Marian was skeptical about her sister's being in shock, when it was typical of Amanda simply to ignore things that she didn't like. It was a greater possibility that she simply refused to believe her inheritance was gone.

Kathleen left the letter with Spencer. It would be up to him to make his wife understand the consequences of it—if he cared to bother. Like Chad, he didn't particularly see it as a disaster, so he might not bother.

He must have explained the situation to Amanda, though, because he brought her out to the Twisting Barb the very next day. And tantrum didn't come close to describing Amanda's "enlightened" reaction.

Stuart and Chad were also there. Stuart had gotten a lot more friendly with Red during the barbecue and had stopped by that afternoon to let her know he was leaving on a trip to Chicago in a few days. Actually, he'd just stopped by for dinner, since he could have sent one of his men over with the message about his trip. Although he no longer escorted his cattle to Chicago, he did go there once a year to wine and dine the buyers. Chad had merely come along for the ride, Marian assumed.

But they were all on the porch enjoying the sunset that evening when Amanda and Spencer arrived right before dark. And Amanda was barely out of the carriage, Albert's letter twisted in her fist, before she was screeching at Kathleen, "This is a pack of lies!"

Marian couldn't help but sigh. She wondered if anyone would notice if she just slipped away, grabbed an early dinner, and retired for the night. She really didn't want to have to listen to her sister's enraged disbelief. Of course, she'd probably have to close all the windows in her room to avoid hearing it. Amanda could get that loud.

Kathleen tried to inject a note of calm. "Sit down, Amanda. We understand your disbelief. I found it incredible myself, that Mortimer could make so many bad decisions, one on top of another."

"Then you should have known better than to accept this rubbish without—"

"Proof?" Kathleen interrupted, still trying for calm. "You're holding the proof. A full accounting was included, or did you neglect to read it?"

Amanda snorted. "You mean this forged account? You aren't listening, Aunt Kathleen. I'm not here because I refuse to believe what this letter implies. I'm here because I know this isn't true. My God, do you think Papa never talked to me? I'm the one he shared all of his successes with, whether I cared to hear them or not."

"Perhaps, but did he ever share his failures?" Kathleen replied. "Or did he keep those to himself, too ashamed of them to let anyone know?"

"You still aren't listening," Amanda insisted. "His businesses were booming. They paid for themselves. There were no hidden costs to drain his wealth."

"Too many improvements can overextend anyone. He did too much in too short a time."

"No—he—didn't!" Amanda exclaimed. "That's where your misconception lies. If you knew him like you think you do, you'd know he was too satisfied with his profits to waste them on improving the working conditions of his employees. But of course you hadn't seen him in years, so how would you know?" Amanda ended with a sneer.

"I was making reference to the facts given," Kathleen replied stiffly.

"I'm giving you the facts. If his employees didn't like where they worked, they could go work somewhere else. I've heard him say that hundreds of times. Even Marian has heard him say that. And why not, when he had people lined up to work for him because he paid so well, not because he supplied ideal working conditions. He opened only one new shoe store in the last several years, and that was only because a new cobbler had moved in on the other side of town, and Papa wasn't about to let him steal any of his longtime customers. And even that store was thriving."

Kathleen must have finally experienced some doubt, because she turned to Marian for confirmation. Marian hated agreeing with her sister about anything, but in this case she was forced to nod.

"Its true he said that a lot," she remarked. "He did pay his employees extremely well, and because of that, he really didn't care if they complained that his stores were old and drafty. His philosophy was that people would always need new shoes, no matter where they had to go to buy them. I don't recall him improving any of his existing stores either, not that I would have noticed, since I didn't get to that part of town often."

"I did," Amanda added. "And they were just the same as always."

"There were still new property purchases that didn't turn out as he expected," Kathleen pointed out. "And he borrowed heavily to compensate."

