Page 54 of More Than Meets the Eye

The coffeepot clattered unsteadily back onto the rock. Seth straightened. “Another book?”

Logan nodded. “After Earl dropped off the jug in the schoolhouse privy, he didn’t just leave. He walked through the empty schoolhouse, and when he emerged, his burlap sack had something slender and rectangular inside.”

“A book.”

“Yep.” Logan propped his foot on the table rock and leaned forward, bracing his forearm across his thigh. “Two books in suspicious circumstances can’t be a coincidence. You need to find out where she picked up the book. Was it at the schoolhouse? What does she know about the local schoolmaster? He was dressed much more formally than the man I saw at the river, and he had a fancy black buggy instead of a beat-up buckboard, but his build was similar. Bulky. Overweight.”

Logan closed his eyes, trying to recall details about the horse hitched to the buggy. It had been black, but had there been white socks like the animal pulling the wagon at the river? He hadn’t considered the possibility until just now. He’d been focused more on matching the man than the animals.

He growled in frustration. “I can’t recall enough details to match the horse pulling the buggy to the team hitched to the wagon. It was black, like the second horse, but that’s all I remember.” He jerked upright. “I should have paid closer attention.”

Seth frowned. “I thought Earl was alone at the school. Was the teacher there, too?”

“No.” Logan waved a dismissive hand in the air, still disgruntled with himself for missing such a vital detail. “I spied him more than an hour earlier when he left the schoolhouse.”

“Then you couldn’t have known there was a reason to suspect him.”

Logan fisted his hands. “It’s my job to notice details! All of them.”

Seth raised a brow. “You a lawman or something?”

That surprised a laugh out of him. “No.” He shook his head and grabbed hold of his rioting emotions. Don’t get sloppy now, partner. Play it cool. “Just a businessman. I have an easier time closing deals when I pick up on nuances my competitors miss. Hence my habit of collecting details.”

Seth stared a little longer than Logan would have preferred, but eventually he let it go. “So I’ll ask Christie about the book and about the schoolmaster. Anything else?”

Logan shrugged. “Start with that, then follow your instincts.”

“That what you do?”

“Usually.”

Only with Eva, his instincts seemed to be running in such varied directions, it was hard to know which path to follow.

I can’t let my fear of losing her keep me from doing the right thing. Seth’s words jumped back into the forefront of Logan’s mind. Challenging. Prompting.

Maybe the time for secrets had passed.

22

“I’m heading out for a walk,” Evangeline called to Seth as she dashed through the kitchen toward the back door.

Christie had taken a book to the parlor just a few minutes ago, so Evangeline figured her brother wouldn’t care if she ducked out earlier than usual. She’d flown through her chores this morning, an odd mixture of guilt and anticipation urging her on.

She needed to confess to her snooping and apologize to Logan. Then quiz him about what she’d discovered. And yes, she supposed those two agendas were at odds with each other, but that was where she found herself. Sorry she’d acted without permission, yet not sorry she’d uncovered a new facet of the man who was slowly making himself at home in her heart. A man who just might kiss her again if he forgave her breach of trust.

As she imagined Logan’s strong arms sliding around her waist, Evangeline’s feet floated over the wooden floorboards, her mind bobbing above in a dreamy haze.

“Wait, Evie.” Seth skittered through the kitchen doorway and obliterated her lovely mist. “Don’t go yet.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

Was he trying to keep her away from Logan? Because he had absolutely no right. She should have known he’d try to pull some ridiculous big brother overprotective nonsense after she got herself stuck in the cellar yesterday. Well, he could demand all he wanted, but she was a grown woman, fully of age, independent—

“Something’s happened with Christie’s situation.”

Her indignation evaporated.

She released the doorknob and hurried toward him. “What? When? Does Zach know?”