The Sheriff (Historical Romance) (15 page)

S
eptember came, and with it the rains.

Sudden and violent thunderstorms rumbled over the mountains. Their furious squalls were often followed by hours, then days, of steady rain that dampened Kate’s already flagging spirits. The roof of the mansion leaked badly and she had no money to have it repaired. She stepped over puddles no matter how many times she mopped up the water. She had to shove the sofa against the wall to stay half-dry in bed at night.

And the nights were turning chilly.

Almost as chilly as the town sheriff.

Since the hot August afternoon on the rocky promontory, Travis McCloud had, without a doubt, gone out of his way to avoid her. Which was fine with her, if somewhat puzzling. She couldn’t understand why he had kissed her and held her as if she were his treasured
sweetheart, then abruptly pushed her away and left as if he loathed the sight of her.

But she was, in fact, relieved that McCloud had lost interest in tormenting her. The enigmatic sheriff was not the kind of man any woman in her right mind would choose to love. A broken heart would be the outcome.

Kate had enough real worries without giving Travis McCloud a great deal of thought. She was growing more and more doubtful that she was ever going to strike it rich, and she was nearly ready to concede that indeed there was no gold in the Cavalry Blue.

None.

All summer she and Chang Li had worked long hours, searching in vain for treasure. If there were any, they would have found it by now.

The meager amounts of placer had long since been taken from the streambed. The tiny gold-specked pebbles had provided precious few dollars, most of which Kate had already spent. She worried about what she would do once it was all gone.

Kate lay in her bed nights pondering her fate. She did not have the money to get back to Boston. How could she possibly support herself here?

They
had
to find the gold.

And soon.

Throughout that rainy September and on into a cold October, Kate and the loyal Chang Li continued
to spend their days down in the abandoned mine shaft, hacking away at stubborn rock.

“What’s the use,” she said one bleak afternoon. She tossed her shovel aside and sank down onto the mine’s rocky floor. “There’s no gold here.”

“Not to give up, Missy,” Chang Li scolded. “We find treasure, you see.” He smiled then, extended his hand and helped her to her feet. “You just tired. Work too hard for young slender woman. Look pale. Go home, rest.”

“Good idea. Let’s quit and—”

“I stay and work. Not tired.”

Kate shook her head. “Of course you are.”

“No, not weary, feel fine. You go.”

Kate sighed and nodded. She knew Chang Li. It was no use arguing with him. The little man never faltered in his optimism. He started and ended each and every day with the belief that this could be the day good fortune would smile on them.

When Kate left him he was humming and hacking at the rock with the same enthusiasm he had on that very first day he had come to work with her.

How she envied him.

Kate stepped out of the mine and blinked in surprise. The rain had stopped. The sun had come out. The air was crisp and clear. The sky was an unclouded cobalt-blue. And in the northeast, just above the highest mountain peaks, a beautiful rainbow arched down from out of the heavens.

Kate hoped it was an omen.

She immediately felt better.

She took a page from Chang Li’s book and walked home humming. Cal met her at the front gate and seemed to sense her lightened mood. He meowed and jumped up on her trousered leg with his front paws. She laughed, sank down on her heels and affectionately stroked his head. His eyes closed in pleasure.

Cal followed Kate into the house, zipped past her and raced down the hallway to the kitchen. Kate laughed again. He was hungry. As usual.

Kate fed the cat, then ambled into the drawing room, stripping off her work clothes as she went. She spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the sofa, reading a book Doc Ledet had loaned her from his extensive library.

“I believe you’ll enjoy Sir Walter Scott’s
The Lady in the Lake,”
he’d said when he’d handed her the leather-bound novel. “It was a favorite of my dear wife, Mary.”

Kate
was
enjoying the romantic tale. And she was enjoying being sinfully lazy for one lovely autumn afternoon. Chang Li was right. She was tired.

Well before dusk had settled in, the book she was reading had slipped from her hand and fallen to the floor.

She was asleep.

She was so physically exhausted that she slept soundly and didn’t turn over all night.

Just before dawn Kate was violently shaken awake when her bed began to fiercely jump, the legs of the sofa slamming up and down on the wooden floor. Startled, unsure what was happening, she bolted up, looked around and ran out onto the porch, fearful that the walls would fall in around her. Cal was right behind her. Kate fought to keep her balance on the rolling, pitching porch.

Earthquake!

That’s what it was. She’d heard about the California earthquakes and the destruction they could cause, with great fissures opening up and swallowing everything. Terrified, wondering if this was how she was to die, Kate offered up a quick prayer.

The tremor was over in less than a minute, but that minute seemed like an hour. Trembling, her heart racing with fear, Kate sank down on the porch steps. Cal climbed onto her lap and she hugged him close, taking comfort from his nearness, anxiously rubbing her cheek atop his head.

The calico tom would tolerate being held for only a short time. Soon he began struggling to free himself, and Kate released him. Both went back inside. Kate lit a lamp and walked through the mansion, checking for damage. There were a few broken dishes, an overturned chair, but otherwise the mansion was solidly built and had withstood the quake. Kate was relieved. The earthquake had scared her, but it had changed nothing.

