Read Online Miss Lizzy's Legacy by Peggy Moreland - Free Book Online Page A

not at all sure he was going to get the forgiveness he’d come for. In need of something to fill the silence until she softened a little, he offered, “Mom said you weren’t leaving town until you found out the truth about the grave.”
    Callie started to sit down on the bed, remembered the papers she’d stuffed there and carefully skirted it. “That’s my plan.”
    â€œWhy is this so all-fired important?”
    She wasn’t sure how she could explain the importance or even why she should try, but for some reason she felt compelled to do just that. Opening a dresser drawer, she pulled out a thick leather album bound by a faded gold cord. “This belongs to my great-grandfather.”
    She flipped open the book and pointed to the first page, then held it out for Judd. “That is a picture of the Sawyer family. The young woman on the left is Mary Elizabeth. When she was nineteen, she ran away from home with a man her family didn’t approve of and they disowned her. Approximately eight months after she left, the Sawyers received a telegram notifying them that their daughter had died in childbirth but that her baby had lived. Arrangements were made for the baby to be delivered to the Sawyers in St. Louis. They traveled there by train, picked up the baby and took him to their home in Boston and raised him.”
    She flipped several pages and pointed again. “This is a picture of my great-grandfather William Leighton Sawyer at the age of nine months. His grandmother, Mary Elizabeth’s mother, is holding him. From what my great-grandfather has told me, his grandparents never forgave Mary Elizabeth for running away and bringing shame on the family. They never allowed the mention of her name in their home. When he was old enough to demand answers, he was told she was nothing but a selfish little trollop and it was his fault she was dead.
    â€œThe Sawyers were strict and unforgiving people. After living with them, my great-grandfather understood why his mother might have run away and he developed an empathy for her. Along with that, he carried the guilt that he was the cause of her death.”
    She sighed. “I came here at his request to take a picture of her burial spot and find out what I could about her and her life here.” She felt the burn of frustrated tears and batted them back. “I wish I’d never come. With what I’ve discovered so far, I tend to believe the Sawyers were right about their daughter. I hate to ruin Papa’s image of her.”
    Callie’s anger and dislike of the woman surprised Judd, for he’d never known of anyone who’d disliked Miss Lizzy. “You don’t think much of the woman, do you?”
    â€œAnd why should I? She was obviously as selfish and spoiled as her parents claimed. Otherwise, she would have kept her son with her and raised him herself instead of lying about her death and shipping her baby off to her parents to raise.”
    â€œHow do you know she lied about her death?”
    â€œWell, it’s obvious, of course. There’s simply no other explanation.” Callie saw the doubt in his eyes, and her shoulders sagged in frustration. “Look. I know you don’t believe me, but I swear everything I’ve told you is the truth.” With nothing else to offer other than her word and what little proof her great-grandfather had supplied her, she waited, silently watching for Judd’s reaction.
    He held the book in place and turned back to the first page, comparing the photographs. That they were old, was obvious, but as far as Judd was concerned the pictures didn’t prove a thing. There were quite a few early settlers who came to the Oklahoma Territory in hopes of escaping or forgetting what they’d left behind. Mary Elizabeth Sawyer obviously had been one of them, for nothing was known of her prior to her arrival in Guthrie. Oh, there had been rumors, lots of them. But Judd