"No, don't." Piper could just imagine the results of that conversation: a straitjacket for her aunt. "Let me handle this, okay? You just concentrate on feeling better."
She looked as if her last drop of energy had drained out of her. "I have a lovely sage tea I don't suppose the doctors would let me near. They'll be pushing pills and needles at me."
"If you want sage tea, Hannah, I'll bring you sage tea."
"You won't worry about me, will you, dear? I've had a long, long time to think about what I'd do when I got old." She managed a thin, wretched-looking smile. "And here I am."
Piper fought back tears. Yes, here was her aunt, this solid, unwavering presence in her life, finally undeniably old. Who knew how much time she had left?
How much time they had left, Piper thought, pushing back any image of her own life without her aunt.
Hannah lifted a hand, and Piper took it, felt how cold and skinny it was. "Now don't you cry," her aunt said. "That won't accomplish anything. We all die, my dear. Some sooner, some later."
"Don't talk like that!"
"Phooey. I'll talk any way I please. It's no mystery to the elderly that they're old, you know. And death—I'm sorry, but it just doesn't scare me. I've seen too many go before me to worry about the great beyond." Another wan smile. "Now. I threw out the springwater. I didn't like the taste. Your father fetched me another bottle. I want you to confiscate it before anyone else can get into my townhouse and replace it, in case it's poisoned, too."
"You want me to have it tested?"
A spark of pleasure in her eyes. "Now you're catching on. And have the empty bottle tested. There might be enough residue of the poison to identify it."
"I'll do it," Piper said quickly. "I'll do anything for you, Hannah. You know that."
"You're a dear girl." Her eyelids were drooping. "I think those damned doctors gave me a chemical sedative. I have that nice valerian decoction at home..."
She trailed off, and Piper gave her frail hand a gentle squeeze. "You get some rest. I'll take care of everything."
"And your man, Clate...fate..."
But she was asleep. Piper withdrew, finding her father, her brothers, Liddy, and—no surprise—Clate in the small waiting room. The damned firing squad. They knew something was up, every damned one of them. Poison. Hell's bells.
"She's asleep." It wasn't all they wanted to hear, but it was a start. She glanced at Clate, felt her heartbeat jump at how good-looking and sexy he was, even in ragged, expensive chinos and polo shirt. She felt stronger, surer, for having him there, and it surprised her that it wasn't a feeling she remotely wanted to fight. "You heard?"
"I stopped by the tavern for a drink, and Paul and Sally Shepherd told me."
"We were working there when we got the news," Benjamin explained.
Liddy stood beside her younger sister-in-law. She was an attractive, athletic woman, unintimidated by the protective urges of her husband and brother-in-law. "Thank God Hannah's going to be all right."
Piper nodded, numb. What did all right mean when you were eighty-seven?
"Piper." Her father's voice held that familiar note of paternal authority. "Clate tells us we need to hear you out on a few things."
Her first reaction was anger. Bastard. Traitor. How could he rat her out? But there was no treachery in Clate's return gaze, and she knew he'd acted out of decent enough motives, that he was being clear eyed and objective where conflicting emotions had her darting off in a thousand different directions at once.
"We can go up to the house," her father added gently.
"I'll stay here with Hannah," Liddy said. "She'll probably sleep through the night and be right as rain in the morning. The doctors are optimistic it was nothing serious."
Andrew grunted. "Damned lucky she didn't mow anyone down or drive herself into the bay and drown."
Before Piper could snap back at him, Benjamin and Liddy moved them toward the door. She'd ride with her brothers. Those were her instructions. "Hear her out" was a euphemism for "you're telling us everything." If Clate didn't know it, Piper did.
He smiled, unrepentant. "Have fun. I'll stay here with Liddy a while."
Oh, sure. Throw her to the lions and run. Yet as she left the hospital with her father and brothers, with Liddy and Clate looking after Hannah, she didn't feel nearly as alone as she had last night, knitting in front of her fire.
The Macintosh men were not happy with her.
Piper told herself this was to be expected. She'd been receiving threatening phone calls, digging for buried treasure, trying to explain inexplicable digging and cutting on Clate's property, and protecting Hannah, all under their noses, without saying a word.
Andrew's reaction was predictably the most extreme. He wanted his sister to move in with Benjamin and Liddy and stay away from her house until things settled down.
"I can't do that," Piper said, with limited patience. "I have a business to run. Besides, I make my own decisions about my life."
"Yeah, and look where they've led you."