In Safe Hands. Linda Conrad

the original native Indians—related to the Mayans.” She stopped talking for a second, waved her free arm widely across her body and smiled, hoping to get a smile in return. “Thus, the stark but beautiful differences you may notice in my own coloring.”

      No smile came back at her. Colin kept his features straight and his mouth immovable.

      “We’ll probably never know for sure.” She hurried to fill up the silence, as Emma had already quieted down. “I don’t see any way that we’re going to be able to trace Emma’s mother. I suppose she will always be a woman of mystery.”

      Colin nodded sharply, as though he agreed. Then he turned to stare at his brother’s headstone again.

      Maggie heaved a heavy sigh. Once again, she was dying to ask him what was in the back of his mind about the baby’s future. But he hadn’t let himself get to know Emma at all. Maggie wanted him to do that much before he made any final decisions.

      “When we get back to the house, you can contact your mother to tell her about your brother’s accident.” And that she has a granddaughter she has never met.

      “No,” he said without turning. “I told you. I haven’t spoken to my mother in years. I understand she knew full well my brother had an undercover assignment that kept him from coming home at my father’s death, but she didn’t bother to tell me that when I saw her at the funeral.”

      Maggie wondered if he’d really given his mother a chance to get a word out at all back then, or if he’d run over her with his pent-up anger. “Maybe she was told not to say anything. Aren’t undercover operations supposed to be…uh…secret?”