by Nerys Leigh
Her soft laughter sent a pleasant warmth radiating through his chest. He loved to hear her laugh.
“Could you try to turn again?” she said. “I think I could do it if I know it’s coming.”
“All right. After three. One… two… three.”
He led her in a turn again and this time she followed the movement, turning with him.
“Am I really dancing?” she said in a soft voice once they’d straightened out.
“You sure are.”
Her response was barely loud enough to hear as she lowered her gaze. “Thank you.”
At the hitch in her voice, he moved his fingers to her chin to raise her face.
Tears glittered on her cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” Had he pushed her too far? Forced her to do something she didn’t want to?
She sniffed and shook her head. “Nothing. It’s just that I used to watch people dancing when I was in… when I was younger. I used to wish so badly that I could be one of them. I’m just happy I finally get to be.”
His heart aching, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. She rested her head against his chest and he kissed the top of her head.
“From now on we’re going to dance every day, whether there’s music or not. You’ve got a lifetime of not dancing to make up for.”
She didn’t reply, but she did slide her arms around his waist and hold onto him tight.
And those pesky rest of his life thoughts came creeping back.
Chapter Eleven
When Kitty awoke the next morning she was a little disappointed to see Ben standing with his back to her, his shirt on.
And then he shrugged the shirt off his left shoulder, looked back at her, and waggled his eyebrows. Turning away again, he repeated the move over his right shoulder.
She covered her giggles with the blanket as he shimmied the shirt down his arms. And then he spun round with a flourish to reveal his bare torso and she erupted into full-blown laughter.
When he began strutting back and forth with his chest puffed out like a proud cockerel, she took a paperback book from her bag and threw it at him. Her boldness shocked her. A week ago, she would never have even considered such a thing.
Grinning, he grabbed the book out of the air and strolled over to crouch in front of her. “Good morning, Kitten.”
The kiss to her forehead had become usual now, but it still sent little tingles through her skin. If anything, those tingles were stronger now, and she knew it was because her feelings for him were growing.
He placed the book on the bed beside her and nodded to the bucket on the table. “I fetched the water before you woke. I’ll wait outside while you get ready. Call me when you’re done.”
She watched him carry his book and one of the chairs out, releasing a soft sigh when he was gone. Until she met Ben, she’d never liked waking up. Now it was her favorite part of the day.
She washed and dressed quickly and found him reading outside. “I’m ready.”
He carried the chair back in and set it back by the table. Then he walked over to her and, to her surprise, placed his right hand on her waist and held up his left. “I promised we’d be dancing every day from now on.”
Oh. Feeling as if she could hardly breathe, she rested her hand in his.
“I’m going to teach you to waltz,” he said. “Lately it’s been losing popularity, but I like it. It’s elegant.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “And when it first appeared, people were scandalized at how intimate it was.”
She had to swallow before replying. “They, um, they were?”
“Mm hmm. Back then, men and women barely touched each other when they danced. With the waltz, they were constantly in contact, facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes.” He held her gaze with a seductive smile that shivered all the way to her toes.
She was having trouble concentrating. “That’s, um, interesting.”
“Isn’t it though? Are you ready?”
Not sure she’d ever been more ready for anything in her life, she whispered, “Yes.”
~ ~ ~
Waltzing turned out to be a lot more complicated than what they’d done the previous evening, but by the end of the twenty minutes they spent dancing in their tent, Kitty was fairly sure she’d got the hang of the basic movements.
Ben promised her they’d dance more that evening and she was looking forward to the scandalous, intimate aspects that would emerge once she wasn’t constantly looking down at his feet.
Following breakfast, they headed back to the abandoned mine to look for clues as to where the skull might have been moved, or perhaps evidence of someone returning to look for the brass insignia that Ben had hidden in their tent. But all they found were the same tracks they’d seen the day before inside the mine. After hours of searching further up into the mountains and back down the trail, they headed back to the camp, tired and discouraged.
At least they’d managed to hang onto their horse this time.
“It’s like it’s just vanished,” Kitty said as they rode. “If Mr. Hall, or whoever stole it, took it up to hide in the mine, where is it? There’s nowhere else up there to hide it. At least, nowhere they could get to with a two hundred pound crate.”
Ben spoke behind her. “We can assume they took it to the mine to hide when they stole it. We can also assume they moved it after we got here, maybe because they were afraid we’d somehow find it there. But they’d need somewhere dry to keep it, and we only found that cave and they hadn’t been in there.”
She sighed. “Is investigating always this frustrating?”
“Not always, but sometimes, yes.” He released the rein with one hand and rubbed her arm. “We’ll get some food when we get back. We’ll feel better once we’ve eaten. I always think better on a full stomach.”
They’d missed lunch by the time they arrived back at the camp, but they got sandwiches from the kitchen and headed back to their tent to eat.
When they arrived, something unexpected waited for them.
