Page 1

O ne

“I was really surprised the sheriff didn’t find an excuse to hang that blackhearted varmint,” Josh Hart said as he rode beside Tilda Muirhead on their way home to the Two Harts Ranch near the mining town of Dorada Rio, California.

Josh’s big brother, Zane, and Zane’s wife, Michelle, who was very near to having her first child, led the way home. Thayne and Lochlan MacKenzie came next, with Josh and Tilda bringing up the rear.

The oldest of three brothers, Brody MacKenzie and his brand-new bride, Josh’s little sister, Ellie, had stayed in town after today’s wedding because Brody had used up every ounce of his strength to attend the trial of the man who’d shot him only yesterday, breaking his ribs and knocking him insensible.

True, a gold coin had stopped the bullet, saving Brody’s life.

So Sonny Dykes hadn’t killed him but not for lack of trying.

He and his outlaw partner, Loyal Kelton, Ellie’s one-time fiancé, were both lucky to be spending the rest of their lives in jail instead of being hanged when cold-blooded murder had been their intent.

“I don’t like the idea of hanging anyone.

” Tilda rested her hand on her throat as if she could feel a noose there.

“But locking those two outlaws away for the rest of their lives is just good sense. He shot your brother-in-law right in the heart. A life sentence with hard labor should keep your family safe.”

They trotted for a time heading home, Tilda on Josh’s right. When they reached a rugged stretch, they slowed to let the horses walk. The clop of the hooves was a friendly sound that reminded Josh he’d been away at sea for too long before he’d come home to stay a little over a year ago.

Once, he would have said the sea was in his blood, but now he knew this was the life he wanted. “Have you thought any more about being a teacher?”

Tilda had shown up just today with Zane, Michelle, and a few dozen orphans to live on the Two Harts Ranch.

Originally from New York City, she’d come out west searching for Thayne and Lock MacKenzie, who’d ridden here on an orphan train, then vanished into the wilderness after running away from the train and Tilda.

Tilda looked sideways at him. She was not a skilled rider, but then sitting astride a well-broken horse was no great trick. Under careful observation, she’d even handled trotting with just a few pointers from him.

The trail curved ahead, and Josh hadn’t really noticed that they’d lagged behind until the MacKenzie boys were out of sight.

For the first time since he’d returned home, he rode alongside a woman who wasn’t his sister or married.

He found himself wanting to talk with Tilda, but not about work and not about orphans.

Yet he had a tongue tied in knots and a brain stuffed full of cotton wool.

Searching desperately for something to say, he returned to the subject of her working at the ranch. “You know, Tilda, if you do work for us, you’ll be required to sleep with me.”

She gasped and spun around to face him, her hair snapping free from its pins and a long, dark braid whipping across her face. “What did you say?” Her eyes flashed with fury and insult.

That’s when what he’d just said echoed through his brain. “I-I mean at the school ... you and I will both sleep at the school and—”

Tilda reined her horse to a stop. “I’ll do no such thing.

” She tugged at one rein as if to turn her horse to ride back to town.

Except her horse wanted to go home, and she wasn’t handling it right.

The horse gave her a mule-stubborn look and seemed to sink right solid into the ground, refusing to let her guide it any farther.

“I’m going back to town. No, wait. I’ll get the children first. What kind of place do you run out there?”

“Stop, no. I’m sorry. What I meant was you’ll sleep with the orphan girls who live at our school. I’ll bed down in the dormitory we have for the boys. There’ll be no sleeping together. That sounds so wrong. I have no interest in you at all.”

As her eyes widened, he tried to review his words again, not sure what he’d babbled out. Whatever it was, it was clearly wrong. He should probably just go back to sea now.

She wrenched on the reins again, and her horse skittered sideways.

Josh reached out to grab the reins before the horse got its dander up, but Tilda slapped at his hand and shrieked as if he were attacking her.

He snatched his hand away just in time for her to miss him and slap the horse on the neck.

Instantly, the horse kicked out with its back legs, sending Tilda flying.

Nearly as quick, Josh netted her as if she were a fish on the line, and she landed with a thud right in his lap, nose to nose with him. Startled, she quit fighting and shrieking. Their eyes met. He only distantly saw her horse run for home.

“Tilda, I didn’t mean to insult you. I just ... I was only ... what I meant was...”

“What?” She sounded breathless. Maybe it was because she’d just been tossed off a horse’s back. But it didn’t sound like that. Instead, it sounded like ... like...

