It was a nice day. The work was so second nature now that I could do it automatically and spend time talking with Cedric. We talked about the future, what we’d do in Westhaven, what we’d name our children with their yet-to-be-determined religious futures. The happy mood evaporated when Elias rode up with a few cronies in tow.
“No ball gown today, huh?” he asked. “From a distance, I wouldn’t even think you’re a woman at all.”
“Do you have the gear?” Cedric asked pointedly.
Elias nodded to one of his men, who threw down a pile of ropes and spikes. “The gold you left didn’t entirely cover it. We’ll be adding it to your account.”
Cedric managed a tight smile. “Of course.”
Elias gestured impatiently. “Well, then, let’s see this fortune you think you’ve found. I don’t have all day.”
We went to the far side of the claim, opposite the river. The sparse vegetation thinned out even more here as the rocky land took hold. Cedric pointed to the base of the outcropping in question. It was no mountain, but it was still high enough to make me uneasy. The jagged, uneven surface was equally disconcerting.
“Sully says this is just what Davis Mitchell had on his claim when he made his big strike,” Cedric said.
Elias squinted up. “Sully? You mean George Sullivan? I’d hardly consider him an expert. He’s been out here a year with no luck.”
“But he knew Davis Mitchell,” Cedric pointed out. “And saw his claim.”
Davis Mitchell was a legendary figure in Hadisen. He’d made a huge fortune in gold and eventually returned to Osfro to live on his earnings. If there was even a remote chance this might yield the same, it had to be investigated.
“And,” added Cedric, “this is the edge of my property. If there’s gold here—”
“Mister Doyle’s property,” corrected Elias. “You only work it.”
Cedric was undaunted. “If there’s gold here, it’s likely part of a vein that runs up through those foothills and into that mountain stretch. Those don’t have any leases, right? Mister Doyle could hire workers directly and wouldn’t have to split it with a claimholder.”
“No end of trouble to mine those mountains,” grumbled Elias. But I could see the gleam in his eyes as he contemplated the possibility. “Fine. Climb that beast, and see what’s up there. Report your findings to me immediately. If there’s anything worthwhile there, Mister Doyle will help make arrangements for a proper extraction when he returns from Cape Triumph. And don’t start spreading rumors until you’re absolutely sure what it’s holding.”
“Of course,” Cedric said, again keeping his tone polite in spite of Elias’s snide tone.
An awkward silence fell between us all, and then Elias said, “Well, aren’t you going to invite us into your home for some refreshment? We came all this way to help you.”
I flinched, remembering that Cedric had an Alanzan diamond on the wall. “It’s so cramped in there,” I said. “Hardly any room between the bed and the stove. I’ll go bring you something and you can enjoy it out here on this beautiful day.”
Elias eyed me askance. “How kind of you. And how fortunate you’re so familiar with the shanty and its bed.”
I smiled sweetly. “I’ll be right back.”
I walked away calmly, like some dutiful young lady serving the menfolk. Once inside Cedric’s shanty, I hastily closed the door and performed a frantic search. I pulled the diamond down and shoved it in a trunk he’d brought from Cape Triumph. It held a pack of Deanzan cards, though they at least were at the bottom of the trunk. I wrapped them in a shirt to make them harder to find and deemed the house safe should anyone come in.
Refreshment options were meager, as Elias no doubt knew. This was a power play. I’d seen canteens on their horses, and he and his men probably had snacks far better than anything we could muster. Cedric’s stove was quirky at best, which was why Mistress Marshall’s food always seemed so indulgent to him. I wrapped up some corn bread that she’d given Cedric and brought it outside with cups and a pitcher of water. The water had come from a good well on the claim, but it had long grown warm in this weather.
Nonetheless, I served it with all the grace and courtesy drilled into us in all of the Glittering Court’s “good hostess” lessons. I even earned a gruff “thanks” from one of Elias’s otherwise silent men. A brief exchange of glances with Cedric told him all he needed to know. It was unlikely that Elias would search the shanty, but nothing obvious would point to the Alanzans.
“You should’ve never had that diamond out,” I told Cedric, once our visitors had left. “This is as bad as the open rituals.”
He pushed sweaty hair out of his face and nodded. “You’re right.”
“Did you just agree with me?”
“I agree with you all the time. You’re an astute and intelligent woman. Smarter than me.”
We both looked up at the stony outcropping. “When are you going up?” I asked.
He leaned down and began sifting through the lines and other gear Elias had brought. “No time like the present.”
“What, now? It’s the hottest part of the day!”
“It’s always hot these days.” He separated out a couple of ropes and some hooks. “I can’t wait to get one of those big storms old Sully’s always talking about.”
I tried to think of some other excuse to delay his climbing up, but there was none. And again, there was always the pressure of time and money weighing upon us.
“Do you even know how to use any of this?” I asked.
He fastened a leather harness around him. “You doubt me?”
“I’ve just seen you ride a horse, that’s all.”
“No need to worry. I’ve researched it. Talked a lot to Sully and the suppliers in town. It’s pretty straightforward.”
