Man on a Mission

“Ms. Cartwright?”

She paused in the doorway and turned back to him.

“Stay away from my brother.”

“Excuse me?” She frowned, wondering if she hadn’t heard him correctly.

“Stay away from Mark.” Matthew eyed her coldly. “I understand from your letter to my father that you’ve been through some bad times. It would be natural for you to see Mark as the answer to your financial problems. My brother is vulnerable and he has obviously taken a liking to you, but I won’t have him toyed with or hurt.”

“I have no intention of doing either,” April replied with a touch of coolness to her own voice.

“See that you don’t.” He broke his gaze with her and focused on the paperwork on his desk. Again April realized she’d been dismissed.

“Pompous ass,” April muttered beneath her breath as she headed for the front door. Imagine him even thinking that somehow she was setting Mark up, that she’d assessed him as weak and wealthy and might try to take advantage of that fact.

April gripped the folder more tightly against her chest, indignation sweeping through her. As if she could ever do to somebody else what had been done to her.

She swung open the door and smacked into a person coming in. “Oh…sorry,” she exclaimed to the dapper man in a light blue suit.

“Quite all right,” he replied, a friendly smile dancing his gray mustache upward. “Walter Tilley.” He held out a hand to her. “Family friend and lawyer to the Delaneys. And you must be the new social director, April Cartwright.”

“Yes, I am.” She shook his hand, then he stepped out on the porch with her.

“Matthew told me about you yesterday evening, and Mark’s mentioned your name several times. It’s good to have you on the team.”

She tried not to imagine what Matthew Delaney had said about her to the lawyer. At least Walter Tilley appeared friendly enough. “Thank you, it’s nice to be part of the team.”

Walter smoothed his mustache with the tip of his index finger. “Damn shame about what happened to Marietta.”

“Marietta?”

“Marietta Lopez. She was the former social director.” One of Walter’s gray-speckled eyebrows raised. “Nobody told you what happened to her?”

April shook her head. “I just assumed she quit.”

“She was murdered.”

April gasped, a cold wind blowing inside her. “Murdered?”

Walter nodded. “It was the same night Mark received his injuries.” April stared at him blankly, and Walter emitted a dry chuckle. “I shouldn’t be surprised that nobody has told you. The Delaneys don’t talk to many people. They barely talk to each other.”

“So, what happened?”

“Nobody is certain. Apparently Mark and Marietta met near the barn one night, and somebody hit them both over the head with a shovel. Marietta died and Mark sustained severe head injuries.”

Severe head injuries. So that explained what had happened to Mark and must have been the trouble Molly had mentioned. A wave of compassion swept through April, along with the horror of the entire situation. “Did they find out who did it?”

Walter frowned. “Sadly, no. Although the speculation is that perhaps one of the ranch hands who’d developed a liking for Marietta committed the horrible crime.” Walter shook his head. “Terrible tragedy and followed so closely by Adam’s heart attack and death.”

April’s ill feelings toward Matthew were tempered by this new knowledge of the string of tragedies that had affected the family.

And Mark… What had he been like before suffering such a dreadful crime? Were the injuries he’d suffered to his brain permanent?

Walter looked at his gold watch. “I’d better get inside. I have a meeting with Matthew, and he likes punctuality.” He offered her another friendly smile. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You, too.”

As April headed toward her cottage, her mind whirled with the information she’d just gained. A vicious murder, and a man left damaged. So Mark’s gorgeous eyes had not always held the vagueness, his smile had not always been so wide and innocent.