by Jane Toombs
Russ took a deep breath, moving his shoulders uneasily. Spying was not his vocation. Or his choice. Particularly since he was inclined to like Mari Crowley. But this was the first favor his father had asked since the schism had opened between them. The first contact, as a matter of fact.
“I’ve always liked the Curwith property,” Mari said. “I wish we had that little stream that runs through it.”
“I noticed the stream.” Realizing he sounded abrupt—the result of his distaste for his role—he turned to look into her amber eyes. Never mind how open and honest her gaze appeared, that meant nothing. When he found himself admiring how the tiny flecks of brown accentuated the gold color of her eyes, he shook himself mentally.
“I appreciate you taking the time to show me the ranch,” he said, trying to sound properly grateful.
“It’s the least I could do for someone who paid me double what I was asking for Lucy.”
Waving that aside, he said, “To show my gratitude, I’d like you to have dinner with me tonight.” Only to get to know her better, in order to evaluate how much of a schemer she was, he told himself.
When she smiled, he thought she meant to accept, but then her smile faded. “I’m leaving town this evening, so I can’t.”
His pang of disappointment vanished abruptly when he took in the full import of her words. Leaving town. Because his father hadn’t been able to prevent Joe Haskell from inviting her to the island? Bad news.
“Later, perhaps,” he managed to say.
She looked uncertain. “I don’t think I’ll be back right away. Probably not before you leave Nevada.”
“Oh?” He tried to make the word an invitation to share a confidence with him.
Mari didn’t answer for a moment. If she hadn’t been leaving, it still wouldn’t be a good idea to go to dinner with Russ, even though she wanted to. As Willa would say, “Slow down, you’re going too fast.”
Best to end their acquaintance before she made the mistake of believing every word he said, as she’d done with Danny Boy. Before she had a chance to act on the attraction she felt arcing between them.
“I’ve enjoyed meeting you,” she said. “It’s always good to talk to a fellow horse lover.”
“Yes.”
Did he regret they had to part before they should have? Mari frowned. Where had that weird idea come from? Okay, so she knew. Because she regretted it. Because they ought to have had time to get to know each other. Maybe he wasn’t the poisonous kind. As it was, she’d never find out.
While riding back to her place, Russ began to ask her about her childhood, making, she thought, idle conversation.
“My aunt Blanche died two years ago,” Mari said. “She and Uncle Stan raised me, since my mother died when I was born.”
“Your mother was your aunt’s sister?”
She frowned at him, and he muttered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so personal. I was just curious.”
Mari didn’t explain any further. How could she when up until last week she’d thought her mother had, in fact, been her aunt’s younger sister? She still hadn’t gotten over the shock of what Uncle Stan had told her—that the woman who bore her had been no relation to Aunt Blanche. Mari didn’t know who her parents were, not really. She didn’t even know if this trip she was making to meet Mr. Haskell would give her the answer. Her mind was all jumbled with mixed hope and fear.
Finally pulling herself together, she said, a touch defensively, “I grew up very happily on the ranch.” And she had. But, somehow, her uncle’s news had tainted those years. Not that she blamed him. He believed he was telling her the truth when he said he was sure she was Joseph Haskell’s granddaughter. But was it really the truth?
Taking a deep breath, she turned to Russ. “How about you? Did you grow up on a farm?”
He shook his head. “In a city.”
“But you have a horse farm now?”
“It’s something I always wanted, even as a boy. To raise horses.”
“How wonderful to achieve your heart’s desire.”
His scowl surprised her. Surely what she’d said was harmless enough.
Evidently he’d taken note of her expression, because the scowl vanished and he said, “I’m glad I saw that ad for Lucy. Otherwise we might never have met.”
She was on the verge of saying that if he bought the old ranch, maybe they’d meet again, but she stopped herself. How could she know what her life might be like in the future? “Yes,” she replied simply.
