“MacBain took the tin holding Mary’s ashes,” Grey answered for her. He handed her Baby. “Come on,”

he said to Morgan.

“Wait! You are not going over there,” she said quickly, running to block his path. She looked Grey squarely in the eye. “This is between him and me. I don’t want you going there and starting a fight.”

“He’s got your sister, lass,” Morgan said, sounding appalled. “He stole her right out from under your roof.”

Grace looked at Morgan. “But it’s not Mary he stole. Not really. It’s just a tin full of carbon and minerals and potash. Mary left her body behind the moment she died.”

“You’ve been looking after those ashes for days now,” Grey reminded her. “I know what that tin means to you.”

“I was just being foolish.” She shook her head as she looked down at Baby in her arms. She looked up again. “It’s not worth causing a scene over. Mary’s death is new to Michael. In his mind, he just lost her last night. I know what he’s going through, and if he needs her ashes for a while, then I can understand that.”

“What about your plan for Summer Solstice?” Grey asked.

“That will still happen. He’ll give the tin back before then. I know he will.”

Neither man wanted to believe her. And they both looked frustrated that they couldn’t act. She quickly handed Baby back to Grey to ensure that he didn’t suddenly go after Michael despite her wishes.

“The kettle’s boiling. Do you gentlemen want cocoa?”

“No,” Grey said, laying Baby back in his chair. “The ice is building on our ski lift, and we need to keep an eye on it.” He turned from Baby to face her. “Don’t go out. The roads are treacherous, with broken trees blocking them in places.”

“You got here okay,” she reminded him, disgruntled by his order but relieved that the subject of Michael and Mary seemed laid to rest.

“We’re traveling in the snowcat.” He took her by the chin and lifted her face to his. “Call us if you need anything.”

Grace shot him an overbright smile. “I will,” she said so sweetly it was a wonder her teeth didn’t hurt.

“Lord, woman, you’re reckless with my good intentions,” he muttered, scooping her up in his arms and kissing her.

Her head was spinning by the time he let her go.

It took Grace a while to gather her wits. She barely made it to the door before Grey could climb into the snowcat.

“MacKeage!”

He stopped and looked back at her.

“I want your promise you’ll stay away from Michael.”

She could see his face darken with guilt. Dammit. He’d been planning to go there. “Your promise, Grey.

Or don’t bother coming back here again.”

She wasn’t sure if he would heed her words. He probably didn’t even care. She touched her lips.

Maybe…maybe he did.

She saw him standing in the icy rain, getting soaked, staring back at her. He finally nodded and climbed into the snowcat. It roared to life and growled down her driveway, spitting up chunks of ice in its wake.

Grace closed the door softly and leaned against it. Well, that was something to ponder. It appeared Greylen MacKeage wanted to see her again.

Chapter Ten

Grace stopped in the act of folding Baby’s clothes and turned up the volume on the television. Scenes of devastation in four states and the province of Quebec were being played out on the newscast. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

There was footage of an entire high-tension power corridor falling like stacked dominoes, the metal towers crumbling from the weight of the ice and the loss of support as the power lines snapped. Trees, completely covered in sleeves of ice, broke under the stress, blocking roads, taking down cables, and crushing cars and buildings. Everything was covered in white, frozen into place like marble statues. It looked like scenes from Antarctica or the top of Mount Washington.

And still the rain continued to fall, freezing on everything it touched. The weatherman was saying it had to end soon, but he couldn’t say when. Mother Nature was being stubborn.

Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity now, and they were predicting the number would rise into the millions. Northern New England, northern New York, and Quebec were under a state of emergency.

Grace looked away from the television and out the living-room windows. It had been raining for four days, and the ice continued to build. She couldn’t see out the windows facing north or west, and out the south windows she saw only ice. Her childhood home was constantly settling, shifting to bear the weight it already carried, groaning occasionally, and snapping every so often.

It was time, she decided, for a trip into the attic to check on the roof supports. She looked in on Baby and saw that he was sleeping off his lunch like a contented cat. As a matter of fact, the three cats she’d inherited from Mary were also sleeping, curled up in front of the fireplace, dreaming cat dreams. She smiled at the picture of them, then picked up the baby monitor and clipped it to the waist of her jogging pants.

She found a flashlight in the kitchen and started her climb to the attic. As soon as she opened the door, a swirling draft of cold air engulfed her, and Grace closed the top button on Grey’s flannel shirt, which she was wearing.

She had pulled the shirt out of its hiding place under her pillow this morning, feeling like a ninth-grade schoolgirl with a crush. She missed him already, even though he had been here just yesterday, kissing her senseless again.

Would he come back to check on her and Baby today? And kiss her again?

Well, heck. She needed to get a grip here. She had to keep repeating her mantra; Wrong man, wrong time. She couldn’t fall in love with one man while she held the child of another in her heart. Not if those two men hated each other.

There was simply no way that Grace and Baby and Grey and Michael could ever share their lives together.

And if she fell in love with Greylen MacKeage, there was no way she could avoid it. Besides, she had to return to her normal life in Virginia after the Summer Solstice.

Grace turned on the flashlight and closed the attic door behind her to keep the warm air below from escaping. As she shone her light around the expanse of the cold room, she was amazed at the accumulation of junk scattered over the entire attic. Years’ worth of it, broken chairs waiting for repair, boxes of clothes, lamps, pictures, Christmas decorations, and even an old eight-track tape player the size of a couch.

But what really caught her eye was the baby furniture. There was a crib, a cradle, a changing table, and a high chair, all oak, all covered with years of dust.

She had hit pay dirt. Everything she needed for Baby was up there. There were probably even some of her and Mary’s old clothes in some of the boxes.

Grace decided to check the roof first, before hauling her find downstairs. She shone her flashlight onto the ridge pole that ran the length of the attic. Except for the hundred years’ accumulation of dust, it looked as solid and new as the day it had been positioned. She let the light beam trail down the rafters to where they ended at the eaves. They, too, looked fine and as straight as arrows.

A large snap suddenly sent a shiver throughout the house, the force of it powerful enough that articles in the attic rattled around her. Grace flinched but quickly shone her light back up at the rafters.

Nothing had changed.

It was the ice, she realized. The ice on the roof was cracking, not the roof itself. She recognized the sound, now that she thought about it. It was the same sound Pine Lake made on cold winter nights, as its frozen mantle shifted under the building pressure, the ice expanding and contracting as it thickened.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The house was certainly straining under the weight, but it was far from being in any danger of breaking. Satisfied that the roof wouldn’t fall in on her head, Grace grabbed the cradle and changing table and lowered them into the house. The rest could wait until either Grey or Michael returned to visit.