Page 12 of Whispers of Fortune (Golden State Treasure Book #1)

T WELVE

“This isn’t that big a ranch.” Brody sat a platter of fried chicken on the table along with mashed potatoes and a plate of biscuits. He’d learned to cook for himself in college, and now he could do it for his family.

“How can so many people need a doctor?” He slid into a chair, his heart aching to look at his brothers. He was thrilled and hurt and desperate.

Passing the bowl of potatoes, he watched his brothers dig in to the food before he said, “I know how determined you are to search for the treasure. Can we agree to search for a while, but before we get started, pick a date when we will call off the search? Because I’ve still got to get back to Boston.”

Lock quit chewing and sat up straight, as if someone had poked him in the back. His eyes flashed with an excitement Brody recognized from his father.

“Really, Brody?” Thayne sounded less thrilled, as if just maybe he was taking Brody’s feelings into consideration.

That would be a switch.

“Yes, but if we really search for it and we find nothing, will you agree the treasure is a fable and come back with me?” Brody took a bite of a chicken thigh and chewed while he waited to see if Lock would insist being reasonable would only slow him down.

Thayne and Lock exchanged looks.

Thayne said, “I want to stay with you Brody, but I think we’re on the trail Grandpa left. Why do you have to go back? You can be a doctor here.”

Brody looked hard at his brothers, each in turn. “I told you—I gave my word. The doctor I worked for is trying to care for people, but he’s getting older. He had no one to share his burden. I got to know him, and he was a good man. He paid me well too. A few times, when we weren’t that busy at his office, he went ahead and paid me, then loaned me money to go to New York and fetch you. He did that on the promise I’d come back and work for him. It’s a decent job, and he needs me. It wouldn’t be honorable to change my mind.”

“But if we find the treasure,” Lock said, “you can send him the money you owe him.”

Brody’s stomach twisted to hear his brother dismiss honor. “What about being trustworthy?”

Both boys lapsed into silence. Lock looked more sullen than Thayne.

Thayne buttered a biscuit while he chewed on his bite of dark meat.

Brody went on. “I want us all to go through that journal more carefully before we set out.”

Both boys nodded as they chewed.

“Then I want to see if we can get any notion of a true direction. If we’ve got to climb that mountain, then we need to pack lots of food. We need to buy or rent horses from the Harts. We need to either wait until the height of summer and hope it’s warmer or wear good coats.”

“That sounds pretty smart.” Lock looked calmer. No gold fever flashed in his eyes. Or not much gold fever anyway.

“And we need to decipher that journal enough to narrow our search. We can get everything ready, then ride out for weekend trips. Maybe sometimes we can go longer. Once we know how far away the mountain is, we may want to set aside a week or two for our searching.”

Lock’s face spread into a wide grin. “I like that idea, Brody. When Pa went out, he had to take the train across the country, so he couldn’t come home. But if we’re close, then we don’t have to make an endless journey out of it.”

“I’ve given this a lot of thought since you two ran off yesterday.”

“Brody, I’m sorry. I hope you—”

Brody brought his hand up to cut off Thayne’s fifteenth apology. He sat across the small table from Thayne. Lock was on Brody’s right, their backs to the cookstove and dry sink.

“I’ve never really believed there was a treasure.”

“Brody, we can’t—”

“Let me finish, Lock.”

Lock fell silent, but it was obvious he was fighting back words of protest.

“I’ve never believed in it, mostly because Pa running off the way he did hurt Ma so badly. Not just because we had no money. Ma worked hard taking in washing and working as a cook in a diner. I was delivering groceries. We both watched Theresa die, and Ma and I felt like she may have made it if we had been able to keep our apartment warm and give her good food. If we could have afforded to go to the doctor. I blamed Pa for all that, and it set me against believing in that stupid treasure.”

Brody saw the mutinous expression in Lock’s eyes, but his little brother didn’t start in pushing for a treasure hunt. Brody saw too much of Pa in Lock. Would Lock abandon a family someday in a futile search for treasure? Certainly Pa wasn’t the only man who’d ever done so.

“But it occurred to me today, maybe for the first time, that Grandpa believed in it.”

Lock’s jaw relaxed. His shoulders relaxed, and a smile crept onto his face again.

“Grandpa found something . I doubt very much it’s a gold mine or pirate booty, but it’s something. And we are going to figure out the clues he left in his journal and find that treasure. I’ve already written to Dr. Tibbles and told him I’d be delayed. Now I’ll write again and tell him I’ll be a bit longer.”

“He did, Brody. Grandpa found something he was excited about. We don’t know what, but you’re right. It’s something.”

Brody nodded his head firmly. “Don’t forget your promise. I’ll help you hunt for the treasure, but only on the condition you don’t run off again.”

Both boys nodded.

“It’ll be fun.” Lock ate a biscuit in a couple of bites. “And with your help, we have a lot better chance of success. You’ve never really studied the journal, have you? You’re smarter than us. Maybe you can understand things about it that we never could.”

“That’s settled then. Yes, it’s time I studied the journal.”

“There are words in it we think are maybe a foreign language. We’ve never been able to read it, and there are strange numbers here and there that don’t make a lick of sense.”