“Did you leave this here?” Kitty said, spotting the folded piece of paper on the table the moment she walked in.
Her first thought was of the romantic notes she’d heard courting couples exchanged, but she dismissed that idea immediately. Much as she wished it were otherwise, she and Ben weren’t courting.
He walked past her and picked up the piece of paper. “No.” His brows drew together as he read. “Hmm.”
“What is it?”
He handed her the note to read for herself.
I have information on the theft of the Trachodon skull, but I do not want to risk telling you here. Meet me at 6.00 in the gully half a mile south east of the camp, the one with the two narrowleaf cottonwood trees at the entrance. I will be by the waterfall.
Please do not tell anyone. Our lives could be in danger.
She turned the paper over, but there was nothing else, including no hint as to who had left it for them.
“Hmm,” she said, unintentionally echoing Ben’s reaction. “It seems a bit overly dramatic. Why would our lives be in danger over a stolen skull?”
He checked his pocket watch. “It’s four now. If I leave at five, that will give me time to check the area and…”
She grasped his arm. “What do you mean, if you leave at five?”
“We don’t know who left this here. It could be a trap.” He pushed the watch back into his pocket. “I don’t want you there with me if something goes wrong.”
She disagreed, and for once in her life she wasn’t going to keep quiet about it. “Are you saying that as a Pinkerton agent I’ll never have to face unknown and possibly dangerous situations?”
“No, but…”
“So why are you leaving me here so you can face it alone?”
“I’m not…”
“Is it because I’m a woman?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“Then it’s because I’m me, isn’t it? You don’t think
I’m strong enough to cope with whatever happens.”
“I never said…”
“Because if that’s what you think, why am I even here? If you’re going to tell Mr. Gordon that I can’t do the job anyway, why don’t we just go home right now?”
“Will you let me get a word in edgewise?”
It was the first time anyone had ever said that to her, but then this was the first time she’d ever intentionally and forcefully asserted herself. That was progress, at least.
She stared up at him, waiting for him to continue.
Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Wanting to go alone has nothing to do with your abilities and everything to do with not wanting you to be in danger. I haven’t even taught you how to handle a gun yet.”
“It’s a missing skull. Do you really think anyone’s going to try to harm us over it?”
“I don’t know. People do strange things sometimes.”
The way he had an answer for everything could be so frustrating.
She decided to try a different approach. “What if this person is telling the truth and someone else is the danger? You’d be leaving me alone and defenseless.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You are far too clever for your own good.”
“So I can go?”
He huffed out a breath. “All right, you can come. But if anything goes wrong, you run. Don’t wait for me.”
She nodded, smiling. This was part of why she’d applied to become a Pinkerton agent, to face up to her fears and become a stronger person.
Now if she could just get her nerves to calm down, she’d be ready to do that.
~ ~ ~
The gully mentioned in the note was easy to find, but checking the area before they ventured in wasn’t.
The entrance was almost hidden by the two large cottonwoods and a cluster of shrubby undergrowth. A small, shallow stream burbled around moss-covered rocks from the mouth of the gully, wending its way to join the river half a mile away.
Ben stared up at the sheer cliffs either side of the entrance that prevented them from getting up to the top. “I don’t like this.”
Kitty stood beside one of the trees, peering through the undergrowth into the gully. “I can’t see a waterfall. I think I can hear it though. It’s hard to tell. There’s an outcrop of rock and I can’t see past it.”
He walked forward to join her. “I don’t think we should go in there.”
She spun to face him. “What? No! We’re here now; we can’t turn back. Someone could be in there who can help us find the thief.”
“And the thief could be in there, waiting to stop us.” He didn’t say and possibly waiting to kill them, but it was what he meant.
“Would you go in there if I wasn’t here?”
And there it was. If he’d been alone, he’d have gone in without hesitation. But risking Kitty’s safety gave him palpitations. “It’s not a question of what I’d do if you weren’t here. You are here.”
Her response was to plant her hands on her hips and stare at him defiantly. Given the circumstances, he shouldn’t have liked seeing her stand up to him as much as he did.
“Stop looking at me like that. I’m the training agent here. What I say goes.”
“And what about afterwards, when you’re no longer my training agent and I’m out by myself and have no experience of what to do in situations that could be dangerous because you wouldn’t let me do anything? What about then?”
Groaning, he rubbed his hands down his face. How was it possible to be annoyed at someone and want to hug them at the same time?
But maybe he was annoyed because he knew she was right, and because the thought of her working cases on her own terrified him.
“Fine, we’ll go in there,” he finally said. “But if anything happens…”
“Run, I know.” She grinned without even covering her mouth.
He couldn’t help smiling in return, although he was still uneasy about taking her with him. He’d never met anyone who could make him both happy and scared at once the way she could.
The gully floor was strewn with rocks and they had to pick their way carefully towards the sound of a tumbling waterfall somewhere ahead of them. Out in the valley, the Utah sun quickly dried rain and dew, but in the protected recesses of the cliffs either side of them, the heat failed to make any impact on the moisture-slick rock.