I was skeptical, but I couldn’t deny that he seemed pretty competent as he hooked up the various lines and stakes. I handed him a pick and kissed him on the cheek. “Be careful. Don’t leave me a widow before we’re married.”
He grinned by way of answer and began his climb. I knew little of such matters and was impressed with the way he could pierce the rock with stakes and hooks, creating handholds to scale up. The jagged surface I’d worried so much about actually helped along the way, as it provided extra traction.
“You might be good at this after all,” I called up.
“I told you: no need to worry.”
A few clouds had moved in. I was still sweating in the humidity, but at least it cooled me as I waited. The climb didn’t take that long, really, but I watched it with clenched fists, aware of every second until he finally swung himself up onto the wide ledge at the top. He waved down at me, and I exhaled in relief. He unhooked his pick from the harness and stepped inside the crevasse. Losing sight of him made me tense again, especially since I didn’t know how long this part would take. I doubted he’d simply walk into a wall of gold. And how deep did that opening go? Was he entering some cavern that would put him in danger of a rockslide?
A half hour passed before he finally emerged. “Well?” I yelled.
“Catch,” was all he answered back. He tossed something down. The throw was wide, and it landed several feet behind me. I scurried back, searching the ground. A flash in the sunlight caught my eye, and disbelieving, I picked up a gold nugget the size of a cherry. Five times the size of Glen’s pebble. More gold than from a day of us panning together. I ran back to the cliff’s base.
“Are there piles of this laying around?”
He put his hand around his mouth so I could better hear. “No, but it didn’t take that much digging to get it out. I think there’s a huge deposit running through this. To do it right, they’ll want more men and some engineers, I’m sure. But there’s more than enough here to pay out your contract.”
“And will that ‘more’ part also cov
er your Westhaven stake?”
“Definitely.”
“Then get down here so I can kiss you.” My heart drummed with excitement. Without even using a backup team, we could almost certainly get out what we needed in a relatively short term. If the vein was fully excavated properly, Cedric would have rights to everything pulled out, less Warren’s ownership fee. It would not only get us to Westhaven but ensure we didn’t have to move into another shanty. Maybe I could live on love, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to also live with a solid roof over my head.
Cedric’s climb down required some different maneuvers. In theory, it was simpler. He secured a rope in the stone and then swung himself down, gripping the rope with gloved hands as he rappelled over the stony face. It was less work than getting up, but I was constantly aware that a lot depended on his grip. The harness was secured to the rope as well, providing extra security. And despite his outward cockiness, I could see that he was moving very cautiously.
Which was why it was so astonishing when he slipped, suddenly sliding down, with neither hands nor harness holding the rope. I screamed as a brief, terrifying vision flashed through my mind of him crashing to the ground. His hands flailed out, trying to get purchase, and then somehow, amazingly, he managed to stop himself on a piece of rock jutting out about two-thirds of the way down. It was a narrow horizontal ledge that was just barely big enough for his feet to fit if he turned them outward in opposite directions. The rest of his body clung to the cliff’s face, spread eagle.
“Are you okay?” I cried.
“Take Lizzie, and get Sully,” he called back. “You can probably be back in an hour.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not leaving you up there for an hour!” His hold looked tenuous as it was. I didn’t even know if he’d last five minutes.
“Adelaide—”
“Be quiet. I’m smarter than you, remember?”
My tone was harsh, but it was only to cover my own fear. Cedric had fallen far from the rope he’d been on; it was too high up now. He’d placed another, lower rope just before his fall, but he could no longer reach it. I had a few extra pieces of equipment at my feet, most of which didn’t seem to be of use—with a few exceptions.
That last rope he’d placed was just barely too high for me to reach. Picking up two sharp metal stakes, I practiced plunging them into the rock. To my surprise, I had the strength to embed them and get a secure hold. What was more problematic was pulling myself up. The muscles in my upper body just didn’t have the capability to do it with ease. So, I did it with difficulty. I told myself over and over that I only had to go up a few feet. I told myself it was no problem. Most important, I told myself that Cedric’s life depended on it.
“Don’t do anything dangerous,” Cedric said.
“You can’t even see me,” I yelled back.
“Yeah, but I know you.”
With every muscle in my body screaming, I managed to use the stakes to claw my way up enough to reach the rope. I gripped it and was surprised to find it harder to hold on to than the stakes. My hands immediately began to slide, and I yelped in pain as the rope tore at my skin. Using every bit of determination I could muster, I managed to stop my descent and hold on to the rope, bending my body at an angle so that my feet stabilized me on the rock.
I contemplated my next move as a light wind blew strands of hair into my face. I needed to get the rope over to Cedric. If he could reach it, he could climb down safely. Lifting my feet, I hopped to the side, attempting to swing over on the rope. I moved only a little and soon realized the problem. This low on the rope, my weight wasn’t enough to move the line a significant distance. I needed to climb up.
Again, all my muscles were pushed to their limits as I raised one hand over the other. I’d seen laborers in Osfro climb ropes my entire life. I’d had no idea how much work it was. Having skinned-up hands didn’t help either. When I thought I was high enough to swing myself and the rope over more effectively, I told Cedric, “The rope’s coming in on your right. Grab it when you can.”
