Free Amanda by Kay Hooper Page A

him, in dark slacks and a white shirt. He was rolling the sleeves of the shirt up over tanned and powerful forearms, and paused there on the landing to complete the task while he frowned down at her.
    Then he continued down the stairs, not speaking until he stood on the polished wood floor a couple of feet away from her. He totally ignored the dogs, and they regarded him with acute detachment. “So, you’re Amanda.” His voice was deep, a touch impatient but not nearly as innately harsh as Jesse’s voice seemed to be.
    She nodded just a little. “And you’re Sully.”
    Without trying to be subtle, he looked her up and down quickly but thoroughly. “Well, you have the coloring, if not the size of most of us,” he observed somewhat mockingly. “But that hardly makes you Amanda Daulton. I’m sure you’ll forgive me a few lingering doubts.”
    Amanda was too relieved by his obviously improved temper to let his suspicion bother her. “No, I expected as much,” she told him.
    “Did you?” Sully’s smile was humorless. “But I’m one of the few voicing any doubts, right? Just me— and Walker, since it’s his job to be suspicious. Kate’s being her usual placid self, Maggie’s neutral, and Jesse’s already convinced you’re his beloved Amanda. And I’ll bet my brother’s already calling you cousin, since he wouldn’t dare oppose Jesse.”
    She decided not to respond to that. Instead, she said, “Look, I want you to know that I didn’t … come back here to—to displace anybody.”
    He shrugged, in open skepticism rather than unconcern, his gray eyes suddenly very hard. “Yeah, right. So why did you come here?”
    It was, oddly enough, a question only Walker McLellan had asked her, and she gave Sully the same response. “Because after my mother died, I found out my real name, and I wanted to know the rest. Who I am, where I came from, what my family’s like. And why my mother chose to leave her husband and this place in the middle of the night—and never come back.”
    Sully frowned down at her. “What makes you so sure you’ll find that last answer here? She’s gone, Brian’s gone, it’s been twenty years. We never knew what happened between Christine and Brian, and since he was killed just a few weeks later, We’ll probably never know.”
    “You weren’t much older than I was then, so how can you remember what you may have seen or heard?”
    “I was twelve—and I remember enough. But I spent most of my time with the horses even then, and I was away a lot showing. I didn’t know or care very much what the adults were up to, but I don’t recall anything unusual about that summer or that day. Like I said—We’ll probably never know what really happened.”
    “Maybe that’s true.” Amanda managed a shrug, wondering why she didn’t quite believe Sully was as disinterested in that summer twenty years ago as he claimed. Something in his tone, maybe, or the guarded look in his expressive face. “But I can still find outmore than I knew about my family by being here. Do you begrudge me that?”
    Sully smiled another humorless smile. “I don’t begrudge you anything—Amanda. So far, anyway. In fact, if you can keep the old man happy and off my back for the time he’s got left, I’ll owe you one.”
    “The time he’s got left?” She felt peculiar all of a sudden. “What do you mean by that? Maybe he’s old, but he looks fine.”
    “Some people look healthy right up till the end, I’m told,” Sully said, his narrowed eyes intent on her face. “Oh, come on, don’t ask me to believe you didn’t know. According to Walker, the last woman claiming to be you certainly knew all about it. We’ve been able to keep it out of the papers, but it’s common knowledge around here—and easy enough for anyone investigating the family to find out.”
    “Find out what?”
    “That Jesse has cancer. His doctors say He’ll be dead by Christmas.”
    Amanda was glad she still had a hand on the