“You are a rat,” she said as she kissed his neck.
“Come on, let’s go home; I’m hungry.”
“Oh? And who do you think is going to feed you?”
“Martha, Mavis, Myrtle, and—” He didn’t say any more because Kady was kissing him and pulling him down to the ground.
Behind them, the opening in the rock closed.
Chapter 15
“MMMM,” KADY MURMURED OVER HER COFFEE CUP. SHE AND Cole were alone in the kitchen, and they’d just finished breakfast. In the three days since she’d decided to remain in Legend, at least until the supernatural force that had brought her here took her away again, they had had a delightful time. They had ridden together and talked, and Cole had taken her all over Legend and the surrounding countryside. She had never had such an old-fashioned good time with anyone else.
So what if he never tried to make love to her? So what if when they kissed it never went beyond the closed-mouth stage. That’s what she wanted, wasn’t it? After all, she was still engaged to marry Gregory, even if she was married to Cole. Or something like that.
“It seems rather sinful just to sit here,” she said, looking out the window at the beautiful Colorado mountains.
Raising his head from his own coffee cup, Cole looked at her. “What else should we be doing?”
“I can’t seem to think of a thing,” she said with delight and thought how the modern world was controlled by the clock and the calendar. She didn’t know what time it was or even what day of the week.
“Sure?” he asked, teasing. “We could go for a ride.”
“No,” she said as she got up to refill their cups.
“You could cook something and we could go on a picnic.”
At that Kady laughed. “I think the town hates you.”
“Yes, I’m sure they do,” he answered, sipping his coffee and watching Kady with adoring eyes. Three days ago, after Kady had chosen to stay with him, they had returned to the Jordan Ranch and Cole had dismissed everyone from his property. At that moment he’d been the most hated man in the country. That is until Juan had stepped in and threatened to shoot anyone who complained because Cole wanted to keep Kady in private. “What man does not envy him?” Juan had asked, making Cole roll his eyes, glad Kady had not heard that comment.
Juan finished cooking what had been started, and Manuel took charge of the cleanup, and everyone had gone home with as much food as he could carry so, in the end, the townspeople were happy enough.
“We could . . .” Cole said, looking up, his eyes teasing. “We could go look for the Lost Maiden Mine. Millions of dollars in gold, and it’s very near here.”
“Already found it,” she murmured, looking out the window.
“What?” Cole asked, looking at her sharply. “You found the Lost Maiden Mine?”
“Not me,” she said. “They.”
Cole stared at her. “What do you mean ‘they’ found the Lost Maiden Mine?”
“It was found in nineteen eighty-two, and it was in all the newspapers and magazines. For a while the whole country was possessed by Maiden Fever, as it was called.”
When she didn’t say any more, Cole grabbed her hand and held it tightly, while locking eyes with hers. “Okay, okay,” she said. “I don’t remember much about it, really. Some hikers found the gold in a little cave near a rock that looks like the face of an old man. And don’t you dare ask me where that is, because I have no idea. I thought the mine was found in Arizona.”
Cole gave a snort of disgust. “The old prospector who said he’d found the mine used to come into the saloon in Legend when I was a kid.”
“What were you doing in a saloon if you were a kid?”
“Getting drunk and doing naughty things with the girls. Now tell me more about this treasure.”
“I don’t know much, except—” She turned to look at him and was tempted to ask about the “naughty things.” “Did the prospector have a glass eye?”
“A great big ugly one, why?”
“People thought he must have had, but no one was alive who had seen him, so they weren’t sure it was him they found in the cave.”
When Kady said no more, Cole, in one easy motion, pulled her from the chair and put her on his lap. With her head on his shoulder and his big arms around her, Kady sighed dreamily. “The whole thing was wonderfully romantic. There was the legend that this old man had found a mine that was guarded by the spirit of a beautiful Indian maiden, but no one believed him.”
