Page 22 of Whispers of Fortune (Golden State Treasure Book #1)

T WENTY -T WO

It wasn’t easy getting Lock to cooperate. It helped that he was still addled some from his fall. But even at that, the boy was grumbling the whole ride home.

As the sun lowered in the sky, Ellie said, “I’m going to ride on ahead. I can make sure there’s hot food waiting and Lock’s bed is ready for him. At the rate we’re moving, it’s going to be full dark when we make it home. We won’t eat until the middle of the night.”

Looking at Josh, Ellie offered, “I could send back a wagon.”

“I don’t think that’d save us much time. You go on.”

“Thayne, will you ride along with me?”

“Sure, Miss Ellie. It’s a peaceable place here in California, but I don’t like you riding off alone. I should stay and help with Lock, let you and Josh go, but I’m not sure we MacKenzies know the way home.”

Brody regretted their slow pace. While the trail was plenty wide and well-traveled, there was no way they could ride faster than a walk, what with Lock and his precarious condition.

“Josh, if this trail goes all the way to your place, you can go on ahead, too.” Brody’s stomach twisted to think of being alone out here with the sun going down. Soon it’d disappear altogether. Well, he wasn’t really alone—he had Lock. Then again, he was no help at all.

Ellie looked at Josh, who shook his head. “I’ll stay with you. Sometimes there can be trouble on the trail.”

Brody only had to look at his injured brother, and feel his own aches and pains, to know that was the absolute truth.

“I’ll take a meal over to the doctor’s office so you can get Lock straight to bed.” Ellie and Thayne trotted off, and Brody heard with envy their horses’ hooves change to a thundering gallop as they faded into the distance.

Brody didn’t ride any faster, but Josh, who’d been ahead, slowed until they rode three abreast, Lock in the middle. His head nodded low, and Brody heard a soft snore.

When Lock slumped sideways, Josh’s hand shot out and kept him in the saddle. Brody helped hold Lock in the saddle from the other side.

“Thanks,” said Brody. “I’ve had a grip on him for most of the trip. I hope he’s all right. I probably shouldn’t have moved him, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I think we should have ourselves a talk,” Josh said.

Brody looked across Lock to study Josh. Then, before a scolding could start, he said, “You know I came to your ranch thinking I’d be confronting child-stealing vermin who’d pressed my brothers into forced labor.”

“Like we shanghai children, but instead of selling them to be shipped off somewhere, we make them learn to lasso and brand cattle?”

“Something like that.”

“It only works to shanghai someone if you put them on a boat and set sail across the sea. It’s hard to keep that type of slave labor corralled on a ranch. They can just walk away.”

“You seem to know a lot about being shanghaied.”

Josh chuckled. “Not personally, but I was a sailor for years.”

“You were?” Brody asked. “I figured you’d been here all your life. Grandpa MacKenzie was a sailor before he married Grandma. I’ve often wondered if that was what made him long for adventure.”

“I wasn’t here all my life. I wanted to see the world, so I abandoned my family.”

Brody heard self-disgust in Josh’s words.

“I didn’t come home for two years, and then I stopped by to visit and ran off again. The next time I reached the San Francisco Bay port and came home, I found my parents had both died. My big sister had married, Ellie had gone away to school in San Francisco, and my older brother was running the ranch alone. My whole family had been blasted apart. Zane was living alone in the big house. He was lonely and wanted me to stay. But I claimed the sea was my home now, my first and only love. As soon as we shoved off from port, I knew then I’d let grief push me away. I regretted it from the moment we set out. I was two years gone again.”

“You’ve sailed on a lot of journeys,” said Brody.

Josh nodded. “I’ve been to Europe, India, New York a few times. When I finally came home again, I planned to stay for good.” He gave a quiet laugh. “The family had changed just as radically as before. Annie was a widow and a mother, and I’d barely met her husband. Ellie had come home from San Francisco with a broken heart.”

“What?”

“And Zane was a married man. He and his wife, along with his sister-in-law and four missionaries, were all crowded into the house.”

“Go back to Ellie.”

Josh plowed on. He had a glint of amusement in his eyes. He knew what he’d said would goad Brody. “There was barely room for me. Then Jilly started building all those houses we have on the ranch.”

“Who’s Jilly again?”

“The sister-in-law who’d helped build a railroad as well as the houses.”

“Right. She’s the sister-in-law with the strange memory.” Brody had precious little interest in all of this—except for the part about Ellie.

“That’s right.”

“So who broke Ellie’s heart?”

“Then Michelle found gold.”

“What?”

“We could talk all night if I told you all that had gone on around here.”

“Do you think the gold was MacKenzie’s Treasure?”

Josh paused. His forehead furrowed. “That never occurred to me. It was nowhere near that green pool. In fact, there’s no pool anywhere in those part.” Then Josh must’ve decided to quit tormenting him. “As for Ellie’s broken heart, she was engaged to a rich, influential man who kept a mistress ... while he was betrothed to my sister. A cheat and a liar. She came home heartbroken and bitter, with a dim view of love.”

Brody suddenly felt the need to find this fool who’d had someone as precious, brilliant, beautiful, and kind as Ellie Hart willing to marry him, and yet he’d wanted another woman. Brody wanted to thump the man.

“You treat my sister right,” Josh added, “or you won’t live to take your treasure home. I’ll bury you somewhere on the Two Harts where no one will ever find you.”

“Is that where the former fiancé is? Buried on your land somewhere?” Brody sincerely hoped so.

“No, but Zane pounded him into the dirt, and the fool’s father cut him off and tossed him out of the house.”

“That’s not enough,” Brody said, “but it’s close.”

“I missed my chance with Loyal Kelton. Well, I won’t miss it with you.”

Brody stuck out his hand and reached across Lock. “Fair enough.”

Josh gave a wry smile as he shook Brody’s hand firmly.

“As you know, I’ve a debt to repay back in Boston. I have no wish to hurt Ellie.” Brody thought of his ma and how her own heart had been broken when Pa abandoned her. He’d finally come back, and she’d forgiven him enough that they’d had two more sons together. After that he went and abandoned her again.

“If I think I deserve it,” said Brody, “I’ll dig the hole myself before you bury me in it. Save you some work.”

Josh nodded, and then the two of them went back to keeping Lock in the saddle while making their way slowly home.