you let him out of his kennel?” She walked to her coat hanging by the door and pulled out the lock.

“No, but he’s been very good just watching you sleep. Do you think he’d eat a corn fritter? I don’t know if beans would be good for him. I have a lovely Apple Brown Betty made too, but probably not for the wolf.”

The wolf still didn’t move. He stared at Bonnie with great intent. He wasn’t old enough to hunt, not that he would hunt in this environment. She was surprised he wasn’t hiding or looking for a way out of the house.

“Are you hungry?” she asked him.

He licked his lips but otherwise stayed still.

“I think that’s a yes,” Rose said. “I’ve got some leftover chicken. I bet he’d like that.”

“All right. Thanks. Let me get him in the laundry room again.”

“He probably won’t go with you if you don’t have the chicken,” Rose instructed.

“We’ll see.” Bonnie started walking toward the hall. The little wolf followed on her heels like a puppy. She looked in the kennel. The door was open, but she couldn’t understand how. “If you’re hungry, you have to go back in there.”

She stood to one side and the pup went back in the kennel and sat down, as though he’d only come to get her and let her know that he was hungry. She smiled and put on her gloves to feed him. He looked healthy enough. Maybe she should let him out on his own in the next few days. She didn’t know why, but he seemed already attached to her. Before she left, she latched the kennel and locked it, slipping the key onto her keyring.

Bonnie sat down to eat after that. Rose sat with her, and they talked about ordinary things. The corn fritters were delicious, and so was the apple brown Betty. The kitchen was attached to the dining room and living room. She could still hear the crackling fire in the hearth. It was exactly what she needed to take a deep breath and relax after the insanity that had been the last two days.

“Matthew Brown Elk and his brother are very nice,” Rose commented with a cup of tea in her hand. “It was such a shame when little Peter’s mother decided to leave. How could anyone leave their child?”

“People do crazy things sometimes,” Bonnie said. “There isn’t always a way to understand it.”

Her mother sighed. “What about that man you were seeing in Alabama? Was he nice? Is he going to come after you?”

“He was very nice.” Bonnie smiled when she thought about Saul Chase. “He’s not going to come after me. He’s in love with someone else. That happens too sometimes. We don’t always love the right people, do we?”

“No.” Rose’s gaze was soft and far away. “The heart doesn’t always want what it can have.”

Bonnie leaned closer to her mother.

“Was Eric Gamlyn my brother’s father?” she asked softly. There was no one else to hear it but it seemed like a subject that should be discussed quietly.

“Yes.”

Unsure how to respond, Bonnie tried to mirror her mother’s calm demeanor. She had expected to have to work on her a little to get the answer, but instead Rose just sat there, sipping her tea.

“Eric never knew. He left the next day and was gone for a long time. I didn’t know how to get in touch with him—no cell phones in those days.” Rose smiled. “Not that I’m complaining. I loved Wendel too but in a different way. Before you ask, he knew that he wasn’t Eric’s father. He didn’t care. He was a father to my son. That was all that mattered.”

“Wow. Have you told my brother about this?”

“No.” Rose held her pink mouth primly. “Why stir up old, painful memories? That’s why I never told Chief Gamlyn when he came back. My life had moved on. I wanted to tell him, but it seemed too late. It would have only been confusing for our Eric.”

Bonnie took it all in but found it difficult to believe that her mother had held such a huge secret inside her for so long. She covered Rose’s delicate hand with her own larger, callused one.

“Now what about you?” Rose asked. Her eyes had lost that dreamy expression. “Have you moved on with your life, sweetheart? Have you put all your painful memories behind you?”

“I put that behind me when I left the valley ten years ago.”

“Does that mean you’ve made peace with it, or is it going to haunt you now that you’re back?”

“I don’t know.” Bonnie sipped her tea. “Even in Alabama, not a day went by when I didn’t think about how old my baby would have been if he’d survived. It’s not something you can forget—losing a child—even though I didn’t know him. He was still part of me.”

Rose gripped her daughter’s hand tightly. “You have to move on too. I know it was hard on you. I understand why you left. All those old ladies gossiping about you and the baby, and you barely out of high school.”

A lump formed in Bonnie’s throat and tears came to her eyes. It still hurt after all this time.

“What about him?” Rose asked. “Do you ever hear from him?”

“No.”

Him
was, of course, the baby’s father. Bonnie didn’t know if her mother had ever said her boyfriend’s name out loud after finding out that she was pregnant. Davis Leon. They’d dated through high school after growing up together in the valley. On graduation night, they’d driven into Pigeon Forge and rented a hotel room. It had all been very romantic and seemed legitimate since they’d been planning their wedding for months.

But as soon as she’d found out she was pregnant, Davis had advised her to get rid of it. He’d said a baby would only ruin their chances for the future.

Brokenhearted that he could so easily choose to end the life of their child, Bonnie had told him she never wanted to see him again with all the passion and drama of her eighteen-year-old heart. He’d begged her to reconsider. But she’d told him she and their baby were a package deal.

Davis had left town the next day—with his parents’ blessing. They’d said it was all her fault, that she’d seduced their son with the idea of trapping him in marriage. Word had spread quickly, and Bonnie had to endure long months of coping with Davis’s betrayal and her old friends taunting and belittling her.

All that had come to an end the night her baby was born. It was too early for him, the doctor had said. He’d never had a chance to live.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” Rose said. “I can’t tell you how much I hated that you left to train as a Wildlife Agent so quickly after the baby’s death. You had no time to mourn. There were so many times I wished I could have held you in my arms and comforted you.”

Bonnie forced herself not to cry. She’d cried rivers and oceans over that part of her life in the last ten years. The hurt never went away.