When she looked at Cole in question, he guffawed. “He was a drunk and a cheat at cards, as well as a thief and a liar. Of course no one believed him. The newspaper printed the story because they needed to fill up the space.”
“Obviously, he wasn’t always a liar, and you should work on believing in people more.”
“You believe everything anyone tells you, so you’re gullible enough for both of us. Now tell me what was romantic about this mine and how much was in it?”
“Leave it to you to think about the money. Anyway, a couple of hikers saw a bat fly into some rocks and started investigating and found a small cave. Inside were two skeletons, one of a young woman wearing the remnants of a beaded dress and the other of an old man wearing a leather coat. He had a glass eye and—” She looked up at Cole. “Even though carbon dating showed the woman’s skeleton to be about a hundred years older than the man’s, they were holding hands when they were found.”
“And that’s romantic to you? Two dead people? Skeletons are romantic? Life is romantic.”
“You are a man, that’s all that’s wrong with you.”
“And since when did you start complaining about that?”
When Kady smiled, Cole gently kissed her, but she had already learned not to introduce true passion into their kisses. Passion made him pull away. “Let’s go find it. The mine. Let’s go find the mine.”
“But it’s—” She started to say that the mine had already been found, but that wasn’t true, not when now was 1873. “What do you want the money for? Don’t you have enough?”
“It’s not the money; I want the excitement. Finding treasure. That would be wonderful! Oh, wait. What did the people who found it in 1982 do with the money? Some of your good deeds?”
Kady grimaced. “Fought over it. The man and woman who found it were engaged to be married, but after they found the treasure, they spent ten years in courtrooms fighting over who saw inside the cave first and therefore owned the lion’s share of the loot. In the end the lawyers got nearly all of it. I think the hikers ended up with about twenty grand each, out of a total of about thirteen million. And of course their lives were a shambles.”
Raising her head, she looked at him. “And what would you do with more millions than you already have?”
He took a moment before speaking, and when he did, his voice was soft. “I’d bury it under the mosque. No one goes there except me, so it would be safe; then, Kady, if you do go back to your own time, you can come back here and know where to find it. You’d be smarter than to let the lawyers have it.”
For a moment Kady was speechless because she knew that he meant every word of what he was saying.
“Do you love me, Kady?” he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
She hesitated before she spoke, as Gregory’s face flashed before her eyes. Then she seemed to also see the man in her dreams, the man with the veiled face, who had haunted her most of her life. “I—” she began, but he put a finger to her lips, then lifted her chin so he was looking into her eyes.
“Someday I want to see love in your eyes when you look at me,” he said.
Kady started to protest that statement, but Cole wouldn’t let her speak.
“I may not be an expert in love, but I know that when you love someone, you know it. You don’t hesitate or have to think about it. Nor does anyone else come to your mind when you think of love.”
He kissed her softly. “When I look into your eyes, I’ll always know what is in y
our heart.”
His words were so true that they brought tears to Kady’s eyes, and she buried her head in his chest to keep him from seeing.
“Are those tears you’re shedding for me?” Cole asked cheerfully as he pulled her head up to look at him. “I don’t think any girl’s ever cried over me before.”
That made Kady laugh. “As far as I can tell, you’ve made every woman in this town cry.”
“Me?” he asked innocently. “I’ve never—”
“Señora Jordan,” came Manuel’s voice from outside the door.
“Go away!” Cole shouted. “We don’t want to see anyone.”
“We haven’t seen anyone for three days now,” she reminded him. “What if the house is on fire?”
“Then call the fire brigade,” Cole answered, as he planted a kiss on Kady’s neck.
“What is it, Manuel?” Kady called.
“The Señora Ruth Jordan wants to meet with you in one hour at the Hanging Tree.”
It took Kady a few moments to digest this information. First of all, who was Ruth Jordan? Why did she want to meet with Kady? When she looked at Cole, she saw he was smiling at her as though he could read her mind.
