Deep Trouble

by Mary Connealy

  “Well, did you want me to lie to a man of the cloth?”

  “No, but you could have kept your mouth shut.”

  Shannon narrowed her eyes at Gabe. He didn’t seem all that upset about the wedding, honestly.

  “And you’re the one who said we slept together.” He jabbed a finger at her chest.

  “I did not.”

  “Oh yes, you did. And then,” Gabe-the-Calm went on, “you tried to hire Doba to come along on the trip you planned to take with me—the two of us—traveling on together, completely destroying the story I told about me finding you and returning you to civilization. It sounded like we’d been on the trail together for days.”

  “We had been.”

  “Like we were on a journey we’d planned long in advance, and the only trouble we had on the trail was losing some of our hired hands. It sounded like I was accompanying you on your treasure hunt from the beginning.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Well, you offered Doba a job right smack-dab in front of Parson Ford.”

  She went back to throttling his arm. “I said that before I realized the man is a fanatic.”

  “I don’t think that’s fair. He’s a man of God. Besides, I think the parson would have let us off if Hosteen What’s-His-Name—”

  “Tsosi.” Shannon wished she could forget the man’s name. And his wife Hozho. Cranky people, the Tsosis.

  “The way they see it, they found two unmarried people virtually living together right under their noses.”

  “Living together?” Shannon gasped. “That’s only true if the whole state of Arizona counts as a house.”

  “I guess the parson counts it.” Gabe shrugged. He remained oddly calm, which gave Shannon pause.

  “But we can’t get married.” Shannon wanted to throw herself into Gabe’s strong arms and demand he think of a way to prevent… being thrown into his strong arms.

  “Shannon, I’ve thought long and hard about this.”

  “It’s been less than an hour.”

  “And I’ve decided we should get married.”

  “What?” Shannon let go of his arm and grabbed the collar of his shirt. She was going to strangle something more fragile this time.

  “I’ve reached an age where I need to take a wife. I’d like to go along on this adventure with you, but it really isn’t a good idea to proceed without being married.”

  “Why not?”

  “Why do you think?” He sounded upset for the first time.

  “I have no idea.”

  Gabe made a little growling noise in his chest. “I’ll show you why not.”

  He tore her hands off his collar and pulled them around his neck. Then he slid his arms around her waist, yanked her against him, and swooped down to kiss her.

  Far too much time passed before Gabe straightened away from her, smiled, then once again leaned down and stole another kiss, just plain stole it like it was her treasure map all over again—and he was a whole band of outlaws.

  “That’s why.” He spoke against her lips, and a very warm shiver raced up and down her backbone. “I’ve been wanting to do that all day.”

  “You have done it.”

  “Not nearly as often as I wanted to. And that definitely counts as improper. And by the way, the whole idea of improper is when men and women spend long stretches together alone, the woman with her arms wrapped tight around the man’s waist—well, a man can get real improper thoughts in his head. And I might as well admit it. I did.”

  “You did?” Shannon didn’t mean to whisper, but her voice wasn’t working quite right.

  “Oh yes, I did.”

  “I did, too.”

  Gabe kissed her again. “So now I think it’s right. I think you’re the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen, and I like holding you in my arms, and my ma was always after me to pick a woman and settle down. She thought it was the way life was meant to be. So, I’ve decided to marry you.”

  “We don’t know each other, Gabe.” Shannon meant to yell that. Instead, she just sounded like she was begging him to talk her into it. Which… maybe… she was.

  “Well, we can spend the next fifty years fixing that. Let’s go. And since I’m drifting anyway, we’ll drift along hunting for your treasure. When we give up on that—”

  “You mean when we find it.”

  “Okay.” Gabe smiled and slid one finger across her chin dimple, then cupped her face with his hand. “I own a ranch in Wyoming. We’ll go up there and live, run some cattle, raise us a herd of brown-eyed babies. What do you say, huh?” He slid his arm back around her waist and kissed her again.

