“I’m baking beans,” she said.

He smiled. “You are.”

“Indeed. My grandmother once taught me how—it was the only thing she knew how to cook—and I’ve never forgotten, since it’s the only thing I know how to cook. How do they smell?”

“Burned.”

She laughed. “Well, it’s all because of this wood stove. I’m not a pioneer, you know.”

The smile left Barky’s worn face. “Lillian...why are you here?”

She laid her wooden spoon on the pine table. “I’m on leave from my job,” she said quietly, not looking at him. “I rode out the scandal...sort of. All these years, I thought the whole world would laugh their asses off if they knew what I’d done. As it turns out, people have been pretty understanding. But, of course, I’m part of a major story now—and I’m being stubborn and making enemies because I still refuse to discuss Judith Land. So it seemed best just to leave. I don’t know what I’ll tackle next. Maybe pigs and chickens?” She looked at him now. “For a while, anyway.”

There was uncertainty in her eyes, he saw. And then, as he laughed and walked to her, there was hope.

About the Author

Carla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sharpe & Donovan series featuring Boston-based FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, and the popular Swift River Valley series set in the small, fictional New England town of Knights Bridge. With many bestsellers to her credit, Carla loves to write now as much as she did when she climbed a tree at age eleven with a pad and pen and spun stories perched on her favorite branch.

A native New Englander, Carla and her husband divide their time between their hilltop home in Vermont, a sofa bed at their kids' places in Boston and various inns, hotels and hideaways on their travels, frequently to Ireland.

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