Free Spanking Her Highness by Patricia Green Page A

right now. We have some issues to work out."
    "About the baby? I'm fully capable of workin' this out myself."
    He gave her a direct stare that said, yeah, just like you did so far. But he didn't say it aloud. Instead, he said, "There's more to it than that, daughter." He rose from his chair. "Leave it to me."
    "No, Daddy! I want to come to grips with this first. I'm not sure I even want Will to know."
    Leo scowled.
    "I mean, maybe I should go to Nashville, or somewhere else. Maybe Aunt Pearl's in Cincinnati. I could start over. Make a life for my baby and me."
    "Runnin' away is never the right answer, Q, and the baby will need a father."
    "But Will didn't ask for this. And, he's so high-handed. He's sure to want to run my life once he knows."
    Consuela added her opinion. "Seems to me that maybe your life could use a little structure. And, he has a right to know. He also has to live up to his responsibilities."
    Queenie looked between the two of them. They were probably right, but she wasn't ready for this. Wasn't ready to tell him. She needed a little while, maybe a week…maybe longer. She dreaded the look on his face. He was gonna be madder than a half-drowned cat.
    "Let me handle it. Please."
    Leo nodded slowly. "For a time, Queenie. Then I'll do it for you. Understand?"
    "Yes, sir."
    Standing, Consuela gave them both a gentle smile. "I think it's about time we had a new Journey around here. Seemed like it was never gonna happen."
    A deep-throated laugh carried Leo out of the room. "Yeah," he called over his shoulder. "I'm gettin' too old to be waitin' much longer."
    Consuela laughed, and went back to her dusting.
    Queenie stood there, a little non-plussed. What had just happened? They accepted her devastating news with little more than a scolding. Now, if only she could accept it so easily.
    * * *
    Will wasn't sure the Journeys would believe him. His investigation had hardly been conclusive. Rather a failure, actually. But he was confident he knew what was going on. He didn't know who was behind it, though, and that was the biggest problem.
    He'd contacted a guy he'd met in Hollywood—an environmental consultant who'd been a subject expert on the TV show Will worked on. For a price, the fellow was willing to come out and take a few water samples.
    The results had come in, two days into Ace Journey's ultimatum. The water was clear upstream, but there was a strong concentration of crude oil further to the west. It flowed from Will's easement, right down the river to Journey's End. It wasn't strong enough to leave black tar on the riverbank, but it was strong enough to make the water hazardous to the cattle. It was no wonder the Journeys were ticked off. Will would be, too.
    He was, in fact. He knew the contractors couldn't have done this. There was a much higher concentration of chemicals than they could have possibly used to lubricate or power their equipment. This was sabotage, pure and simple.
    There were a lot of tire tracks down at the river's edge by the easement. A light rain had made the soil muddy, but the hot sun afterward had dried the muddy tracks into clear, clay patterns.
    This morning, Will followed some of those tracks and mostly met a dead end. The deepest tracks, however, led to an oil tanker truck. It was a mid-sized one, parked in a little pinewood grove off the local Farm-to-Market road. He called the sheriff and reported his discovery.
    "So, y'all think that someone is purposely poisoning the water from your pipeline?"
    "Downstream from my line, Sheriff. I think it's oil from this tanker."
    "You sure you ain't doin' somethin' to cause this chemical spill your own self?"
    "I'm sure."
    There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. "I ain't got no other complaints about the river water."
    "The Journeys have mentioned the problem to me, which is why I investigated."
    "Investigation is my job, son. You let me do that kind of work, 'k?"
    Will realized he was getting nowhere. He had to rely on his own