by Nerys Leigh
“What do you hear?” he said.
“Nothing.”
“Exactly. No people.” Watching her with her eyes closed and her face tilted up towards him, the urge to kiss her was so strong he had to push his hands into his pockets to stop himself from drawing her into his arms. “Now tell me what you do hear.”
She frowned a little before a slow smile blossomed on her face. “Birds. And something small rustling in the undergrowth. And the wind in the trees. It’s so peaceful.”
The wind in the trees. Now he was listening to it too, and there was something unusual about it. “You hear that?”
She opened her eyes. “What?”
“There’s an open space ahead of us. Hear how the sound of the wind changes?”
She nodded her head then shook it. “No.”
Smiling, he resumed walking. “Come on, let’s see what’s up ahead.”
A couple of minutes later they came to a halt again, this time because they couldn’t go any farther. At least fifty feet of sheer cliff face lay across their path.
She peered over the edge. “How are we going to get down?”
He looked ahead of them, and his heart leaped. “Phoebe, look.”
At this height he could see a fair distance ahead of them. The tree canopy thinned some way away, and beyond that…
“Smoke,” she said, wonder in her voice. “There’s smoke! That means there are people!”
Laughing, he picked her up and spun her around. “We’ll be back before supper.”
She groaned. “Food. Not that I haven’t enjoyed the berries and plants, but I’m dying for a potato.”
“And meat. I’m going to find the biggest steak in Black Hawk.” He was salivating now.
“And cake.” she added.
He lowered her to the ground. “Oh yes, there has to be some kind of cake.”
She gazed up at him. “You saved us.”
“We saved each other.”
He hadn’t let go of her waist. She was so close. If he just leaned forward a little…
She turned back to the cliff edge. “How are we going to get down here, though?”
Swallowing, he indicated to their left. “We’ll have to follow it until we find a place to climb down. We’ll be going more or less in that direction anyway.” He held out his elbow. “Shall we, Mrs. Hays?”
She slipped her hand around it without even hesitating. “We shall, Jonah.”
Chapter Seventeen
They followed the line of the bluff for around an hour before the ground started to slope downwards.
Eventually it joined the ground below, and there they found something that encouraged them even further – a road. Well, it was more of a track than a road, but Jonah took it as a sign they were going in the right direction. It also made travel easier, not having to pick their way through undergrowth and over rocks and fallen trees and branches. Not that there were many trees here. The deforesting of the area surrounding the mines was more in evidence the farther they walked, and soon all that was left were flattened stumps and the skeletons of fallen branches decaying in the gray-brown soil.
A suspicion was growing in the back of Jonah’s mind, one that tempered his joy at having survived their ordeal. His uneasiness was confirmed when they finally came within sight of distant chimney stacks and buildings and heard the incessant pounding of a stamp mill.
“It’s the Deep Rift Mine,” he said, coming to a halt.
Phoebe stopped beside him. “Are you sure? There are lots of other mines around here. It could be any one of them.”
“I’m sure.” He pointed out a particularly tall chimney. “I recognize the buildings.”
If they kept on the road, they’d be walking right back into danger. And yet he was considering doing exactly that.
“Can we go around it?”
“Maybe.”
She looked up at him. “What is it?”
Her question made him smile. They’d gotten to know each other well over the past few days, and especially the last two while fighting for their lives. She recognized when he was thinking about doing something reckless.
“If Brewer hasn’t already run, he will soon. We don’t know if anyone is working for him in town. The moment we get back, they could tip him off and we might lose him.”
Now they were so close, the drive to bring Brewer to justice was almost overwhelming. This was why Jonah had become an agent, to stop the people who thought themselves above the law. Brewer needed to pay for what he’d done to them and Ralph Baker.
She frowned. “So what do you want to do?”
Something stupid. “We’ll circle around the mine to the road into town, then I’ll need you to go fetch the marshal.”
Her frown deepened. “And what are you going to do?”
He braced himself for an argument. “I’m going to make sure Brewer doesn’t get away.”
She was silent for just long enough to make him wonder if she might simply obey him.
He should have known better.
“By yourself? You’re going to go into the mine and stop him by yourself?”
“I…”
She threw her hands into the air. “Are you out of your mind? We don’t know how many men in that place are working for him. They’ll kill you!”
“Not…”
“If you think I’m going to run off while you risk your life, you don’t know me at all.”
“But…”
“Either we both go back to Black Hawk or we both go to the mine. Pick one.” She folded her arms and glared at him.
He suddenly wanted to kiss her so badly it was all he could do to stop himself from grabbing her right then and there. “I’m not putting you in any more danger.”
“Fine, then we’ll go back to town.”
“But I don’t want to risk Brewer escaping.”
“Fine, then we’ll go to the mine.”
He huffed out a breath. “Is there any chance you will do what I tell you to?”
“None whatsoever.”
There were times when she made him want to scream. The strange thing was, it didn’t make him like her any less. In fact, he might have liked her even more because of it. What was happening to him?
