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“I know you’re crazy about the baby.”
“I am!” she confessed. “But that’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?” Even in the semi-dark interior of the cab, his eyes blazed a hot blue. The problem is you, Mr. Broderick. I think I’ve fallen in love with you, and you only see me as a live-in nanny.
“It’s inevitable he would get attached to me. It would be a wrench for him when I have to leave. Cruel, in fact. He deserves to have someone around on a permanent basis, not just a month or two.”
“I couldn’t agree more, and I have a solution. In fact I would have suggested it in the beginning. But first I needed to find out if there was a man in your life.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Marry me.”
Captain Howard Stansbury of the U.S. Topographical engineers, who surveyed the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1849, reported, “This valley is called Tuilla Valley.”
(sounds like Two-Willa).
The name comes from the Shoshoni Indian Language and is a Gosiute tongue variant, named for the Bear family, a Gosiute Indian family, some of whose members still reside in Tooele today.
THE BABY DISCOVERY
Rebecca Winters
To Janet and George, with love and gratitude for their invaluable help.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
A FREEZING gust of wind caused Zane Broderick to turn up the collar of his sheepskin jacket. An early December snowstorm had blown in, making for poor visibility in this remote wilderness.
It was the “lake effect” that gave Tooele its reputation for severe winter weather. Forty minutes from Salt Lake, the tiny Utah town received an overabundance of moisture due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake.
Tonight he felt a whiteout coming on. The kind where livestock froze and all transportation came to a standstill. By tomorrow morning the conditions would be perfect for the engineering team to do an experimental, driverless winter test run of the new prototype magnetic levitation train he’d designed.
As soon as he’d given one more inspection to this last section of forged track for any unforeseen problems, he could call it a night.
Blizzard conditions made it impossible to rely on his eyes without help. He pulled the heavy-duty flashlight from the back of his truck where he’d covered his equipment with a tarp.
The wind drove the snow so hard, his footsteps disappeared with every step he took alongside the platformed structure housing the twelve miles of seamless track.
Twenty minutes later he was satisfied that the workmanship looked slick-as-a-whistle, as his father would say. He came to the last hundred feet, carefully shining his light down inside to make certain he’d covered every square inch.
While he’d been out here, the wind, strengthened in force, pelted him with icy shards. At times its moaning sounds rose in pitch, imitating an animal’s cry.
Zane began to think a cougar foraging for food must have come down from the nearby mountains and had picked up his scent.
He made a last scan with the light, then froze.
Something about the size of a sack of flour was lying in the middle of the track wrapped in a snow-covered cloth. It was hard to make out details with white stuff swirling all around him.
He heard another cry, more distinct this time. What the devil?
In the next second he vaulted inside to see what it was. As he drew closer, he could have sworn the material moved.
A grimace marred his features. Had some deranged lunatic decided to dispose of a cat in this fashion?
Hunkering down, he carefully removed one edge of the thin cotton material. After pointing the light on it, he let out a gasp of sheer disbelief.
A newborn baby without a stitch of clothing on!
It made another infant cry.
Good Lord. The little boy was on the verge of freezing to death!
Tears of rage filled Zane’s eyes. If he hadn’t decided to inspect this end portion of track one more time…
Setting down the light, he whipped off his jacket. Carefully he placed the baby against the sheepskin lining and wrapped it up like a cocoon. All the while he prayed the warmth from his own body would ward of hypothermia.
Without a second to lose, he climbed back out with his precious bundle and started running.
The tears continued to run down his cheeks. They froze to his skin but he wasn’t cognizant of anything except the tiny life that would have died from exposure, if not from…
He couldn’t think about the other horrific scenarios flooding his mind. He refused!
The truck was two miles away, but it felt like a hundred. The baby could die before he got it to a hospital.
Suppressed memories of Zane’s twin brother drowning in San Francisco Bay years ago came back with gut-wrenching clarity.
Please God. Let this baby live.
Julie Becker, the other registered nurse on duty in the emergency room at the small Oquirrh Mountains Medical Center, came into the cubicle where Meg Richins was setting up a morphine drip on a migraine sufferer.
“It’s pretty quiet, Meg,” she whispered. “I thought I’d run across the street for some fresh cappuccino. The coffee around here is ghastly. Do you want anything?”
“I don’t think so, but thanks anyway,” Meg whispered back. “Let’s just be grateful we’re on the night shift. After the storm is over in the morning, there will be a steady stream of casualties.”
“Don’t
