The Rightful Heir. Angel Moore
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Название: The Rightful Heir
Автор: Angel Moore
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Love Inspired Historical
isbn: 9781474058643
isbn:
He held up a hand. “I’m saying that the only way to find it will be to remember who was here. If Andrew was here, he may have seen it.”
Mary Lou’s words were barely more than a whisper. “Andrew is not a thief.”
Mr. Warren cleared his throat. They both started. The hotel owner handed Mary Lou money for the newspapers. “If you two will excuse me, I’m going to help Jasmine search for the cameo. I bought it for her mother because it had a rose corsage on the shoulder of the lady’s dress. Her mother’s name was Rose.”
“I’m sure you’ll find it soon.” Mary Lou thanked him for the money and they left the hotel.
Jared couldn’t understand why she wasn’t more curious. “Mary Lou, if you’re as good at the newspaper business as you say you are, why aren’t you the least bit interested in what happened to a valuable family heirloom?” They turned at the center of town and headed back toward their office.
Their office. It sounded odd in his mind. It was his office. He must keep his focus on the ownership of the newspaper and all the responsibility that went along with that. If someone in town was stealing things, he was determined to get to the bottom of it. Solving a crime would show the people of Pine Haven that he was serious about the paper and about bettering the community.
“People misplace things all the time. Especially small things. I daresay Doc Willis picked it up, just as Jasmine suspected.”
He shook his head. “But you don’t know that. Aren’t you making a lot of assumptions?”
She opened the door to the office and went inside.
He followed her, waiting for an answer.
“I am not. It is not an assumption to refuse to believe that a trusted friend is a petty thief. It is an assumption to suspect someone you don’t know when you aren’t even sure there’s been a theft.”
“I’ve only been here a few days, but I’ve seen you rely on your opinion of situations more than once.”
“My opinions, as you call them, are based on years of experience in the newspaper business and a personal knowledge of the parties in question.”
Her shoulders stiffened. Even though she stood on the opposite side of his desk, the friction between them filled the room.
“You did not know the newsagent from the train, yet you dismissed him as innocent without interviewing him.”
“There was no crime there, either.”
“True, Elmer Finch didn’t shoot the man in the saloon, but he is harboring a secret. One I think needs to be investigated.”
“Really, Mr. Ivy, you do go on.” She picked up her pad and pencil from the desk. “If I were to run the paper by following your imaginations, we could become the biggest work of fiction in Texas before the judge arrives.”
His mother had ignored him. Even hidden truths from him. But she had never dismissed him out of hand.
Jared mustered all the strength of character he possessed to answer her charges. “Objectivity is the cornerstone of good journalism. I suggest that your years of association with the people in Pine Haven may have dulled your sense of neutrality. Once you become allied with anyone, you lose your ability to consider them in any light other than the one you’ve cast upon them.”
“Your grandfather trusted my instincts. I have yet to err in my assessments of the good people of Pine Haven. I stand confidently on that record.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Then, as the Good Book says, take heed, lest ye fall.”
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