“She begged me to help her find him, to persuade him to come back. She was alone, you see, and Michael’s mother was a woman who didn’t know how to be alone. I want to believe that somewhere inside, she regretted what she’d done, what she’d said to him, and she loved him. But all I saw was a miserable, selfish woman who was afraid to be without a man, even if the man was the son she’d driven away.”

“Oh, Mrs. T.” Ann pressed her hand against her mouth. The tears that swam in her eyes were tears of guilt and pity. “You’re sure of this?”

“Annie, forget what she told you, even what I’ve just said, and tell me, honestly, what you see when you look at him. As if you knew nothing more about him than what you’ve seen since he came here.”

“He works hard.” She sniffled and tugged a tissue from her pocket. “He’s good with children and his animals. He’s kind to them. He’s got the devil in his eye, and something hard comes into it. He doesn’t watch his language as he should around the children, and I don’t think . . .” She trailed off, wiped her eyes. “He’s good to them. And he’s been good for them. I can’t deny it. And I’m ashamed.”

“There’s no shame in worrying over the ones you love. I’m sorry you were living with the fear that Laura had gotten herself involved with the kind of man you thought he was.”

“I’ve hardly slept since he’s been here. I kept waiting for him to—Oh, the poor boy. What a terrible thing to go through. And him barely old enough to shave regular.”

“You’ll sleep better now,” Susan murmured.

“But I’m still keeping my eye on him.” She managed a weak smile. “Men who look that way, they’re not to be trusted around a woman.”

“We’ll both worry.” Susan squeezed Annie’s hand. “We know our Laura, don’t we? She needs home, family, love. When everything else is brushed aside, that’s what she is. I don’t know if she’ll find that with Michael, or what it will do to her if she doesn’t.”

She’d found something else. The thrill of streaking over the hills, of racing through low-lying fog that hugged the ground like a river. Of hearing the thunder of hooves and feeling the strong, sleek mount beneath her gather itself to jump.

She sailed over a fallen log and burst into a clearing where the sun flashed white.