Neither spoke again until they reached the stables and dismounted. Russ insisted on unsaddling and rubbing down his mount, and she didn’t argue, aware she would have done the same had she been the visitor. Horses needed to be taken care of by their riders—it was the first lesson her students learned. Just the same, his caring for the gelding pleased her. Russ was not one of Willa’s would-be cowboys. In her book, he was the real thing.
Eventually all the chores were done and, after washing up at the stable sink, they faced one another. For the last time, she told herself, unable to believe it was just as well. “Time to say goodbye.” She tried to inject cheerfulness into the words.
He took her hands in his. “I’d rather it were till we meet again.”
How warm his hands were. Warm and strong. Hers nestled inside his as though they belonged there. She could think of nothing to say. Certainly, “Don’t go,” didn’t make an iota of sense. Especially since, in a matter of hours, she was really the one who would be leaving.
She drew in her breath when he raised her palms and brushed his lips across one, then the other before releasing her. Without another word he turned and strode to his car. Her hands clasped together as though to hold on to the feel of his lips, she watched him drive away until the car and even the dust plume behind it was no longer visible.
Chapter Two
Mari found Willa inside the ranch house, seated at the kitchen table pouring herself a cup of tea. “Looks like you could use some of this,” Willa commented. “Get yourself a cup and sit you down.”
Mari hesitated. She really should finish packing, but somehow she just didn’t feel like it. Going to the mug tree, she lifted one off and joined Willa.
“Didn’t look too poisonous, that young man,” Willa said. “’Course, men ain’t the same as snakes. None of ’em are completely harmless.”
“He asked me to dinner. Naturally I refused.”
Willa peered over the top of her cup at Mari. “Wanted to go, didn’t you?”
“Whether I did or not, you know I couldn’t.” Mari set down her mug and leaned across the table toward the older woman. “Oh, Willa, am I doing the right thing? I’m so confused about all this.”
“Seems like you got to go and find out, that’s what I say.”
“If only Uncle Stan had talked to me first.”
“Once that man makes up his mind, he’s not much for waiting around.”
Mari sighed. “Or for asking anyone’s opinion, either. It’s just that everything has all happened so fast. I don’t know Joseph Haskell. I never even heard of him until he came on TV to ask his long-lost daughter to come home.”
“Stan sure enough thinks she was your mother. For all any of us know, she could’ve been.”
“My mother could have been anybody!” Mari cried, blinking back tears. “I loved Aunt Blanche. Why didn’t she ever tell me the truth—that my mother was some stranger she’d befriended?”
“I expect ’cause she got to fearing she might lose the baby she loved. Might be she and Stan couldn’t’ve adopted you if it got around there was no blood relationship. They weren’t exactly spring chickens at the time. As for your uncle, he did what he thought best for you.”
“I suppose. But this may turn out to be a wild-goose chase. Maybe I ought to wait and see….” Her words trailed off. Wait for what? Mr. Haskell’s phone call to Uncle Stan had made it clear his present health was too poor for him to travel to Nevada, and that he was sending his private jet so Mari
could fly to Mackinac Island to his summer cottage. This evening.
“If you don’t go, you’ll never know whether your mother was Isabel Haskell or not, will you?” Wilma pointed out. “Best you get to packing. And never mind that young man. If he’s interested he’ll show up again, and then you can decide if he’s worth troubling yourself over.”
Show up again? Mari wondered as she headed for her bedroom. She wouldn’t be here if he did, so a lot of good that’d do. Time to forget Russ Simon and concentrate on what else to toss in her suitcase. Although most of her clothes were for riding or casual wear, she figured she’d better take at least one dress and a pair of dressy sandals. She had to admit—she was scared to be going alone to a place she’d never been to meet a stranger who might be her grandfather.
Uncle Stan could hardly come with her, since he had to take care of the horses and other ranch animals. Willa might be spry for her age, but it was too much to ask her to do ranch work, and they couldn’t afford to hire anyone else for the task. In fact, they were already one mortgage payment behind. The money Russ had paid for Lucy would help, but it was touch and go.
