“I have a feeling there’s a lot more to you than that.”
“Well, I was just giving you the Reader’s Digest version.”
“What the deuce is that?”
She grinned. “It’s like a synopsis. The short version as opposed to the long, boring one.”
“I doubt if you could ever be boring, darlin’.”
Silence fell between them. The darkness seemed heavy, overpowering. She shifted her weight and the movement dislodged a trickle of dirt. She felt it against her cheek, reminding her that there were several tons of earth just overhead. She clenched her hands, shivering as fear crawled over her skin again. What if this tunnel collapsed, too? What if they were never found?
“Talk to me, Rio.”
“What about, darlin’?”
“Anything. Anything at all.” She needed the sound of his voice to distract her. He had a beautiful voice, soft and low and sexy, blatantly male. Blatantly intimate. Like black velvet.
Alejandro thought a minute. “I remember my grandmother telling me how light came into the world,” he began. “Long ago, in the time before time, the People lived in the underworld. There was no sun or moon or stars, no light at all, except the light cast by the eagle feathers that the People carried. After a time, the wise men of the tribe got together to see if they could find a way to make more light. One of the wise men decided they should make a sun and a moon, and so they found a piece of round hide and painted it yellow and placed it in the sky. This sun did not give much light, and the next day, they took it down and made it larger and brighter. Four times the sun rose and set and was made larger, until it was very large and very bright.
“There lived with the People a witch and a wizard who were angry with what the wise men had done, and they tried to destroy the sun and the moon. This frightened the sun and the moon, and they fled the underworld and escaped to the heavens.”
“That’s a wonderful story,” Shaye said. “How long do you think we’ve been down here?”
“I don’t know. A couple of hours, maybe more.”
It seemed like forever. How long would it take for the miners who were topside to dig them out? Hours? Days? She posed the question to Alejandro, dreading the answer.
“It’s hard to say,” he replied. “Depends on how much dirt they have to dig through to get to us, and whether the shaft is still clear.”
“It might be days then?”
“Shaye…”
“Tell me the truth.”
“It’s a possibility, but I wouldn’t worry about it. The miners have dealt with cave-ins before. They know what to do.”
Yes, she thought, shivering, but would they be able to do it in time?
“Shaye, it’ll be all right, trust me.”
“I can’t help it, I’m scared.”
Alejandro blew out a breath. He didn’t blame her for being scared. He was a mite unsettled himself. There had been cave-ins before; he’d seen the bodies carried out of the mines, heard the sobs of the widows and children.
“It’ll be all right,” he said again.
Shaye laughed softly. “Who are you trying to convince?”
He laughed, too, his arm tightening around her shoulders, and suddenly, neither of them was laughing.
“Shaye…”
She couldn’t see him in the darkness, but she could feel the heat of his body next to hers, his thigh pressed against her own. It was suddenly hard to breathe, hard to think of anything but the man beside her.
She wanted him, she thought, wanted him to hold her, to kiss her. To make love to her. Oh, but it was crazy. She hardly knew him, yet there was no denying the attraction that hummed between them whenever their eyes met. And in the back of her mind was the thought, what if? What if they were going to die here? Alejandro might live. Maybe her being here wouldn’t change his fate, but that didn’t mean she would get out alive…
She felt his breath on her face, and then his lips claimed hers and drove every other thought from her mind. Heat spiraled through her as his tongue caressed her lower lip, tasting her. He turned toward her and she melted into his embrace, all her fears forgotten. His arms were strong around her; surely he would keep her safe. His hand stroked her back, his touch light, sending shivers of pleasure down her spine. And his mouth…she closed her eyes, lost in the wonder of his kiss. Her hands clutched his shoulders, drifted down his arm, curving over his biceps to lightly knead the muscles there.
She fit in his arms so perfectly…was he aware of it, too?
She moaned softly, heard the sharp intake of his breath as she leaned into him, wanting to be closer, closer, cursing the voluminous skirt and petticoats that bunched between them.
He murmured her name, then kissed her again, and yet again. And somehow they were lying side by side in an intimate tangle of arms and legs. She didn’t know if it was the darkness or the man, but her every sense seemed heightened, her every nerve attuned to his nearness. Her skin came alive at his touch, tingling with need, burning with awareness. She tugged off her gloves, her fingertips moving over the face she could not see, tracing the shape of his nose, his jaw, lingering over his lips.
With a low growl, he opened his mouth, capturing her finger, sucking lightly.
Her breath escaped in a long, husky sigh. A kiss, a touch, and she was on fire for him, filled with a longing she had never known before.
“Shaye…”
She heard her own longing reflected in his voice.
He rained kisses over her face, his touch incredibly gentle, so filled with tenderness, it brought an ache to her heart and tears to her eyes. Since her divorce, it had been easy to keep men at arm’s length. Hurt and disillusioned, she had been certain she would never trust another man, never want another man in her life. But she wanted Alejandro Valverde with her whole heart and soul.
She was about to tell him so when she realized he had gone suddenly still.
“Listen!” he exclaimed softly. “Did you hear that?”
