Duchess of Ophir Creek by Judith B. Glad

Author:Judith B. Glad [Glad, Judith B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9781587492303
Google: dFfJAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 158749230X
Barnesnoble: 158749230X
Goodreads: 2789724
Publisher: Awe-Struck
Published: 2001-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Four days. That’s what he’d told Young Buff. Come back in four days.

Silas looked once again at the sun, low in the sky now. In another hour it would be behind the hills, and the winter night would quickly follow.

Are they here yet?

Maybe Buff had counted wrong. Or one of those bastards that hung around the Golden Eagle had given him some trouble. Or Soomey had got herself into mischief—God knew, she had a knack for it.

He told himself to stop worrying. It was at least a six-hour ride from Bannock City under the best of conditions. As cold as it had been last night, Buff probably wouldn’t have wanted to start until the frost was off the trail. Silas slipped and slid down the talus below the outcropping he’d just investigated and made his way to the bottom of the slope.

He’d be glad to see them. It wasn’t just Soomey he’d missed, but all three of the children. That’s what he’d told himself each night as he laid alone in his tent and listened for the sound of her breathing. There had been no faint scent of jasmine, and he’d not eaten a bite of rice for four days. Sure had been quiet, too, without Soomey and Buff drilling Tao Ni on his grammar.

The boy was picking English up real fast. He still didn’t say much, but Silas knew he understood almost everything he was told. Once more Silas wished he could pick up a new language as quickly. His ineptitude had often worked to his disadvantage in trading.

He peered through the fading light. The trail stretched, pale and empty, back into the forest. If they weren’t at the tent when he reached it, he’d just have to head up the trail and look for them.

Even if he had to go all the way to Bannock City.

***

“Boss is not there,” Tao Ni said as they passed Appledore’s store. “His tent is dark.”

“Likely he’s out in the woods,” Buff said, “lookin’.” He dismounted and reached up to take Tao Ni from behind Soomey, then turned to help her down.

But she had slid off the horse and stood beside it, waiting for life to return to her legs. How she hated riding the great beasts. They were so tall and so wide. She much preferred the dainty little donkey Li Ching had allowed her to ride once on the way to Bannock City.

“Fetch water, Tao Ni, and I will start our meal. Boss will be hungry after a day of searching.”

The boys went their separate ways while Soomey read the note she found pinned to the tent flap. ‘Don’t unpack,’ it said it a bold, black hand. ‘We’re moving on tomorrow. I’ll be in about sundown.’ The signature was a scrawl that seemed to combine Boss’s initials, but she could not be perfectly sure.

So. They would move again. Had something happened, or was Boss simply convinced that his treasure—his mysterious, secret treasure—was not to be found in the hills surrounding Centerville?

She would certainly like to know what it was he sought.

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