As for asking Willa to come with Mari, that wasn’t possible, either. Willa couldn’t take much time away from her own ranch because she supported herself by raising rattlesnakes, milking their venom and selling it to labs that made antivenin. No one wanted to snake-sit for her.
By the time the limo arrived to pick up Mari and take her to the Carson City Airport, she was ajangle with nerves. Twenty-seven-years old and she’d never ridden in a limo, much less a private jet. Maybe she ought to be feeling like Cinderella going to the ball, but she felt more like the untransformed cinder girl. If she’d been traveling as Mari Crowley, it wouldn’t be this way. She’d always been confident in her ability to handle almost any situation. But she might no longer be a Crowley, she might be a Haskell, and that thought was unsettling.
Never mind, you’re still Mari, she told herself as she hugged Uncle Stan and Willa in farewell. You can cope. Once the chauffeur settled her inside the limo and they drove away from the ranch, though, the tears she’d fought gathered in her eyes.
When they reached the airport, Mari still wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing. But her tears had dried by then and she allowed herself to be led by the chauffeur to where Mr. Haskell’s jet waited on the tarmac. He helped her aboard. Inside, a uniformed man showed her how to fasten her seat belt, telling her he was George, the co-pilot, and introducing the pilot as Tom. George pointed out where she could find soft drinks and sandwiches once they were underway. It took her a minute to realize she was alone in the jet except for these two men.
As the plane took off, climbing quickly up and up, circling to the northeast, she closed her eyes, not wanting to see Carson City fade from sight below her. To distract herself from the disturbing realization that she was leaving everything familiar behind, she picked up a magazine from among several in a rack, but didn’t open it. The cinder girl was heading for the castle without the benefit of a fairy godmother or a waiting prince.
Without Mari willing it, Russ Simon’s face flashed into her mind’s eye. Her prince? The thought made her smile. Far-fetched as it seemed right now, maybe they’d meet again someday, as he’d said he hoped they would. She opened the magazine, Joseph Haskell’s name popped out at her and she began to read the article about him. By the time the jet landed on Mackinac Island, Mari knew a lot more about her possible grandfather than she had before.
Since the article had stressed how wealthy he was, when she arrived by horse and buggy at the “summer cottage” he’d mentioned to Uncle Stan, Mari shouldn’t have been surprised to find herself looking at what must be at least a fourteen-room Victorian mansion. But she was. Her jitters returned full force.
A trim, fortyish woman opened the door. “I’m Pauline Goodwin, the housekeeper, Ms. Crowley,” she said.
Mari nodded as she was ushered in. “Please call me Mari. Is Mr. Haskell—?”
“An hour before you arrived, he was airlifted to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. My orders are to make sure you settle in comfortably while he’s gone.”
“Oh, my, is he seriously ill?”
“We don’t know when he’ll be returning,” Pauline said stiffly. “This way, please.”
What kind of an answer was that? Mari wondered as she followed the housekeeper up a winding staircase. It must be his heart. He’d told Uncle Stan he had a “bum ticker.” Whether he was her grandfather or not, she truly hoped he’d be all right.
The room she’d been given was decorated with white-painted wicker furniture, and paintings and photos of horses hung on the walls. Mari was looking at the paintings when Pauline said, “Frank will bring up your suitcases. Will there be anything else you need?”
As Mari thanked her and shook her head, she wished for something Pauline wouldn’t have been able to provide. What she needed was a friend. Someone to talk to who she knew and trusted, someone who’d assure her she’d been right to come here. She worried how it might affect Mr. Haskell’s health if it turned out they weren’t related. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.
On TV he’d claimed he was a lonely and ill old man who regretted alienating his only child, Isabel. Mari had felt sorry for him, even though, at the time, she hadn’t the slightest idea Stan was even then speculating that Isabel might have been her mother. Had she been?
I’d like to have a grandfather, Mari thought as she got ready for bed. I have no family at all except for Stan.