I then launched off again to the side and, as hoped, I moved the rope significantly closer to Cedric. But still not enough. Another ungainly swing got me within grasping distance.
“I can see it,” he said. “I think I can do it.”
Peering up, I held my breath as I watched him scoot over on that tiny ledge. A few rocks skittered down as he did, and I hoped it would hold him. His hand stretched out and grasped hold of the rope—but now he needed to get the rest of him over. With what sounded like a muttered prayer, he jumped off the ledge, reaching wildly for the rope with his other hand. Once more I had that terrible image of him falling, but he managed to make contact and grip both hands on the line.
The sudden change in weight on the rope made me lose my foothold, and we both swung wildly for several moments. I slid again, doing more damage to my hands, but managed to keep my grip and finally plant my feet on the rock again. Above me, I felt Cedric do the same. Before we could take any comfort in that momentary security, I felt the entire rope shift, jerking me down. I realized what was happening before Cedric spoke.
“The hook on this line wasn’t planted deeply enough to hold us both.”
In an instant, I knew what I needed to do. I had to get off the rope. I began shimmying down it, which was slightly easier than going up but still required great care. When I reached the bottom of the rope, I felt the whole thing shift again, but it continued to hold. I couldn’t reach the spikes I’d used to climb up to the rope. The distance from where I was to the ground wouldn’t kill me, but it would probably hurt. Cedric falling from his height would be much worse.
Without hesitation, I let go of the rope and jumped to the ground. I’d feared I’d break my leg or ankle, but I managed to land in a way so that my hip struck the ground first. It was a jolting, teeth-rattling landing, but at worst, I thought I’d have only a bad bruise on that hip tomorrow. Freed of my weight, the rope held as Cedric quickly scrambled down. He made the same jump I had, and his greater height gave him less distance to cover.
“Are you okay?” he asked, helping me to stand.
“I think so.” But as I spoke, I looked at my hands and winced at what I saw. Broken skin and blood. I’d ignored them in my frantic attempt to come down, but now the pain hit me full force.
Cedric held my hands gently. I could see small cuts and scrapes on him as well. “Oh, Adelaide. You shouldn’t have done that.”
“And leave you up there? No way. What happened? You seemed to be doing so well.”
“I thought so too,” he said, leading me away. The clouds were increasing and growing darker, which seemed fitting given the turn the day had made. When we reached the shanty, he helped me wash and wrap my hands in clean cloths. “Mistress Marshall will have some kind of salve for you. I’ll take you back now.” He began unbuckling the harness and started to toss it aside.
“Wait, let me look,” I said, reaching for it. Cedric might be an amateur at a lot of these frontier tasks, but I knew he hadn’t been careless with the harness or disregarded the directions he’d been given. This mishap wasn’t his doing. I turned the harness over and examined each part, with a feeling of dread in my stomach that intensified when I found what I’d feared. I pointed to a small metal loop. “Look.”
It was one of two that the rope had fed through, wrapping around so that it kept him secured while still letting him move. The loops were made of a single strand that had been bent so the ends met to close the circle. One loop’s ends were brought together tightly, leaving no space between them. But the one I indicated had bent ends that appeared to have been strained to a point where they pulled apart and released the rope.
Cedric leaned forward. “It looks like the ends were never attached properly . . . or they were pried apart.”
We both sat there quietly as those words hung between us. “Maybe it was an acciden
t,” I said at last. “But if it wasn’t . . . why? It’s in their best interest to know what’s in there. Warren’s fortune is at stake too.”
“He’s out of town,” Cedric reminded me. “Maybe this was all Elias’s doing. He’s a petty man. I can see him being vindictive. And he’s never liked us.”
“But this is all speculation,” I said. “Maybe it was an accident.”
“Right. Maybe it was an accident.”
But I knew neither of us believed that. Trust each other, Aiana had said. But no one else.
I pulled out the gold nugget, which I’d tucked into a pocket before my climb. Its glitter was hypnotic. “I don’t think we should wait for Warren to get back to get this gold out.”
“Agreed,” said Cedric. “Tomorrow we’re taking matters into our own hands.”
Chapter 26
We made our plans while riding back to the Marshall place that evening. About two-thirds of the way, we ran into Mister Marshall coming toward us. By that point, the sky was a sickly greenish-gray marked by occasional flashes of lightning jumping between the clouds. The wind rose and fell like someone’s breath, as though the world were waiting for something big to happen.
“I was coming to fetch you if you weren’t already on your way,” Mister Marshall said. “Come on—be quick. This one’s going to be bad.”
The rain had just begun when we reached the cabin. Mister Marshall urged Cedric to stay the night and put Lizzie in the barn with the other restless animals. “You don’t know what these storms are like. I saw a couple when I first came to survey this place. They roll in off the ocean, big swirling beasts that grow and grow, with winds that can flatten houses. They’re worse closer to the water, but we’ll still catch some of it here inland before it breaks up.”
I immediately thought of my friends back at Wisteria Hollow. “Will it hit Cape Triumph? It’s right on the water.”
“Depends on what direction it’s coming in from. Lots of times they’re shielded from the coast. If it does hit—don’t worry. They know what to do.”
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