Page 39 of The Promise
"Yes. This is the upper entrance. There's another one below here." He pointed to the cliff edge. "On the side of the mountain. My father spent most of his life looking for the mother lode. The Promise was supposed to be his dream come true. It assayed out at hundred ounces of silver per ton. Even for Silverthread that was rich."
She moved to stand beside him, entranced by the painting, lost in his memories. "Why did he name it the Promise?"
A faint smile played at the corners of his mouth. "For my mother. She'd been after him for years to settle down. And he kept promising he would as soon as he hit it big."
"So it was his promise to her." She studied the painting. "What happened?"
"The mine played out. And my mother ran away with the profits."
Cara flinched at the bitterness in his voice.
"She was always the center of our family, my mother. Rose O'Malley. We all adored her. But no one could have loved her like my father." He reached for her hand, holding it tightly, hiseyes still locked on the painting. "My father had two partners. Owen Prescott, an old family friend and a man named Zachariah Bowen. Zach was a muleskinner."
"Muleskinner?" The name did not conjure a pretty picture.
Michael smiled. "He drove a wagon for one of the freight companies in town. They call them muleskinners because to get down the mountain in one piece the driver had to be pretty handy with his whip. Using it to control the team of horses?—"
"Or mules." She finished for him.
"Right. Anyway, Zach was young and a hard worker, so my father was glad to have the help. Since the mine was isolated, they did most of the work by hand. It was too expensive to carry the ore out of the mountains, so my father built a crude smelter on site."
"I don't understand."
"Silver is mixed with loads of other minerals. So the oar often weighs tons. Getting it out of there would have cost almost more than the silver was worth. Especially after the mine played out. Anyway, the idea was to smelt the ore at the mine, and reduce the size of the load to be shipped."
"Wasn't it dangerous to keep the silver at the mine?"
"Safer than a bank actually. You've been up there. It was hard to find, and even harder to reach. Even Owen never went up there."
"But I thought he was a partner."
"Silent partner, mainly. He bankrolled my father. I don't think he ever spent any real time up at the mine." He squeezed her hand, but Cara could see that he didn't really even remember she was there. "Anyway, once the mine played out, it was time to sell the silver."
"Was there a lot?"
"Not really. We'd sold some already. To makes ends meet. And to continue working. There was enough left to fill the wagon."
"But the stories make it sound like there was more—a treasure."
"Even when the mine was new there were stories like that." He smiled, caught up in the memories. "And my father didn't help. He loved to spin a story. To hear him tell it, the Promise was going to be the new El Dorado."
"Except silver instead of gold."
"Right. Anyway, there wasn't anything close to a fortune. But there was enough to have gotten by for a long time."
"So the last of the ore was smelted?" Cara said, picking up the story again.
"Yes. Each one stamped with a rose."
"For your mother?"
He nodded. "My father's tribute. It was a surprise. He didn't tell a soul, not even Owen. Just unveiled it there on the mountain for her." He smiled with the memory. "She was so pleased. My father's dreams—our family's dreams—finally coming true. I can still see them standing there, arms locked around one another. It was a magic moment, Cara."
"Then how can you believe—" She met his eyes, shaken by the pain she saw reflected there.
"I had no choice." He stood there, staring at the painting again, lost in the past, and she thought for a moment that he wasn't going to continue, but then he drew a deep breath, his shoulders tightening. "We crated the silver, and then Zach and I loaded the crates onto the wagon. He was going to drive it down the mountain to the railroad station."
"Where was Owen?" It didn't really matter, but she wanted to reach Michael somehow, remind him that he wasn't alone with his memories.
