Trail of Golden Dreams (27 page)

Josie
smiled.  “Well, it was a good idea.  As you said before, we need to
be prepared for anything.”  She handed him a paper sack. “I bought us some
biscuits.  They’re fresh from the inn’s kitchen.  I didn’t know if
you’d want to take time for a sit-down breakfast.”

“Thanks,” he said,
reaching into the sack to pull out a steaming biscuit. After swallowing, he
said, “I bought you something, too.”

“You did?” Her
heart leapt with excitement. He’d taken the time to pick something out for
her!  Had he found a little trinket while browsing the plaza?  Maybe
some sweet-smelling soap, or a hairbrush?  A smile parted her lips when he
reached into a bag on the ground and handed her a new cowboy hat with a leather
band. 

“Hope it
fits.  I got a small size because your head’s not so big.” 

It fit
perfectly.  “I like the color,” she beamed.  “It’s grey, like your
name.”

He grinned. 
“I didn’t think of that.  I chose it because I thought it’d go well with
your dark hair.”

She returned his
smile.  “I believe it does.  Thank you.”

“There’s one more
thing,” he said, reaching back into the bag.

Two gifts? 
Inhaling deeply, she wondered what else he’d gotten for her and chuckled when
he handed her a pair of laces. 

“Those are just
what I need,” she said, gazing at the boot on her foot that had no lace.

“I’m fooling
you.  That’s not all,” he winked.  When he pulled out a new pair of
leather cowboy boots, the kind without laces, she showed him how much she
appreciated his thoughtfulness by throwing her arms around him and planting a
kiss on his cheek.  “Thank you so much.  I love them!”  She
wanted to say
I love you, too
—but something held her back.

“Is that all I get
this morning is a tiny kiss on the cheek?” he asked.

She hadn’t
expected him to speak so boldly in public. When he pressed his mouth to hers,
she melted into his arms, nearly forgetting they were in the stables where
anyone could walk in—and did.

“Excuse me.” 
Someone cleared his throat from behind, and they broke apart.  “Mornin’,
Paladin,” the man said, twisting his moustache.  His grin revealed teeth
as large as her mule’s.  “Who’s this pretty lady?” 

Josie knew she had
to be turning ten shades of red.  Grey introduced her to Zachary Stamps,
and she nodded and said hello.  “You two heading out this morning?” he
asked.

“Yep.  Looks
like a great day for hunting.” 

If Stamps thought
it odd for a woman to be going hunting, he didn’t say.  Grey pumped his
hand.  “It was good to see you again, Zack.  Next time I’m in Santa
Fe, I’ll look you up. Thanks for giving our animals that extra feed this
morning.”

“No problem,
friend.”

“Josie,” Grey
said, turning to her, “if you’re ready, we’ll start out.”

“Let me change my
boots first.”  She slipped on the new boots and shoved the old ones into
the bag tied behind her saddle and led Traveler out of the stall into the
sunshine.  With a wave goodbye to Stamps, she and Grey mounted and headed
out of town.  “Aren’t you excited?” she asked him as they passed the newly
constructed Loretto Chapel on the plaza.

“I’ll keep my
emotions in check until we find the nuggets.  We have no idea where your
pa stashed them.”

That minor detail
didn’t bother her.  All was right with the world on this beautiful spring
morning.  She was in love, and the journey was nearing an end. “We’ll find
the gold,” she called to him with confidence.  “Nothing’s going to stop us
now.”

*  * * *

Once Santa Fe was
behind them, they loped through the high desert.  Josie relished in the
immense landscape of rolling hills and endless, drifting blue sky.  Puffy
clouds swept across the tan and sage canvas.  The remoteness of the
terrain highlighted by long views down foothills and the supernatural light was
what made New Mexico so enchanting.

The Nambe Pueblo
sat at the base of the ruggedly majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  The
village was just as she remembered.  They stopped at some adobe houses
near the plaza to rest a minute and so she could retrieve the map.  She
handed it to Grey, who looked it over and determined they had another couple of
miles to go before reaching the waterfalls. 

“Have you been to
this village before?” he asked.  She’d been staring hard at the buildings
and the surrounding landscape.

“Yes.  I was
a child the last time I was here.  Nothing much has changed.  I
remember the people were friendly.  My ma was born and raised in this
pueblo.”

“I recall you
telling me that.”

