Connie Brockway by Anything For Love

Author:Anything For Love [Love, Anything For]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-06-23T19:36:11+00:00

Chapter 14

“Didn’t anyone else think to bring an additional deck of cards?” Cassius demanded.

“No.” Venice sighed. They’d been traveling for three days now, and each one had seemed longer than the last. Because of her companion, Cassius Reed.

“This will never do, never,” he fumed.

Venice closed her eyes and counted to ten. If she had to put up with too many more of Cassius’s petty complaints, she would end up killing him. Maybe she should just drown him in that vat of macassar oil he’d insisted on bringing for his hair.

“If you hadn’t left the cards outside your tent last night, the wind wouldn’t have blown them away,” she said reasonably. “If you’d like, I can make—”

“First no proper bed linen, now this!” Cassius broke in, rifling through a mule’s pack. “How, might I ask, are we to entertain ourselves in this dreary place?”

“Dreary?” Venice asked incredulously. “It’s magical! Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”

“Beautiful? A dripping forest and a bunch of mountains?” He sniffed. “If I want to ponder the panoramic splendor of a mountainscape, I’d much rather do it from the comfort of a nice club chair in front of a painting than from a mule’s back in a rainstorm.”

“But you wouldn’t be part of the magnificence then. You’d just be a . . . a spectator.”

“Thank God,” Cassius replied irritably, going on to the next mule’s pack. “I’d go mindless with boredom were I forced to be part of this ‘magnificence’ for any length of time. And speaking of boredom, how are we supposed to occupy ourselves for the rest of the day?”

“If you are looking for something to do, you might help set up camp,” Venice suggested.

“Set up camp?” Cassius echoed in disbelief. “That’s what these bounders are being paid to do.” He flincked his hand toward Tree-Too-High and Crooked Hand.

“They’re busy trying to get a fire going.”

“And not a moment too soon. I declare, I am quite chilled. No fire, bloody drippy forests all around, and no decent food.” He snapped the flap down on the pack without bothering to reorganize the mess he’d made. “And nothing of value in here either. Nothing at all but some books.”

He said the word as though it were a disease. “And this excavating equipment. I can’t believe a man as wealthy as your uncle would not include some civilized accouterments amongst his supply list.”

Venice started refolding the pack, still bemused that Cassius thought all this splendor “boring.”

“Hmm,” Cassius was murmuring as he sauntered toward Noble’s crate. “I wonder what McCaneaghy has in here?”

“He said it’s some fossilized shells for my uncle,” Venice replied.

Cassius rapped his knuckles against the wood. The crate sounded hollow.

“I’ll wager there’s something other than rocks in here.”

“Mr. McCaneaghy said he promised my uncle he would send up any fossils he couldn’t identify I’m sure that’s all it is.”

Cassius’s gaze slid toward the other men. “Your uncle probably requested a . . . libation.” He mouthed the word, again jerking his head toward the Indians. “That has to be it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.