Jenna didn’t know what to say. Why wasn’t her aunt more pleased to see her?
Finally, Morwenna spoke. “My niece? If you’re from Australia you must be Hedra and Tristan’s girl.”
Jenna relaxed a little and smiled. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
Morwenna scowled. “I told them and told them that nothing good was going to come of their moving halfway around the world. That’s exactly what I told them. ‘Nothing good will come of your move.’ And I was right, wasn’t I? They were there no more than two years before they were gone—swept away by floodwaters or some such fool thing. I always said they should have listened to me, but then, Tristan always thought he knew best about everything.” She eyed Jenna warily. “So what do you want?”
Dismay swept over Jenna. “I, uh, I just came by to introduce myself. I’m afraid I don’t have many memories of living in Cornwall, but since this was the place I was born, I came back to get to know the rest of my family.”
Morwenna was shaking her head before Jenna stopped speaking. “You’ve had a wasted trip, then. You don’t have family around here. I don’t know where Tristan found you—he would never say—but it wasn’t around here.”
Jenna stared at Morwenna, thinking she had misunderstood her. “Found me?”
“It’s like what I told that man from Edinburgh that came looking for you a few months ago…we’re not blood relatives. Who knows where they got you? Hedra showed up here one day with a newborn, proud as she could be. Tristan was beaming from ear to ear. I warned them about taking somebody else’s child to raise. You never can tell what’s in the blood, you know. Why, someone unknown like that can grow up to be thief or a murderer or something worse.”
Jenna stared at the woman, doubting her ears. Was the woman insane? What was she rattling on about…and what did Morwenna consider worse than murder?
“Am I understanding you correctly?” Jenna finally managed to say. This woman was shattering her world. “You’re telling me I was adopted?”
“Are you deaf or something? Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. You’re adopted.” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t know, huh?”
“No. I had no idea.”
“Well, somebody should’ve told you before now, to my way of thinking. I can remember when I got the news that Tristan was gone. That was an awful time for me. My only sibling and all. A terrible time. If he’d only listened to me, he might have been alive today.” Morwenna made a face. “I was real put out with them people calling from Australia, wanting me to take you in. I told them I had eight of my own to raise and I certainly didn’t need a seven-year-old underfoot, as well.”
Morwenna’s words beat at Jenna as though each one was a stone aimed at her heart. She had no way to protect herself, nothing to say. So the authorities had attempted to find a member of her family to take her before placing her in an orphanage.
Jenna stared at the woman in horror. She had to get away. Thank goodness she hadn’t been invited into the woman’s home. She would have felt suffocated by her anger and cruelty.
Despite the shock of discovering she’d been adopted, she was fervently grateful that she was no kin to this woman.
“Thank you for clearing up my confusion,” Jenna said quietly. “You mentioned a man from Edinburgh asking about me. Could you give me his name?”
“That’s been a few months ago. Let me think…I believe it started with a D. Something D…Davis, Dennis…no, that’s not right.”
“Could you describe him?”
“Why? You thinking about looking him up? He said he was from Edinburgh but he didn’t fool me. He had an American accent. No telling where he was from. Wait a minute. His name sounded French…Dumas! That’s it. Something Dumas. I don’t remember his first name. You look nothing like him, if that’s what you’re thinking. He has dark hair and eyes and he’s tall.” Morwenna flicked a glance up and down Jenna as though to emphasize her statement.
Jenna knew she was far from being tall, so she nodded her understanding. “I appreciate your help,” she said, wanting to run while Morwenna was drawing breath and before she continued talking.
She turned and walked back to her car, her shoulders back and her chin up.
Only after she entered the pub where she’d eaten the night before did she realize that she was trembling. She vaguely recognized that she was in shock. She asked for a cup of tea and when it was ready she went over to one of the back tables and sat down.
Nothing about her life was how she had thought it was. The Craddocks had adopted her. Why hadn’t she known? There was nothing in the papers her parents had left to have warned Jenna. Her birth certificate showed Hedra and Tristan as her parents and said that she was born at home. She didn’t have to look through them again to know that there had never been a mention of an adoption.
Jenna flashed back to the time when she’d been taken to the orphanage. She had never felt so bewildered or so alone. Jenna realized that the only constant in her life since then was that she had no one…no one at all.
So what was she going to do now? She’d come from Australia on a one-way ticket. She had enough money to live on while she searched for employment. With her references and skills, she expected to have little trouble finding a position.
Morwenna said that the man who had come looking for her had come from Scotland. She considered that information to be a lead of sorts. How strange. A man by the name of Dumas from Edinburgh knew who she was. Was it possible that she had been adopted there? What if the man was her father, trying to find his adult daughter? Maybe he’d moved to America since she was born. If so, that would explain his accent.
Now he was back and was looking for her. Did it matter that she bore no resemblance to him? Perhaps she looked like her mother.
Since meeting Morwenna, Jenna knew she didn’t want to stay in Cornwall. There was nothing to stop her from looking for work in Scotland. Perhaps she’d find Mr. Dumas there and he could explain his connection to her.
The thought calmed her. She didn’t have much of a lead, but it was something. Someone knew of her existence and had come searching for her. The thought gave her some comfort.
At the moment, it was the only comfort she had.
Chapter Two
“I see that you’re Australian, Ms. Craddock. What brings you to Scotland looking for work?”
Jenna sat before a Ms. Violet Spradlin, who ran an employment agency in Edinburgh.
“Actually, I was born in the U.K. and haven’t been back in several years. I decided to move to Scotland because I find it breathtakingly beautiful. Since I have no family, I can choose to live wherever I wish, so I chose this region.”
“I see.” Violet shuffled through several papers before she looked up. “You have an excellent work record according to this recommendation. I’m impressed with your skills for one your age—twenty-five, right? You must have started working quite young.”
“Yes.”
Violet sighed and said, “Unfortunately, we don’t have very much to offer at the moment. It’s the nature of the business, you know. I may get several calls in the morning needing someone immediately. One never knows. I hope that you aren’t depending on finding a position right away.”
“I understand.”
Violet peered over her glasses. “How can I contact you if something turns up?”
“I’m staying at a small inn on the outskirts of the city. If you like, I can check in with you every day or so.”
Violet