“What? I don’t hear any…”
And then she heard it, a man’s voice. “Hey! Anybody alive down there?”
Alejandro sat up. “Yes,” he shouted. “We’re here!”
“Sit tight. We’ll have you out of there in no time at all.”
They were, Shaye thought, the sweetest words she had ever heard. And even as the thought crossed her mind, she couldn’t help wishing their rescuers had waited another hour, or maybe two.
* * * * *
The man was as good as his word. A short time later, they could hear the sound of men digging, and in less than an hour, she was standing on solid ground again. Hundreds of people were gathered at the mine entrance. They cheered as Shaye and Alejandro emerged. Shaye took a deep breath, filling her lungs with fresh air. It was, she thought, almost like being reborn.
The doctor came forward to check them over. He examined the cut on Shaye’s cheek, applied some sort of antiseptic that hurt worse than the cut itself, and pronounced both her and Alejandro in good health.
Several women surged forward, offering them cake, sandwiches, coffee, and lemonade.
Lily and Addy Mae and a dark-eyed girl Shaye didn’t know hovered over Alejandro, touching his arm, his shoulder, his cheek, expressing their relief that he was all right.
“We were so worried,” Addy Mae said, and the other two girls nodded.
Alejandro looked at Shaye over their heads, and shrugged.
Shaye accepted a roast beef sandwich and a glass of lemonade from one of the townswomen. “Do they know if the others are all right?”
The woman shook her head. “No word yet. The cave-in wasn’t so bad where you were. From what my Harlan said, the worst of it was farther down the tunnel. They’re still digging down there.”
Shaye took a drink, trying not to think of Moose and the other men buried beneath tons of dirt.
Around her, men and women talked in subdued voices punctuated by the whine of the hoist as dirt was lifted from the mine.
>
“Too bad,” a grizzled veteran said.
“Bound to happen sooner or later.”
“Yup. Mining’s a dangerous business. Could just as easily have been a fire.”
“Or an explosion. Remember when the powder magazine blew up at the Old Rough and Ready? In all my born days, I never heard such an awful sound.”
“Terrible, just terrible. I thought the whole house was gonna come down around us.”
“Yeah, I recollect that. Thought we was havin’ an earthquake.”
“Blew the boardinghouse next to the mine to smithereens.”
“Yep. Danged explosion rained rocks down on Main Street. Lucky more folks weren’t hurt.”
“Killed seven men in the mine.”
“Heard tell folks felt the blast clear to Bridgeport.”
And on and on it went, with the bystanders recalling other misfortunes and catastrophes while a new tragedy was being played out in front of them.
Shaye had just finished her sandwich when Alejandro came for her. “You look all done in,” he said, taking her by the arm. “Come on, I’ll take you back to the hotel.”
“What about Moose and the others?”
“There’s nothing we can do for them. Come on, let’s go get cleaned up.”
She was too tired to argue. Alejandro had borrowed a buggy from one of the townspeople. He helped her in, then took his seat. Picking up the reins, he clucked to the team.
“They’re dead, aren’t they?”
“I reckon.”
“What a horrible way to die.”
“There aren’t many good ways that I know of,” Alejandro replied.
“No, I guess not.”
And hanging had to be one of the worst, she thought, and wondered if there was some way to change his fate, and if there were, what the consequences would be.
When they reached the hotel, he helped her from the carriage. Inside, he asked the clerk to send some hot water up to the room right away. Shaye was all too conscious of the speculation in the clerk’s eyes as she followed Alejandro up the stairs. She could almost read his thoughts, knew he was wondering what their relationship was, but she was too drained, physically and emotionally, to worry about it.
She unlocked the door and Alejandro followed her inside. She stood there, too weary to move, to think, while he lit the lamp.
“Here, now.” He took her reticule and placed it on top of the dresser. “Sit down before you fall down.”
She sat down in the chair, startled when he dropped to his knees, lifted her skirt, and began to unlace her shoes. He removed them one by one, peeled off her long cotton stockings, and then he began to massage her foot.
“Rio…?”
He looked up at her, head cocked to one side. “Don’t you like it?”
She shrugged, keenly aware of his hands moving over her foot. His skin was very dark compared to her own. His touch made her skin tingle.
“Should I stop?”
She shook her head, felt her heart skip a beat as his hands moved up her leg, gently massaging her calf. No one had ever done such a thing for her before. She had never realized how sensual such a thing could be, to have a man kneeling at her feet, massaging her foot, her leg.
His gaze held hers as he lowered her foot, then cradled the other one in his lap. His hands were big and strong, yet so gentle.
She looked at him, and she wanted him. Even now, she could remember the taste of his kisses, the way her body had molded so perfectly to his. She had come so close, she thought, so close to surrendering her heart and soul into his keeping. Oh, yes, she wanted him desperately. Even now, covered with dirt and emotionally and physically exhausted, she wanted to feel his mouth on hers again, to hear his voice call her darlin’ as only he could, to feel his weight pressing her down…
And he wanted her. She could feel it in his touch, read it in the depths of his eyes, those dark dark eyes that seemed to know her better than she knew herself.