“Tell him you won’t go,” he urged.
Ignoring him, she tried to solve the riddle. “Your grandmother!” she said, her face showing pride that she had remembered without any help from him. “I forgot that I sent her a letter pleading for help. Oh, heavens, but that will take some explaining. And the Hanging Tree is where I first met you, isn’t it?”
“Right on all counts,” he said, still smiling at her, but his eyes were eating her up, as though he were trying to memorize every curl of her hair, every curve of her face.
“I’ll be right there,” she called to Manuel, then heard the old man go down the hall.
“Kady,” Cole said, and she knew he was going to try to persuade her to stay with him.
“Why doesn’t your grandmother come here to the ranch? Why does she want me to meet her so far out of town?”
“She refuses to set foot in Legend. She hates the place.”
Cole said the words without any hint of anger, but Kady knew he must be hurt that his only living relative refused to have anything to do with the town that belonged to Cole. A town that Kady knew very well that Cole loved. She kissed the underside of his chin. “I shall try to persuade her to come home for supper.”
“Home,” Cole whispered, as he set Kady off of his lap and moved to stand before the window, his back to her as he stared sightlessly outside. “She doesn’t consider this her home, so she leaves it to be haunted by the spirits of people long dead.”
In spite of the warmth of the room, Kady shivered at his words. “You have to go with me,” she said. “I can’t very well meet your grandmother by myself. How long has it been since you two have seen each other?”
For a moment Cole turned toward her, a look of deep melancholy on his face; then his expression changed and he smiled. “Why don’t you go see her alone, then bring her back here? You can make something wonderful for supper. She’ll like having a granddaughter-in-law who can cook.”
His sadness seemed to have left him as he moved across the kitchen to stand before her, and he smiled warmly as he tucked a curl behind her ear. “She’ll love you, Kady. And she’ll be very happy that her wayward grandson has at last found a woman he can love for all eternity.”
Again, Kady had the feeling that something was wrong. “I don’t think I will go,” she said as she took one of his big hands in both of hers. “I’ll send Manuel to tell her that she must come here and visit both of us.”
Chuckling, Cole pulled away as he bent to look at her. “You’re the woman who faced down Juan Barela, and now you’re afraid of meeting my sweet little grandmother all by yourself?”
“But—”
“But nothing. She wants to see you first because she wants to tell you about all my bad habits. She’ll want to make sure you know what you’re in for with a spoiled brat like me. And she’ll want to talk to you about money.”
“Money?”
“Oh, yes, my grandmother believes a woman should have money of her own, so she’ll want to settle funds on you. And, besides, if I know my grandmother, she will show up with a ladies’ picnic.” At that he curled his lip in disgust. “Little teacups that break if you try to hold just four of them in one hand.”
“Know that from experience, do you?” she asked, laughing.
“All too well. She said I could break china by looking at it. And she won’t have any food worth eating, just little sandwiches and tiny cakes. You can put the whole meal in your mouth at one time.”
“And do you know that for a fact, too?” Her eyes were dancing with delight, as Cole’s memories were those of a child.
“Yep, sure do. Tarik and I tried it and did it.”
Kady laughed as she thought of a ladies’ elegant tea being decimated by a couple of greedy boys seeing if they could stuff all the food into their mouths at once. “I think I will go. I’ll tell her all about the five Ms and how you played them one against the other and how I served you a rat for dinner.”
Suddenly, he grabbed her and pulled her up into his arms. “And what else are you going to tell her? What good things are you going to report about my character?”
Looking up at him, she caressed his whisker-stubbled cheek. “I shall tell her about how you saved the eagles and how you have done everything you can to make me welcome.” When he didn’t move, she knew he wanted more. “And I shall tell her that you love me.”
Smiling, he kissed her, but when she put her arms around his neck and started to want more, he pulled back. “My grandmother is very punctual. You’d better get out of here.”
