She stopped and straightened her shoulders. “For what?” Sarah was right, she thought. Maggie had found her spine and she wouldn’t be treated like a criminal. “For you and your brothers to pronounce me guilty? No, thank you.” She turned to leave and slammed right into Lucinda, who was standing inches behind her.
“Don’t believe her, Connor,” Lucinda shouted.
“Lucinda,” Jake said. “We were just looking for you.”
Lucinda shot Maggie a look of triumph. “I was just looking for you guys, too.”
“Connor,” Maggie said. “I just heard about the tainted beer. I’m so sorry.” But Connor wouldn’t meet Maggie’s gaze.
Why? Wait. He didn’t believe her? Couldn’t even look at her? Without even listening to her side of the story? So this was it?
Instead of meeting Maggie’s gaze, he was staring at Lucinda.
“Your entries weren’t damaged, Red,” Johnny chimed in reassuringly.
“Thanks, Johnny,” Maggie said, not reassured at all.
“So you only care about your own entries,” Lucinda taunted. “Kind of selfish if you ask me.”
“Nobody asked you,” Maggie said.
“That’s enough, Lucinda,” Jake muttered.
“Me?” Lucinda slapped her hands on her hips in outrage. “She’s the one pretending to be innocent. I’m just trying to point out who’s guilty here.”
Maggie looked carefully at each of the men in front of her and saw nothing encouraging in their eyes. “So you believe her? You think I’m…guilty?” She almost choked on the words. “You really believe I could do this?”
But Lucinda wasn’t about to let them talk. Instead she confronted Maggie face-to-face. “What time did you finally show up at the dance?”
“What does that matter?” she asked.
Lucinda whipped around to the men. “She was late because she was busy sneaking into the storage room. You saw her talking to Ted Blake, Connor, I know you did. And that wasn’t the only time I’ve seen them together. They probably planned it from the start.”
Maggie frowned. The men were all watching Lucinda. Were they actually taking her word for this? Connor still wouldn’t look at her and Maggie felt as if she were facing another inquisition, as she used to call her confrontations with her ex-husband and his mother.
Well, screw that. That was the past, she reminded herself. She would never, ever put up with an unfair accusation from anyone, ever again.
She gazed up at Connor. “Do you think I would do this to you?”
He stared hard at her, then said, “No.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “It took you more than a few seconds to decide on your answer. So your first instinct was to believe I would hurt you that way?”
His jaw tightened. “No, Maggie, it wasn’t.”
But again there was that momentary pause and Maggie began to question everything. Did he believe her? Did he trust her? Did he honestly think she would do this to him? If he believed she was innocent, then why wasn’t he grabbing her and kissing her and assuring her that he knew she would never hurt him again?