“Just your family.” He freed one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. When he lowered it again, he revealed a small smile. “You really are something else, kitten. Come here.”
She hesitated a moment, but what did it really matter if the gunpowder spontaneously exploded? At least they would go up together, and perhaps take Dev out with them. She perched on his knee and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He anchored her with a strong arm. “Listen, if we live through this…”
She tightened her arms, knowing exactly what he would ask and biting back a yes. Yes, of course she would marry him! But she would let him get the question out first.
He grinned and ran his nose down her cheek. “I could put in a good word for you with Pinkerton. Get you a job using these skills of yours.”
A job? He was proposing a job? The laughter started deep in her stomach and felt like heaven in her throat. She gave it rein and then rewarded him with a sound kiss.
When finally their lips broke apart, he tucked her head to his shoulder and held her close. She felt his sigh building before she heard it ease out. “I don’t know what our odds are here, and I hate that. I want to think we can stop him. I have to think that, have to believe it. I just don’t know what the cost will be.”
The lamp sputtered. Marietta felt for the necklace she had scarcely taken off since Grandmama gave it to her, and found it under the collar of her dress. A legacy, she had called it. Their legacy, not just of the Lanes and Arnauds, but of the Culpers. A legacy of secrets and whispers and spies…a legacy of failures and successes. Of faithfully doing what they could, when they were called to do it, no matter the cost.
She closed her eyes against the dying flame. “I believe, my love, that all our chips are already on the table. The hand has been dealt. There is no point in worrying over which cards might be turned up…we have only to play. And to pray.”
His hand slid into her hair and pulled loose the lace snood, spilling the curls down her back. “Listen to you, using gambling language. Have I mentioned that I love you?”
She breathed in his citrus scent. “Only twice now, which isn’t nearly sufficient. We had better pray hard, because I need to hear it thousands more times.”
“Hmm. Guess we had better do this right then, so I have some time for all those words.”
She smiled into his collar and turned her head into his hand. “I figure it’ll take you years. Decades, even.”
“Probably. And that’s if we’re together more often than we’re apart. So I guess we should get married or something.”
She chuckled and pulled away enough to look him in the eyes, to see the pure love shining there. “What a romantic you are.”
He grinned, though the lamp sputtered again. At his urging, she stood so that he could check its fuel level.
“Is there more?”
“Logically somewhere, but…” He shrugged and headed for the door. When he slid it wide, precious little light came through. Gray clouds blanketed the sky. “Looks like rain in the mountains.”
“Good. That should make it more difficult for him to move this to wherever he’s going to hide it.” She came to his side, gripping his hand as she watched the fields roll into hills. “We could dump it out along the way.”
“Tossing all those weapons and powder into the hands of strangers? Not wise.”
“Have you a plan, then?”
“Not yet. None of them felt right. But that was when you were in there with him.” Turning away from the door, he sat on a crate, pulled out his revolver, and set it beside him. “You know how to use this?”
Able only to nod, she sat too, on the other side of the weapon. “If necessary.”
“I’m hoping it won’t be, but let’s be cautious. He doesn’t know I’m here, and he won’t expect you to be armed when he comes back for you. Two advantages to us. But right now, let’s focus on the most important one.”
He extended his hand, palm up, and closed his eyes. Marietta put her fingers in his, bowed her head, and turned her heart to prayer.
Thirty-Three
With the mountains came darkness, more from the moaning clouds than the descent of the sun. Thunder had been rolling for the past twenty minutes, and flashes of lightning danced around the hilltops.
Marietta scooted closer and closer to his side, which Slade accepted with nary a complaint. He might only have another hour with her, so he would savor every moment.
“How long until we get there, do you think?” Her words were muffled against his chest.
Slade smiled and coiled another scarlet strand around his finger. “I’m not sure. We haven’t been stopping the way passenger trains do.”