“All right,” he said, “we’ll get as close as we can and see what we can see. Brewer might even have run already. If he’s still there, we’ll decide what to do then.”
She unfolded her arms. “I knew you could be reasonable.”
He started walking again. “But you’re not going in. It’s too dangerous.”
She took her place at his side. “May I remind you that I saved you from a bear?”
“No, you may not.”
~ ~ ~
Despite there being not one single tree or bush in the vicinity of the Deep Rift Mine, thanks to the hilly terrain studded with towering heaps of waste rock, they were able to circle the area out of sight.
They made their way to the road that came up from Black Hawk and stopped in the shelter of a huge rock formation, the same one where Phoebe had waited with their horses while Jonah went in to find Fletcher.
He counted the days since then. Had it really only been four? So much had happened since, not just to them but also to him and his feelings for his wife.
He couldn’t lose her.
“You could…” he began.
“Don’t even say it,” was her reply, as he’d known it would be.
He looked up towards the mine. It would be so convenient if Brewer appeared at that moment, alone and unarmed, where they could grab him.
The road remained resolutely empty.
“Let’s…” He stopped. Was that movement he’d spotted?
As he watched, a head of red hair popped up from behind a rock close to the entrance to the mine’s complex of buildings. It looked around for a few seconds then lowered again.
Phoebe was staring at the same spot he was. “Is that…?”
“Yup.”
In unspoken
agreement, they started towards the figure they’d seen, keeping to the cover at the side of the road. They reached the rock and stopped.
Jonah looked around. “Where is he?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Hays?” James emerged from behind another rock a little way away. His young face broke into a grin. “You’re back! Where have you been? I was real worried.”
“It’s a long story,” Jonah replied. “What are you doing here?”
James glanced around and beckoned them into the shadow of the boulder he stood behind. “When I didn’t see you in town yesterday, I went to the Bowens to ask if you’d left. Mrs. Bowen said you hadn’t returned the night before, so I figured something was wrong. I went to see Marshal Sanderson and he came up here, but he couldn’t find any sign of you and Mr. Brewer claimed he hadn’t seen you.”
“He was lying,” Phoebe said.
“I figured he was. The marshal said if you didn’t turn up by this evening, he’d send out search parties for you tomorrow. But I couldn’t wait that long, so last night I sent a telegram to the Pinkerton agency in Denver to tell them you were missing, and today I came up here to watch the mine and see if I could find you.”
Jonah was impressed. The kid had mettle. He could almost excuse the whole calling him sixty thing. “Kid, you did well.”
The grin on James’ face looked in danger of splitting his cheeks in half.
“Could you help us some more?” Phoebe asked.
“Anything.”
Jonah knew what she was about to say. He opened his mouth to stop her. “Phoe…”
“Could you go back to town and tell the marshal that Brewer tried to have us killed and his men abandoned us up in the mountains?”
James’ eyes grew round. “Really?”
“Tell him we think Brewer has been embezzling from the mine and is going to run, and we’re going to stop him. But Marshal Sanderson needs to get here as quickly as he can with his deputies. How fast can you get back?”
“Oh, real fast.” He disappeared behind the rock and returned wheeling a bicycle. “I borrowed my friend’s boneshaker to get up here.”
Jonah hoped the kid didn’t injure himself riding back to town on the unstable contraption. He’d tried one once, for long enough to know that he much preferred horses.
Phoebe touched the boy’s shoulder. “Thank you, James. You’ll likely save our lives.”
“I won’t let you down.” He moved his boneshaker to the road to mount, then he glanced back at them. “By the way, that telegram cost fifty-eight cents.”
She laughed. “We’ll pay you back when we have some money.”
He nodded, gave them a sloppy salute, and launched himself down the road.
Jonah winced when he wobbled, but then he straightened out and took off surprisingly fast.
When he was out of sight, Jonah turned to Phoebe. “You were just waiting for an excuse to not have to go fetch the marshal yourself, weren’t you?”
“No, because I wasn’t ever going to leave you to fetch the marshal.” She patted his arm. “Do try to keep up.”
~ ~ ~
While circling the edge of the property without being seen was relatively easy, getting close enough to grab Brewer wasn’t.
They eventually found a place where they could approach via a small gully that brought them close to the long, low buildings housing the men who worked in the mine. Unfortunately, that was nowhere near Brewer’s office.
“We’re not going to see anything from here,” Jonah said, running a hand over his head in frustration. He grimaced at the feel of his dirty, tangled hair. The first thing he was going to do when this was all over was have a bath.
Phoebe’s gaze was fixed on the nearest buildings. “We need to go in further.”
“No. Absolutely not. No.” He wasn’t letting her anywhere near the men who had almost killed them.
“We could…”
“No.”
“…go in…”
“No.”
“…disguise.”
“N…” He stopped. “Disguise?”
She pointed to a line of laundry stretched between two of the bunkhouses, blowing in the breeze.
