Gold (45 page)
Authors: Jane Toombs
He did. And she did.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Dan O’Lee nodded casually to the maitre d’ as
the man bowed him out of the dining room.
Who’d ever thought it? A respected businessman
and him not yet twenty-five.
“
Oh, Dan.” The girl on his arm, a dark-haired
beauty named Arabella, smiled up at him. “It’s
been a lovely evening.”
“
That it has, and no end in sight.”
He
’d bed her tonight in his private suite at the
Golden Empire. There was no doubt of it in his
mind. He could tell by the way she swayed against
him, by the look in her eyes. And she wouldn’t expect marriage either. He’d learned to avoid the
ones who did.
Marriage was a long
way off, if ever. He was having too good a time coming into his own. He felt himself growing into a feeling of indepen
dence. Nobody really needed him, and he needed
nobody. It was a wonderful feeling. He could look
around and see what he wanted to do with the rest
of his life. Why, even if Selena should suddenly
reappear in his life, he’d not be ready to marry
her. It just wasn’t what he wanted.
Danny put his arm around Arabella, but he
sighed. Marry Selena, no. But for all their airs
and graces not a one of these lovely ladies ever
made him feel as Selena had.
Barry Fitzpatrick pulled the tasseled cord, the
curtains of the Louis XIV bed parted, and he
greeted the morning sunlight with a frown. He
wasn’t used to sleeping late.
Selena stirred beside him, opened her eyes, yawned, and sat up.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“
Must be getting on for seven.”
“
Do you always get up so early? And go to bed
so early?”
“
On the trail you get used to living by the sun.
It’s a mighty good habit and one I don’t want to
lose.”
Selena yawned again.
“In the city,” she said,
“we hardly ever see the sun. At least I don’t.”
“
It won’t take you long to get used to the
change,” he told her.
Selena looked at him from the corners of her
eyes but remained silent.
Barry put a pillow behind his back and sat up. I
’ll tell her how I’m thinking of settling down, he
thought. Thinking of staying here in San Fran
cisco, of buying a house.
Selena fluffed a pillow
and also sat up. I’ll wait until he leaves, she
thought, pull the curtains and go back to sleep.
“
The Committee of Vigilance has had second
thoughts,” Barry said.
“
About Rhynne’s escape?”
‘
I was referring more to my part in that affair.
They hired me to rid the city of W.W. Rhynne
and, of course, I did it in less than a week’s time.
With some assistance from circumstance, I’ll ad
mit--I don’t mean to take all the credit.
I think
Coleman’s just as glad they never hanged the man, guilty though he probably was. They’re beginning
to realize the case against him wasn’t as airtight
as they thought.”
“
The city’s all abuzz about the escape from the Argonaut Selena said. “Everyone says Danny
O’Lee was at the bottom of it, though no one
knows for sure.”
“
So with Coleman satisfied,” Barry went on,
“and some of the more cautious members of the Committee happy there was no hanging to explain
away, and with all the unhappiness with the state
of law and order in San Francisco, a delegation of
citizens approached me yesterday with a proposi
tion.”
“
They say Danny led ten men aboard the Argo
naut” Selena said. “They were like pirates, bran
dishing pistols and cutlasses. They captured the guards after overturning the ship with gunpowder
they stole before they set Charlie Sung’s ware
house afire. In the melee, Danny and his men
freed W.W. and smuggled him aboard the Golden
Arrow.”
“
What the delegation suggested,” Barry said,
“was that I run for sheriff. The election’s next
month and they think with my record in the war,
my experience as a Texas Ranger, and the fact I haven’t made anyone in San Francisco too un
happy, I’d win easily. They’re willing to finance
the campaign, as a matter of
fact.”
“
Every night,” Selena said, “he’s seen with a
different woman in Bidwell’s or the Bella Union or Pierre’s. He’s a good-looking man, Danny is. Not as good-looking as you, of course.”
“
I think this is what I’ve been seeking all this
time,” Barry said. “There’d be excitement and
more than enough work to keep me busy. I’ve al
ways liked taking a confused mess arid ordering it.
As I did on the trail and in the army. As sheriff
I’d be doing that and, more important, I’d be help
ing make this city a better place to live, I like San Francisco. I intend to settle down here.”
“
He seems a completely different person from
the man I knew in Hangtown.”
Barry looked at her.
“Who are you talking
about, Selena?” he asked.
“
Dan O’Lee.”