“I love you, Mom. And I’m a different woman now. I don’t care about small-town gossip anymore. I’m ready to get on with my life from here.”

“That’s wonderful.” Her mother got up to clear the table. “Because Matthew Brown Elk and his brother are both single.”

“Really?” Bonnie laughed, the tension broken. “Matchmaking already?”

Chapter Fourteen

Bonnie spent the rest of the evening looking through Harvey’s papers. There was nothing in any of them about finding a ruby. She really didn’t think there would be. Tomorrow she’d ask his family if they knew about the ruby and his plans for the future. She looked up rubies that had been found in North Carolina and Tennessee. There had been several stones found in the Smoky Mountains that had been worth some money. Most of them weren’t recent finds. She wondered exactly how big a ruby would be that would allow Harvey to purchase a million-dollar beach house?

It made sense that he was going to retire if he thought he had a fortune. Where had he kept the stone? Had he showed it around town to people like Vince who wanted to get part of the fortune?

Around midnight, she went to bed and fell asleep right away. She had a strange dream about Eric Gamlyn. He was cooking something in her mother’s kitchen. He was tall and strong with her brother’s bright blond hair and unearthly blue eyes.

He turned when she walked into the kitchen. “Good morning. Pancakes for breakfast?”

She woke up just as she was about to answer.

It wasn’t surprising that she’d dreamed about Stella’s ghost. Just the subtle hints of movement where there shouldn’t have been and Stella’s jacket flying up in the back seat of the jeep on her cue was enough to convince her. Not that she was difficult to convince. She’d grown up in the mountains with Native American lore and magic alongside mountain magic.

The dim light coming from the windows in her bedroom told her it was morning even before she glanced at the clock on her dresser. The light also picked out a visitor she hadn’t expected.

“I can’t believe you got out of the kennel again,” she said to the wolf, who was sitting on her bed. “I think you might be magical too. I know wolves are smart, but I don’t know if they’re that smart.”

The little wolf took that as an invitation to lie down. He curled up on her blanket, his nose touching his tail, his eyes watching her.

“You definitely need to be reintegrated into the wolf population. Maybe you’re confused. I might be able to help you find your parents. Because wolves don’t live in houses with people and they don’t sleep on their beds.” Bonnie shook her head and smiled. “And I’m talking to you. Let’s get up and make breakfast for Mom for a change.”

But even though it was early, Rose was already in the kitchen smiling and humming as she cooked. It made a shiver run down Bonnie’s spine when her mother turned and said, “Good morning. Pancakes for breakfast?”

It was exactly like her dream except it was her mother instead of Eric Gamlyn.

“Is something wrong?” Rose asked, a frown developing between her fine brows.

“No.” Bonnie poured coffee into cups for both of them. “I woke up having a strange dream and found the wolf on my bed. I don’t understand how he’s getting out of the kennel.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Sit down and eat some pancakes first. I’m sure you have a busy day ahead of you.”

Bonnie grabbed some chicken pieces out of the fridge and went to the laundry room. The door to the kennel was open. “Okay. You know the drill. Get back inside, and I’ll feed you.”

The wolf sniffed and seemed to nod before he went back inside.

She closed the kennel door without feeding him. He stared at her inquisitively, cocking his head to one side.

“Let’s see if we can figure out how you’re doing this.” She put the chicken pieces on the floor outside the kennel. The idea was that he’d escape to get the chicken and she could figure out what he was doing. She sat cross-legged on the floor and waited.

He stared back at her, waiting too.

“Bonnie,” her mother called. “Your pancakes are getting cold. What are you doing back there?”

“I’ll be there in a minute, Mom. I’m trying to figure this out.”

Fifteen minutes later, she was still waiting—and so was the wolf.

Her cell phone rang from her bedroom. She ignored it. Then the house phone rang.

“It’s that nice police chief from Sweet Pepper,” her mother called. “I ate your pancakes, but I’m making more. Are you almost done?”

Bonnie sighed. So much for her experiment. She put on the gloves and gave the chicken to the wolf, making sure to latch and lock the kennel. Not that it would do any good. “There you go. I guess you’re too smart for me. Enjoy your breakfast. And if you can understand me—stay in your kennel. It won’t be long now, and you’ll be free again.”

He stared at her a moment longer before he started eating. She got off the floor as there was a knock on the front door. Rose answered it and happily allowed Matthew into the house. Bonnie, who was still in her pajamas, scooted quickly into her bedroom and closed the door to get dressed.

By the time she’d come out, Matthew was already on his second plate of pancakes. Rose was delighted to have people to feed and was happily making more.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully when he saw Bonnie. “I thought I’d let my brother handle a few sales today and tag along with you.”

Great. She sat at the table across from him and thanked her mother when she put down another plate of pancakes for her.

“What about Peter?” she asked as she tried to think of a nice way to tell him that she didn’t want to talk about the old Cherokee man or her magical relationship with animals.

“School went back today. I already dropped him off. I thought you could use the company and maybe you might need a good tracker since you’re still looking for the person who killed Harvey and you haven’t been around for a while. The area has changed. You might get lost.”

“Isn’t that nice?” Rose smiled at Matthew. “You’d make someone a wonderful husband.”

Bonnie kept her head down and ate her pancakes. Maybe if she ignored her mother’s matchmaking, it would stop.

“Well, Bonnie,” Rose said. “Are you going to thank Matthew for his very generous offer to show you around the area while you’re working?”

Her phone rang again. Chief Rogers sounded put out that he had to call back. “Crime scene is done with your Hummer. You can get it whenever you’re ready. Have you spoken with Harvey’s family about the ruby and the beach house?”