Free A Treasure Worth Seeking by Sandra Brown Page A

trouble. He would never be the man he was before. He would either have to go to prison for many years or suffer some other stigma equally as devastating. Yesterday he had been no more to her than a name on a slip of paper, a hope, a promise. Today, he was a real person with real problems, and she couldn't turn her back on him, her only relative, when he would need all the support he could get.
    Her reason for wanting to find Ken was that she longed for a family. What she had expected to find was warmth and happiness, hours filled with laughter and reminiscing.
    Instead she had walked into a tragic situation. Could that negate the fact that Ken Lyman was her brother? Families didn't always share joviality. They shared trouble, too.
    And perhaps that was far more binding.
    She had become fond of Melanie. The younger woman's naivete and sweetness evoked a maternal affection in Erin and she felt compelled to stay with Melanie and provide whatever help she could during the trying days still to come.
    Her decision was made. She would stay in San Francisco.
    As she absently sipped her second cup of coffee, she wondered why she felt no relief in having made that important decision. Could it be that she was worried about her business? Taking extended leaves of absence was no way to run a business, particularly one in which the clients often felt they needed to deal with her directly. They trusted Erin's expert opinion and imaginative, though ex cellent, taste. Sometimes they wanted her approval before they accepted a proposal presented by one of her employees.
    Well, she hadn't missed more than a few days of work since she had started the business. She had trained her staff well. They would manage. And when one compared the problems that sometimes arose over a fashion show, they seemed far too trivial and superficial to weigh against the ones facing her brother and his wife.
    Was it being away from Bart that made her hesitate in offering her assistance to Melanie? He would be peeved at her for staying in San Francisco. He would whine and plead for her to come home, but he would understand. She didn't intend to tell him about Ken's crime, but she would make her reasons for staying sound so imperative that a good businessman like Bart would see the advisability of her staying to find the solution to whatever problem de-tained her.
    Melanie had been chattering gaily as she went about the chores of cleaning the kitchen after breakfast. She had insisted that Erin needn't help her. Erin hoped she was making all the correct responses to Melanie's questions and comments, but her mind still revolved around her dilemma. Why didn't she want to stay until Ken was found?
    She knew the reason, but didn't want to face it. It was tucked away somewhere in her mind and she refused to bring it out of the safe corner into which she had hidden it.
    Lance Barrett.
    She didn't want to stay here with him around. It hadn't happened often in her life that Erin had been made to feel a fool. Her practical parents had taught her well to handle herself with aplomb, and she had never shied away from adversity, but rather met it head on.
    How then could she have been so swayed by Lance last night? She should have fought him with all her strength when he first kissed her. She should have slapped his face hard; called Mike to her rescue, anything but lie there and respond so wantonly to his caresses. What had possessed her to behave that way?
    She had resisted the advances of men since high school.
    And resistance had become more difficult and the advances more complex the older she became. Bart's persistent urging that she share his bed was an example of that.
    She had never allowed a man such access to her. Except, Of course, poor Joseph. But that was totally different.
    Still, Lance's attitude this morning was baffling. Just after he had switched off the light in the study last night, he had talked about Ken's future. He hadn't sounded as though he were speaking in