“Shaye?”
She shook her head. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let herself love him. She didn’t belong here, didn’t know when she might find herself back in her own time. How could she hope to survive in the future if she left her heart in the past?
He didn’t argue, didn’t force the issue. Instead, he stood up. “I’m going back to the mine and see if I can help.”
“All right.”
“Good night, Shaye.”
“Good night. Alejandro? Be careful.”
He looked at her a moment; then, reaching down, he took hold of her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. And kissed her.
She was breathless when he let her go.
His knuckles skimmed her cheek. “Enjoy your bath,” he said, and left the room.
She stared after him, her fingertips pressed against her lips, and knew she had lost the battle, and her heart, as well.
Chapter Eleven
Shaye pulled a chair over in front of the window, grabbed a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, then sat down, staring into the distance. She had bathed and washed her hair, had tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Moose being buried beneath tons of rock and earth. It could so easily have been her and Alejandro. The thought made her shiver, and she drew the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders tighter.
The hours passed slowly. Lights shone like tiny beacons on the hill near the Robison mine. She thought about the men who had been killed, about their families, huddled together near the mine entrance, waiting, their hopes dimming as each body was brought to the surface. She wondered if Moose had a wife, children, who were waiting, praying.
She wondered what drove a man to work in the mines. It was a hard life, working twelve hours a day, six days a week, for a paltry four dollars a day, yet men from all over the world had brought their families here. Mexicans and Swedes, Italians and Irishmen had all come here, some bringing their families with them.
She remembered reading somewhere about three park aides who worked in Bodie. They had gone hiking at dusk. They had stopped at one of the abandoned mines at dusk. They were tossing rocks down the twelve-hundred-foot shaft when they reported hearing a voice calmly call out, “Hey, you”. They said the voice seemed to come from the pit’s opening. The depth of the shaft, together with the fact that it had been caved in for years, seemed to rule out any human presence, but they swore they had heard a voice. Had it been the Robison mine, Shaye wondered. Had the voice belonged to one of the miners who had been killed there this night? There was a time when she would have dismissed such a tale as nonsense, but not any more.
Dawn was lighting the sky when Alejandro returned. One look at his face confirmed her worst fears.
“All of them?” she asked.
He nodded. “We brought the last body out just a few minutes ago.”
“You must be exhausted.”
“I am that. It’s been a hell of a night.”
She tossed the blanket aside, only then remembering that she was in her nightgown. Not that it revealed anything, she thought. Made of heavy white cotton, it covered her completely from her neck to her ankles.
Rising, Shaye went to him and helped him out of his coat. She tossed it on top of her skirt and shirtwaist. All were in need of a good cleaning.
“Here,” she said. “Sit down before you fall down.”
He grinned faintly, recognizing the words he had said to her earlier. Siting down on the chair, he put his head back, and closed his eyes. She filled the basin with water, wishing it wasn’t so cold, and washed the dirt from his hands and face, then, kneeling in front of him, she removed his boots and socks. Lifting his left foot into her lap, she began to massage it.
He looked at her through half-lowered lids. “What are you doing?”
“Returning a favor.”
He made a soft sound of pleasure and closed his eyes again.
It was, Shaye thought, remarkably satisfying to sit there and massage his foot
. She couldn’t remember ever having done it for anyone else. She did his other foot, then pulled him to his feet and helped him remove his shirt. She wasn’t willing to go further than that, and he didn’t seem to care.
She drew back the covers on the bed, then turned away so he could remove his trousers. She heard the whisper of cloth over skin, the creak of the mattress as it took his weight. She gave him a minute to cover himself before she turned around.
He was already asleep, sprawled face down on the bed. On top of the blankets.
Unable to help herself, she stood there, her gaze moving over his broad back and shoulders, noting the indentation at the base of his spine. He should be doing ads for Jockey shorts, she thought, with those long legs and that tight butt.
With a sigh, she tugged the covers out from under him, pulled them up over his shoulders, and then slid under the blankets, staying as close to the edge of the bed as she could without falling off the mattress.
She closed her eyes and tried not to think of him lying less than an arm’s length away, tried not to remember how potent his kisses were, the way her body had felt next to his. The way his hands had felt moving over her skin.
Gradually, she drifted off to sleep, and in her dreams, he fulfilled her wish, every desire.
It was, she thought, the best dream she had ever had, better even than the one where Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, and Brad Pitt were all fighting over her. She sighed as Alejandro’s lips slanted over hers, warm and firm, his tongue like teasing fire. And his hands…oh, those big brown hands. They moved sensuously over her skin, stroking, caressing, arousing. His breath was hot when he pressed his mouth to her breast, his long dark hair tickled her cheek.
As from a great distance, she heard a door slam, the rumble of wagon wheels, the crack of a bullwhip, but she wasn’t ready to wake up, not now. Not when he was kissing her again. A kiss to take her breath away.
She ran her hands over his chest, his shoulders, down his arms, loving the feel of his skin against her palms, the way the muscles in his arms bunched and relaxed. She loved his arms…
Journey to Yesterday Page 12