He leaned forward, an inch at a time. She didn’t fight or shriek or demand to be set down on the ground. She leaned distractingly forward.

“Josh, what happened?” Zane’s voice broke in.

Josh jerked away, which wasn’t far considering she was sitting on his lap. There was only so far a man could go in those circumstances.

“She got bucked off her horse when she swatted ... uh, a fly.” Right now, Josh felt as low as a bug, so it wasn’t far from the truth.

Michelle came next around the curve in the trail, then Thayne.

“Are you all right, Miss Tilda? Seeing your horse come running without a rider scared me.”

Thayne looked at Tilda in a way that struck Josh as a bit too mature for his age. Thayne was in many ways a man grown.

It struck Josh that Thayne might have ideas about his pretty teacher. One who’d worried enough about them to travel clear across the country.

“Mr. Hart caught me before I fell.” Tilda’s eyes glowed as if a white knight on a valiant steed had saved her very life.

Josh probably shouldn’t enjoy that so much.

“Where’s her horse?”

Lock came around the bend leading it.

Tilda clutched Josh’s shirt. So quiet that only he could hear, she said, “Don’t put me back on the horse, please. Not alone. I’m afraid.”

Josh kept his horse moving forward, even though her hand held the front of his shirt so tight he was in danger of being strangled.

“Tilda’s never ridden a horse before. She can ride double with me. We’re most of the way home.”

Really it wasn’t far at all. Holding this pretty little woman in his saddle made him wish the ride were a bit longer.

Michelle came up beside them and rode at Josh’s side. “We can’t ride fast with Josh carrying double. So we might as well talk. Josh and you MacKenzie boys, tell me more about this treasure hunt of Graham MacKenzie’s.”

Their treasure-hunting party had discovered fourteen gold coins in a saddlebag when they’d found Grandpa MacKenzie’s body. There were old papers too, only they hadn’t had time to go over them yet, what with Brody being shot and getting married and attending a trial.

“Did you say there’s some Spanish language involved?”

Lock, who probably had his grandfather’s whole journal memorized, said, “Yes, several sentences. One that we noticed both in the journal and in the papers with Grandpa’s body read, “ Al norte de la Bahia de Los Pinos con Capitan Cabrillo en una espesa niebla .”

Michelle frowned. “All right. That means ‘north of Los Pinos Bay with Captain Cabrillo in a thick fog.’”

“I’ve heard of Los Pinos Bay,” said Josh. “It’s called Monterey Bay now, but I’ve heard of the old name. It’s south of San Francisco Bay. Considering the fog that seems to surround San Francisco Bay, maybe what he was writing about was the fog around San Francisco, not the bay.”

Lock’s jaw went slack. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

“Why didn’t you ask? You know I was a sailor. If you’d asked about a bay, I’d’ve answered you. Where did you say you found this sentence?”

“Grandpa’s journal.”

Josh shrugged. “I’ve never read it. Never even talked with you about that old book.”

“But you went on the treasure hunt with us.”

“You had a map—or half of one anyway. That’s what I was paying attention to.”

Josh’s sister Ellie, her husband, Brody, and Cord Westbrook were now on a mission to find the other half. Quietly, into the bickering, Tilda said, “I’ve heard of Captain Cabrillo.”

Josh’s head pivoted hard to stare down at the woman in his arms. The whole group was looking at her.

“Who is he?” Michelle asked. Michelle liked to know more than everyone, and here she was, not knowing two whole facts about what she’d no doubt flawlessly just translated.

“Juan Cabrillo was with Hernando Cortés, the Spanish conquistador whose expedition led to the fall of Mexico’s Aztec Empire.

That was over three hundred years ago. Captain Cabrillo was sent by Cortés to explore the Californian coastline with a small armada of ships.

Some say he went as far north as the Columbia River in Washington State.

He took very thorough notes, but of course most things had different names back then.

Cabrillo tagged names onto them, but not all of his names stuck.

There’s a record of all the places he found, but he never found San Francisco Bay.

Historians have noted that he missed the bay because it was shrouded in a thick fog. ”

“ En una espesa niebla ,” Michelle muttered. “In a thick fog.”

“The first European explorer to come upon San Francisco Bay was Don Gaspar de Portola in 1769,” Tilda went on. “And he came overland, not by sea.”

The whole group was silent, until finally Josh managed to say, “How is it you know so much about the history of California?”