“We brought her
back here to die.”  The deeply held memory rolled off her tongue easily,
because sharing her innermost thoughts with him came naturally now. 

An old lady
stepped out her front door and Josie waved, even though she didn’t know
her.  When Josie turned her head and met Grey’s gaze, his dark eyes were
empathetic.

“You didn’t tell
me that.”

That one sad
memory built into more, sweeping her back in time. “It was real tough on my
pa—her dying.  I remember that clearly.  He didn’t deal with her
death well, and he didn’t know how to raise a child.  Especially a girl.”

Grey didn’t speak,
only listened.

“He wouldn’t let
me talk about her, and he started to drink a lot.  When I got older,
that’s what we argued about most, his drinking and not allowing us to speak of
her.  I had my recollections of her, what few there were, and I had a porcelain
bowl that belonged to her, but that was it.  He hadn’t even allowed me to
see her in the end. That’s what I was most angry about growing up.  I
stayed with some people while he took her away to die.”  She lowered her
head and finished by saying, “I lost that porcelain bowl when the posse burnt
down my cabin.”

“I’m sorry,
Josie,” Grey said.  “I wish it had been different for you.”

Returning to the
present, she said, “Well, that’s all water under the bridge now, isn’t it?”
When he nodded, she adjusted her seat in the saddle, and they trotted off with
her casting another long glance back at the village. 

When they came to
the river at the foot of the canyon, they allowed the animals to drink as they
pulled out their canteens and refreshed themselves.  “We’re here,” she
exclaimed.  “I can hear the falls!  We made it!”  She took a
long draw of water and gazed, awestruck at the breathtaking views of the
dramatic mountain range surrounding them. 

“We haven’t made
it yet,” he reminded, pointing to the rocky canyon they’d need to traverse in
order to reach the falls.  “That’s where we’re going.  Are you sure
you’re ready for this?”

She nodded, and
her heart began to race as they put away the canteens, splashed through the
river, and started up the treacherous side of the canyon.  Traveler was
surefooted and would have no problem on the steep vertical mountain trail
littered with jagged rocks.  But she worried about Lightning’s sturdiness
in such an environment. Following behind Grey, she found herself suppressing a
gasp several times when the white stallion stumbled.  Looking over the
side of the canyon, her palms grew wet when she saw it went straight down at
least a mile.  One slip and a rider and his horse would be killed
instantly.

“Take it slow,”
she hollered to Grey. “There’s no need to rush.”

As they climbed
along the narrow trail shaded with cottonwoods, the reins trembled between her
fingers.  After all they’d gone through, it was hard to believe they’d
almost reached their destination.  It seemed she was in a dream as they
rounded the final curve and made one last, short climb.  At the top, she
gazed around, taking in the panoramic scenery of the valley far below. 

Pivoting her head,
she was rewarded with a birds-eye view of the triple-decker waterfalls across
the divide.  Neither she nor Grey spoke—just sat on their mounts
transfixed by the beauty and sounds of the cascading water.  The magic was
broken when he said, “I sure hope this is where your pa hid the gold. 
That was a long ride if it ain’t.”

She couldn’t agree
more and had no idea how they’d begin to search for the nuggets.  “I wish
he would have given us more to go on.  The gold could be up here in the
canyon somewhere or down by the falls.”  Her neck stretched out as she
leaned in her seat.  “That trail down to the falls looks trickier than the
way we just came.” Suddenly, worry and fatigue turned an ache in her chest to a
deep, agonizing burn. Her stomach began to churn.  “Where do you think we
should start looking?”

Grey yanked the
map out and perused it again.  His face was lined with determination when
he stuck it back in his pocket.  “The X is clearly marked on the drawing
of the waterfalls.  We should go down.  I have a good feeling.”

Her eyebrows
lifted in surprise.  “You have a
good
feeling, for once? “

“Yep.”

“Then what are we
waiting for?”

They scaled the
wall, which took them to the bottom set of waterfalls.  It wasn’t as
difficult as she’d first imagined.  The only rough spot was when Traveler
got scared of a downed tree limb and refused to step over it.  She had to
wait it out with him for several minutes, because that’s how mules were. 
After sniffing and pawing a while, he decided it wasn’t a monster after all and
hopped over. 

