Page 5 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Three

Cord had his horse running flat-out for home, his head swimming with worry for Sacramento and Grandpa Westbrook.

His ma and her parents, Grandma and Grandpa Rivers, lived south of California’s capital city.

What about San Francisco? An earthquake this powerful might have gone on for miles, maybe touching the whole state!

He leaned low over his horse’s neck to urge more speed out of the critter, hoping for no more aftershocks. “I’ve never seen the ground crack open like that. I’ve heard of it but never seen it.”

Glancing to the side, he saw Annie. She was astride her horse, galloping as fast as his mount was running.

Besides Caroline, it was just the three of them.

The other men had gone on ahead. While Annie mostly stayed in the house or schoolroom, she was a tough westerner just like her brothers.

He’d heard Josh talk about what a crack shot she was and decent at following a trail.

Then he remembered that he’d almost kissed her. All right, so she was unlike her brothers in some very significant ways.

“Slow down!” Josh reined his horse to a walk just as Cord realized the ground was shaking.

Cord mentally scolded himself for not being more mindful. Josh was a skilled, knowing horseman. Cord still had a long way to go to come close to those skills, and if he wanted a place of his own, he would need to improve.

This time the quake was over quick, and they picked up the pace again. They’d be home in another ten minutes, if they didn’t have to stop and walk again. “Not a bad one,” Annie said, giving Caroline an assessing look. She was riding in front of her Uncle Josh, snuggled up against his chest.

One more stop and the ranch came into sight.

From a distance, there was no visible damage, but there’d surely be some.

Cord had lived in or near Sacramento his whole life.

He knew earthquakes always left their mark.

The buildings left standing could still be so damaged that they couldn’t ever be used again and had to be torn down.

His time at Grandpa Westbrook’s bank working with the inspections people had taught him a lot about earthquake damage.

He’d be sure to go over all the buildings thoroughly.

The horses were milling around in the corral. A Hereford cow calmly walked away from the buildings to the first patch of good grass and stopped to graze, her baby pressed up against her side. The little one looked skittish, and who could blame it? It settled in for a comforting nip of milk.

“Is that Brody?” Annie pointed at the dark-haired man carrying a doctor’s bag, rushing toward the mob of children being corralled in their own way. As expected, everyone was outside.

“He said he wouldn’t be back till spring, but it’s great he’s here in time to help us through this. Thank God.” Josh closed the distance to the ranch house, but instead of taking his horse to the barn to groom it, he trotted over to the hitching post and dismounted.

Annie swung down from her horse as well. Her head jumbled with all the possible trouble they’d find. “Stay by my side, Caroline, and be careful around the horse. Get too close and it might step on your little toes.”

Five-year-old Caroline had lived on the ranch since birth. She knew about keeping her distance from the powerful hooves of horses and cattle. Her little girl was growing up fast.

Josh and Cord made short work of stripping the leather from all three horses and shooing them into the corral.

Annie didn’t wait for them. “Good time for Brody to get here, though I hope no one needs doctoring. Caroline and I are going to see how the children are doing.” She rushed toward the school building, holding Caroline’s hand while following in Brody’s footsteps.

The doctor quickly went from one child to the next to assess their condition. Meanwhile, Tilda told him which ones she suspected needed care, indicating a child here and there. Though Brody no doubt wanted to check for himself, his expression said he was taking Tilda’s words seriously.

Annie reached them just as Ellie, her little sister, came running up.

“Ellie! You’re home! A fine welcome we’ve arranged for you.”

Ellie had blood streaked down the front of her dress and on her hands. She’d noticed some blood on Brody, too. “What happened?”

“Harriet got hit by a falling rafter and had cuts to be sewn up. But she’s awake and alert. She should be fine. Brody had to do some real doctoring. I’ll tell you more later.”

Annie nodded. “It looks like the children are going to be all right.”

Ellie took Annie’s arm and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “I’d better stick with Brody.” She grinned. “He gets to ordering people around when he’s involved in doctoring, but I like helping him.”

Annie smiled back. “Should I go help with Harriet?”

“That’s a good idea. She’s outside resting on the examination table near what’s left of her house.

No one’s going inside the buildings until we can be sure it’s safe to do so.

A lot of young children are there. Thayne and Lock are out tending the herd of women and children, so you’d be a big help. Caroline can go with you.”

Annie and Ellie hadn’t seen each other since Ellie had followed Brody to Boston last fall, but Annie knew from letters that there was a baby on the way.

“You look good, Ellie. I’m so glad you’re here.”

They hugged despite the blood, then Ellie ran after her husband while Annie and Caroline went to see Harriet.

Seeing Ellie’s devotion and respect for Brody had Annie remembering that for one moment, she’d thought Cord was going to kiss her.

What’s more, she was going to let him. She hadn’t kissed any man since her husband had died nearly three years ago. Hadn’t had such a thought even.

The grief and loss had left an ache in her heart that was so painful, she’d vowed she would never risk loving another man again. And it had never been difficult to stay true to that promise.

They’d just gone through an earthquake. She was upset by it all. Cord had been so careful and sweet to carry her little girl when Annie didn’t have the strength to do it. Strange things could happen to a woman when she was upset and grateful.

Thank heavens Josh had shown up and put a stop to any nonsense that might’ve taken place had he not come along.

Annie rounded a building to see every cowhand’s wife on the place, standing outside their row of homes and looking rather bewildered.

The women were gathered in front of Harriet’s collapsed house.

Many of them had a baby or two. Since Michelle had married Zane, they’d done some things differently on the Two Harts, including offering any cowhand who wanted to marry and settle here his own cabin with some space for a garden.