  Shannon didn’t say yes. But then she was very busy kissing Gabe, which many very reasonable men could take to mean yes.

  The kiss ended when Gabe butted his head into hers.

  “Ouch.” Gabe looked over Shannon’s shoulder just as Parson Ford slapped him again. It was no friendly pat on the back.

  “Enough of this. Now, my foolish children, we will have the wedding.”

  Gabe turned and looked into her eyes until it seemed as if he’d entered her mind and maybe her heart. “Yes, Shannon, it’s time for the wedding. Let’s go. Then we’ll have us a wedding night, and tomorrow we’ll go on our way, wherever you want. Isn’t that your wish?”

  Getting butted in the head served to clear Shannon’s thinking a bit, and she remembered something very important. “Uh, I think I’d better tell you all something before we proceed with the wedding.”

  “What’s that?” Gabe looked at her, really cheerful, the big dope.

  “It changes nothing.” The parson looked as if he could pour brimstone on her head with a single burning look. And was eager to prove it.

  “It really does change things. And I’ll admit I’ve been a bit… distracted.”

  “Distracted by the attentions of Mr. Lasley?” Kai Kinlichee came up beside her and smiled like this was the romance of the century.

  Shannon supposed there was some truth in her being distracted by Gabe. But it wasn’t the biggest truth. “No, distracted by having my life threatened and being left stranded in the wilderness, almost falling off a cliff and being hung from a noose.”

  “What?” Doba asked. The man seemed interested in hearing a good story.

  “Time for talk later,” Parson Ford interrupted.

  “Who hung you?” Kai asked.

  Shannon jabbed a thumb at Gabe, and Kai frowned. “And still you want to marry him?”

  “The thing I need to tell you is I’m engaged to be married.” Shannon swallowed and forced herself, in the pursuit of honesty, to add, “Nearly.”

  Poor Bucky. She’d forgotten.

  “Yes, I’m well aware of that,” Parson Ford said. “Though it’s a short engagement—around an hour long—you are definitely engaged.”

  The parson pulled a small Bible out of his large pocket, and it as good as fell open to the place the man wanted. Or so Shannon assumed because the parson didn’t flip a single page. How many marriages had the man forced on people in his life?

  “No, not to Gabe. I’m actually promised to someone. Back in St. Louis. I really can’t wed anyone else. Bucky is expecting me to come home and marry him.”

  “Bucky is destined to be disappointed.” The parson ran his finger down the page and looked ready to commence.

  “Engaged?” Gabe’s goofy good cheer melted like ice in the Arizona desert. “You’re engaged to another man? Then why did you kiss me?”

  And that was a truly fair question. Shannon turned to face Gabe. He deserved an explanation certainly, the truth. Just because Bucky had completely slipped her mind until this moment didn’t mean he wasn’t her intended.

  For one thing, it was the only way her mother would ever welcome her back to St. Louis. “We are… are… promised to each other. Not engaged.”

  “Then it doesn’t signify.” The parson went back to looking for his place on the page. “Engaged wouldn’t signify either, after you’ve spent the ni
ght with this man.”

  “It signifies to me.” Gabe frowned, glanced at her lips—which seemed somewhat swollen from his kiss—then frowned even more.

  “Yes, it definitely is important, and the truth is, Gabe, I have made promises to another man.” She looked at his stern and clearly disappointed face and almost wished she’d never mentioned Bucky. But her childhood friend deserved better than that. And Shannon had planned on marrying him. Someday.

  When she’d broken her father’s code. And followed her father’s map. And found her father’s gold. And restored her father’s good name. And maybe written a book about her adventures, dedicated to her father. And led an expedition to the golden city to do the research her father had planned.

  But after that, she’d definitely expected to marry Buckstone Chatillon Shaw. In fact, she’d been looking forward to it, after a fashion. Bucky was a nice man, after all. True, she’d never kissed him, unlike Gabe. “So, you can see it would be a betrayal of a previously made promise to marry someone else. I can’t do it.”

  “You can and will.” Parson Ford glared at her.

