Alaskan Sweethearts. Janet Tronstad

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СКАЧАТЬ his grandfather had been well behaved lately. His brothers missed ranching. Of course, this latest scheme might change everything.

      “Well,” the woman said, her voice as melodious as a bell, “I can see what the problem is then.”

      Hunter’s mind snapped back to the present. “Really?”

      Tiny drops of moisture were falling, but it wasn’t enough to count as rain.

      She nodded. “Your grandfather thought you might be opposed to him giving my family the old place.”

      Hunter frowned. “The old place? You mean the land my grandfather bought when he came down from Alaska?”

      That’s what they had always called it—the old place. Where they lived now was the new place. But Scarlett Murphy wouldn’t know that.

      Hunter knew for sure something was going on now. First the anniversary date and then this. His grandfather loved that piece of land. That was the house he’d brought him and his brothers to after the accident. He’d never give it up. Most of the eighty acres was currently leased to Mr. Cleary who ran a herd of sheep on it. But Cleary was retiring this fall and Hunter had plans to plow the fields and get them ready to plant into wheat next spring. That was the crop he was counting on to keep the ranch out of debt.

      Hunter walked closer until he was almost at the woman’s car. He bent and let the cat go. He knew the animal wouldn’t leave his side. Not now. He took a deep breath to try to reassure the feline. When he looked up, the woman was talking.

      “I’m sure that’s the land he meant.” She pressed her lips together slightly, as though she was thinking. Then her eyes flashed. “It’s what he bought after stealing the gold mine from us sixty years ago. He wrote my grandmother last month and said he would deed it all over to our family if we came and signed for it. ‘Clearing his conscience’ is what he called it—his land for us saying he didn’t steal the gold mine. Switching the deeds. So here I am.”

      “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hunter said. The windows were dark on the woman’s car, but he thought he saw some movement inside. Maybe it was just a raindrop sliding down the glass. “My grandfather had legal claim to that mine. He didn’t steal anything.”

      “Is that what he told you?” Scarlett asked, her smile tight now as she walked around the car and stood facing him. “My grandfather would turn over in his grave if he could hear him saying that. Grandma always knew Colin Jacobson was a no-good, low-down thief. Now it seems he’s a liar, as well.”

      “My grandfather is a good man,” Hunter protested. Despite everything, he believed that. “I’m sure your grandmother didn’t mean—”

      “She also said he was handsome as sin and twice as charming,” the woman acknowledged with a look that measured Hunter with a calm objectivity. “Said it was a family curse of the Jacobson men.”

      “Well, thank her—”

      Hunter was beginning to think he might be able to resolve any problem here.

      “I don’t see it myself,” Scarlett said abruptly.

      Hunter rocked back on his heels.

      “Well, I never claimed to be particularly good-looking.” He paused in case she wanted to protest out of politeness. She didn’t. “But you must know my grandfather owned that mine. He had it recorded official and everything.”

      She put her hands on her hips. “He only had the right to half. He stole the rest when he filed the claim with only his name and left my grandfather off it. They were partners.”

      “Yes, but—” Hunter had never asked about the claim. He’d seen the paperwork when he was a boy, though. His grandfather had always called Murphy his partner, but there was just one name on the claim: Colin Jacobson. Hunter had never given it much thought until now.

      “My grandfather died from a broken heart after he lost that mine and the gold they’d sent to be assayed,” Scarlett continued with some heat. “‘Never should have trusted a weasel of a Jacobson,’ he said.”

      “I’m sorry.” In all of his grandfather’s stories, the man had never mentioned his partner was dead. “What happened?”

      Scarlett glared at him. “My grandfather couldn’t believe what yours had done. He was sick with a fever, but he insisted on going out to the mine so he could see for sure. I think he expected to find a note saying it was all a joke nailed to the claim post. The day was bitter cold and he fell, cracking the ice on the creek. Got his feet wet. He barely made it home. My grandmother buried him ten days later in the graveyard on the hill above the mine so he could look down on it. Pneumonia had set in. By then your grandfather had already left the state.”

      “He didn’t know,” Hunter said, his voice stumbling. “I don’t think he even knew.”

      His grandfather had talked his share of people out of money to finance some purpose or the other, but he’d never deliberately harmed anyone. Not like that. Given the date today, though, Hunter was wondering if the old man was taking care of every bit of bad business in his life.

      “My grandmother had to take in washing to support her and her baby,” the woman said, her voice full of reproach. “Even now she claims that’s what caused her arthritis.”

      “I’m sure he didn’t mean for that—” Hunter started and then stopped. He was going to have to stop defending his grandfather. Even if the man meant well, it never worked out that way.

      Everything was silent for a moment.

      “My grandmother didn’t think he could have known, either,” the woman finally admitted.

      “I’m sorry.” Hunter didn’t say anything else. He had no other words. It had happened long ago, but he could see it was like yesterday for the Murphy family. Sort of like the car accident in his family. Something no one ever got over.

      Then Scarlett faced him directly.

      “I understand your grandfather has buildings on the property he’s giving us,” she said as though she didn’t expect any further answer to her grief.

      Hunter nodded. He understood the desire to keep heartache to oneself. Talking didn’t always help. He knew that himself.

      “The house isn’t much,” he admitted. No one had lived in it for seventeen years. They had left the furniture there when they’d moved out, but they hadn’t maintained the place. There could be rats in the cupboards for all he knew. The cats had gone to the new place. “The barn is serviceable.”

      Right now the house and barn were the only things not leased to Mr. Cleary. His grandfather had pointed out numerous times that the house should be fixed so he’d have a place to move when Hunter brought a bride home to the new place. Not that there was a wedding in sight. Until his grandfather stopped his schemes, Hunter was stuck. If he did marry, he had no intention of kicking his grandfather out of their home. But he couldn’t ask anyone to put up with the old man’s schemes, either, especially now that they were back in full force. That pretty much tied everything in a nice uncompromising knot.

      “You won’t want the house,” Hunter said when he saw that Scarlett wasn’t weakening. “It’s almost falling down. Needs new electrical. Plumbing. СКАЧАТЬ