On The Texas Border
Abby Duncan's come home to Hope, Texas - the town known as Brewster's Valley, after the wealthy, powerful old man who rules it - to find the truth behind the accusations that drove her father to his death. Only Brewster knows what really happened. But he refuses to tell Abby unless she agrees to find his missing daughter, the child he's never acknowledged. Part of Brewster's deal is that Abby undertake this search with the help of Jonas Parker, foreman of Brewster's farming empire. Jonas knows only too well that the truth may not be what Abby expects.But neither of them can anticipate the secrets they're about to uncover. Secrets that threaten to shatter everything they've ever believed about themselves…and each other.
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“Simon Brewster wants me to find his daughter.”
“What daughter?” Jonas stared incredulously at Abby. “The old man doesn’t have a daughter. He’s using you because of his own agenda. Brewster does things for his own weird reasons and nine times out of ten, someone gets hurt. Go back to Dallas and forget about him.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, and felt chills run up her spine. She thought of all the years her father had worked for Simon Brewster—all the hard work and loyal service Abe Duncan had given Brewster, only to be tossed aside like an old shoe. And the rumors…Brewster had promised to tell her the truth if she found his daughter. “I have to clear my father’s name.”
But Jonas wasn’t ready to accept her answer. “What if you find out that your father did the things people say he did?”
“No!” She shook her head. “You knew my father. How can you even say it?”
Jonas took a step closer. “Because when you start digging into the past, you’d better be able to handle the consequences.”
Dear Reader,
You need to go. That’s what my brother J.O. said to me when he was drilling water wells in the Rio Grande Valley. He talked about the large fields of agricultural crops growing there, the Mexican laborers, the seasonal workers and the poverty across the Rio Grande River. The more he talked, the more questions I asked. I could definitely feel a story coming on.
You have to go, he kept insisting. So my husband and I headed for the border. I’d been to Mexico years ago, but this time it was more vivid and real. I looked at the contrast between Texas and Mexico through the eyes of a writer, and a story emerged that I hope you will enjoy.
Abby and Jonas are two very different people, and it took me a while to sort through the trails of their lives. I hope you will find these characters and the area as absorbing as I have. If you do, you will go there, too—if only in On the Texas Border.
Thanks for reading my books.
Linda Warren
You can always reach me at P.O. Box 5182, Bryan, TX 77805, or e-mail me at [email protected]
On the Texas Border
Linda Warren
To my brothers—
James Otto Siegert, Bobby Louis Siegert and Paul William Siegert. Thanks for the love and encouragement. As we grow older, I hope we continue to grow together instead of apart and that we always remember the sense of family our parents instilled in us.
And to the man who went with me to the RWA conference
in New Orleans without one complaint— my husband, Billy Warren, my Sonny.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
J.O. Siegert, Tammy and Rodrigo Medina and all the people who answered my endless questions about Texas and Mexico with such patience. Any errors are strictly mine.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
“LOOK AT THAT, ABIGAIL,” Simon Brewster said as he stood at the huge windows overlooking the Rio Grande Valley. “It all belongs to me…as far as the eye can see.”
“Are you proud of that?” Abigail Duncan asked, scribbling notes on a pad while a tape recorder picked up his voice. She was writing Mr. Brewster’s memoirs. The eighty-year-old’s life had been turbulent and fascinating, and she didn’t want to miss a word.
“You’re damn right I am,” he told her in his gruff voice. “If you’ve ever known poverty like I have, you’ll make sure you never have to live like that again.” He paused, then added, “I was nine years old when my father died and my mother and me had to work the fields to make a living. It was during the Depression and there were a lot of days when all we had to eat was bread and honey. I vowed that one day my mother would never have to work again. She was the only person I ever really loved until…”
She waited for his next words, but none were forthcoming. She glanced up to see him staring out the window and realized he was lost in another time. She doodled on the pad, knowing he wouldn’t speak until he was ready. She’d been working on his life story for a month and she had come to know his moods.
Her pencil stilled as her mind drifted. She’d returned—after a bitter divorce—to Hope, Texas, her childhood home. She’d lived here until she’d left for college. After getting her degree, she’d moved to Dallas and joined a large newspaper as a reporter.
She had been home two days when Simon Brewster had asked her to write his memoirs. The request had come as a shock because there’d been bad feelings between her family and Mr. Brewster for the past year. Her father had worked for Brewster Farms for thirty-five years, then suddenly Mr. Brewster had fired him. Her father said he hadn’t been given a reason for the firing, but the rumor that had circulated around the small town was that Abe Duncan had been caught embezzling funds. That had angered Abby and she’d wanted to find out the truth. But then her father became ill, and Abby had spent her time at home helping her mother to care for him. Nine months later he died. She’d loved her father, and had been devastated by his death. Her mother blamed Mr. Brewster. So did Abby.
