Read Online This Calder Sky by Janet Dailey - Free Book Online Page A

Chase Calder. His first thought was that she was being escorted off Calder land. And he’d been angry—but not angry enough to ride down and confront the man. His muttered abuse of the high-handed and arrogant ways of the Calders had been issued from afar.
    But Maggie had kissed him … with the ease of apair of lovers. The sight shook him all the way to the bone. She was just a little girl. He damned the Calders a thousand times over for corrupting innocent children. It was time he was having a talk with her, explain some of the facts of life to her. If only Mary Frances was here, he thought. She would handle it so much better—woman to woman. It was difficult for a man to put it in terms delicate enough for a young girl’s ear.
    He watched her ride up the slope, unknowingly coming straight toward him. His horse whickered at its stablemate. The serene smile went from her expression when she saw him. She briefly checked her mount, then let it continue on.
    The sharp look she gave him made Angus explain his presence. “I came back to look for you.” The ground became rocky, forcing her to bring her horse down to a walk the last couple of yards.
    â€œSure, Pa.”
    Something in her attitude irritated him—a vague smugness, as if she knew a glorious secret that she wasn’t going to share. “How come the Calder boy was with you? Where’d you meet up with him?”
    â€œAt the river.” Her gaze never left the land breaking in front of her.
    Her answer didn’t tell him anything, certainly not what was uppermost in his mind. “He kissed you.”
    â€œYes, he did.” She turned her head to give him a cool look.
    Suspicion crowded into his mind. There was a swollen softness to her lips and a secretive aura about her. “What else did he do?”
    She didn’t hold his gaze, but turned her head to stare straight ahead, her chin jutting forward at a defiant angle. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
    Reaching over, he grabbed the reins to stop her horse. “I’m your father and that makes it my business. Now I demand to know what happened.”
    â€œWhy?” she challenged, meeting his anger with an unshakable directness, temper flashing in her green eyes. “If something happened, what would you do, Pa? Would you even try to do anything about it? Or would you just walk around making empty threats to the air?”
    â€œSo help me, God, if he laid a hand on you, I’ll—”
    â€œYes? What will you do?” She taunted him openly. “Tell me, Pa.”
    Angus swallowed his rage, needing to know first if he was being goaded without cause. “I want to know if he … did anything to you.” He stumbled over the words, his voice low and trembling.
    Maggie watched the red flush come and go in his face. Her own defensive anger faded at his uncomfortable attempt to ask a question. It was probably harder for fathers to deal with their daughters’ sexuality, she supposed. She discovered some pity, an emotion she thought her father had already used up, for the pathetic figure wanting so desperately to uphold her honor and not possessing the guts to carry it through.
    â€œYes, Pa, he made love to me,” she sighed tiredly. It never occurred to Maggie to lie.
    There was a long moment of silence while he turned his head from her, his eyes blinking furiously. “These damned Calders!” he cursed in a vibrating voice. “They always gotta have it all.”
    â€œOh, Pa, can’t you just once put the blame where it belongs?” she demanded in weary exasperation. “If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine. It was what I wanted. I could have stopped Chase, but I didn’t want to.”
    He shook his head, denying that. “A man will always have his way with a woman. Calder deserves the whip for forcing himself on you.”
    â€œPa, you’re not listening to