Page 20 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Thirteen

“You’re not going anywhere!” Josh barked.

Yes, just like a cur dog. And Annie apologized to all the dogs she’d just insulted. She’d never laid eyes on a dog as rude as her brother.

“I made my decision, Josh. No one tells me what to do or not do.” She mentally scoffed at herself. Someone was sure enough telling her what not to do right now.

“Zane?” Just one single word and Josh sounded like a boy again. A frustrated youngster who needed his big brother’s help.

Unfortunately for Annie, Zane was eager to comply. “No. You can’t go out into the wilderness with five men.”

“I’m not some schoolgirl. I’m a widow who is as tough and knowledgeable in the woods as either of you.

” That might not be completely true, but she was plenty tough.

“You’re both busy with work and family. I’m going.

Anyway, two of the men are my nephews. That makes it proper.

” They were more boys than men, though Thayne was real close.

Zane narrowed his eyes. “Those two boys are no better chaperones than your horse.”

They were both standing by the table while she was leaning against the sink. She had a juicy roast in the oven, potatoes peeled and nearly cooked. Supper would be ready as soon as everyone gathered.

She glared at her brothers as they faced off, a shootout with words. And she intended to beat them to the draw.

“You’ve gone for walks with Cord three evenings in a row,” Josh chimed in. “You can’t ride off with him into the wilderness after that!”

Almost as if he’d heard his name being spoken, Cord stepped into the kitchen. He was wearing his work clothes: blue denim pants and a brown broadcloth shirt, chaps, a battered Stetson, and cowhide gloves. Clutched in his hand was a coiled-up bullwhip.

“Josh, we’ve finished the branding in the last pasture. Bo asked me to, uh...” Cord fell silent, his eyes shifting between Annie, Josh, and Zane. “Something wrong?” He turned back to Annie, his eyes wide. “What’s going on here?”

Her arms crossed, Annie went back to glaring at her brothers. “Yes, something is wrong, Cord. My two little brothers are under the mistaken impression that I need their permission to run my own life.”

“We told her,” Josh said with exaggerated patience, “that it is improper for her to ride off into the woods with five men she’s not related to in any way. Including you, who’s clearly courting her.”

“You’re just going to have to wait!” Zane slashed his hand through the air to add weight to his words. “If you give Brody some time, Ellie will be able to go.”

“No,” Annie said. “She almost went into labor the last time she lifted a heavy pot. She can’t go.”

Zane tilted his head sideways just a little, conceding the point.

“Tilda won’t be suffering from morning sickness much longer,” Josh pointed out. “She might not go even when she’s feeling better, but I won’t feel so bad about leaving her behind.”

Again, Annie shook her head. “Tilda’s only a couple of months gone on this baby. It can take three months sometimes to get over a fractious belly when you’re first expecting. There’s no way I can keep those boys and that grouchy professor confined for another month.”

“Well, I can’t go right now,” Zane said.

“With the branding done, we’ll be moving the cattle to the far pastures.

And Michelle’s busy finishing up her latest invention, pushing hard to submit her next patent.

The earthquake threw her off schedule. I promised I’d help with Leah more.

Hopefully, Tilda will be feeling better before Michelle is ready.

” He looked uncertain, which was odd for him.

“Would it be all right to take a baby on the treasure hunt?”

“No!” Annie, Josh, and Cord all shouted at once.

Zane jumped a little. “Then you just have to wait, and so do your companions.”

“Um, I have a suggestion,” Cord said. He walked over and hung the bullwhip on a wall hook next to the back door, then turned to face everyone.

“You’re not a good enough chaperone, Cord.” Josh jabbed a finger at him.

Zane crossed his arms to match Annie’s posture. “We know you’re an honorable man, Cord. But this is bigger than that. It’s about how it’d look. People talk; they gossip. Our sister’s reputation must be protected. Which means she can’t go.”

“I’m going,” Annie countered. “Neither of you can tell me what to do. I’d think you’d have figured that out by now.”

Cord removed the Stetson and dropped his gloves onto a kitchen chair. “What if—?”

“Whatever it is, Cord, we’re not changing our minds.” Josh’s face turned an alarming shade of red.

“That’s right, we’re not,” echoed Zane with a jerk of his chin.

“But what if—?”

“Go on now, Cord.” Josh nodded toward the back door. “This is a family matter. We appreciate the news about the branding, but—”

“Don’t you tell him what to do.” Annie dropped her arms and clenched her fists. “You’re not in charge of him any more than you are of me.”

Josh scratched the back of his neck. “Honestly, Annie, I’m his boss.”

“That’s true,” Cord conceded. “But what if—?”

“In that case, since I’m a one-quarter owner of this ranch, I’m his boss too, and I say he stays right where he is. Cord, say something. You know I’ve been planning to go after the treasure. You’ve not objected to it.”

“Well, I guess I didn’t think about whether it was proper or not for you to go. If we can just—”

Josh swatted Cord’s arm. “Are you saying Annie’s not proper? Don’t you have any respect for my sister?”

Annie turned on Cord. “What? You don’t respect me now?”

“All right, you two, get out of the kitchen. I want to talk with Annie alone .” Cord’s face flushed, and his eyes sparked with anger at her two brothers.

Josh flinched. Zane did that little head tilt of his again. Annie really needed to finish preparing the meal, but Cord had a determined look on his face. She waited to hear what he had to say to her as the two brothers shuffled to the door and slipped outside, grumbling the whole way.

With them gone, Annie looked at Cord and crossed her arms again. If Cord thought he could make her to stay behind when her brothers had failed, he had another think coming.

