Page 6 of Riches Beyond Measure (Golden State Treasure #3)

Four

Cord sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table at the end of a long, hard day.

The sun had set, and they hadn’t felt a tremor in hours.

“We got the last family moved back inside, all but Harriet and Bo and the baby. They had an extra bedroom in the bunkhouse, and they’re settled in there.

We’ll start building a new cabin real soon, but first we have to finish branding. We gotta find those artifacts, too.”

It wasn’t just the suit of armor that was gone; also missing were a spear tip and a sword, both nowhere to be seen. He realized how jumbled his thoughts were and knew he had to eat and get some sleep before he could do anything else.

Annie set a plate in front of him filled with beef stew and biscuits.

She hadn’t bothered sitting down herself.

Instead, she’d started serving food, Michelle’s baby Leah on her hip.

Gretel, who’d prepared their supper, was round with a third baby on the way.

She’d gone home to get her two youngsters to bed.

“You shouldn’t be serving me, Annie. You’ve had just as long and hard of a day as any of us.”

She gave him a tired smile. “It’s been a day to remember, I’ll grant you that.”

Cord caught her wrist gently. “Let me hold the baby at least.”

Annie smiled and handed Leah over. “Like you, Michelle has been checking for damage on the buildings. We’ve debated it and decided it’s safe to sleep inside.”

He could see the worry in her expression. Aftershocks could sometimes go on for days.

Cord turned to his food.

Annie pushed his plate away from the edge of the table. “This one’s got a reach that surprises us every time. Watch out for her grabbing your food or she’ll dump hot stew on your lap.”

Cord had little experience with babies, but he’d seen a few in action and so watched the child’s grasping fingers. He managed to hold Leah back and still eat.

Zane came in with Michelle right behind him.

Annie looked at Cord. They both knew they had to tell Michelle about the missing armor, and both were dreading it.

Cord squared his shoulders as the two sat down, as tired as the rest of them. Clearing his throat to put off the inevitable, he said, “Someone took the distraction of the earthquake as a chance to steal our suit of armor.”

Michelle had been reaching for Leah, but now her head snapped up, and her eyes flashed. “What?”

Cord told her what they’d found. Annie threw in a few details.

Michelle shoved to her feet, but Zane caught her arm. Cord wondered if the brilliant, feisty woman had plans to saddle up and go running off after the thieves.

“We’ll head for town first thing in the morning,” Zane said. “Now sit down and eat. There’s nothing we can do this time of day, and you haven’t quit working since breakfast.”

None of them had, but then they didn’t have a baby to keep track of.

“The last suit of armor.” Michelle’s hands fisted, but she didn’t run off. Instead, she took her seat at the table, and within seconds Annie had hot food in front of her and Zane.

“There are two suits of armor in town at the museum you opened with Tilda’s pa.”

Tilda, an orphan from her earliest memory, had only recently been reunited with her father, a wealthy New Yorker.

He’d spent the winter trying to convince Tilda to forget her profound sense of abandonment and let him be her father.

Toward that end he’d left New York City and assisted the Hart family in founding a museum in Dorada Rio to display their conquistador artifacts, a museum he now ran.

“Yes. I loaned one to the Crockers to display along with their growing California art collection, and one to the Archaeology Department at the University of the Pacific in San Jose.”

The university was located near Sacramento, and they had a top music program. At one time, Cord had wanted to attend there badly, but Grandpa Westbrook wouldn’t hear of it.

Cord finished chewing, then said, “Was it that hectic around here that some unknown person could have slipped in and stolen the armor we found?”

The artifacts had been buried in the wilderness east of their ranch three hundred years ago.

Cord considered that as he ate. They’d found the five suits of armor by following Graham MacKenzie’s map, one sent to Brody’s pa thirty years ago when he’d found treasure.

Grandpa MacKenzie then died before he could move his family west.

One of his cryptic notes was that he’d send a second map to Cord’s Grandpa Westbrook.

That second map would lead searchers on past the place they’d found the armor.

Another note said Graham had gathered all the gold.

That lack of gold—combined with the winter weather keeping them away from the area covered by the rest of the map—had calmed Thayne and Lock down enough that they were willing to spend the winter in Boston with their big brother, Brody.

Now they were back in California, the winter had passed, and the treasure hunt was back on—or soon would be once things had calmed down around the ranch.

The absence so far of the gold hoard Thayne and Lock had conjured in their treasure-feverish imaginations wasn’t enough to dampen the boys’ enthusiasm.

And they had found the suits of armor. True treasure if Tilda, Josh’s historically wise wife, was to be believed.

Tilda and Michelle had created the museum in Dorada Rio. Michelle, who was well connected in the state, had approached some scholars of history at the University of the Pacific, where Ellie had gone to college shortly after the university had opened its doors to women.

Michelle had invited the scholars to come and research the armor and other things they’d found. Those men had been in and out of the museum in town and at the Two Harts all winter.

But they were well-respected scholars, not thieves. Professor Hardy, the most enthused of those scholars, was expected back anytime. He’d pushed hard to take all the armor back to the university, and he was a gruff man on his best day. He wasn’t going to like this news.

