VIOLET AWOKE EARLY THE next morning and was surprised to see that she was alone in the cabin. Dressing quickly, she opened the door to let in more light and was even more surprised to find Morgan sleeping on the porch again. It couldn’t be comfortable, and she had her screen now. But after last night, maybe it was a good thing he had. Her charm offensive had certainly backfired. He’d ended up charming her!
What a fun night it had turned out to be, one she wasn’t likely to ever forget. Surely it had left him in a good mood, too. “Did you intend to sleep this late?” she asked loud enough to wake him.
He stirred, mumbled something as he stood, then walked into the cabin to start breakfast. She didn’t consider that mumble a setback, merely an expression of annoyance that he wasn’t the first one awake as usual. She expected him to tell her any moment now that he accepted her partnership proposal. He did realize she was still waiting for his answer, didn’t he?
But he didn’t get around to mentioning it while they ate. When he started to walk out the door still without addressing the issue, she was done waiting. “What’s your answer to the proposals I presented the other day?”
He turned, leaned casually against the doorframe, and asked, “Do you still want to borrow three thousand, or do you want to subtract the eighteen hundred from it and just borrow twelve hundred instead?”
He was going to give her the loan! She was thrilled and couldn’t help beaming at him before she answered, “My brothers have other creditors they need to pay. Daniel was even detained by one of them at the train station the day we were to come here together. I don’t want to take any chances that they might come up short and not be able to pay off the house loan completely. I’d still like them to get another three thousand.”
“Then I’ll send it.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“But—”
“No buts. I said I’ll see they get it. You know, you’re pretty good at saying please when you want something, but you’re lousy at saying thank you when you get it. You might want to think on that before you yell at me anymore.”
He left. She ran to the door to yell, “Thank you!”
“You ain’t welcome, Mitchell,” he growled back.
She sighed and watched him remove his shirt before he disappeared into his mine. What the deuce had just happened? He’d made her sound so ungrateful, which wasn’t the case at all. And then she realized, he still hadn’t answered her completely. He was lending her and her brothers the money, which implied he agreed to let her brothers come here and work to pay him back. But he hadn’t said anything about forming a real partnership with them. She couldn’t press him about it now when she’d somehow annoyed him again.
She’d meant to borrow Carla for the day, but decided against it. She couldn’t just take the mule without asking, and she’d already asked Morgan for too much. She would just walk faster today. She was determined to try to reach the next gorge on the south slope, if it was actually reachable in a day.
A few hundred yards beyond the now empty wolf hole, the slopes got a little too steep for her to traverse easily. But she hadn’t searched down this side section yet because, like the path up to Morgan’s camp, it was too thick with trees, and she’d gotten frustrated with her last attempt to search around the pines. But it occurred to her that her father might have considered the forest an ideal hiding place because the pine needles would have completely covered any hole he’d dug, and even he wouldn’t be able to find his own money again without marking the tree near it.
Excited by her new idea, but daunted by how big this forest was, she gathered up a bunch of loose rocks and made a little pile of them before she started straight down the slope, picking up pinecones on the ground and making another mound about two hundred feet down, then another two hundred feet north, marking a square section to search. But by the time she made one sweep back to the top edge of the forest, her legs were getting tired from the climb, so she scratched the idea of making sections and decided to just search the two-hundred-foot-wide area all the way down to the bottom of the forest, then rest before returning to camp for lunch.
Another good idea—or it would have been if she hadn’t seen the man leading a horse through the trees toward her. He wore a wide-brimmed hat, a gun belt, and a vest over a blue shirt. Was he a cowboy? He didn’t look like a miner. She ducked behind the nearest pine tree before he could see her, but the trunk wasn’t as wide as her skirt!
“Lost, missy?” he called out.
What had Morgan said? To shoot any strangers she encountered? But this was just one man, not the two claim jumpers he’d mentioned, and this man might be a lawman out looking for those two thieves. In any case, she couldn’t very well shoot anyone without reason. Morgan should have known she wouldn’t. Still, she raised her Colt to eye level and supported her arm before she stepped around the tree to point the weapon at the stranger.
Now he was maybe only thirty feet away, close enough for her to note his curly brown shoulder-length hair, dark eyes, and mustache. He continued to approach her.
“Stay back,” she warned nervously. “I have a couple partners nearby.”
He reined in. “Careful with that gun. Don’t want to shoot yourself.”
“If I do, the shot will be heard. If I shoot you instead, the shot will be heard. Either way, help will be here in minutes, so why don’t you just head back down the hill, then no one will get hurt.”
“You sure do talk funny, but you’re not being very friendly. I could use some grub if you have a camp close by.”
She didn’t lower the Colt, kept it aimed directly at his chest. If she screamed, would Morgan hear it, as far south as she’d gone? But the man might draw his own gun if she did. Oh, God, a shooting match here in the forest? She started to tremble with fear and gripped her arm and the Colt tighter so he wouldn’t notice.
“I can’t take you there,” she said.
“ ’Cause you’re alone up here?”
“No, I’m not, but my partner doesn’t like visitors. He tends to shoot them on sight.”
He laughed. “I reckon I know who that is. So he’s still here after all this time?”
“Who?”
“The miner. Not surprised he got himself a pretty little gal up here to keep him company—and it took you long enough.”
She didn’t understand what he meant until a gloved hand clamped down over her mouth and the Colt was pulled out of her hand. There were two of them. And now it was too late to scream.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“HAVEN’T SEEN YOU LOOKING like that in a while,” Texas remarked, and dug an extra mug out of his supplies when Morgan came up the cliff slope to his camp. “You trying to make me homesick?”
Morgan fingered his freshly shaven cheeks before he sat on one of the crates Texas used for chairs. “Figured it was time to get back in the habit, since I don’t reckon we’ll be here much longer.”
“What’d she say about the new you?”
“What’s she got to do with it?”
Texas grinned and teased, “After last night, I’d say everything. But she won’t recognize you, that’s for sure. You might even get a scream or two. So make sure she ain’t holding that gun you gave her first.”
Morgan snorted and poured himself some coffee. He wasn’t sure why he’d waited until Violet left camp this morning to shave off his beard and most of his mustache. He wasn’t sure why he’d gotten the urge to anyway. Just because she’d called him shaggy the other day at the river? It was a bad idea he was already regretting, since he anticipated her teasing him about it, thinking he’d done it just for her.
He tried to put that annoying female from his mind and drank from his mug, staring at the panoramic view of the mountain range stretching to the south. “If it wouldn’t have been a pain in the ass making stairs long enough to get to the bottom of the cliff, I might’ve put my cabin up here. Damn fine view you got.”
“As if you’re ever out of the mine long enough to notice a view.”