Brighter than Gold (Western Rebels Book 1) (45 page)

“What am I going to do all day today with Emma ill?” Conrad mourned, staring out the window at the unseasonably sunny Saturday morning.

Katie, who was pacing restlessly across the parlor, whirled on him. “I would appreciate it if you would keep your petty troubles to yourself! You are looking at a woman who is in the first hour of a separation from her beloved husband, a separation that is bound to last at least a
fortnight
! Although I didn’t say as much to Jack, I am well aware of the risks and inevitable delays that one faces when crossing the Sierras during the winter. And business meetings always take longer than anyone thinks they will. St. Valentine’s Day will probably be here by the time he returns....”

Conrad put an arm around her shoulder sympathetically. “At least Sam went with him. You don’t have to worry about him getting into trouble alone.”

“Sometimes I think that Sam takes trouble with him,” Katie said. “Like a carpetbag.”

“Let’s talk about something else, shall we?” He steered her over to a sofa.

“Conrad, I hardly think that you can distract me for two weeks!” Reluctantly, Katie sat down beside him and accepted a cookie from the plate he picked up from the side table.

Conrad smiled. “What news did Sam bring from the foothills?”

Briefly, she told him about the Griffin’s latest attacks on stagecoaches. When Aaron Rush’s name came up, her brother-in-law colored angrily.

“I hate that man!”

Katie stared. “How do you know Aaron Rush?”

“Do you remember me telling you that I once spent some time in Columbia? Actually, I was nearer Murphy’s, but I did go to Columbia from time to time. We may even have seen each other. It was two years ago, at a time when I was feeling a need to make my own mark on the world rather than trade on my brother’s reputation. I decided that I would go to the foothills to make my fortune, unaware that most of the surface gold was already gone. To make a long story short, I did happen to find three reasonably large nuggets. Fool that I was, I went to the saloon in Murphy’s and was showing them off. Harold Van Hosten was there. He told me that he could get me a better price than they were paying in Columbia, and he seemed so respectable that I believed him.”

Katie cringed. “Oh, no, Conrad!” It was almost painful for her to imagine her brother-in-law as a prospector in the clutches of Rush and Van Hosten.

“Oh, yes, it’s true. I was an idiot!” His voice rose. “I gave him the gold... and that was the last I ever saw of it. When I tried to stake a claim, Van Hosten had beaten me to it, and when I confronted him and his partner at their office, he denied ever seeing me before.” Conrad became increasingly agitated as he told his story and got up to pace across the parlor. “No one would listen to me or do anything about it. I thought I’d go mad! In the end, I came back home with nothing. To be perfectly honest, I was overjoyed last summer when I heard that Van Hosten had been killed by the Griffin. Sometimes, when I heard and read the tales about that highwayman, it seemed that he was avenging
me.
It’s disillusioning to learn that he’s no different from the rest of them....” He sank down on the sofa and stared into the cold fireplace.

“Conrad, that’s a terrible story! Why didn’t you tell me before?” Katie exclaimed, putting a hand on his arm.

“Well, I meant to, but to tell the truth, I try not to think about it very much.”

“I know how you feel about the Griffin. I used to revere him, too, until he killed my father.” Her pretty mouth hardened.

“What?!”

She leaned back beside him. “It’s true. My father was on the same stagecoach as Harold Van Hosten, the one the Griffin attacked in June. There’s some confusion about exactly what happened, but as I understand it, the Griffin had them both get out of the coach and took them behind it to search Van Hosten.” Katie’s voice was choked with tears. “A struggle ensued, and at the end of it, Papa and Harold Van Hosten were dead... and the Griffin escaped with his life.”

“But perhaps Van Hosten had a gun. Do you know for certain that it was the Griffin who shot your father?”

“No, but I do know that if he hadn’t attacked that stage, Papa would be alive. No explanation can change that.”

“Well, I can certainly understand how you feel,” Conrad said hastily, taken aback by her icy demeanor. They sat in silence for several minutes, each lost in thought. Conrad ate two cookies before Katie spoke again.

“Con, I was just thinking... there is something very productive that we both could do during Jack’s absence.”

There was a strange gleam in Katie’s eyes. Unnerved, Conrad replied carefully, “What’s that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to feel that you had taken some action to right the wrong perpetrated against you by Rush and Van Hosten? Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew that you had pursued justice?”

“Well, yes, certainly...”He straightened his shoulders.

“I feel the same way about the Griffin—and I also have a few grudges of my own against Aaron Rush. I could help you confront Rush if you would help me trap the Griffin—”

“Katie,” he exclaimed, “that’s insane! Are you suggesting that we run off to Columbia and do this while Jack is away?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

“But what would Jack say?”

“Stop worrying about Jack! We’re adults, aren’t we?” Her face was animated. “We have just as much right to leave San Francisco as Jack does. More, maybe, because we have just causes. And you certainly don’t need your brother’s permission. Besides, I miss my friends in Columbia, and this would be a perfect opportunity for me to see them again. Please, Conrad! When was the last time that you had a real
adventure?”

He looked uncertain. “Well, it’s been a while....”

“Say you’ll go with me, please? We can go to Columbia via Stockton—we’ll be there in no time! And we’ll make a pact to stay no longer than four days. If we’ve accomplished nothing by that time, at least we’ll know we tried, and we can return home with that knowledge. What do you say?”

Conrad sat up straight and expanded his chest. “I say—
yes!
I’m older now. This time I’m going to confront Aaron Rush like a man and demand justice. I want to be paid for that gold, and any more that they took from what should have been my claim!”

