Willow in Bloom by Victoria Pade Page A

had an interest in them or why that stranger might have set fire to the town hall and broken into the newspaper office. But that seemed like what she’d come to.
    Except that for no reason she understood, she felt as if she shouldn’t rush into it. That she shouldn’t give up yet, in spite of having searched the entire room.
    She knew what her great-grandfather would say about it. He would say that Gloria herself was whispering to Willow’s subconscious, telling her to keep going.
    Willow just didn’t know what else to do.
    â€œSo Gloria, if there’s something in here we should know about, where is it?” she said aloud, thinking that her great-grandfather would be pleased that she believed in the spirit of her grandmother enough to talk to her.
    And that was when Willow remembered something out of the blue.
    She remembered her grandmother making a joke once or twice about hiding her fortune under her mattress.
    Of course, no one had taken it seriously. They all knew Gloria didn’t have a fortune.
    But recalling her words, Willow began to wonder if maybe hiding things under the mattress had not been a joke, after all.
    It probably had, she thought as she stood at the foot of the bed. But there was no harm in removing the quilt Gloria had made by hand. Or the blankets and sheets. No harm in turning the mattress just in case.
    And that was where Willow found it—a lockbox tucked into a portion of the box springs that looked as if it had been cut away for just that purpose.
    Willow hadn’t come across any unaccounted-for keys, so she brought the box with her to the kitchen, where she used a hammer and screwdriver to break the lock.
    And when she had, she found papers inside: a long letter and several documents.
    A very important, very informative letter and very interesting documents.
    Important enough, informative enough, interesting enough for Willow to make that call to her brother in a hurry.
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    Willow paced as Bram sat at her kitchen table and read what she’d found under Gloria’s mattress forty-five minutes earlier. Each time she passed by him she tried to gauge his reaction, and she could tell he was as shocked as she had been.
    â€œSo it wasn’t the way Gloria always claimed it was,” Bram said when he finally finished the long letter and laid it on the table beside the documents, which included Gloria’s marriage license and a deed to a property in Washington, D.C.
    The letter was written to Gloria’s sons. But it hadn’t been in an envelope, and when Willow had unfolded the sheets, she’d realized at first glance that what her grandmother had written to her late father and her uncle was important enough to be read immediately. Even if it wasn’t originally intended for her or for Bram.
    â€œGloria got married in Reno during that time she was there, hoping to break away from Black Arrow and her Comanche heritage,” Willow said, as if her brother needed it explained. “But the Teddy Colton she married didn’t die there shortly after the wedding and before anyone could meet him—the way she told everyone he had. They got married and had one night together, and then Gloria discovered the invitation to his wedding to another woman, and she left him sleeping in the hotel room. She thought he would come after her, tell her he loved her, and that of course he would break it off with the other woman. But insteadhe didn’t come after her at all. He went ahead and married the other woman as planned.”
    â€œWhich makes him a bigamist.”
    â€œAnd broke Gloria’s heart. So she came back to Black Arrow. But it wasn’t until she was home again that she realized she was pregnant,” Willow continued.
    â€œAnd when she did realize she was pregnant she hired a private investigator to find Teddy Colton to tell him?” Bram muttered.
    â€œRight.” Willow confirmed it as if she were the expert, when in