Or so she thought.

Cal accompanying Kate to the mine each morning had become a habit. He walked at her side as though he were a dog.

Once they reached the Cavalry Blue, Cal would usually stay only long enough to go inside the mine, look around and check everything out. Then he’d get bored and disappear for the rest of the day. In the evening he would return just as Kate and Chang Li were quitting. The big calico seemed to have a built-in clock.

This morning Cal rushed on inside the mine ahead of Kate. He zipped right past Chang Li and vanished down into the darkness. Kate and Chang Li worked and talked about the early morning earthquake. The curious Cal was off somewhere in the mine exploring.

An hour had passed when Kate looked up to see Cal coming out of the dark reaches of the mine. When he stepped into the flickering light of the carbide lantern, Kate noticed that he was covered with dust and that tiny specks of rock clung to his fur. He was rumbling with annoyance and trying to shake himself clean.

“Look at him,” Kate said to Chang Li. “Always into mischief.” To Cal she said, “Come here, you bad cat. I’ll brush you off.”

She laid down her pick and sank to her knees. When the cat came to her, she grabbed his face in her hands and said, “Serves you right, always nosing into everything.”

She began brushing the dust and particles from
him. Suddenly she stopped. Her brow knitted. Atop Cal’s back, in the rich thick coat, a tiny speck of rock gleamed. Her lips falling open in astonishment, Kate plucked the fleck from the cat’s back, and her blue eyes grew large and round.

Holding the tiny pebble between thumb and forefinger, she said, “Chang Li, put down your pick.”

“Why? Not tired, just get here.”

“Put down your pick and come here, please.”

Puzzled, Chang Li laid his pick against the wall, turned and came over. Kate held up the tiny speck for him to see. He looked at it. He looked at her.

“Gold!” they said in unison, their voices barely above a whisper.

“Chang Li make sure.” The Chinaman put the small shiny pebble between his strong eyeteeth and bit down. He took it from his mouth and said, “Gold, missy. Real thing. Where you get?”

“From Cal’s fur,” she explained. “You know how he likes to investigate.” She pointed and said, “He came out of there, covered in dust and…”

The sentence was never finished. Kate grabbed her carbide lantern and rose to her feet. Chang Li was right behind her. They went deeper into the mine to the rock wall where they had worked many times before. They stopped abruptly when they spotted the narrow, newly opened fissure.

“The earthquake,” Kate said, pointing to a crevice in the wall that revealed a natural vault cavern.

“Yes, tremor shift rock,” stated Chang Li.

Kate shone her lantern through the opening.

She immediately spotted a wide vein of something shiny winking at her. With her bottom lip caught between her teeth, she slipped through the newly opened fissure and dropped her lantern in awe.

“Chang Li! Hurry! Come quickly!”

The little Chinaman eased through the crevice. His eyes widened in wonder. “Missy Kate, you rich, rich, rich!”

“We’ve hit the mother lode!” Kate shouted excitedly.

Smiling, clapping his hands, Chang Li declared, “Missy find treasure to equal the Incas of Peru!”

“W
e’ve struck pay dirt! We’ve struck pay dirt!” Kate shouted gleefully.

“You millionaire big now, missy!” Chang Li joined in the fun.

“All thanks to this morning’s earthquake!” Kate shrieked with delight.

“No tremor, no find treasure,” Chang Li declared, his grin so broad his twinkling eyes disappeared into the laugh lines.

The happy pair whooped and hollered and danced dizzily around, giving thanks for the early morning earthquake. Both were aware that if not for the quake dislodging the wall of stone, they would never have stumbled across this colossal vein of gold-bearing quartz.

Clapping her hands, Kate laughed and said, “The
quake that shook me out of my bed has jarred the gold right into our hands!”

After several minutes of celebration, the pair finally calmed a little. They sobered, held the carbide lantern high and began to more closely study the wide vein of glittering yellow gold that streaked from the rocky ceiling above, all the way down to the cavern floor.

“We must have a sample assayed right away,” Kate said.

“Yes, I do that this morning.” Chang Li shot to his feet to go back after his pick.

“Wait.” Kate stopped him. “We can’t use an assayist here in Fortune.”

Chang Li immediately understood. “I go over the mountain to assay office in Last Chance.”

“No one knows you there?”

“Never been there before. Use older brother’s name. They no trace.”

“Good. How long will it take to get there and back?”

“Leave today, be back tomorrow.”

Kate nodded. “I’ll be on pins and needles until you return.”

The two made a pact that very morning that they would tell no one of their discovery. Both knew that if word got out, they’d be in danger of claim jumpers and murderers swarming into the mine to steal the gold.

That evening after dark, Chang Li, riding a burro from the Wilson Livery Stable, slipped away from Fortune carrying a generous sample of the ore.

The next morning Kate, with Cal by her side, went to the mine, wondering if it was too good to be true. Had she dreamed it all?

She had not. Once inside the Cavalry Blue, she returned to the lower level where they had spotted the color. She raised her lantern and saw again the wide vein of yellow gold gleaming brightly.