Kady’s eyes widened. “I could wear the new dress you bought me,” she said, looking down at her long skirt that was dusty with age and food stained, as all her clothing was.
“Kady, my dear, you could go naked and still be the best-dressed woman in the world.”
Kady smiled at him in pure delight, for she knew that what he was saying was from his heart. Whenever she’d been to bed with Gregory, she had been careful to keep her modesty, always covering herself up, always thinking how unattractive her plump body was. It was amazing how in twentieth-century America one’s weight became the overruling factor of one’s life. But with Cole she felt beautiful. In fact, the whole town of Legend made her feel beautiful and desirable and as though she were worth everything.
With the smile of a temptress, Kady took Cole’s hand in hers and led him up the stairs. Maybe he was waiting for something from Kady, such as for her to tell him that she loved him, before he made an attempt at seduction. But maybe he was waiting for a signal from her.
“Why don’t you have a seat?” she said in her Mae West–imitation voice as she went to the big wardrobe and withdrew the many garments that a nineteenth-century woman was supposed to wear.
With wide eyes, and as though he were watching a striptease, Cole stretched out on the bed, shoved pillows behind his head, and watched Kady get dressed. For her part, for the first time in her life, Kady took an extraordinarily long time dressing in the clothes Cole had bought for her. She even propped each leg, one at a time, on a chair and very slowly pulled on the stockings that left the upper part of her thighs bare.
When she was dressed, she walked over to Cole, who was now staring at her oddly. And when he grabbed her head to pull her down to kiss her deeply—for the first time—she knew what his expression was. Smiling in satisfaction, Kady had to use all her strength to pull away from him.
“Hold that thought,” she said, breathless from the passion she’d just felt from him. “I, ah, I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Cole was looking at her with such hot eyes that she wasn’t sure she could escape him. It took some strength to back toward the door and fumble with the latch behind her.
“Kady,” he said as she opened the door. “Remember that I love you.”
The way he said it made her heart start to pound. “And you won’t forget me?”
That made her smile. “I don’t think so,” she said, smiling in return. “You aren’t a man a woman forgets.”
As she stepped through the door, he called out to her, “Remember that the truth is in a person’s eyes.”
“Yes,” she said, then quickly closed the door to the bedroom. Another minute and she’d never be able to leave. She’d jump into bed with him and never get out.
Outside the house, Manuel had a nice, docile horse saddled for her, and to Kady’s surprise, she found she was to go to the Hanging Tree by herself, without so much as an escort. After many days of not being given any freedom, this seemed odd, but Manuel just pointed her down the main street of Legend, then told her to take a left on Eternity Road. The Hanging Tree was at the end of it.
With that the old man turned away and mounted the steps onto the porch, and when Kady looked back, he and Dolores were standing there, their faces filled with sadness. When she was mounted, Kady smiled at them, for she guessed that they were worried that she’d never return. But Kady knew how to get back to her own time, and she knew that she was not going to take that route. Not when Cole was waiting for her.
She hadn’t had much experience with horses, but the animal seemed to know where she was to go, so she just held on to the reins. As she rode away, she turned back and waved at Manuel and Dolores on the porch, and at Cole in the upstairs window. Some of the ranch hands had come in from the stables, and they, too, were watching her ride away.
As Kady turned the corner and was out of their vision, she looked at the road ahead. “Sure a bunch of gloomy Guses,” she said, then thought how nice it was to finally have freedom. She rode past the library and glanced up the short road toward the beautiful mosque, thinking of Cole’s saying he’d bury the treasure from the Lost Maiden Mine there.
It was a short ride down Paradise Lane, then a left onto the main road of Kendal Avenue, then another left onto Eternity Road. She passed the firehouse, the telegraph office, and one of the many tent cities, temporarily housing mine workers. She passed the Amaryllis Mine, then continued on the road, away from all human habitation and toward the mountains.
LEGEND Page 18