Gold Rush Bride by Debra Lee Brown

Author:Debra Lee Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Looks like we been skunked.”

“After all that? The digging and hauling and—” Will stared at the gold pan, blinking the grit out of his eyes, as Matt gently swirled the mixture of mercury, water and crushed rock.

“Yep. Nothin’ but quartz.”

Will ground his teeth and counted to ten, controlling the frustration boiling up inside him.

Men dug up fortunes all around him, every day, poking around streams, caves and washed out tree roots. He’d never wanted to do it. He’d have starved to death first.

It was her fault. She’d driven him to it. “Here, let me see that.” He grabbed the gold pan and tilted it so the sun shone directly on the beads of mercury.

“Ain’t nothin’ there, Will. I’m tellin’ ya.”

He’d abandoned his principles and had stooped to the kind of get-rich-quick scheme he loathed. He deserved to fail.

“We could always try up west o’ that—”

“Shut up, Matt.” Will thrust the pan at him, grabbed his pickax and started for the cave.

“It ain’t my fault, ya know.”

“It’s nobody’s damned fault.” Nobody’s but his own. He had two weeks left. Two. After that, there’d be no getting out—for him or for her.

On hands and knees Will scrambled back into the cave, dragging the pickax behind him. Matt called after him, shouting something unintelligible, but Will ignored it. Gripping the ax, he narrowed his gaze on a thick quartz vein running along an untouched wall of the dimly lit cavern.

Matt’s voice—a lot closer now—interrupted. “You’d best get out here, partner.”

Will swore, trying out a couple of the Irish words he’d heard Kate use that day on the ride down the hill from the elderberry patch. Tossing the ax aside, he scrambled back out of the cave, squinting against the sunlight. “What is it now?”

The words froze in his throat, as his gaze fixed on the bay mare—his mare—grazing in the clearing where he and Matt had made their camp.

Landerfelt. It had to be.

Will’s pistol was in his hand before the thought even registered. He whirled left, then right. And stopped dead. Matt and Mei Li stood in the shade of a massive oak.

“What the hell?” He marched over to them, holstering his gun on the way, and scanned the trees for signs of others. He saw no one. Mei Li was going on about something, using her hands when her English failed her.

Matt saw him coming. “You’d best hear this.” He turned his attention back to Mei Li. “Go on. Tell him.”

The girl’s eyes grew wide as saucers as Will approached. She shook her head quickly. “No. You tell.”

“Tell me what? And what are you doing with my horse? Landerfelt’s horse.”

“He loaned it to ’em,” Matt said.

“Them? You mean—?” Will shaded his eyes against the sun and scanned the tree line again, this time for Kate. He felt his mouth go dry and his heartbeat quicken.

“She ain’t here.”

A stab of disappointment twisted inside him. “Good. She ought to be in town where she belongs. Speaking of which—” he turned to Mei Li “—what are you doing out here on your own?”

“I not alone.

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