Page 11 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)
Annie sighed. “That may be true, Cord, but I’d like to spend more time running the house.
Gretel, though she never complains, is severely overworked.
Ellie’s busy assisting Brody and will have her baby soon.
And while Michelle is besotted with Leah, if she had a little help, I think she’d enjoy a little time with her inventions. ”
Josh looked up at the lowering sun. “We rode a long way today. When we first started hunting treasure, it took us three different searches to get this far—the first time to the green pond.”
“That’s when I fell over the cliff.” Lock rubbed his ribs as if recalling the pain of his fall.
“And the second time,” Thayne said, “was when Brody got shot.”
Lock shook his head at the memory.
“The third time I joined you, and we found the armor,” Cord said. “Maybe this time we’ll finally get to the end of that map.”
“Have you all got a copy of Cord’s map?” Annie asked. She kept hers close at hand and pored over it almost every night. “Do you all know where to go from here?”
The menfolk looked between each other, nodding, but they didn’t seem all that confident to Annie.
“It didn’t take long this time to get where we are because we knew where we were going,” Josh said, setting aside his now-empty tin plate.
“But we did a lot of searching to uncover the trail we hurried down today. I think a lot of tomorrow’s trip should go fast, too.
Even though it’s not easy to be exact with longitude and latitude, we know where to find the large claim Graham MacKenzie staked.
And I’ve figured out how to find the dried-up riverbed that runs through this area.
That’ll get us close. From there, the strange drawings on the map should point us to the last leg of the trail . .. I hope.”
Annie looked around the circle of men, sitting around the crackling fire, sharing a meal together. She breathed in the smell of woodsmoke, the savory aroma of the stew, all of it flavored with talk of treasure and the adventure lying ahead.
“When we set out before,” said Cord, “we told your family we wouldn’t be back until we reached the end of the trail.
And then we found the armor, and it was all we could do to haul it home.
We didn’t even start on my half of the map.
I make no such bold claim this time, yet I surely do hope we find whatever is hidden out there. ”
“So do I!” Lock said.
He sounded so fervent that Annie worried about him. But then she’d always worried about the MacKenzie boys, who leaned toward recklessness—especially Lock. They had such a headlong desire to find their treasure that for all their intelligence, they had a dearth of common sense.
“Is your Grandfather Westbrook coming to the Two Harts?” Annie asked Cord. “You know he’s welcome to stay with us.”
“I sent him a long letter, and Josh included his own letter telling him he was welcome. I hope he does. I’d like to see him get far away from that bank of his. It seems he has trouble leaving his managers on their own. Doesn’t fully trust ’em.”
Josh put on a pair of cowhide gloves and grabbed the pot of hot water from the campfire. He filled a basin and shaved soap into it, then removed the gloves and started in with washing the dishes.
Annie dried while the boys put away the plates, cups, and utensils.
“I’m going to build up the fire.” Cord set to work. “It still gets cool at night up in these hills.”
They all worked together to ready the camp for the night.
That done, Annie settled under her blankets, already missing Caroline.
It was strange to be away from her and away from the ranch.
It occurred to her then that she’d been very much a hermit since her husband, Todd, had died.
She rode into Dorada Rio on occasion, and the family attended church most Sundays, unless the weather prevented them from doing so.
But she rarely went anywhere else, not even when the family had invited her along on a trip to San Francisco, where Michelle’s family lived part of the year, depending on the lumber season.
And she’d never gone back to the ranch she once lived on, where her husband had been shot, their house burned down. She’d gotten the ranch back plus a lot more by the time the man who’d ordered Todd’s killing was done paying for his crime. Now Josh and Zane ran the ranch for her.
She was afraid of that ranch. She was afraid of pretty much everything.
Maybe her restlessness wasn’t just about teaching school. Maybe she should travel a bit, go somewhere else. She shifted under her blankets as fear welled up inside her at the very thought.
She realized she’d built up the outside world as a frightening place.
Her head felt the gentle, drowsy buzzing that preceded sleep, and she slipped into a dream of fire and gunshots, of her husband bleeding to death. She felt the searing pain of her own gunshot wounds, and in her arms her daughter wept.
Shaking woke her. Another earthquake?
Her eyes fluttered open to see Cord hovering over her, his hand rocking her shoulder. He was silent, and since everyone else in the camp was sleeping, that was wise.
In a whisper that barely reached her ears, he said, “Bad dream?”
She nodded as the worst of it faded, unable to speak quite yet. She’d had this same dream many times before, usually after having a really long day. It seemed exhaustion and stress brought the nightmares on.
Cord, his face visible in the firelight, said, “Maybe soon you’ll sleep without them, peacefully...”
Annie reached up to rest her hand on his face. A handsome face. A kind man. Todd had been handsome and kind, too. She dropped her hand. “Thank you, Cord.”
She wasn’t sure what he saw in her expression, but it wasn’t good. He looked as though he was about to move away, but before he could, Josh’s voice sounded in the night.
“Morning comes mighty early, Cord. Best to get some sleep.”
Cord stiffened as if the words were a blow. Then he looked at her as if he’d taken two blows: Josh’s words, and whatever he’d seen in her eyes when she’d stopped touching him.
“Sweet dreams, Annie.” Cord rose from where he crouched and went back to his spot on the other side of the campfire.
Moments later, Annie drifted off to sleep again, and this time the dream stayed away.