are exhausted. Could we possibly stay here, just for tonight?”
“And have me risk being stuck with you if the track gets washed out before morning? No way!”
“Please?” She hated begging, but hated even more the prospect of waking Emma and Jamie and then trying to maneuver the Cutlass downhill in the stormy dark. And where to go from there? She suppressed a shudder. “I promise,” she said, “I’ll be out of here first thing in the morning.”
His lips compressed so tightly they almost disappeared.
“All right,” he snapped. “You can use the sitting room and the main floor powder room, just for tonight. But in the morning, you’re history. Understood?”
“Heard and understood.” She almost added a sarcastic ‘sir,’ but thought better of it. He was, after all, doing her a favor. So she just said, “Thank you. And thank you for agreeing to pay Chance’s debts—I’ll pay you back no matter how long it takes….”
But he’d already taken off, heading for the kitchen. His steps were purposeful. The steps of a man who knew where he was going and would let no one stand in his way.
Sarah slumped, feeling as if she’d been put through a wringer. But she’d achieved one goal—though it wasn’t the main one that had drawn her here, the one that was far more important than borrowing money to pay off Chance’s debts.
He’d never know her real reason for seeking him out. He’d never know how she’d hoped and prayed that Jedidiah Morgan would turn out to be a kindly man. A man who’d give his brother’s family a warm welcome and let her stay at his home, with her children, till such time as she could once more cope with the difficult time that lay ahead.
What a fool she’d been. ‘Kindly’ was the very last word anyone would use to describe Jedidiah Morgan. The man was heartless. And whatever the cause of the estrangement between him and his brother, it was obvious the bitterness of it still remained, even now that Chance was gone.
Jed stared out into the dark, his hands braced against the side frames of his bedroom window.
Chance was dead.
It was the last thing he’d expected to hear.
Six years now since Jeralyn’s death. Six years since his younger brother had fled and disappeared without a trace. Six years during which time he’d let his hatred of Chance build and build and build till now it almost consumed him.
His lips twisted in a bitter smile. So…Chance had never changed. Even in death, he left trouble in his wake. “A mountain of unpaid bills,” she’d called it. Well, to Sarah Morgan it might seem like a mountain; to him it was peanuts. And he was glad to pay the bill. Anything to get rid of that woman and her family, get them off the mountain.
All he wanted, in this life, was to be left alone.
CHAPTER TWO
SARAH woke next morning to the sound of a terse voice saying, “I’m going down the mountain to check that the road hasn’t been washed out. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
Before she’d even blinked the sleep from her eyes, the sitting-room door snapped shut. And seconds later, she heard the front door slam.
Pushing aside her blanket, she sat up on the low-slung sofa. She hadn’t drawn the curtains last night, and the room was now filled with gray shadows.
The children were still asleep, Emma on a love seat, Jamie in the depths of a recliner. Sarah felt her heart ache as she looked at them.
They’d adored Chance, and his death had left a big hole in their lives, a hole she tried her best to fill by lavishing all her love on them. But was it enough? She’d been eight when her own father had died, and the loss had been devastating. Years had passed before she’d finally given up hoping that by some miracle he would come back.
Now she was a single mom with a dream that seemed as out of reach as the stars: to have her children grow up in a warm and happy two-parent family.
Rising with a sigh, she tucked her hair behind her ears and crossed to the window. Rain bucketed down and the gale screamed around the corners. She shivered. Not a day to be traveling—
A movement just beyond her Cutlass caught her attention. Jedidiah Morgan was striding across the forecourt, his hair flattened by rain, his rangy frame encased in a navy anorak and jeans. At his heels loped Max. They were headed toward a Range Rover parked under a tree.
As she watched, he opened the driver’s door. The dog leaped up into the vehicle; Jedidiah jumped up after him.
White gravel chips spurted from the wheels as he took off—in a hurry, Sarah thought gloomily, to be rid of her.
Emma stirred.
Sarah went over to sit on the edge of the love seat. “Good morning, honey.” She cuddled her daughter, savoring the sleepy scent from her warm skin. “Time to get up.”
As Emma feathered her tousled hair from her face with spread fingers, her pink cloth doll slid to the floor. Sarah bent to pick it up. Chance had bought the doll for Emma the day she was born, but it had remained nameless till Emma was over a year old, when she’d held it out one day and said proudly, “Girl!” The name had stuck.
Sarah set Girl on the coffee table, and as she did, Jamie stirred. Drowsily, he opened his eyes.
“Good morning, sweetie!” Sarah scooped him up and gave him a big hug.
He twined his arms around her neck. “I’s hungry.”
“Me, too,” Emma said. “Starving!”
Sarah slid Jamie to the floor, and Emma grabbed his hand. “C’mon, Jamie,” she said. “I know where to go!”
The kitchen smelled of coffee, but the coffeepot had been washed and the table was bare. If Sarah had hoped her host might have set out a breakfast for them, her hopes were dashed. The man was making it clear, in every possible way, that they were not welcome in his home.
She made scrambled eggs and toast for Emma and Jamie, and after pouring herself a glass of milk, she downed her daily quota of vitamin pills. Then tuning out the children’s chatter, she moved to stand at the window.
Through the rain, she could see the mountain slope, dark with evergreens. On a sunny day, she reflected, the view would be awesome.
But she wouldn’t be here to see it on any sunny day. She was to be out of this house within the hour.
Normally a cheerful, optimistic person, she felt dread settle over her. It was a scary world for a single mom with hardly any money; and especially for one in her situation, with no place to call home….
Though that wasn’t strictly true. There was always Wynthrop. But the thought of returning to that house—where she would be even less welcome than she was here—made her very soul shudder.
“Mom,” Emma said, “did our uncle come home yet?”
Sarah reined in her depressing thoughts. “Yes, he came home last
