Page 1 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

One

Cordell Westbrook dropped a lasso over the head of a skittish calf. It was springtime in California, and they were rushing to finish up with the branding at the ranch. And Cord was a cowboy. A genuine cowboy. At last.

Grinning, he leapt off his horse, landing next to the bawling calf. He flipped it onto its side, hog-tied it, and held the animal still while Josh Hart, his boss and friend, made quick work of branding the little heifer.

The poor little heifer.

But Josh was fast, and Cord had gotten mighty good at this. He untied the critter’s feet while Josh freed the lasso from around its neck and let the calf run off to an outraged mama to be nuzzled and fed and comforted.

“That’s the last one,” Josh said. He stood and watched the milling red-and-white Hereford cattle settle down. “Great calf crop this spring.”

Cord studied the herd while he coiled his rope, recognizing and appreciating all he’d learned since arriving at the ranch.

These days he knew what he was looking at: good, sturdy cows and calves that were shedding their shaggy winter coats, revealing the shiny coats beneath.

The cows had survived the winter well and without any worrisome weight loss.

The weather here in the central California valley wasn’t harsh, but it got cold often enough.

Cord understood all of this meant, to his absolute delight, that he was indeed a cowboy now. “This is so much better than being a banker. I can hardly believe I lasted so long in that cramped office.”

Josh clapped him on the back. “You’re a solid hand, Cord. You’ve got a job here on the Two Harts for as long as you want.”

Nodding, Cord walked over to his ground-hitched horse. The well-trained animal stood patiently despite the noise and commotion and smoke all around it.

“I’ve always wanted my own place, Josh. I’d like to stay on longer if I can, but the plan is still to get my own land. Even Grandpa Westbrook has accepted that now.”

He hoped.

The sound of steady hoofbeats caused him and Josh to turn to the north, just in time to see a chuck wagon pulled by two brown Morgan horses approaching the branding site.

It was being driven not by the bunkhouse cook as was usual, but by Josh’s pretty sister, Annie Lane.

Cord wondered how such a beautiful widow had managed to stay single for so long.

As she drew closer, Cord saw Annie’s five-year-old daughter, Caroline, tucked up beside her ma.

They were a pair, those two. Dark hair, brown eyes, with pretty roses in their cheeks. Annie leaned toward being a solemn woman, and Cord knew she’d loved her husband. She’d watched him die from a gunshot wound, which seemed reason enough for her not to want to risk her heart again.

Annie pulled the wagon to a halt, and Josh slapped Cord on the back again, a little harder than before, jolting Cord back to awareness of his surroundings. Then he glanced at Josh. It did near to a physical injury to have to take his eyes off Annie.

As if sensing Cord’s thoughts, Josh rolled his eyes and headed for the wagon. But Annie was already off the bench seat and on the ground, helping Caroline alight before any man could reach her. The cowhands stripped the saddles off their mounts to give the horses a break.

“Did Casey go to the south pasture?” Josh asked as he moved to the back of the wagon and folded down the gate to pull the food out.

Plenty of hungry cowhands stepped in to help him. They had a full crew today. The ranch boasted several pastures of livestock, and all the spring calves needed branding.

Josh and his brother, Zane, had hired a new bunkhouse cook just a few weeks ago to help their longtime cook, whose knee was giving him trouble.

Annie tucked a stray hair behind her ear and shook her head.

“Neb went south, so Casey got pulled into helping make lunch for the orphanage and school. And Tilda had an extra-long morning class because whatever she hit on teaching today kept the whole class enthralled. Your wife has a rare gift for teaching.”

“She does indeed.” Josh smiled as he mentioned Tilda, his wife of less than a year.

“I like sitting in on her classes, too. But I don’t get much chance.

” He leaned down and kissed his sister on the cheek.

“Thanks for bringing our food. We just got done with this pasture, so you timed it perfectly. We’re all starving. ”

Suddenly a strange rumble had all the men stepping away from the wagon, most with their food already in hand. It was an earthquake. Normal enough in California, and nothing to worry about if it was a small one. And with no roof overhead to collapse on them, they just had to wait it out.

Then the shaking turned rougher than any Cord had felt before. Yet the men kept eating, legs spread wide for better balance. It seemed nothing was to disturb lunchtime.