He stepped closer to her. While they hadn’t made it to dinner in town just yet, they’d gone out walking every evening since that first time, and they were due for another walk tonight.

And tomorrow was Sunday, which left them one more walk before the group rode out on the treasure hunt early Monday morning.

Annie said, “How could my half-wit brothers not realize I was going on the treasure hunt? We’ve been talking about it all week. It seems Josh thought Brody and Ellie were going, and Zane thought Josh was going. Don’t you dare even think about—”

Cord gripped her shoulders, pulled her close, and cut off her rant by kissing her.

It didn’t just silence her; it made her questions vanish until she could think of only one thing. How much she’d come to like this man. Much more than like, in fact.

When Cord eased her back, just far enough their eyes could meet, he said quietly, “Marry me, Annie. Then it’ll be proper for us to leave together on the dig.” He smiled like a clever seven-year-old.

“You want me to marry you so I can go on the treasure hunt?” Her voice rose with every word. It sounded a little like a train whistle by the time she was finished.

He looked increasingly nervous. “Well, you want to go, don’t you? I thought it would be a great excuse to get married.”

She didn’t believe in violence, which was lucky for Cord. “Get out of this house now. And send Josh and Zane back in here. One of them is going to have to go along with me.”

He had the nerve to look like his feelings had been hurt.

“Don’t you want to marry me, Annie?”

“It’s too soon, Cord. We just started thinking about each other in that way.”

“No, we didn’t.” Cord took her hands in his.

“We didn’t?”

He shook his head. “I was in the kitchen, newly arrived from Dorada Rio, and you walked in with Caroline, remember? I couldn’t think of a thing to say to you, but I couldn’t look away. I was drawn to you so powerfully, I couldn’t speak. And you couldn’t look away from me.”

She felt the burn of tears as she recalled that moment, that very first moment when she’d been struck dumb.

“And a week or two later, I came downstairs from helping deliver Michelle’s baby and saw you sitting on the floor with Caroline, who fell asleep in your lap.

A strong, gentle man who held my precious baby with such care, and you carried her upstairs for me to put her to bed. ”

Cord smiled. “It’s not too soon for us to marry.

There’s no need to delay starting our future together.

I’ve been wanting to marry you since the first time I laid eyes on you.

We’ve been putting off the inevitable ever since.

” He kissed her again, longer this time.

He must have decided talking wasn’t working well.

“All the walking we’ve done together was just me waiting until it didn’t seem like such a headlong rush before I told you I love you. Before I asked you to share your life with me. I love you, Annie. Will you marry me?”

He kissed her again.

This time when he quit, he said, “I’m taking that for a yes.”

He squeezed her hands tight. “We can get married tomorrow after church. Your whole family will be there. Grandpa can come. Then everything will be perfectly proper for you to lead the group on the treasure hunt.”

Annie’s brain wasn’t working well. In Michelle’s experiments with electricity, Annie had heard the term short- circuit and its meaning explained. She wondered if that could happen inside a person’s brain, too.

Cord leaned down again, his apparent solution to any extended silence.

Moving quickly, she touched his lips with her finger. “Thank you, Cord.”

Their gazes met. This time he didn’t try to kiss her. With the patience of a saint, he stood there and let her think.

At last, she reached up and kissed him very tenderly, then said, “Yes, Cord. I would be honored to marry you.”

Grinning, he slung his arm around her and turned her toward the back door. “Let’s call the family in and tell them the good news! Where’s Grandpa? Playing with Caroline?”

“I’m right here.” Grandpa stepped into the doorway between the kitchen and the main room of the house. “Welcome to the family, Annie.” His smile was as wide as the California sky.

Cord laughed. “So you approve of our getting married?”

Grandpa came across the kitchen and pulled Annie into a hug.

Cord saw Caroline come right behind him, and she smiled shyly up at Cord. “Are you going to be my pa? Grandpa shushed me so we could listen to you talk. Ma says that’s rude, but Grandpa said this once it was all right.”

Grandpa let go of Annie and turned to hug his grandson. Just then the back door opened.

“You talk her into getting hitched?” Josh walked into the kitchen.

Annie’s eyes widened as she saw Tilda behind him, eyes brimming with tears, a huge smile on her face. “And the wedding is tomorrow?”

Then came Zane and Michelle, Brody and Ellie, followed by the MacKenzie boys. Goodness, had everyone heard Cord’s proposal? Annie considered it a mercy the professor and his assistant weren’t coming to supper.

Cord took a firm hold of her hand, lacing their fingers together in a way so warm and affectionate she couldn’t wait to say her vows.

“Annie has agreed to marry me. I consider myself the luckiest man in the world.” Then he looked sideways at her, and his blue eyes flashed with humor.

“And it has nothing to do with going together on the treasure hunt. We’d’ve gotten to this very place soon enough. ”

She gave a firm nod of her head. “Yes, we would have. We’re getting married tomorrow right after church.”

Josh said, “I’m going to tell the men to butcher and roast a hog. We’ll have a party to beat all.” He was gone before Annie could tell him that sounded wonderful.

“You should invite your father and sister out to the ranch tomorrow, Tilda. We can even let Professor Hardy and Mr. Rombauer come.”

Ellie wrapped her arms around Annie’s neck and wept. Through the tears she said, “I’m so happy for you.”

There was general chaos as everyone hugged the newly engaged couple and congratulated them.

There seemed to be no surprise at all among them. Honestly, Annie herself was a little bit surprised. But no one questioned her decision, which proved she didn’t have a ridiculous, addled look on her face.