Levi was searching for the foaling alarm on the rear porch when he heard crying coming from the house. He went in through the laundry, careful not to let the screen door bang behind him, and walked quietly along the hall to the kitchen. Poppy sat slumped on a chair, sobbing with great shuddering sighs, oblivious to his presence. Duke was sitting on her feet, looking up at his mistress with worried brown eyes. With her shiny nose, tear-streaked face and dark hair sticking out at all angles, Poppy looked about fifteen years old. Her distress and the sheer vulnerability in her eyes provoked in him a fiercely protective feeling.
‘Poppy?’ he asked, wanting to give her a hug. ‘What’s wrong?’
She leaped up and whirled to face him, scrubbing her palms over her eyes.
‘Is it your mother? Is she i