“I hope they got the children outside back at the ranch.” Annie drew Caroline close.

“I’m sure they did,” Josh reassured her.

“Zane stayed around today since Tilda’s pa is coming out.

I don’t like it when there’s no one to watch him, though he’s turned into a man Tilda and I trust .

.. mostly.” Josh hadn’t settled in to having a father-in-law close at hand.

Especially a meddling father-in-law who Tilda, raised as an orphan, hadn’t known existed until last fall.

The shaking worsened, and Annie pulled Caroline tight against her body. The earth rolled in a way unlike anything Cord had seen before, and he’d grown up in California. “Look at that—the ground’s moving like waves.”

Everyone turned to stare at an incoming ripple. Then came a deeper rumble, and a crack appeared in the ground.

“Step back!” Cord rushed to Annie’s side to pull her away from the oncoming rupture, but he was too late. A crevasse appeared right between Annie’s feet.

Annie screamed and jumped toward Cord, losing her tight grip on Caroline. Fortunately, Josh was there and grabbed his niece, who shrieked in terror.

The ground collapsed under Cord as he caught hold of Annie, a narrow slit that kept widening. Cord clawed at the edge of the crack with one hand and held on to Annie with the other as she plunged downward.

Mustering all his effort, Cord managed to push Annie up and out of the crack even as he slid deeper.

Someone grabbed hold of his hand, and then a whole crew had him.

They dragged him out of the collapsing ground and well away from where he’d been falling.

Yet still the shaking and rumbling went on, causing the men who had him to fall as they scrambled backward.

With an awful creak, the chuck wagon sank into the widening crack.

Cord took one look at the vanishing wagon and hollered.

Josh sprang into action, passing Caroline to their foreman, Shad, then pulling a knife.

He dashed over to the horses and slashed the reins, setting loose the Morgans before the ground could swallow them up.

Cord rolled onto one elbow, got to his feet, and caught the terrified horses’ reins.

Quickly, Cord began to lead them away when the earthquake tossed him to the ground again.

Somehow he held on to the horses as they dragged him along, Cord clinging to the reins more out of instinct than anything else.

Finally the pair halted. Everywhere, men were sprawled on the ground.

The sound of thundering hoofbeats alerted Cord and the others to the cows and horses charging away from the crack that was swallowing the still-smoldering fire, along with a couple of the Two Harts branding irons.

At last, the shaking stopped.

Shad brought Caroline to Annie, who remained sitting on the ground. She hugged her terrified, sobbing daughter, soothing her with quiet shushing sounds.

“We’ve got to get back to the ranch. There’ll be damage.

” Josh looked around, then began snapping orders, rattling off four names.

“You four are lightest. Ride the Morgans double back to the ranch house, rounding up enough horses for the rest of us wherever you can find them. One of you can bring them to us. The others should stay and help at the ranch. There may be injuries. In the meantime, we’ll start walking home as fast as we can. ”

Cord thought of Brody MacKenzie, who’d gone back east to partner with a doctor he was indebted to.

It’d sure be nice to have a doctor around the place right now.

The doctor in the nearest town, Dorada Rio, would be needed there.

That left them with Zane’s wife, Michelle.

While she was a knowing woman, she had a baby to tend, and of course she was no doctor.

Cord could only hope and pray there were no serious injuries.

The four cowhands rode off for home. Before they’d gone far, the ground trembled again, this time less violently. Even so, they all froze and swayed, looking in all directions for a dangerous new split in the earth.

The powerful aftershock stopped soon enough, and they hoisted their saddles and slung them over their shoulders.

They’d stripped the leather off most of the horses and left them grazing, and now they had saddles to carry.

They grabbed up the remaining branding irons and bridles, all that was left after the earth had swallowed their things.

They set off on foot toward home. They were miles from the ranch house, and Cord sure hoped they didn’t have to walk the whole way. But considering what they’d just en dured, and the possible chaos they might find when they arrived at home, he felt grateful to be in one piece.

Annie made Caroline walk, though her instincts told her to carry her daughter. But they had a long way to go, and Caroline was getting heavy. At least she was finally calming down.

Of the eight of them left to walk, Caroline was probably the most tireless, judging by her little girl’s constant motion all day every day.

Occasional aftershocks, small tremors in the ground, kept them all on edge.