Beaming, she said to the cat, who was seated at her feet, “Do you know what this means, Cal?”

He pricked his ears and his tail slowly swished back and forth on the stone floor as he looked up at her.

“You will dine on carefully prepared and cooked boned chicken. How does that sound?”

Cal meowed and his tail swished a little faster.

Kate laughed and said, “You deserve the very best, since it was you who discovered the gold.”

Chang Li returned that afternoon and confirmed to Kate what both had hoped: the assay had proved incredibly favorable. He had been careful not to be followed back.

Now all they had to do was coax the gold out of the rock.

And keep their secret for as long as possible.

Neither dared tell anyone.

Kate had a dinner engagement with Winn that very evening. Although she was dying to tell him of her good fortune, she wisely refrained. But she
couldn’t hide her underlying excitement. Winn quickly picked up on it. He found Kate so extraordinarily happy and buoyant, he was sure that something good had happened. Her blue eyes were sparkling as never before and she couldn’t stop smiling.

Winn strongly suspected that Kate had finally hit pay dirt in the Cavalry Blue. What else could make her so happy? The prospect made his heart beat faster. If it were so, if she had found the gold, riches would soon be his. Wondering why she was reluctant to share her good news, he gently probed. But she revealed nothing. And he was forced to hide his frustration.

When Winn told his mistress he believed Kate had found the gold, Melisande urged him to immediately propose to Kate. He agreed.

A couple of days later, after a sumptuous dinner at the Bonanza Hotel, Winn insisted on taking Kate for a carriage ride down to the river. She tried to beg off, saying it was much too cold, but Winn wouldn’t listen.

He handed her up into the rented, one-horse gig, spread a warm lap robe over her knees and climbed up beside her. In minutes he’d parked the buggy near the river’s edge, then turned and took her in his arms.

He kissed her and said, “Kate, you must know how I feel about you and…”

“Winn, please don’t.”

“Darling, I love you. I want you to be my wife.
I’m asking you to marry me, Kate. I want to take care of you.”

“I’m very flattered, Winn, but no.”

“Dearest, you can’t mean that,” he said. “I’ve been patiently courting you all summer, and I was under the impression that you’ve come to care for me just as I care for you.”

“I’ve enjoyed your company very much,” Kate told him. “But I’m not in love with you, Winn. I have no wish to marry you.”

Astonished, he said, “Darling, is there someone else?”

“No, no. It’s not that. I don’t want to marry anyone.”

“Kate, you don’t know what you’re saying. You told me yourself you have no family. You’re all alone in the world. Let me take care of you, give you children. We’ll be married right away and—”

“Winn, you’re not listening,” Kate interrupted. “I said no and I meant it. I am not going to marry you.”

Seething and shocked that she would have the gall to flatly turn him down, Winn could barely hide his anger. He was desperate to make her his wife.

“Ah, Kate, Kate,” he said softly. “I’ve been so careful not to take advantage of you that perhaps I’ve never really shown you how I feel about you. Let me show you now.”

He reached for her, but Kate put up her hands and stopped him. “Take me home, Winn.”

“Ah, darling girl, do you want to break my heart?”

“Certainly not. I’m fond of you and I consider you a friend. Can’t we keep it that way?”

Winn knew it would do no good to press her. He smiled indulgently. “You’ll continue to see me, I hope.”

Kate replied, “It’s late. Please take me home.”

Winn was pacing the floor and muttering to himself when his mistress slipped up the hotel’s back stairs well after midnight and into his top floor suite. She took one look at her lover and knew he had failed.

“She turned you down!” Her hands went to her hips.

“Yes! That ungrateful little bitch told me she didn’t want to marry me. Can you believe it?”

“But she has to marry you! There’s no other way,” said an upset Melisande. “Damn you, Winn DeLaney, make her want to marry you. Use your charm, seduce her, sweep her off her feet.”

Winn ran his hands through his disheveled blond hair. “And just how do you suggest I go about that?”

Melisande came to him, took the golden dagger from her dark hair and placed the point beneath his chin. She slid the dagger along his jawline, laughed throatily and said, “It’s high time you stopped being a gentleman with Miss VanNam.” She put out the tip of her tongue and licked her bottom lip. “Remember what you did to me last night?”

Winn finally grinned. “How could I forget?”

“Do that to her.”

“God almighty, you can’t be serious, Melly. She’s a genteel young lady. She’d be horrified if I—”

“Do it,” said Melisande, “and while she’s still shuddering with ecstasy, ask her again to be your wife. She’ll say yes, I guarantee it.”

Winn slipped his arms around Melisande’s waist. He teased, “I just hope I can remember exactly how I…”

“You can practice on me until you get it right.”

Winn chuckled. “You’re a good sport, Melly, you know that.”

“Bed and wed that silly young woman right away, you hear me? Get that gold for me or you’ll find I’m tired of being a good sport. I’ll leave you and marry a rich old man back in San Francisco.”

Winn’s smile fled. He grabbed her hair and forced her head back. “Don’t threaten me,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Or you’ll what?” she taunted, and kissed him.