Page 26 of Inventions of the Heart

“But as a married woman...” Zane’s jaw tightened as the silence stretched. “The thing is, Michelle, I’m not thatopposed to marrying you. You’re a beautiful, brilliant, likeable, even lovable woman. But I’m not interested in lumber.”

“I guess then we tell them our names and...” Michelle slumped back in her chair as Annie quit coughing. Beth Ellen righted her own chair and sat down. Jilly returned to the table with a new cup of milk for Caroline, with very little milk in it.

“And?” Zane prompted her.

“And ... and it’s the right thing to do to try and get justice for Annie. So...” Michelle reached out to Jilly, and they joined hands.

“So we’ll go,” Michelle said. “We’ve known it’s wrong to stay here with you. It was not part of our plan to just move in with someone who was too nice to kick us out. We’ll go to Sacramento, make our appeal to the governor and others, and send the information we gather back to you with any help we can gain.”

Nodding, Jilly finally said, “It’s our own responsibility to care for ourselves. It’s not yours, Zane.”

“We’ve imposed long enough.” Michelle looked at Annie. “We’ll need all the information you can give us about who stole your land and any threats beforehand. Jilly and I, along with our sister Laura, who has married and gone back to our home, ran away from our stepfather. He had plans to force us into marriage with his horrid friends who were paying well for us. But when we marry, we inherit one-third each of the lumber dynasty our father built. We’ve been living quietly. To our knowledge, our stepfather has no idea where we are. But I have no doubt he’s searching for us.”

She turned to Zane. “I apologize for that proposal. It was rude of me.” Then she smiled. “You really are the mostappealing man I’ve ever met. Marriage to you would be no hardship. If things were normal, I might pursue you, and if I could catch you, I might be content to stay here and be a proper ranch wife. But I have to go home, and you love your ranch. And that’s that.”

She pushed back from the table. “You decide what details you want to share with your sisters about all of this. I’m going to bed.”

Michelle walked out. Jilly, after a quick good-night, followed her.

Zane stared after Michelle long after she was gone from the room. His heart pounded too hard and not quite evenly. She thought he was appealing. The most appealing man she’d ever met.

It was something he’d always remember. Always cherish. Fine words from a fine woman.

He gathered his thoughts and studied his sisters. His instinct was to protect them. And yet here he was with the brilliant Stiles sisters planning to strike out on their own, care for themselves. He needed to give his sisters more credit.

“Let’s go into my office where we can get comfortable. I’ve got a few troubles, and maybe you can help me figure out what to do.”

Once they were settled in the office, he didn’t go over the Stiles sisters’ troubles again. Instead, he dived into his own.

“I found gold on my ranch—ourranch.”

Both of them gasped. He watched them closely to see if their eyes shone with greed. Or if they seemed to have a fever. Annie was startled but calm. Beth Ellen might have the littlest bit of avarice in her gaze.

“Where?” Annie asked.

He told them everything. Most especially his worries about what a gold strike might do to the ranch.

The three of them sat in silence as they all mulled over the gold. Caroline scampered around the room. She seemed to mainly be intent on climbing, the higher the better, but they could keep ahead of her here. And there wasn’t much fragile. The room’s lanterns were in sconces on the walls. There was no fire in the fireplace.

“You need to put in a few more days like the one you’ve already put in.” Annie watched Caroline trying to climb the sofa. “See how much gold you can dig out of there. It would be nice to just get all of it and be done.”

“And you bought two houses in Dorada Rio?” Beth Ellen asked.

“Yes, but it was right after the mines closed in the latest panic. The houses were sitting empty. They’re solid but not fancy. They didn’t cost much.”

“Have you built anything else here but the cabins?” Annie asked.

“That mostly just took time. We cut our own lumber. Jilly and the hired men did the building.” It occurred to Zane that maybe he ought to offer to pay Jilly. Seemed unnecessary when she’d wanted to do it so badly he’d’ve had to lasso her to get her to stop. And besides, he was feeding her, clothing her, and giving her shelter. That was close to good enough.

“And the gold you’ve dug is here in the house?” Annie glanced at Caroline, looking uneasy at the thought.

“Jilly and Michelle have been working on it in their spare time, breaking the nuggets out of the quartz, getting it ready to sell.”

“And you’re sure you can trust them?” Annie’s eyes narrowed. She looked to the door of the office as if she could see all the way to the housekeeper’s rooms.

“They’re rich, Annie. My hired man Nick had heard of them, and he rode out to make sure their ma wasn’t in danger. He wrote back here and said it was all as he’d remembered. So sure, a body can go mad over gold. I know that. But these Stiles sisters don’t seem apt to steal my gold. My real problem is once I ride out of here with gold to sell, then I’m going to lead a parade of madmen back with me. I can’t see avoiding that. If all the gold is mined and gone, there will still be a gold rush. I just don’t know how to avoid it. But I hope the ones who come will hunt awhile, then leave.”

“You could ride far afield. Could you ride to Virginia City to sell it? Sneak in, hope they don’t pressure you to tell them where your claim is. Tell them it’s a secret. Which it is. Then slip out of town with your money and come back here. No one would know where the gold came from.”

Zane perked up. “That could work. Though maybe Virginia City is too close. With the train running, I could go even farther. Denver maybe.”

“Are there big enough banks in Denver that you could just put your money in a bank and leave it? Wait for some time to pass?” Beth Ellen asked. “Do banks get robbed in a big city like Denver? Do trains get robbed?”

Zane was afraid everything got robbed now and then.

“These are good ideas,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk with you about this earlier. I think I’ll handle it just that way, though I’m not sure if Denver is the best place to go. Maybe Carson City. But in the meantime, Annie, what do we doabout your ranch and Michelle’s offer to run interference for you? The governor would be a powerful ally. Better than anything the men who ran you off could match.”

“While we’re talking about offers, what about Michelle offering to marry you? For her own safety.”

Yes, what about that? “I have some thinking to do. Maybe for now we can set aside the fight to regain your ranch and just mine gold. By the time we have a hefty load to sell, I’ll have figured it out. The gold is secret. Your land can’t get any more stolen. Michelle is safe without needing a hasty marriage. There’s no rush.”

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