"Why would he have borrowed money? He had more than seven hundred thousand dollars sitting in the bank. But if you are referring to the property listed in this accounting"—Amanda raised the letter in her fist for emphasis—"I happen to know at least one of these, the Owl Roost Hotel, Papa didn't buy at all. He was going to. And Albert would have known that. He was his lawyer after all. But someone else put in a higher offer on diat hotel, and Papa wasn't willing to top it. It was in a town that didn't get a lot of visitors, and while it was a good deal at the original price, it wasn't at the higher price. Papa didn't buy property to speculate—"

"She's right," Marian cut in with a gasp as the memory stirred. "I remember that incident now. Papa laughed about it at the dinner table, that someone was trying to ride on his coattails to success, but they were only cutting their own throat by overpaying instead of finding good deals. It apparently wasn't the first time an anonymous buyer went after one of the properties he was interested in. A few months later he was patting himself on the back because the foolish buyer was still at it, and Papa had started showing interest in properties he knew weren't good deals, just to help the person dig his own grave. Papa could be vindictive like that, as long as it didn't put a dent in his own pocket."

Kathleen was staring at her incredulously. She was rather incredulous herself as all the implications sank in. Amanda gave them both a triumphant look.

Of course, that wasn't enough for Amanda. She just had to say, "I told you so," too.

Chapter 47

EVERYONE WAS FULL OF suggestions that night at dinner—everyone who wasn't directly involved. Even Stuart got into the discussion and was heard to remark on the side to his son that he hadn't had so much fun in years.

The cattle baron was all for rounding up a posse and lynching the shyster lawyer, as he was already referring to Albert Bridges. Of course, with Albert living on the East Coast, that would be a bit far to drag a posse. And besides, though there was no doubt in any of their minds now that Albert had stolen the inheritance from the girls, it had to be proven to the authorities before anything could be done about it.

The forged accounting wouldn't do it. Albert could claim he hadn't sent it or the letter. And the properties might not even have been sold. He could be taking his time about that to get the best prices.

Obviously, he must have hoped his letter would be the end of it. He'd made sure the girls were far from home first, using the excuse that he hadn't had the guts to tell them in person. And with them both thinking they were now destitute, he probably figured they wouldn't be able to return to Haverhill to find out what he'd done. Or he could have sold everything and run off with the money. He could be out of the country already for all they knew.

And that was the bottom line. They wouldn't know, not without hiring detectives—or investigating themselves. And Amanda wasn't about to leave her inheritance in the hands of detectives.

"How soon can we leave?" Amanda asked her aunt.

"We?" Kathleen replied. "Shouldn't you be asking your husband that?"

Amanda waved a hand dismissively. "He's not going, has no interest at all in helping me."

Several pairs of eyes turned toward Spencer, but he just shrugged indifferently, and said, "I keep telling her that she doesn't need that money now. But she thinks it will give her the means to get rid of me."

Amanda actually blushed. Marian found that more interesting than Spencer's lack of desire to travel back East. Did Amanda just not want everyone to know that she still wanted out of her marriage? That didn't sound like something that would make Amanda blush, unless it wasn't really true. If it was true, she wouldn't care who knew. But if it was something she'd only said to Spencer, and hadn't really meant it, she wouldn't have wanted it brought to light.

Amanda said a lot of things without really meaning them. It was one of her tools for manipulating people. There could be more than a few reasons why she'd want Spencer to think she wasn't pleased with their marriage. The obvious one being that she wasn't pleased with it. The less obvious one could be because he wasn't showing signs of liking it. She could also be trying to force him to make a firm declaration of his feelings. His apparent indifference toward her was probably annoying the hell out of Amanda.

Surprisingly, it was Stuart who spoke up, reminding them, "Whether she needs her inheritance or not, the shyster shouldn't be allowed to get away with the theft. That's no different than handing over your reins to a horse thief and telling him, I didn't like that horse anyway, so you're welcome to him."

"I'm in agreement with that," Kathleen put in next. "It's not so much the money involved as it is the audacity of this lawyer fellow. He pulled his deception on me, and I admit I fell for it. He was probably thinking the girls wouldn't make head nor tails of that accounting he sent, young as they are. The entire thing was for me, to fool me into believing it. And it infuriates me that it worked so easily. I had no doubts at all."