He opened his mouth and closed it again. It was a pretty good idea. He’d have said yes in an instant, if he hadn’t been terrified for her safety.
But there was no doubt she was going to go in, whatever he said. It was probably better this way.
“All right. Wait here.”
Without waiting for her reply, he crouch-ran across the patch of open ground to the nearest bunkhouse and peered around the corner. Seeing no one, he scanned the line of laundry, identified the smallest items of clothing he could see, and headed out to get them, checking through the windows of the nearest huts to make sure he wasn’t being watched. He wasn’t, but he did see something interesting.
Two minutes later he returned with pants, a shirt and jacket, a belt and braces he’d pilfered from the bunkhouse, and two wide-brimmed hats.
“I couldn’t find any weapons,” he said as he handed over everything but one of the hats.
She placed the clothes onto a nearby tree stump and reached back to unbutton her dress.
He rapidly turned away. It seemed they’d come a long way since that first night when she didn’t even want him in the same room when she changed.
“Would you help me?” she said. “I can do it myself, but it will be quicker if you do.”
His mouth was suddenly drier than Nevada. “Um, sure.”
The line of tiny buttons running down the back of her dress confounded his suddenly clumsy fingers.
“Thank you,” she said, when he reached the small of her back what felt like an hour later. “I can manage now.”
He smiled awkwardly, even though she had her back to him, and turned away again. For the next minute or so he tried to ignore the rustling of clothes behind him. All he’d seen when he unbuttoned her dress was the top of her undergarments and the skin of her upper back, but the sight nevertheless seemed to be tattooed onto his eyeballs.
“How do I look?”
Holding his breath, he ventured a glance back. She smiled and did a twirl.
The pants were too long and big, but she’d turned up the cuffs so they didn’t drape on the ground, and the braces and belt kept them up. The jacket also helped disguise her womanly curves, although it draped too loosely across her shoulders. She’d hidden her hair under the hat which was pulled low.
If no one was paying close attention, and she kept her head down and her distance from everyone, she might just pass as a boy of fifteen or sixteen. Jonah had seen plenty of those working at the mine.
“Walk with your legs a little wider apart,” he said as she moved towards him. “And with more purpose, like you own the path ahead of you.”
She regarded him skeptically. “That’s just weird.”
“I know, but do it anyway. It’s how we walk.”
Shrugging, she backed up and tried again, her gait this time resembling more of a strutting cockerel. It was close enough.
“Now keep your hands in your pockets and your head down. Anyone gets a glimpse of your beautiful face and that’ll be it.”
His stomach dropped. Why had he said that?
She blinked up at him.
A brief moment of panic seized him. Should he acknowledge it? Should he laugh it off? Should he ignore it?
Approaching voices made the choice for him.
She pulled her hat down and stuffed her hands into her pockets as two men rounded the far end of the closest bunkhouse. Jonah jammed his own hat onto his head, tilting the brim low to hide his face. They had no idea how many in the mine were part of Brewer’s nefarious plot.
His heart pounded as he and Phoebe walked towards the men. Was her bearing sufficiently masculine? He didn’t dare look.
The two men barely spared them a glance as they passed, just giving them a nod which Jonah returned.
He breathed out as the two of them disa
ppeared into one of the bunkhouses. Maybe they could pull this off after all.
Phoebe glanced up at him and whispered, “The bear isn’t looking so bad right now, is it?”
Chapter Eighteen
Head down and heart thudding, Phoebe walked across the yard of the Deep Rift Mine.
She tried to concentrate on strutting, or swaggering, or whatever it was she was doing. If this was truly how men walked, she understood them even less than she thought.
Jonah strolled at her side, the hat he’d stolen for himself pulled low over his eyes. He had the walking thing down, but she could tell he was nervous, probably more for her than himself.
All around them, men walked to and fro across the wide yard, heading for the mine tunnel entrance or the mill or another of the various buildings. How many of them were on Brewer’s payroll? None of them had given her and Jonah a second glance, but how long could that last?
They were almost across the yard when she finally allowed herself to hope that they might make it.
Then the door to Brewer’s office opened and Fletcher emerged. Jonah changed direction, nudging her a little to the right to take them past the building.
They rounded the back wall to a deserted area behind the office and Phoebe breathed out.
“What now?” she whispered.
Jonah looked around, his eyes settling on an open window a little way along the wall. Motioning for her to follow, he crept closer.
“…said two more Pinkerton agents arrived in town today, looking for Hays and his wife. I can’t wait any longer. I have to get out now.” It was Brewer who spoke.
“What about us? You promised us we’d be well paid.” She recognized the voice of Gilson, Brewer’s head thug.
“I’ve got the last batch of gold hidden in the explosives hut. I just have to get that and then we’ll go into town and I’ll get you your money. Then we’ll all go our separate ways a lot richer and no one will ever know what happened.”
“I’ll let the others know. You get the gold and we’ll meet at the stables in ten minutes.”
There was the sound of a door opening. No more voices followed, but Phoebe could still hear someone moving about the room.