“
Is O’Lee all you can think about? I’ll wager
you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.”
“
Yes, I have, Barry. You’ve been telling me
you’re about to run for sheriff. I think it’s a won
derful idea. I believe in doing what you really
want to do.” Her hand crept under the covers until
she touched his leg.
“
Selena? Now?”
Her hand caressed him.
“Now,” she said.
***
Wordsworth Rhynne looked at his face in the
mirror nailed to the cabin wall. He was getting
used to seeing himself without his mustache, per
haps he’d stay clean-shaven for a time. He won
dered, though, if he’d ever get used to the pitching
and tossing of the
Golden Arrow
.
A movement caught Rhynne
’s eye. Looking up
into the mirror he saw a woman watching him
from the doorway. He stared in amazement, then
spun around and stood up.
She smiled uncertainly and he remembered the
first time he had seen her, years before in the
Parker House when he had come to her room, sur
prising her as she had now surprised him. So
much had changed since that day, and so little.
“
Who are you?” he demanded, as she had de
manded then.
Startled, she took a step back. Then, remem
bering their first meeting, her smile broadened.
“
Pamela Buttle-Jones,” she said, her eyes challenging him, “At your service.”
“
A lady doesn’t enter a gentleman’s room,” he
said, “even aboard a ship.”
“
Some of the leading citizens of San Francisco might scoff if they heard me called a lady. As for your being a gentleman, I’ll accept your own eval
uation.”
“
I was hoping to see you,” he said. “I have a confidential matter to discuss.”
“
Go on.”
“
I believe in being direct, Pamela. I propose to
borrow five thousand dollars from you to begin a
venture in Hawaii.”
“
And your collateral?”
“
My wits. Nothing more.”
“
I agree.”
“
You agree?”
“
If you meet my conditions.”
“
And they are?”
“
I’ve disposed of all my laudanum, W.W.
You’re to see I get no more. I may beg you and
cajole you and threaten you. No matter what I
may do or say, you’re not to give me any.”
“
I accept the condition. Are there others? Inter
est perhaps?”
She crossed the small cabin, put her hands on
his shoulders and kissed him. Rhynne held her to him, kissing her lingeringly, tenderly.
Pamela drew back. “You may consider the in
terest paid,” she said.
The ship plowed into a swell, making the timbers shudder and groan. His arms tightened about
her. “It’s a long voyage,” Rhynne said, “and we
don’t know what lies ahead. The dice are probably
loaded and the cards stacked against us. Luck
may have turned her back on me for good and
all.”
“
Your luck turned once, it can turn again and
for the better this time.”
“
I think perhaps it has, Pamela. When O’Lee
pulled off that hatch cover, that was the start. And
now you being here. Pamela, when I first looked in that mirror I was surprised by joy. I thought I beheld a phantom. And that’s what you are, a
phantom of delight.”
“
Even at the age of
...
ahem, thirty-five?”
He smiled.
“I’ll think so even if, perchance, you
should one day turn thirty-six.”
“
Ah, W.W., am I to have no secrets from you?
I never intend to be thirty-six. I’ve decided to be thirty-five for the rest of my life.”
“
You will be, Pamela, to me you will be.”
“
And to think when I’m finally aboard a ship
I’m off in the opposite direction from England,
sailing on the wrong ocean.” She shook her head.
“Do you know, W.W., I don’t even care? It’s not only that I wouldn’t fit in any more but that En
gland no longer fits me. Good heavens, W.W., I
believe I’ve become an American!”
He sketched a bow.
“The pleasure is ours, Lady
Pamela.”
The smile faded from her face.
“I have one
other condition I’ve not mentioned yet.”
“
And that is?”
“
You must answer one question. Did you kill
King Sutton? Answer me straight.”
“
I swear to God I didn’t.”
“
Do you know who did?”
He shook his head.
“I suspect we’ll never
know.”
Two months later the Golden Arrow sailed
south and west from the Islands before a follow
ing wind on her port quarter. There had been a
storm the day before and the seas still ran high.
Jed stood in
the lee of the fo’c’sle. He respected the
sea, its immensity, its great brooding loneliness.
Here he was free, as free as a man ever becomes.
Reaching inside the top of his shirt he removed
the small buckskin pouch tied around his neck,
undid the thong and turned the pouch over. He
took the ring that fell into his palm and slipped it
onto the little finger of his right hand.
Holding his hand in front of him, he stared into
the red depths of the fire opal.
The End
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