Then she remembered that the first time he’d been there he’d said he tried the front door, but it had been locked.
She closed her eyes and wondered when she’d stop wondering if everyone she met could have caused Grandma Nancy’s death. And yet, her intuition still hinted that something was not as it seemed. Like her vision of the policeman at the cottage door.
Chapter 23
In spite of the squeaky springs, Maddie didn’t wake up until long after dark. She checked her phone: nine forty-five. She stayed in bed, listening. Then she heard what sounded like paper rustling. Unless it was the mouse, someone else was in the cottage. Hopefully, it was a friend, not foe.
Then she thought,Rafe!Of course it would be him.
Pushing back the covers, she swung her legs to one side until her feet touched the floor. Then she pushed herself up to a sitting position and grabbed the crutches. But as she pulled them toward her, one slipped from her hand and bounced onto the floor.
She let out a groan just as her son appeared in the doorway, silhouetted by the hall light.
“Mom? Do you need help?”
“Believe it or not, that’s the first time I’ve dropped one of these.”
He picked it up and, without waiting to be asked, he moved closer and hoisted her up. His well-muscled arms were a sad reminder that her little boy’s thin limbs had now been lost to manhood, no doubt accelerated by years of rowing crew and cleaning the banks of the Hoosic River.
Holding her upright with one arm, he handed her the crutches. “Here,” he said with a grin. “Don’t drop ’em.”
She was grateful that Owen’s genes played a minimal role in his personality.
Knowing Rafe would help her if she couldn’t get up on her own, she sat in the cushy living room chair by the window. Once he was settled on the sofa, she asked if he was hungry; he said he and his dad had dinner at the Homeport, the sit-down restaurant by the water.
“I wanted to ask you to join us, but Dad said it wasn’t a good idea. I’m sorry he upset you, Mom. I never should have let him come with me.”
“It’s not your fault. I expect he’ll harass me until your great-grandmother’s estate is settled.” It was the first time she’d admitted to him that things between his parents were not amicable.
“If it helps, he called a cab right after we ate. He said I didn’t need to drive him, that the last ferry was leaving at nine thirty and he wanted to be on it.”
Though she would have loved to say, “Thank God,” she simply asked if he’d like to split a tiramisu with her.
Never one to say no to desserts, Rafe got up, opened the refrigerator and removed the tiramisu. He cut the slice in half, found two plates, and served her. He told her he’d emptied Rex’s cooler before she woke up, and that he’d snuck into the front bedroom and taken a couple of boxes out of there and brought them into the living room. He said he looked through them, and that one had lots of pictures and newspaper clippings.
“I found lots of Indian stuff,” he commented. “Is there a tribe on the island?”
And Maddie knew it was time to tell him the rest.
“One of the reasons I was kind of nasty to your dad is because I need to talk with you about something. Just you and me. Not even with your grandfather.”
He took a forkful of the creamy dessert. “Sounds serious.”
“It’s not a bad thing, honey. But, yes, it’s serious.” She paused, also took a bite of tiramisu, then looked out the front window at the diamond stars shimmering in the night sky.
And she told him.
She told him that her inheritance wasn’t only the cottage but also the two other parcels of land that were worth a lot of money. She told him about her mother, her grandmother, and what little she had learned about her grandfather. She told him they’d all been Wampanoags, and that she’d only found out last week. She told him it meant that she was half Native American. And that he, too, had Wampanoag blood, 25 percent.
She waited for his reaction. His eyes were fixed on hers, his hand still gripping his fork.
“So that’s it,” she said. “It’s the whole story as I know it to date.”
He set down the fork and put the plate next to him. “That’s incredible.”
She nodded. “It is. All these years, I thought I was half Iberian. A descendant of a Portuguese fisherman.”
“Kind of a shock, huh?”
