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

me.” Her protest seemed hopeless. Why did he always have to twist things to put the blame on others? In a flash of wisdom, Maggie realized that her father couldn’t accept the truth thatshe had been a willing participant, because to him, it would mean that he had somehow failed as a parent. Her father couldn’t accept personal failure. It always had to be caused by someone bigger, stronger, or more powerful. The Calders acted as a natural scapegoat for all his problems.
    â€œDon’t worry, girl. No one is going to ruin my daughter and get away with it.” There was a malevolent gleam in his eye. Here was another reason to hate the Calders—a reason any man, any father, could understand.
    But all Maggie saw was how much he loved the role of the martyr. She didn’t. She slapped the horse with her reins, sending it bounding forward.

Chapter V
    Leaving Maggie, Chase put his spurs to the blood bay and raced it in a flat-out run. There was going to be hell to pay for keeping his father waiting. The fact that he’d forgotten all about it until a couple of minutes ago said something for his total absorption with Maggie.
    Horse and rider splashed across the river’s ford at a gallop, and up the sloping bank to the other side. With a rounding turn, they headed for the east gate. A bellowed shout behind him rang above the thunder of his horse’s racing hooves. Chase looked back to see Nate Moore waving at him and reluctantly pulled his horse to a plunging, sliding halt. The blood bay danced under him, blowing and snorting while Chase waited for the foreman to catch up with him.
    â€œI’ve searched half the river for you. Where the hell have you been?” The ramrod glowered his displeasure at being kept away from the herd on a fool’s errand.
    â€œSorry.” Chase offered no explanation.
    â€œYour father couldn’t wait any longer. He left a half-hour ago or more,” Nate informed him. “He said,when I found you, I was to tell you he expected you at the house for dinner tonight. And I’d say you had better have a damned good reason for not coming right away.”
    â€œRight,” Chase murmured, his mouth tight. Again the spurs jabbed the bay, sending it forward to stretch into a run with the second stride.
    Nate let his eyes follow the rider for a minute before turning his mount toward the distant herd. “He’s got a hard, punishing ride ahead of him, horse.” It was a habit left over from his young fence-riding days when a cowboy’s horse was sometimes the only living thing around to listen. “His butt is going to know it when it gets there. If the ride don’t make it sore, the chewing it’s going to get will finish the job.”
    As he reached the trail that intersected the river crossing, something in the open stretch of water caught the cowboy’s eye. He slowed his horse, trying to identify the colored object. At this distance, it looked like some kind of material caught on a rock, a shirt, maybe. A strong sense of curiosity made Nate turn his horse for a closer investigation.
    The piece of clothing was on the far side of the ford. Nate crossed over and dismounted to scoop it out of the water. It was a shirt. Nothing wrong with it either that he could tell. The initials, C. C., penned onto the label made him pause.
    â€œCome to think of it,” he murmured again to his horse, “Chase had his jacket buttoned all the way up. The day’s cool, but not that cool.” He wrung the water out of the shirt and stuffed it in a pocket of his saddlebag before swinging into the saddle. “Now, how do you suppose he lost that shirt in the river?”
    It puzzled him. And if there was one thing that drove Nate crazy, it was not having all the pieces to a puzzle. It had happened to him once. He’d been snowed in at aline camp one winter for a month and a half, waiting for a warm chinook wind. There had been a