Ben glanced back to see Kitty walking behind him, apparently more sure-footed than he was as she looked around her. At least if she had to run she would probably be able to.
Reaching the rock outcropping, he waved her back and drew his revolver as he edged to the end and peered around.
Beyond, the gully continued, narrowing until it was little more than a crevice. Fifty feet ahead of them stood a five foot high shelf of rock over which the stream tumbled. It was the only waterfall to which the note could have referred, but there was no one in sight.
He moved around the outcrop and made his way forward, alert for any movement. But the place was deserted.
His watch showed the time as twenty minutes past six. “Maybe he isn’t here yet.”
Kitty’s gaze fixed on something by the waterfall. “Or maybe he’s been and gone.”
She walked past him to a piece of paper lying on a rock at the foot of the rocky shelf, weighed down by a large pebble. As she unfolded it, he glanced around, his hand resting on the gun at his waist. Something was distinctly wrong about all of this.
“Consider this a warning. Stop looking for the skull or suffer the consequences.” Frowning, she checked both sides of the paper. “That’s all there is. Consider what a warning?”
He shrugged, looking around again. He was getting the feeling they should leave.
“Ben!”
He whirled round as Kitty slammed into him, shoving him back against the cliff face. She disappeared from view as a boulder plummeted from above in a shower of rubble and debris.
He flung his arms over his face, shielding himself from the cascade of dirt as the rock bounced off an overhang above him and crashed to the ground right where he’d been standing only moments before.
His heart slammed into his throat. “Kitty!” Choking out her name, he stumbled through the cloud of dust to where he’d last seen her. If she was hurt, or worse, his life would be over. “Kitty!”
At the sound of coughing, he scrambled over a rocky spur to find her huddled behind it. Such relief flooded him at the sight of her that he felt dizzy.
He grasped her waist and pulled her upright. “Are you hurt?”
She looked up at him, her face covered with grime, and shook her head. “Are you?”
“No, but someone is going to be. Stay here.”
Dodging the debris littering the ground around them, he ran out into the gully, pulling his revolver from its holster. When he was far enough from the cliff to see the top, he looked up,
At first he saw nothing, then movement caught his eye, a figure silhouetted against the bright sky.
Taking aim, he fired. The sound, amplified by the gully walls, slammed into his skull. He saw Kitty press her hands to her ears.
The figure ducked and a second boulder rocked at the top of the cliff.
Ben launched himself forward, reaching Kitty as it fell. He threw his arms around her and pushed her back against the cliff face, shielding her with his body.
The rock landed behind him, sending a shower of rock fragments pinging painfully into the backs of his legs.
He drew his head back to look at Kitty. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Are you?”
“I’m fine.”
She clutched the front of his shirt, her eyes filled with fear. “Please don’t go back out there.”
He wanted to march out and get the man who had tried to hurt her, but instead he pulled her against him and held her tight.
And there they stood, wrapped in each other’s arms, waiting.
At least five minutes passed before he spok
e. “I think he’s gone, but I need to go check.”
“Be careful,” she urged as he released her and walked away from the cliff face.
He scanned the rocks silhouetted against the sky, waiting for any sign of movement.
When he’d seen nothing for a good half minute, he beckoned her out. “We need to get back to the camp, right now.”
She left the shelter of the overhang and looked up at the top of the cliff. “Did you see who it was?”
“No, but I know who it was.”
And he was going to make Edwin Hall pay for putting Kitty in danger.
Chapter Twelve
Even though it was less than a mile back to the camp, Kitty was breathing hard by the time they arrived.
Ben set a swift pace and she’d had to almost run to keep up. By the way he kept glancing back at her, she knew that if she hadn’t been with him, he’d have been sprinting. She considered telling him to go on ahead of her, but she knew he wouldn’t agree to that. Angry as he was, he wouldn’t leave her undefended, especially after what just happened.
On reaching the camp, he went straight to Edwin Hall’s tent. It was empty.
The camp’s cook was passing as they walked out.
Ben stopped him with a palm to his chest.
“Have you seen Hall?”
“I saw him heading for the finds tent earlier. I don’t know if he’s still there though.”
Ben immediately took off in that direction. Kitty followed, now slightly worried about what he would do.
When they reached the finds tent they found Fred Green kneeling on the canvas sheet on the ground, sorting through a mass of small, muddy fossils. Edwin Hall stood by the pile of wooden crates, writing in a ledger.
Ben strode up to him, drew his fist back, and slammed it into his face.
Mr. Hall staggered back against the boxes, dropping the ledger and clapping a hand to his jaw. “What the…?”
Ben grasped his collar and hauled him up. “A warning? Is that what you call trying to kill us?”
Mr. Hall shoved at his chest, sending him shuffling backwards. “What are you talking about?”
