Anna shrugged again and pushed a pile of sliced carrots to the side. She picked up another carrot and got to work. “I could only get what people didn’t see. No one ever left preserves sitting around. Sometimes people didn’t leave anything, and I’d be hungry.”
Delia glanced up at Max, whose eyebrows shot up. He turned around in case Anna happened to look up. He didn’t want her to see whatever emotions might have been evident on his face.
No wonder Anna took apples and bread when she arrived here. It was what she was used to. He clenched his hands at the fury that raced through him. He wanted to be angry at Vivian, but he wasn’t certain if he could. There was no way to know whether she couldn’t afford food, or if she simply didn’t bother to buy any for her child.
“He got mad,” Anna said, and Max turned back around, schooling his expression into something neutral.
“Your grandfather?” he asked.
She nodded and set the knife down. “He came back another time. I wasn’t there, but the neighbor lady said he yelled at Mama after she told him I couldn’t live with him. He told her she was good for nothing and I was too.” She made a face. “I don’t think I’d like him very much.”
Delia rested a hand on Anna’s arm. “Well, now you’re here with us, and we have plenty of food, and you don’t have to speak with people like that at all. And you’ve done a great job with those potatoes. Why don’t you add them to the soup, and then you can look at that new book your father brought home for you?”
Anna grinned and made quick work of the potatoes before disappearing through the door.
“You don’t think he’ll really come here?” Delia asked the second Anna was gone.
“I don’t know,” Max said honestly. “But if he does, he’ll be leaving empty-handed.”
“I wish we knew the full story,” she said, standing up to check on the soup.
“I do too. But I know enough about the man to be wary.” Max ran a hand through his hair, the image of Snyder’s enraged face screaming at him and his hand brandishing that pistol. For a moment, he’d been certain the man would shoot him dead.
Delia set the spoon down and turned around. “What if he comes here when you aren’t home?” Worry etched a line in her forehead.
He stepped forward and rested his hands on either side of her waist. “Anna will be in school soon. If he comes here, simply tell him to see me at the hotel. There’s nothing you can give him, after all.”
She looked up at him and nodded before leaning her head against his chest. Max closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her. Never in his life had anyone trusted him as much as Delia did. It was both flattering and incredibly terrifying. He would do anything—anything at all—to keep her and Anna safe. He dropped a kiss on her head, and she backed up to look at him.
“Perhaps I’ll tell him he has no business here and he ought to get himself back to Denver,” she said, a mischievous smile lifting her lips.
Max laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did, but in this case, you ought to leave it to me. The man angers easily. He’s used to handling gamblers and cheats, not ladies.” And how Snyder had found another woman to marry him after Vivian’s mother was beyond Max’s comprehension. Most of the women who frequented his gaming hall steered clear of its owner and his temper.
“All right, I suppose I will.”
He smiled down at her. “I forgot to tell you that Liam got more of those newspapers in. I’ll bring them home for you tomorrow. He has the one from New York and procured a copy of the Cañon City paper for me too.”
Delia swallowed, her smile dipping as she stepped back to tend to the soup. “All right. Please tell him thank you for me.”
He rubbed his chin as he stared at her back, completely puzzled by her reaction yet again. He thought she’d be happy receiving the local newspaper. Maybe it was the news contained within the papers that upset her. “If reading newspapers worries you, I can order books instead. Mrs. Drexel at the general store orders several for the marshal’s wife.”
“You needn’t spend money on me,” Delia said without turning around. “But thank you. The newspapers are nice.”
There was nothing about her tone that sounded sincere, and Max left the kitchen wondering what in the world it was that upset her so.