“Now I’d like to talk about something else,” said Brody. “Can you boys tell me what happened to Ma? Did she take sick or—”

A soft rap on their door brought all their heads around. Brody quit talking. They were upstairs eating, the boys done with school for the day, Brody done doctoring. He hadn’t locked the doctor’s office door on purpose. That way, folks could get in to call for help if need be.

He fought back a groan to think he might have a patient. He liked helping people and found that doctoring suited him, but he’d’ve liked some time with his brothers.

Brody hurried downstairs to the door and swung it open. He found Ellie on his doorstep. She didn’t look one bit unhealthy.

She held up a plate, covered with a red-and-white-checkered cloth. “Gretel made gingerbread today. I brought some for you.”

Brody smiled and stepped back. “That sounds delicious. Come in.”

“You would be very welcome to eat at the main house with us anytime you want.” Ellie had a lemon-yellow dress on with white lace at the neck and wrists. It was like letting summertime into the room.

“Give us a little notice,” she went on, “and we’ll make sure there’s plenty. I was told you had a steady stream of patients today. And the boys had school. It’s a wonder you had time to cook.”

“I have coffee, and there’s milk. Will you join us for dessert?”

Ellie smiled and nodded, then Brody led the way upstairs. He looked at his brothers. There was so much more to talk about. He wanted it to be just the three of them, but gingerbread wasn’t to be ignored.

“It sounds like you’ve been really busy,” Ellie said.

“Is your ranch usually so full of people needing a doctor’s care? How have you survived all this time without it?”

Ellie shook her head. “It does seem like you’re overrun. There were a couple of accidents, like the cowhand with the broken arm. We’d’ve had to take him into Dorada Rio. A long, painful ride. I suppose most folks would have just gotten well on their own. But it put their minds at ease to talk to a doctor. And you’ve helped most of them heal faster, I hope.”

Brody hoped so too. “Do no harm.”

Ellie smiled. “That sounds like a good idea.”

Brody looked at Ellie, then at his brothers. “No, that’s an oath I had to take when I became a doctor. It’s more complicated than that, but the basic idea is to help all you can and make sure you don’t make things worse. It comes down to ‘Do No Harm.’”

“The Hippocratic oath.” Lock nodded. “Michelle mentions it sometimes.”

“You’ve mentioned Michelle a whole lot of times. More than Zane.”

Lock said, “She’s the smartest woman who ever lived.”

Thayne shook his head. “Nope, she’s got two sisters. The three of them are the smartest women who ever lived.”

Brody thought that was a little rude. “Not smarter than Ellie and Annie, your teachers.”

Ellie waved off his defense of her. “I’m bright enough, though teaching isn’t really my gift.”

“It’s really not.” Lock shook his head.

Shocked, Brody said, “You apologize to Ellie.”

With a wave of her hand, Ellie said, “It’s the simple truth. I have a strange effect on children. I seem to stir them up instead of settling them down. I’ve often wondered if the children don’t actually get stupider when I’m working with them.”

“Now, Ellie.”

“It’s not my gift, nor my calling, Brody. I need to find a higher purpose for my life that also suits my skills—except I don’t yet know what those are. Michelle assures me I have them, but even she can’t quite discover them. Watching Michelle arrange the school to discover the children’s talents and develop them has made me accept that each child has a gift. Not having a teacher’s skill doesn’t make me unintelligent, so Lock isn’t insulting me. But Michelle and her sister Jilly, they are a wonder. Jilly has a strange quirk to her memory—she can remember everything she’s ever learned. It’s amazing.

“She’s an engineer who helped build a railroad up a mountainside that they use to haul lumber. She helps us when we’ve got a construction project. She built this doctor’s office and the school. They’ve got another sister, Laura. She’s never lived here on the ranch since I came home from going to school in San Francisco, but they say she’s studied chemicals and has a particular talent working with dynamite. They came here with a mission group, who lived with a poor community on the far end of the ranch until the community broke apart. Afterward the mission group settled here on the ranch. Harriet is one of them.”

“The lady I talked with about her coming baby?”

“Yes, and Sally Jo, whose baby you delivered that first night. Gretel’s the one who made the gingerbread. Wait until you taste her apple strudel! And she makes a Bavarian cream pie to make the angels weep.”

“Well, this gingerbread is excellent.”

His brothers had wolfed theirs down, which was testimony to its fine taste.

“Tell Gretel thank you for us. And thank you for bringing it over here. I’m sure you’ve had a long day, too. I look forward to meeting Michelle and her sisters.”

“Now, what can I—?”

“Doc, come quick. Harriet’s gone into labor!” The man’s voice reached them before he’d made it to the door.

Brody sprang into action. It was instinct at this point. He grabbed his doctor’s bag and said, “Boys, the journal is under my pillow if you want to stay and study it.”

“We can come along if you want. You may need our help.” Thayne was out of his chair, Lock only a pace behind.

“I’m coming too, Brody. Harriet might appreciate a woman being close by, and I loved helping with Sally Jo.”

They were all thundering down the steps before the frantic husband could come up.

Bo Sears looked scared to death, just like most every father Brody had ever seen, especially first-time fathers.

They all raced after him.