Springwater Wedding

by Linda Lael Miller

• ISBN13: 9780671042493
• ISBN10: 0671042491
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-02
• Publisher: Pocket

Summary

Linda Lael Miller returns to an unforgettable Montana town for a very special occasion....

SPRINGWATER WEDDING

Once a frontier stagecoach stop, tiny Springwater has grown and changed and entered the twenty-first century. Cattle rustlers

Excerpts

Chapter 1 Maggie stuffed the woody stems of a cloud of white lilacs into a gallon jar, and some of the water spilled over onto the counter in the kitchenette of her parents' guest house. "J.T. Wainwright," she said, with typical McCaffrey conviction and a wealth of personal experience to back up her theory, "is a whole new twelve-step program, looking for a place to happen. I'm trying to start a business here. Make a life for myself. I don't need that kind of trouble."Daphne Hargreaves Evanston, her best friend since Miss Filbert's kindergarten class at the old schoolhouse, now an historical monument, like the Brimstone Saloon across the street from it, watched with a wry and twinkly smile as Maggie took a sponge from the sink to wipe up the overflow. Married for the past two years, Daphne was glowingly happy and wanted to see all her friends find the same rather irksome bliss. "Oh, come on, Mags," she chided cheerfully. "J.T. was a little wild as a kid, but he became a cop, so he must have straightened out."Maggie was stubbornly silent, and Daphne, who could be just as stubborn, fixed her with a mock glare."He was a cop," Maggie allowed in due time, and somewhat grudgingly. She straightened a little. "But since when is joining a big-city police force the equivalent of a religious conversion?"Daphne shook her head and made a tsk-tsk sound. "Methinks thou protests too much, my friend," she said, folding slender arms. "J.T. was shot in the line of duty. Hemusthave been committed to his job, to put himself in the path of a bullet."Maggie hated to think of J.T. -- or anyone else, she quickly pointed out to herself -- struck down by gunfire, and she shuddered. Images of that lethal confrontation, far away in a New York City warehouse, had disturbed her sleep many a time over the six months since it had happened, although she'd been out of contact with J.T. for much longer."It must have been terrible," Daphne reflected somberly, giving voice to her friend's thoughts, as she often did. Sometimes Maggie believed she and Daphne had some kind of psychic connection; they'd been known to go shopping in separate cities, on different days, and come home with duplicate pairs of shoes. "All the pain and the blood, and then his partner being killed, too. Just like his father was. A person can only stand so much violence -- it's no wonder he turned in his badge."Maggie set the flowers in the middle of her grandmother's round oak table, the thump muffled by a lace doily. She was starting to feel sorry for J.T., and that would not do. When her heart softened, she'd discovered, so did her head."That's the official story, anyway," she said, with a little sniff. "That he turned in his badge, I mean. There are those who say J.T. only quit to avoid being fired, and you know it as well as I do."Daphne sighed, plainly exasperated. "You don't really believe that," she said."J.T. has a temper," Maggie pointed out, losing ground fast and damned if she'd admit it. "Don't you remember the time he beat his uncle nearly to death with his bare fists? He nearly went to prison for that."Daphne narrowed her eyes. "Yes," she challenged, "I remember. It was right after Clive Jenson threw his wife -- J.T.'s aunt -- down the cellar stairs!""Violence," Maggie said, fluffing the flowers, "does not justify more violence. You said as much yourself, just a few moments ago."A brief silence fell. Then, "You're still interested," Daphne accused, delight dancing in her silver-gray eyes. Her face took on a dreamy expression, and she sighed again. "It was so romantic, the way he showed up at your wedding and everything"You need therapy," Maggie said, still fussing with the lilacs. "It wasn't 'romantic,' it was downright awful." She closed her eyes, and the memory of that day a decade before loomed in her mind in three distinct dimensions and glorious Technicolor. She saw herself, clad in a simple wh