Read Online The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online Page B

righting old wrongs, looking out for the descendents of the Comanches who rightfully belong on that land that Mr. Adams’s ancestors stole? Jeez, Mom, we’re in town for less than a month and you’re practically in bed with the enemy.”
    â€œI am not in bed with anybody,” Janet said. “Stop with that kind of talk and set the table.”
    â€œOkay, but I say you’re selling out.”
    â€œAnd I say you have a smart mouth. I’d better not hear any of that kind of talk while Mr. Adams is here.”
    Jenny nodded, her expression knowing. “I get it. You don’t want to tip him off too soon that his days on that land are numbered, right? You’ll finish your research, then bam, file the papers and boot him off. That’s good. I like it. Boy, will he be surprised when he finds out I belong at White Pines more than he does. Maybe I’ll even make him clean the barn.”
    Janet was beginning to regret ever having told Jenny how the land that Lone Wolf’s father had cherished had been taken over by white ranchers, while the Comanches were forced into smaller and smaller areas and eventually out of Texas altogether.
    â€œSweetie, there is no evidence that White Pines itself belonged to Lone Wolf’s father,” she explained. “True, he roamed all over west Texas and the Comanches believed that the land of the Comancheria was theirs, but it’s not as if it was ever deeded to them and recorded as theirs.”
    â€œBut that’s just a technicality, right?” Jenny argued. “You’re going to prove that possession was nine-tenths of the law stuff and that the government never had any right to force them out, right?”
    Janet had to admit it was a dream she had had, a fantasy inspired by listening to Lone Wolf spin his sad tales. She had vowed at his grave, when she was younger than Jenny was now, that she would try to rectify what had happened to their ancestors.
    When her marriage had failed, she’d been drawn to Texas at least in part to see if there was any way at all to fulfill that old promise. Now, while it seemed likely there was much she could do to assist the scattered Native Americans still living in Texas, reality suggested there was little chance she could return their old lands to them. While principle dictated the claims of the tribe were valid, individually their legal rights were murky at best.
    â€œJenny, you know that’s what I want to do, but it’s complicated. I can’t just waltz into the courthouse and file a few briefs and expect a hundred years of wrongs to be righted. The system doesn’t work that way.”
    â€œThe system stinks,” Jenny retorted, thumping the plates onto the table. “And just remember, Mom, Mr. Adams is part of that system.”
    Janet sighed. It wasn’t something she was likely to forget. If the twinkle in his eyes or the fire stirred by a casual touch distracted her, she had only to gaze around at his land to remember what had brought her to Texas.
    Every acre of raw beauty reminded her of Lone Wolf’s broken father, forced to live as a farmer in anunfamiliar state when tradition and instinct made him a hunter.
    In the abstract, it had been easy to hate the Texans who had made that happen. Now, faced with a man like Harlan Adams, who had shown her nothing but kindness, compassion and a hint of desire, it was awfully hard to think of him—or even his faceless ancestors—as the enemy.
    So, what did she consider him to be? she wondered as she checked the cake she had baking. Her mother, a full-blooded Comanche, had barely survived a disastrous marriage to a white man. Janet was only half Comanche and her own marriage to a white man had been only minimally better. She’d convinced herself that returning to Texas to learn more about her Comanche heritage was the secret to happiness.
    Was Jenny right? Was she selling out already by allowing Harlan