  She wasn’t an obedient woman by nature. Being the only child of two older parents had given her unusual freedom growing up. No doubt that freedom is what had led her into the wilderness, left her stranded in a mountaintop cave, and led to this moment when it seemed like a good idea to marry a stranger. She decided then and there that her own babies were going to follow a lot of strict rules. “I can’t and won’t.”

  Hosteen Tsosi and his dependably cranky wife, Hozho, came up beside the parson. “We cannot allow a woman of low character to stay here with us. Think of the bad influence to our children. If there is no wedding, she must be cast out of the village.”

  Shannon looked past the old codger and saw sheep being herded up to a watering hole across the lush green valley. Several children ran behind them, and one young woman who did not count as a child, who seemed to have eyes for Gabe.

  Shannon had a wild need to marry Gabe quickly. Which she stifled.

  “Your reputation is in ruins if you don’t go forward with this marriage.” Parson Ford looked at Doba.

  “Shannon,” Gabe’s voice drew Shannon’s gaze away from their surroundings.

  “I’m sorry, Gabe. I never should have…” Shannon glanced at the parson and Doba. Kai and the Tsosis.

  Hosteen made the parson look all soft and sweet by comparison.

  Shannon decided not to mention all the things she shouldn’t have done with Gabe.

  “So, you’re really going to marry some other man?” Gabe sounded hurt. And he had a right to be hurt. She had certainly not acted the part of an engaged woman.

  “I can’t marry you when he’s waiting for me, Gabe. It wouldn’t be honorable.”

  Gabe’s eyes narrowed, and Shannon suspected he didn’t think her kissing him was all that honorable. Then his expression hardened, and all the hurt was gone. Which most likely meant all his softer feelings for her were gone, too.

  Gabe stepped a good solid pace away from Shannon then reached for her arm and turned her to face Parson Ford. “Let me say one thing to you, Parson.”

  “Nothing changes what must be done.” The parson certainly had a way with words.

  “Understand this.” Gabe jabbed a finger right at the parson’s nose. “Shannon Dysart is an honorable woman, and I am an honorable man. No sin passed between us in the hours we spent together. And that time together could not have been avoided. I found her in dire straits in the desert. Yesterday afternoon, when I found her, she was in no condition to travel for long hours over a hard trail. We will not apologize for being together or allow you to call our time together sin.”

  Shannon’s heart swelled at Gabe’s strong defense of her. She didn’t deserve it. She tried to imagine Bucky saying such a thing. Then she tried to imagine what Bucky would say about the time she’d spent with Gabe. She needed to include the truth of all that had passed between them.

  “I saw the way you just kissed her, son.” The parson sounded kind but unrelenting. “If nothing happened between you, then why do you hold each other as if everything has happened between you?”

  “You’re right that circumstances led us to feel some bit of… affection for each other.” Gabe’s expression turned fierce. He leaned forward.

  Shannon was surprised and a bit disconcerted to see the parson back up a half step.

  “But we were in a perilous situation. If we clung to each other, innocently clung to each other for support, I will not have you calling her a sinful woman.” Gabe gave Shannon a hard look then faced the parson, his shoulders square, his chin lifted in defiance. “I will not marry a woman who is promised to another man. If you forbid our presence in your village, so be it.”

  Which meant they were being cast out. Shannon had never been cast out of anywhere before. It reminded her of the devil being cast out of heaven somehow. It pinched.

  “Shannon,” Gabe’s voice was cold, “we need to go.”

  Then to Parson Ford and the Tsosis he said in a voice that cut like a knife, “We will have to ride on to another place. That will require us spending yet more time alone together, and again that is improper, but it can’t be helped since the good people of Doba’s family have judged us to be unworthy of them. But if our travel together is a sin, it is on your heads, because you’ve forced us to make this choice.” He faced down all three men who’d pushed this marriage on them.

  Finally, Doba said, “No harm is done by you staying here another night.”

  “I disagree, Doba.” Hosteen taking that position was no surprise.