“Now what do we
do?” she asked when they came to a natural rock bridge.  It was too narrow
for the animals to cross, and it looked like it led straight into the
falls.  They were at a dead end.  Grey shook his head. 

“Maybe there’s a
cave in there,” he said.  “It looks dark from here. What do you think?”
When she didn’t answer right off, he twisted in the saddle to face her. 
“Josie, what’s wrong?” 

She wanted to be
strong, but it had been such a trying nine days.  A lump caught in her
throat.  “Why did my pa have to make it so hard for me?  My whole
life has been difficult because of him!  If he’d wanted to make things
right and give me the gold, why didn’t he just hand it over?  Why make me
go through hell to get it?”  Her emotions bubbled over. Wanting to scream,
she opened her mouth and released the loudest scream she could muster, sending
echoes bouncing off the canyon walls.

“Do you feel
better now?” Grey asked when the noise stopped reverberating.  His arms
were crossed casually over his saddle horn.

“Yes,” she
sniffed.

“Good.  Can
we get back to business now?”

She nodded and saw
something out of the corner of her eye. A figure stood in front of the
waterfall.  “Grey…” she began.  Her eyes squinted, and she stood in
her stirrups.  “Mama…?” Her voice thickened with emotion.  “It can’t
be…Mama!”

Grey followed
Josie’s gaze to an opaque figure of a woman who beckoned to them.  “I
thought your mama passed,” he said, quietly and obviously confused.

Transfixed and
lost in the moment, Josie ignored him.  Tears streamed down her
cheeks.  “Mama, are you here to help me?” she called to the
apparition.  Her mother nodded and gestured again, for them to follow her
into the waterfall.  When she turned and disappeared into the mist, Josie
hoarsely screamed, “No, Mama!  Don’t leave me!”

“She wants us to
follow her,” Grey said eagerly. 

“You saw her,
too?” Josie asked, finally acknowledging him.

“Hell yes, I saw
her.  The gold’s inside that waterfall!  She’s leading us to
it.”  He jumped off his horse, turned Lightning around, and thrust the
reins into Josie’s hand.  “I’m going in there.  You stay here with
the animals.”

“No!  I want
to go!” she protested.  “She’s my ma!”

“It’s my
gold.”  With his jaw set, his cool gaze penetrated her, daring her to
argue further.

But she couldn’t
hold her tongue.  “I thought it was
our
gold,” she said through
clenched teeth and narrowed eyes.  Once again, doubts about his
trustworthiness and sincerity caused her to feel like she’d been punched in the
stomach.  Was he really going to share the gold with her?  Or was he
an outlaw, like she’d originally thought, who planned on getting rid of her
once the nuggets were safely in his hands?  Had she been nothing more than
a pawn to him after all?  Had he used her, stolen her heart and her
virginity, and would now toss her aside like a dirty rag?  A chill crept
along her shoulder blades.

Grey pulled his
rifle out of its scabbard and told her to wait there.  “Hopefully I won’t
be long.”  Then he smiled and pulled her head down to his mouth and kissed
her.  “It’s our gold,” he assured before setting off across the thin
bridge. 

Watching him
vanish behind the curtain of rushing water, a prickly feeling niggled beneath
Josie’s goose-fleshed skin, but not because of distrust or doubts.  She
wanted to believe him and trust him—and she did.  The truth had shown
itself in his kiss.

She kept her
sights peeled on the waterfall and the opening behind it, praying her ma would
reappear to her.  Was she inside showing Grey where to find the nuggets?
She’d looked so beautiful just now, her black hair cascading down her back,
just like the last time Josie had seen her. She wiped more tears from her face,
wishing she’d had a few more moments with her mother.

It seemed an
eternity before Grey finally stepped out from behind the waterfall.  He
splashed to the edge of the pool and held a metal box in the air above his
head.  “I found them, Josie!” he yelled.  “I found the
nuggets!”  A grin the size of Texas filled his face.  She waved and
blew him a kiss.  He had the gold.  She couldn’t believe the journey
was finally over! 

Without warning, a
shot split the air, and the sound ricocheted off the cliffs.  Traveler
reared, causing her to grab the saddle horn.  In what seemed like a bad
dream, a bullet slammed into the metal box, knocking it out of Grey’s hand, as
another bullet ripped through his arm, and yet another slug entered his
leg.  Josie watched, horrified and in shock, as he spilled into the pool
face-first and was carried down river with the current.