Yet the artifacts still belonged to Brody and his family, and since he’d married into the Hart family, the Harts had been included in that ownership.

The family had been well paid for the loan. They’d kept the fifth and final suit of armor because Tilda, a history fanatic, and Michelle, who was curious about everything, said they wanted to study the suit themselves.

Michelle chewed, swallowed, and said, “It was absolute chaos around here with the earthquake, but no one could have planned to take advantage of that. It was either a crime of opportunity—someone from our ranch realized in the middle of the turmoil that they could get away with the armor—or it was a preplanned crime by an outsider or one of our own that was made infinitely easier because of the earthquake.”

“If it’s a stranger,” Annie said, “we should have noticed him. If it’s one of our own, wouldn’t they have taken the armor and run? In which case someone should be missing.”

“Or,” Michelle said with narrowed eyes, “they stole the armor and hid it with plans to get it later when their absence wouldn’t be so noticeable.”

Cord sighed. “That’s a lot of possible scenarios. And we don’t have any clear suspects. How are we going to find that armor?”

He wished Brody and Tilda were there, but they had turned in for the night.

He didn’t think anyone would be more upset about what had happened than Thayne and Lock.

The thought that they might be harboring a thief right here at the ranch would have stopped Cord from eating altogether if he hadn’t been outright starving.

“Does Brody know?” Zane asked between bites of the savory stew.

“No,” Cord replied. “I inspected the laboratory last because no one needs it for shelter, so I wasn’t too worried about it structurally.

I wouldn’t have gone in if the door hadn’t been standing ajar in a way that struck me as .

.. well, as not caused by the earthquake.

I decided to take a quick look inside, then lock the door and look closer tomorrow.

I noticed right away that the suit of armor wasn’t there. ”

Annie finally had everyone a plate of food and sat down with her own. “The lock on the front door was broken.”

Zane had finished his first plate of food and got up to refill it from the pot kept warm on the stove.

Normally Annie would have put a bowl of the stew on the table, but everything was very informal tonight.

“I’d shake everyone out of bed to search around the place in case it’s hidden nearby, but no one’s got the energy after today.

” He sat back at the table and looked at his wife.

“I’m sorry about that, but I don’t think I could find anyone awake to help us. ”

Michelle nodded. “You’re right. Even I can’t muster the strength to do anything but sit here and seethe. Besides, it’s full dark. It’s not as if we could look for tracks.”

Zane rested his hand on top of Michelle’s.

Cord marveled at these two. Both were highly skilled, intelligent, if not a little stubborn.

But they loved each other. They didn’t bicker when they disagreed; they talked it out.

They used the common sense they’d been richly endowed with, and they found a way to proceed.

That was the strength and the depth of their love for each other.

“We’ve got some skilled trackers among the cowhands who could help me and Josh.” Zane glanced over his shoul der as he volunteered his sleeping brother. “Though none is better than you, Annie.”

Cord turned to her, and she shrugged. “It’s true. I’m a hand at it.”

“It’s branding time, and everyone is busy,” Zane went on. “Still, we’ll take a few of our best trackers away from the cattle crews and get started at first light.”

Cord nodded. “I know I’m no skilled tracker, Zane, but I’ve been working on it. And that suit of armor being stolen hits me pretty close to home.”

A note found with the long-dead body of Graham MacKenzie had left half of his supposed treasure to Cord’s grandpa, Mayhew Westbrook, who had loaned Graham money to purchase land and bring his family west. While the artifacts might not have been the treasure Graham promised, Mayhew—and Cord—still had an interest in this.

“I appreciate that, Cord. I was going to ask for your help with the search.”

Cord lived in the bunkhouse with the other cowhands, but he had a cordial relationship with the Hart family, who regularly invited him to eat with them.

He was grateful for their company, although tonight Cord had a deep need to find out how his family was doing. Had the quake hit Sacramento hard, too?

Michelle must have noticed the concern in his expression because she said, “Before I go up to bed, let’s send a telegraph to your family, Cord.

I’ve got a few I want to send myself. I want to find out what happened outside this area.

Brody spent some time in Dorada Rio this afternoon with Ellie and his brothers to see if they needed more care than the single doctor in town could provide.

But they’re all back, and Gretel left them a meal in their rooms over the doctor’s office.

He didn’t report much, just said there were injuries and some damage. ”

Cord looked down and saw that Leah had fallen asleep in his arms, just as Caroline had done earlier today. Maybe he was good with little ones after all.

“Cord, bring Leah along, if you don’t mind.” Michelle finished her meal. “Let’s go send those wires.”

“I’ll keep it short. We all need to get some sleep.” Cord ate the last of his supper, then, cradling Leah in his arms, he followed Michelle to the study, where the family had a telegraph wire come right into the house.

He saw Annie start to clean up the kitchen and sped up a bit to send his wire. If he hurried, he could help tidy up and not leave it all to her. And spend a few more minutes with her besides.

Then he noticed Zane gathering up dirty plates and saw that Annie wasn’t on her own. Regardless, Cord hurried anyway.