  “You’ve made that clear, Hosteen, but I make the decisions here.”

  The old man’s brown, weathered face bent into its deeply etched scowl. His wife’s expression was a perfect match for her husband’s.

  “But your time together is finished.” Doba turned to Gabe. “You will separate immediately. Miss Dysart, go along with my wife.”

  Shannon almost left, but instead she looked at the older Navajo man who had been so harsh. “I understand that you want to hold your family to the highest standards, sir. I do. I am a woman of faith, as is Gabe… except for the part about being a woman, but I digress. Please at least try to believe that we have not sinned.”

  Parson Ford said quietly, “I fear you have most assuredly sinned in your heart, Miss Dysart.”

  Shannon had no response to that, because she suspected the parson might be right. “We will leave immediately in the morning.”

  To Gabe, she added, “Whatever town is closest is fine for you to leave me. I will hope for a place to wire home, and I will have funds forwarded to me to hire more help and continue my journey retracing my father’s steps. We will have time to speak of it more tomorrow, but you saved my life, Gabe. I—I have been so overset these last days. I believe the trauma of the rescue and my gratitude—well, they—I—truly did forget all about Bucky for an unfortunately long time. I ask for your forgiveness, sir.” She rested her hand on Gabe’s forearm and looked at him, now cold and hurt. “Once you offered to go on my treasure hunt with me.”

  “Treasure hunt?” Hosteen’s black eyes opened and gleamed with interest.

  “Yes.” Shannon turned to the man. “I have a map to a… a lost city. We are planning—”

  “Lost city?” Doba smiled. “I know this land. There are no lost cities.”

  “It’s hidden. I’ve got a map that leads into the canyon to the west. I believe I can find it.”

  Turning to Shannon, the old man said, “You speak of needing help to find this lost city, in the belly of the canyon?”

  “Yes, that’s right.

  “No city down there,” Hozho said with complete assurance. “The Supai have a village far to the south. It is in no way lost.”

  “I trust my father. I plan to see where his map leads.”

  Gabe heard the chill in her voice. She wasn’t about to forgive the old couple.

  “And you plan to spe
nd your own money to hire someone to take you down there?” Hozho asked.

  “Yes, I have to get to a town large enough to have money sent. All I had was stolen from me before Gabe came to my rescue.”

  “My wife grew up in the belly of the canyon.” Hosteen turned to his wife. “If they need to hire someone to take them down there, who better than you?”

  “And we can leave tonight.” Hozho caught both her nearly white braids in her hands as if her hair was threatening to stand on end. “Remove their presence from our village.”

  Gabe couldn’t decide if the couple was motivated by greed or piety, or maybe the old lady was homesick.

  “I believe I’ll ride along, Kai,” Doba told his wife, “if you can handle things for a week or two.”

  Gabe didn’t see greed in Doba’s eyes, just a desire for adventure. Of course Shannon had been very careful not to say the word gold.

  “Go with my blessing.” Kai smiled like a wife of many years who was used to her husband’s occasional wandering.

  “And I haven’t been to see my flock in the Supai village for years,” Parson Ford said. “I hate horses. A necessary evil for traveling place to place, but a journey like that, into the canyon…” The parson shuddered. “I’ve shirked for too long. If you’re going that way, I’ll accompany you.” He cast a look of loathing at a horse tied nearby. His expression didn’t suit a man of the cloth.

  Gabe looked at Shannon. She asked,” Do I have to hire all of you?”

  Everyone but Parson Ford nodded.

  “Well, okay.”

  “Let’s gather supplies for the trip,” Hozho said. “We need to be on the trail before the sun sets.”

  Ten

  They didn’t make it out of the settlement.

  Somehow the hunt for the lost city calmed everyone down, and Gabe and Shannon were allowed to stay the night at the settlement. Probably because no one else could get packed up quickly enough. They were well on the trail before the sun rose the next morning, however.

  “There’s the turnoff.” Hozho was leading, and she took off south.