The Loner (36 page)

“Bless you,” Summer said. “I’m starving.”

“So’s Billy,” Emma said. “Even Will’s starting to complain.”

Will was sitting on the floor banging on a couple of pots with a wooden spoon.

“Mer!” Will cried when he spied her.

Summer reached out her arms and Will dropped the spoon and clambered into them. He hugged her tight and she hugged him back. She met Billy’s eyes, fighting tears. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

He took Will from her and settled the little boy in the high chair Summer had found earlier in the week in the attic.

“Eat, Daddy,” Will said plaintively.

Billy reached for a muffin, broke it open, and blew on it to cool it before handing half to Will, who stuck it in his mouth and began munching happily.

Ren came into the kitchen with dust and cobwebs clinging to her hair.

“What happened to you?” Summer asked.

“I found an entrance to the attic in the closet of your brother’s bedroom and decided to go up for a look,” Ren said.

“No luck?” Billy asked.

Ren shook her head as she sank into a chair at the table. “I think Eve’s sent us on a wild-goose chase.”

Summer exchanged a look with Ren and thought of indomitable spirits and intrepid hearts. She fought back her own despair and said, “The note is here somewhere. And come hail or high water, we’re going to find it!”

They were almost done with supper when they were surprised by a knock on the screen door.

“Who could that be?” Summer said, leaning around Billy to see.

Emma crossed to the screen door and stood there without opening it.

“Who is it?” Ren asked.

Emma stepped back as Sam rolled his wheelchair into the kitchen. “Mom called and told me you could use some more help with the search,” he said.

Summer was astonished by the appearance of Sam Creed. There was no one who had more reason to hate the Blackthornes. She didn’t understand what he was doing here.

Until she saw the byplay between Sam and his mother and Emma.

“If you’ve come here to cause Emma any trouble, you can leave now,” Billy said.

“I’m not here to cause trouble for anyone,” Sam said. “I came to help.”

“Why would you want to help my father?” Summer said.

“Because whether I like it or not, what hurts Blackjack hurts my mother. And I don’t want to see her in pain.”

That made sense. “We can use the help,” Summer admitted.

“You’re still in time for supper,” Ren said. “Find yourself a place at the table. Emma’s made us some corn muffins and chili.”

Summer could hardly believe what she was seeing as she looked around the table. Enemies sitting together, sharing food and conversation.

“Why don’t you show Sam the letter?” Emma suggested to Summer. “He’s smart about things like that.”

“All right,” Summer said. Will was lying in her arms, drinking a bottle and playing with his hair, almost asleep. “It’s in my back pocket. Billy, can you get it?”

She angled her hip and Billy pulled out the letter she’d been carrying around with her. Summer watched it pass from hand to hand down the length of the kitchen table until it reached Sam.

“This part about the land is important,” Sam said, tapping the letter with his finger.

Summer looked at Ren, who said, “Jackson said the same thing.”

“She mentions the Blackthornes never having enough of it. Didn’t your mother bring a portion of DeWitt land with her when she married your father?” Sam asked.

“Yes, she did,” Summer said.

“So the Blackthornes would have needed to redraw their property lines to show—”

“Oh, my God.” Summer jumped up abruptly, jostling Will so his bottle fell onto the floor. Will cried out, and Summer cooed to him in apology, retrieved the bottle, then dropped Will and the bottle both into Billy’s hands and said, “I know where it is!”

Everyone at the table jumped up to follow her, Sam bringing up the rear, as Summer headed into the parlor.

“There,” Summer said, pointing to an aging yellow map hanging over the fireplace that showed the original boundaries of Bitter Creek. “It’s in plain sight, right under our noses, and it’s something Daddy has forbidden any of us ever to touch, because the paper behind that
glass is so old it would disintegrate if it were handled. It’s Bitter Creek as it was when the first Blackthorne built his home here.”

Billy handed Will to Emma and stepped up onto the low stone wall that surrounded the fireplace so he could reach the map framed above it. The map wasn’t large, but the wooden frame, apparently as old as the map itself, was heavy.

Billy stepped down with the framed map and set it on the arm of one of the wing chairs that faced the fireplace, turning it so all of them could see the back of it.

Summer’s heart sank as she looked carefully over the wooden backing and found nothing that seemed remotely like it might be a note from her mother.

Billy leaned closer to the map itself and said, “I think I see something sticking out from under the map, a piece of paper that isn’t aged like the rest.”

“Can you get to it?” Summer asked.

“I’d have to separate the map from the backing to see whether it’s something… or nothing.”

“I don’t give a damn about the map,” Summer said. “You can tear it to shreds for all I care. Just find out what’s under it.”

Billy grinned. “I don’t think that’s the attitude your mother expected you to have. I think she counted on you wanting to preserve this piece of your heritage badly enough that you’d handle it with velvet gloves and wouldn’t look too closely at it.”

Eve had apparently glued the black mat upon which the map was mounted both to the glass in front and to the quarter-inch plywood that backed the frame, so there was
no way to remove the map without breaking the glass, which would necessarily damage the wafer-thin paper.

“I can’t believe Momma glued all this together,” Summer said. “Or that she left that scrap of paper so visible.”

“She promised her clue would be under our noses,” Billy said. “And she’s made sure the map has to be destroyed to get to it.”