That was really why she’d come here—to find out if Mr. Haskell was family, a blood relation. It’d been a terrible shock when her uncle had confessed that Aunt Blanche had never told her the truth about her birth.
Though Mari had wondered if sleep would elude her, Mr. Sandman, as Willa would say, found her immediately, and she didn’t wake until midmorning. The first thing she saw when her eyes opened was a photo on the wall of a dapple-gray pony with a small child on its back. She rose hurriedly to examine the photo at closer range, and saw the child was a boy. Not Isabel then.
By the time she’d dressed and was descending the stairs, Mari had begun wondering if dapple-gray ponies were ever called Blues. She shook her head. Probably not, since Russ had said his were descended from the huge chargers ridden by knights of old. If only she’d had more time to spend with Russ. How was it possible to miss a man you scarcely knew?
After a breakfast that made her feel she was imposing on Mr. Haskell’s staff, even though Pauline and Diana, the cook, were courteous enough, Mari escaped outside. Her uneasiness undoubtedly came from her own uncertainty—did she belong here or not?—rather than from the staff. But she began to relax a little once she set off to walk down toward the village.
May was definitely cool here on this island near the Straits of Mackinac, where the waters of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan met, and she was glad she’d worn a jacket. With only the clop of horses’ hooves instead of the rush of motor traffic, Mackinac Island seemed not only peaceful, but somehow set back in time. In the gardens she passed, tulips were still in flower, though their season was long over in northern Nevada. Lilac blooms were tightly budded rather than scattering their sweetness into the air.
A passing bicyclist waved as he passed, and she waved back. What a marvelous vacation spot. She wished she could think of it as a vacation. It worried her that Mr. Haskell had decided to send for her instead of first making sure they were related by having blood and DNA tests done right there in Nevada. Why he hadn’t was a question she couldn’t answer.
She passed the Grand Hotel, staring in awe at its unbelievably long and magnificent porch, and came into the downtown area of the village. Water gleamed ahead from what appeared to be a lakeside park. As she started across the street, someone took her arm, holding her back. She turned, startled, and gazed into Russ Simon’s green eyes. Her pulse leaped.
“Mari, is it really you?” he asked.
“Russ!” s
he cried. “What are you doing here?”
He released her arm. “Checking my Blues. I lease twenty of them to carriage companies on the island. Didn’t I tell you?”
Mari shook her head. “I mean, I knew you leased draft horses, but I didn’t know where.”
One of the numerous passersby jostled Mari, muttering an apology when Russ scowled at him. “Come on, let’s find someplace less crowded. Place is already full of tourists and it’s only May.”
After they were seated at a harborside café, with mugs of coffee in front of them, he raised a questioning eyebrow. “Now you know why I’m here. Your turn.”
Mari told herself to stop staring at him and start thinking. “I’m visiting the island,” she equivocated, not wanting to lie and yet definitely not wanting to tell the whole truth.
Russ offered her his heart-melting smile. “My good luck.”
No, mine, she thought. I wished for a friend and maybe, just maybe, here he is. On this strange island that seemed like another world, Russ was the known, the familiar. She might not decide to confide in him, but at least she now had someone she felt she could talk to if needed.
Russ took another swallow of coffee, trying not to watch Mari. Which was difficult because he enjoyed looking at her so much. Why the devil did her hair have to be molten gold and her eyes like fine sherry? Spying was bad enough, and it was ten times worse because he liked the way she smiled, the way she talked with her hands, the way she moved. Hell, even the way she sipped her coffee. No man in his right mind could avoid being attracted to her.
He couldn’t afford to be, yet at the same time he needed to learn more about her in order to protect Joe Haskell. Since the old man was tough, he’d probably pull through this latest cardiac setback, but he didn’t need any extra stress—such as an impostor on his doorstep.
“Like to go riding around the island?” Russ asked. “I’ll return the favor and find you a mount this time.”