They’d found that married men made for a steadier working crew who tended not to wander off.

As a rule, cowhands were known for having itchy feet.

The noon meal was long past, and fussy babies whined in their mamas’ arms. Annie sighed, wondering what she could do to help, then realized it was naptime. And no one could go inside.

But it was a beautiful spring day, and there was a grassy stretch with young fruit trees just past the bunkhouse. A nice day to sit in the sun with a sleeping baby on your lap.

She hated to see Harriet’s house in ruins. Thankfully, though, it was the only house so badly damaged, its roof caved in.

“Thayne and Lock.” The two boys were hovering around Harriet, whose throat was all bandaged up. She was watching her baby, Bo Jr. Lock held the child up so that Harriet could see the little one was all right.

The boys looked up at her. “What do you need, ma’am?” Thayne asked.

Because Annie worked with the older children most afternoons, she’d been their teacher since the day they’d arrived.

She’d venture to guess that she knew these two as well as anyone.

Tilda had ridden across the country with them on the orphan train they ran away from.

So maybe Tilda had a good notion about them.

But she probably knew them even better than their brother, though maybe they’d become better acquainted while the boys had lived with Brody and Ellie through the winter in Boston.

Annie had been a witness to all their antics.

She’d found all the gaping holes in their education and devoted herself to filling those gaps.

While they were smart boys, they were utterly undisciplined.

They had no qualms about lying to get themselves out of trouble.

And they were obsessed with their grandfather’s treasure map and the journal it was hidden in, sent from California to their mother and father back in New York City.

But they seemed to be calm and helpful right now.

“Can we move Harriet?” she asked them.

“Brody said we can move her if we’re very careful of her throat.” Thayne explained about the surgery Brody had performed on Harriet so that she could breathe freely.

Annie shuddered to think of having to slit someone’s throat to open their airway. “You both stay and watch Harriet while I get the other women settled over by the orchard. Then I’ll come back and hold the baby while you carry her bed there to join the others.”

They nodded, serious looks on their faces. These two scalawags were long overdue for some sign of maturity. Right now, at least for this moment, they were behaving like fine, dependable young men.

In really hard times, they could be counted on. She hoped.

Cord staggered as he turned to the last building.

They’d checked the rest, so he had an idea of what to look for.

He was glad for the years working in Grandpa Westbrook’s bank.

He’d been among those sent out by the bank when someone wanted a loan to repair a damaged house.

In some cases, a building was too damaged to save or the repairs were too costly.

He’d heard once that California averaged five hundred earthquakes a year. He didn’t experience that many himself, of course, but most of the ones he did were so small that they barely caught his attention before they were over.

Not this one.

In full darkness, he approached Michelle’s laboratory, the final building.

Since no one was going to sleep in it, he felt no urgency to inspect it tonight, especially with only the light of a lantern.

He would have put off even stopping by the place, except the door was ajar.

Michelle usually kept it locked. It must’ve been broken open by the quake.

He’d just see if the lock wasn’t so badly damaged that he couldn’t simply close and relock it.

If he couldn’t, well, so be it. Every person on the ranch was exhausted.

Her laboratory would be safe over one night, as well as the one remaining piece of Spanish armor still stored there, the one they’d found before the winter weather had forced them to abandon the search for more treasure.

He reached the door and stared at the splintered wood around the lock.

Strange-looking earthquake damage. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anything quite like it.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the quake, he’d have guessed someone had kicked the door open or maybe battered it with something heavier than a boot.

Mindful of possible danger from falling debris, he inched the door open. It dragged across the floor, requiring him to shove and lift at the same time. That worried him even more. The whole building might be askew.

A chill of fear struck him for no reason he could understand. Not like any other he’d felt today. He silently prayed, wondering if that fear was a message from God. He listened to unexpected feelings like that, allowing God to guide him.

He got the door open enough that he could slip in, but approaching footsteps spun him around. He was definitely spooked.

Annie emerged out of the darkness, and the worst of his nerves eased. He liked having company, especially Annie’s.

“The day’s over, Cord.”

Her crisp tone always made him think of her as a teacher and a mother. Annie knew how to make things run smoothly.

“Josh and Tilda and Ellie and Brody and the boys have finished supper at the bunkhouse and are off to bed, so come and eat with me ... uh, I mean us .” She fell silent for a moment, then rushed on. “Zane and Michelle should be on their way soon. You’re the last. Leave this place for tomorrow.”

“I almost skipped this one.” Cord pointed at the smashed door.

“But it was open, and it never is. I’m not going to assess quake damage.

I’ll just glance at that armor and make sure nothing harmed it, then see if the door will lock.

You should stay outside, though, just in case the building is on the verge of collapse.

Budging the door farther open was tough. ”

“Make it quick. I’ll wait out here.” She crossed her arms as if annoyed at anyone who thought they knew better than she did.

He bit back a grin, then stepped into the darkened building. Enough moonlight came through the windows that he could see a few things tipped over, and something was smashed on the floor, as if it’d fallen off the table.

And then he looked at the armor.

Or the spot where the suit of armor should have been.

“It’s gone, Annie.” Cord rushed to the far side of the room and looked around the table. But he could see well enough to know that no suit of armor had toppled onto the floor or was lying on the table.

Annie was beside him before he could protest. “Did Michelle take it somewhere?”

Cord thought he would have noticed Michelle toting a suit of armor around, but then they’d have noticed anyone doing that ... and yet someone had sure taken it. “Let’s go ask her.”