Slocum's Gold Mountain by Jake Logan

Author:Jake Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

10

Slocum awoke before Erin and looked at the woman. He reached out and lightly touched the half gold double eagle coin on the chain around her neck. She stirred, murmured something and then rolled onto her back, giving Slocum a view not only of the coin but the woman’s breasts. He wanted to dig out the coin he had taken off the outlaw and compare it with the woman’s, but he knew she would wake up if he tried. He looked as closely as he could at the coin, but Erin’s eyes still popped open.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Slocum covered his interest in the coin the best way he could think of. He bent over and lightly kissed each of her breasts.

“Good morning,” he said.

“That certainly makes it a better morning,” Erin said.

She stretched like a cat in the sun, then settled down. Slocum saw the slow change in her expression. She had started out happy, but the memory of finding Seamus Preston and the reasons for his death erased her mood.

“We can bury him,” Slocum suggested. The snow had stopped during the night, leaving a bright, shiny new day with skies rivaling Erin’s eyes and even a warmth out of place after a storm had dumped two inches of snow on the ground.

“Why not?” Erin sat up and shivered. She pulled a blanket around her shoulders. Slocum had the feeling of the final curtain closing on the stage, signaling the exit of the actors and the end of the play.

“The ground’ll be frozen, but maybe not too deep. Digging in rocky country like this will be a bigger problem.”

“Too bad we can’t send him home to Ireland. He was from County Kerry, you know.”

Slocum didn’t. He knew nothing about the family he had become enmeshed with. Erin went on about the Emerald Isle and how she had followed Seamus when he came to America, but Slocum’s thoughts drifted from the tale of woe and young love. He had half the map and half of a mysterious coin. Both were clues to the location of what might be a robber baron’s treasure trove. Too many men were willing to kill to get the map for the reward to be a few dollars. Slocum had seen eight men back at Liberty Bell Canyon when he and Molly had escaped.

The thought of Molly churned. Was she Preston’s sister? Erin had not exactly denied it. She had only said Seamus Preston had said nothing about having a sister, but Molly had been mighty skittish when it came to facing Sheriff George and had been like a cuckoo sneaking into another bird’s nest when she used the miner’s shack while he was gone. Simply move in, call it her own, seduce Slocum and then try to steal the map.

As Erin went about getting into her clothes, Slocum saw the coin swaying delightfully. Then she buttoned her blouse and hid both her feminine charms and the coin. The dark-haired beauty saw him watching her and smiled weakly.

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