Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(17)

“As a matter of fact,” he began, and Maryse could feel him smiling over the phone, “I have excellent news. You know that one batch you threw in for the hell of it—Trial 206?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it passed tests one and two with flying colors. I’m moving to test three this afternoon and possibly four tomorrow. Can you get me more? I might not have enough to carry through the remaining trials.”

Maryse let out the breath with a whoosh and held in a shout. “That’s fantastic! Let me check that number.” She unlocked her desk drawer and pulled her notebook from inside, then flipped the pages past failure after failure until she reached the possible success, Trial 206.

Then she groaned.

“Is something wrong?” Aaron asked.

“No,” Maryse hedged, “not exactly. But thanks to a couple of drunken fishermen and an out-of-control barge, Trial 206 might not be as easy to obtain as it was before. Those idiots took out the entire group of plants. I’ll have to find another location. I know I’ve seen them somewhere else, but offhand, I can’t recall where exactly.”

“Don’t sweat it, Maryse,” Aaron said. “You’re way ahead of the game. Even if you have to propagate your own plants, it would only take a few more months, right? Maybe you should check on seeds just in case.”

Maryse tapped her fingers on her desk. “You’re right. I’ll get out my seed catalog and see what I can work out. In the meantime, I’ll try to remember where I saw that other batch. Let me know how far you get with what you have. I’ll also contact every nursery I can find and see if they happen to have a full-grown bloom.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Aaron said. “Chin up, Maryse. This is only a momentary delay, and this is the best run yet.”

Maryse thanked him and hung up the phone, excited and frustrated all at the same time. She’d only thrown that specimen into testing for the hell of it. At the time, she hadn’t been paying too much attention to whether that particular batch was a hybrid, like so many others in the bayou were. Without another look at it, she couldn’t know for sure. And now she didn’t even know where to find another. Her “momentary delay” was suddenly looking pretty major.

“Wow,” Luc said, striding into her lab. “This is some setup for a botanist.” He walked over to her desk and picked up her notebook, scanning the pages. “What are you doing in here, exactly?”

Maryse grabbed the notebook from his hands and shoved it in a drawer, locking it afterwards. “What I do in here is none of your business. I rent this space from the state, so it’s off limits to anyone I haven’t personally invited in. That list starts with you.”

Luc gave her a lazy smile. “Aww, c’mon, Maryse. I thought we had come to some sort of working arrangement.”

Maryse narrowed her eyes at him. “You mean an arrangement like you towing my truck and sending me a rental without asking? The kind of arrangement where the big, strong man takes over because the helpless female couldn’t possibly handle things?”

Luc stared at her for a moment, and if she hadn’t been so aggravated, his confusion might have been amusing. “I was only trying to help. My buddy works at the dealership, so I called in a favor. He’s not charging you for the tow.”

Maryse stared back at him, feeling just a tiny bit guilty but not about to admit it. “Look, Luc. I’m not trying to be a bitch, but I’m used to doing things for myself. I don’t like people making decisions for me.”

Luc shrugged. “Whatever. But maybe if you let other people make decisions for you, your life wouldn’t be such a mess. Exactly how many people told you not to marry Hank Henry?”

Maryse felt the blood rush to her face. “That is none of your business, and you’re not furthering your cause by insulting my intelligence. There were a lot of reasons I married Hank, none of which I need to discuss with you.” She shook her head. “I simply don’t understand what you get out of being in this backwoods place harassing me. Isn’t there a more lucrative assignment calling you in this great state? Not that I’ve actually seen you out working on anything.”

Luc gave her a smug smile. “I’m the nephew of the district operations supervisor, so I’ve got family at the top of the food chain. I pretty much get to do whatever I want.”

“Then why on Earth would you want to be here?”

“It was either this or some forgotten forest in the middle of nowhere north Louisiana. This is close to my apartment in the city and the retirement home my grandparents live in now. Don’t even try to get me pulled from this assignment. It would take a hurricane to remove me from this marsh.”

Maryse gave him a matching smile. “Yeah, well, say hello to Hurricane Maryse. As of this morning, you’re standing on my property, so your food chain just became extinct.”

He gave her a puzzled look, but Maryse couldn’t really blame him. It was a strange statement. “What do you mean, ‘your property’?”

“Apparently, all of this land belonged to Helena Henry. The entire preserve. She leased it to the state for their studies and to keep it protected, but it was hers to own and hers to give. And this morning, it was willed to me.”

Luc stared at her in obvious shock. “Helena Henry owned this land? And she willed it to you?”