“And I’ll help you!” Katie cried, filled with the spirit of adventure and justice. “We’ll show Aaron Rush and the Griffin that they can’t toy with Kathleen and Conrad Wyatt and get away with it!”

Jumping awkwardly to his feet, Conrad thrust his fist into the air and shouted, “Hear, hear!”

Chapter 30

January 28-30, 1864

A full moon was the white and luminous centerpiece in the star-strewn midnight sky. Jack stood for a moment outside the Rush Mine office, staring down at the lot which had been raped by hydraulic mining. Bathed in a hazy silver glow, the huge, oblong boulders of granite, limestone, and marble looked eerie, as if part of some other, uninhabitable world.

Jack shrugged off the chill that crept over him and walked soundlessly around to the back of the mine offices. Without rushing, he picked the lock on the back door and stepped inside, thankful for the moonlight that streamed in to aid his progress. The doors off the narrow hallways were unlocked. He started in Rush’s office, searching through the cabinets, then crossed to what had been Van Hosten’s room. Stripped now of its paintings and handsome cherry desk, it was filled with several tables and chairs and apparently served as an office for Rush’s assistants.

Jack had no luck there, either, and was losing hope as he stepped back into the central corridor. Then, spying the outline of a narrow door off to one side, he remembered the small storage room and flashed a grin in the darkness. The latch was difficult, but Van Hosten had taught him the trick. Inside, his eyes wandered over the shadowy shapes of trunks and crates containing books and papers until he spied the cupboards built into the far wall. Sensing somehow that success was at hand, he crossed the room and opened them. The deep shelves inside were stacked with a wide variety of miscellaneous office items—books, folded curtains, objects from Van Hosten’s office, rolled scatter rugs, bottles of brandy, and odd pieces of crockery. Jack yearned for light. Carefully he withdrew the curtains from the lowest shelf, bent down, and reached behind them. His hand made contact with a long object wrapped in cloth.

Heart pounding, he drew it out into the dim light. He carefully unfolded the garment on the floor and saw what he’d known he would find: a handsome double-barreled shotgun identical to the one he himself had wielded as the Griffin. It had been wrapped in a long, tan linen duster. A hood, with holes cut out for eyes, lay next to the shotgun.

“Ah, Mr. Rush,” he said softly, “I have you now.”

* * *

“And you just put it all back?” Sam exclaimed. Rubbing his eyes, he staggered from his bed and poked at the fire. Across the cabin, Jim and Steve Gillis snored blissfully.

Jack dropped onto his own cot and pulled off his boots. “He’ll never know. Everything is just as I found it. Not even a lock was disturbed.” He yawned. “God, I’m tired.”

“Well, it’s your own fault for going over there the same night we arrived.” Sam was wide awake now. Pouring himself a finger of whiskey, he returned to bed, ready to hear every detail of Jack’s midnight adventure. “These have been the most exhausting three days of my life.”

“Well, get a good night’s sleep, because you go on stage tomorrow, and I don’t want you to forget your part.”

“How can you be certain Aaron Rush will be there?”

“Obviously we can’t be
certain,
but you yourself told me that his wife had grown bored with life in the foothills and had returned to New York. Didn’t Lim say that ever since she left, Rush has been plaguing the saloon with his company at lunchtime? Didn’t you tell me those things?”

Sam scowled. “Aren’t you even going with me? You wouldn’t have to come into the saloon.”

“You know I can’t, Sam! I can’t take even a small risk that I’ll be seen by Aaron Rush. If there’s any chance at all that he suspects I might be the Griffin, he mustn’t know I’m in the area.” Stretching out in his dusty buckskins and gray woolen shirt, Jack closed his eyes. “Everything has to go perfectly; there is no room for error... and no time. I want to go home to Kathleen.”

* * *

Columbia was indeed having a lean winter, Samuel Clemens thought to himself as he tied his horse to the hitching post in front of the MacKenzie Saloon. A cold wind blew through the leafless trees of heaven, and Main Street was nearly deserted except for a weary old prospector asleep on a bench in front of the bank. The old man’s dog, a mangy mutt with protruding ribs, lifted his head with an effort and gave Sam a sorrowful look.

Clemens rubbed a hand over his reddish curls, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to the saloon. The immediate sight of familiar faces calmed him somewhat. Lim Sung was behind the bar, polishing the jars of brandied fruit that marched under the mirror. He looked preoccupied, as did Abby, who was sweeping the floor. At the sound of Sam’s step, however, she looked up and broke into a wide smile.

“Why, Samuel Clemens! I thought you left for San Francisco a week ago!”

“Well, no.” Sam blushed. “I wasn’t in the mood after all.”

“Have you been working on that story about the jumping frog all this time?”

“Yes. Yes, that’s it.” He took a stool at the bar and greeted Lim, bursting to tell them about Katie. How happy they would be to learn that she had found her niche in San Francisco, that she looked more beautiful than ever, and that she and Jack were in love. Instead he said, “What’s for lunch, Abby?”

“Chicken pie.” She rolled her eyes. “Aaron Rush gave me his wife’s recipe and asked that I make it today. Can you imagine? He even brought me the chickens.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sam chatted idly with Lim about the young man’s plans to leave Columbia. When his chicken pie arrived, he picked at it.

“Is something wrong?” Abby asked. “Is it too salty?”

Clemens grinned. “No, it’s fine. I’m just taking my time. Lunch with the two of you is the high point of my week!” He was fascinated by Abby, for in just a few short months she had changed dramatically. Her coquettish appearance and behavior had ripened into the rounder, contented look of a wife. When Sam inquired after Gideon, Abby’s doe eyes softened.