Summer gulped. “What if it’s one of those fake notes, like the others we found? And we ruin Daddy’s map for nothing.”

“I guess that’s a chance you’ll have to take.”

Summer glanced at Ren, then turned to Billy and said, “Go for it.”

“You sure?” Billy asked, as he prepared to break the glass with the horn handle of the jackknife he carried in his jeans pocket.

Summer nodded, then took a deep breath and held it while Billy broke the glass. She was still holding her breath as he picked out the shards of glass and set them carefully in the ash-laden fireplace.

Summer exhaled noisily and said, “I can’t stand the suspense. Is it the letter we’ve been hunting for, or not?”

The map began disintegrating as Billy tugged at the tiny scrap of white paper behind it. But it turned out to be more than a scrap. As ragged pieces of the priceless map fluttered to the floor, a sheet of Bitter Creek stationery emerged.

“Oh, God,” Summer said, tears welling in her eyes. “We found it.”

“Read it,” Ren said, her voice hoarse.

Billy held the vellum in front of him and began reading.

Summer sobbed with relief and heard Ren weeping beside her. “Will this be enough?” she asked Billy.

“Seems to me your uncle Harry can use it to free your father.”

“Thank God,” Ren whispered.

“Then I take it we’re done here,” Sam said.

“Looks that way,” Billy said.

“Can I give you a ride home, Emma?” Sam said.

“I’ll go with my brother,” Emma replied.

“I could use a ride,” Ren said. “One of the hands dropped me off here.”

“Sure, Mom,” Sam said as he turned to wheel himself out of the parlor.

“Sam,” Summer called after him.

He stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” Summer said.

“No need. Creeds take care of each other. And we’re all one family now.”

S
UMMER STOOD IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE
F
IRST
Baptist Church with Emma Coburn, who was dressed in a full-length white silk wedding gown with a heart-shaped neckline and capped sleeves that did nothing to hide her advanced pregnancy. They were waiting for the church organist to arrive.

Flossie Hart was always late. Summer wondered why people didn’t just tell her church events began a half hour earlier. But she supposed Flossie saw them posted in the bulletin—as this wedding had been—and came when she felt like showing up.

There was no one in the church other than the bride’s and groom’s families, because the bulletin had also stated that the couple preferred to have a private ceremony and would entertain guests at a reception following the wedding at the home of the groom’s newly married mother.

Because of Flossie’s tardiness, there was no music to temper the utter silence that had descended once both families were seated. And with so few people in the high-ceilinged country church, every sound echoed, so no one was inclined to talk, even in whispers. The
church radiated with red and gold light from the stained glass windows that lined both walls, making it feel even warmer than it was.

Dr. Robert Truman, whom everyone called Pastor Rob, stood in his robes at the pulpit, and Luke waited nearby, while Sam, his best man, sat in his wheelchair next to his brother. Dora, the mother of the bride, sat on the aisle in the first pew on the left and kept dabbing her nose with a lace-edged hanky. Billy sat beside her, Will perched on his lap, impatiently shooting glances over his shoulder toward the church door.

Summer smiled at Billy and waved, then mouthed, “I have no idea why she’s so late.”

She knew why Billy was anxious for the ceremony to start. He wanted it over with so he could get away from Blackjack, who was sitting on the aisle opposite him with his new wife, the mother of the groom.

Billy kept shooting furtive glances at his sniffling mother and then glaring at Blackjack. It was an explosive situation, to say the least. If Flossie Hart didn’t arrive soon, Summer wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be fireworks.

Her father turned and glanced back at her, and she smiled and waved at him, too. Summer couldn’t believe how quickly and efficiently Harry Blackthorne had gotten Blackjack exonerated once he had her mother’s letter in hand.

Her father had been sent home the same night they’d found the letter. And since he’d already married Lauren Creed, they’d moved right into the Castle together. Her father’s new wife had done nothing overt to make Summer feel uncomfortable in her own home, but with Ren
there and Blackjack back at the helm, Summer felt like a fifth wheel.

And she had nowhere else she belonged. Emma had stayed at the C-Bar for the two weeks until her wedding. When Summer had told Billy about Blackjack and Ren moving in together, and that her father had taken back the reins to Bitter Creek, Billy hadn’t said a word about her moving back in with him. So she hadn’t, either.

Summer wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now. It had seemed best to let things ride until after Emma’s wedding. Once she and Luke were married, they would move into the main house at Three Oaks. That would be the logical time for Summer to move back in with Billy. That is, if Billy wanted her to move back in. Summer still wasn’t at all sure about his feelings.

“Summer.”

She turned to Emma, who’d clutched Summer’s wrists and dragged her back out of sight in the vestibule. “What’s the matter, Emma?”

“I’m not sure I can go through with this.”

Summer felt like saying, “Of course you can!” Her own situation would worsen if Emma ended up leaving the church unmarried and moved back in at the C-Bar. But she bit her tongue and asked, “What’s wrong, Emma?”

“I don’t know if Luke can ever love me,” Emma said.

“Then why are you marrying him?”

“Because this is his child I’m carrying. And because from the first time I saw Luke, I always dreamed of marrying him.”

“Then I don’t understand the problem,” Summer said.

Emma took a deep breath and said, “I think I might be
in love with Sam.” She put a hand to her trembling lips and said, “I know I am.”