by Jan Hudson
“I don’t think they heard me,” Tess whispered. “I don’t think they would hear an atomic explosion on the next block.”
Amusement lifted the corners of Dan’s lips. “I think you’re right.” Taking Tess’s hand, they walked to an area out of earshot. “How do you propose we dig for treasure in an area with people everywhere?”
“Simple,” she answered, since she’d already considered the same complication. “We dig at night.”
* * *
Just after three o’clock in the morning, their borrowed big SUV rolled to a stop on a side street beside the fort. Everything was still. The place that had been alive with activity earlier in the afternoon was deserted. Streetlights lining the boulevard cast eerie shadows through the trees. Tess was so wired with adrenaline that she felt as if her heart was about to explode.
“I feel like a commando,” Dan grumbled. “Or a cat burglar.”
Tess stifled a giggle as she looked him over. They were dressed identically in black jeans and long-sleeved jerseys that she’d insisted they buy for the occasion. “I think you look cute.” She wiggled her eyebrow, and dropped her naturally husky voice even lower to add, “Very sexy.”
Smiling, he said, “Flattery will do it every time. Let’s go.”
“Wait! Don’t forget your cap and your gloves.” She thrust the dark articles at him and pulled a can of black shoe polish out of the sack she held between her legs.
“I’ll wear the stupid cap,” he said, stretching the knit over his head, “but I’ll be damned if I’ll paint my face with shoe polish.”
She shrugged and slapped a few streaks on her own. “Suit yourself.”
As Tess was about to open the door, a sports car roared around the corner and they slunk down in the seat. Laughter and shouting cut through the quiet, and an empty beer can clanked and rolled against the curb as the low-slung car zoomed past.
“Stupid kids,” Dan mumbled. “Why are they out drinking beer at this ungodly hour? Don’t they have classes in the morning? They should be home in bed.”
Tess laughed. “Didn’t you sow a few oats in college? Mess around on school nights just for the heck of it?”
“Not at three-thirty in the morning.”
“Figures.”
“What did you mean by that?”
“Friday, as adorable as you are, sometimes you can be such an old coot.” Tess sighed and opened the door. “Come on.”
They took shovels and a flashlight from the back. “Shouldn’t we take the metal detector, too?” Dan asked.
“Why? We know exactly where it is.”
“I think we should check with the metal detector before we start shoveling around a state historical site.”
“Bring it if you insist,” she said, exasperated by his overly cautious behavior. “But I’m going to start digging.” She stalked off through the azalea bushes to the back wall of the rock building.
Dan had seemed so different lately that she had almost forgotten about his former stuffiness. Although he’d loosened up considerably and acted more adventurously—especially in bed, she thought with a secret smile—she should have realized that bone-deep attitudes didn’t disappear overnight. Oh, well, she’d have to work on him some more.
By the time she’d paced off the distance to the center of the back wall, he was beside her. Even though the rear of the fort was in shadow, her eyes had adjusted enough to the dark to dig. While he started to sweep the ground with the detector, she stuck her shovel in the hard dirt and shoved her foot against the shoulder of the blade.
“Tess, would you move the spade and wait until I check, please?” he whispered.
She sighed, stepped back a few feet, leaned against the rough wall, and waited, biting her tongue to keep from saying something really tacky.
“Well?” she asked impatiently after he’d made the third pass over the spot.
“I think there’s something here.” There was an incredulous tone to his whispered words.
“I told you so!”
“Shhhh.”
Clamping her lips together, Tess grabbed her shovel and positioned the blade point against the packed ground. Her heart was beating so hard and fast that she could feel it pounding her ribs. Her hands were sweaty under the dark work gloves, and a little trickle of perspiration eased from her hair line and ran down her temple. She wiped it away with the sleeve of her jersey and stepped on the spade.
She shoveled, tossing the dirt over her shoulder to land in soft thuds behind her while Dan placed his in a neat, growing mound beside the hole he dug. After what seemed like two hours, but was no more than a few minutes, Tess stopped to wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Metal clinked against metal.
“I think I’ve hit something,” Dan said.
“Oh, Dan!” she squealed, dropping her shovel and throwing her arms around him. “You’ve found it!”
“Shhhh. Let me clear out some more dirt.”
Moving aside, she crossed fingers on both hands and prayed. It was here. It had to be here. For the first time, Tess allowed herself to admit that a niggling doubt or two had snuck into her mind since their disappointment at the site of the old church. But they’d found it! Her heart went into triple-time; her stomach constricted into knots tighter than tangled chains in a jewelry box, and her whole body trembled as Dan bent and stuck the spade into the dirt.
When the shovel scraped down the side of the hole and clanked again, she crammed her fist against her mouth to quell a whimper. She was breathing so hard and fast that she was afraid she’d keel over from hyperventilation.
All those years ago, the Prophets hadn’t been able to recover the treasure because, according to Casey’s journal, the area had been too heavily populated for them to sneak in and dig it up. There had been a boarding house and a livery stable nearby, and the old stone building had been turned into a rather bawdy saloon with a bunch of rough customers coming and going all times of the day and night. Rather than chance half-drunk ruffians catching them with a hoard of gold, Casey and Marsh had passed it by.
But now she and Dan had found it! She could hardly wait to throw open the boxes and run her fingers through the gold and jewels.
Suddenly, a blinding light flashed in her eyes.
“Police! Freeze!”
Chapter 9
The sun was up and the birds were singing when the university police let them off at the SUV. Dan’s jaw was clamped shut, and he looked mad enough to spit thunderbolts. He didn’t even glance her way after they climbed into the cab.
“Dan—”
“Don’t say a word. Not a word. Not now.” He gave the key a smart turn and revved the engine. Holding the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip, he sucked in a big breath before he pulled away from the curb.
He kept his eyes on the road as they drove up the boulevard, turned left on North Street, and headed south toward downtown. Once or twice Tess started to say something, but the formidable man hunched over the wheel didn’t invite conversation. She was just as tired and just as humiliated as he was, but until he cooled off a bit, she’d bite her tongue and keep her mouth shut. She understood about discretion and valor.
When she saw his shoulders relax and the grooves in his face soften a bit, she decided to venture a comment. “Dan, I’m sorry about getting us carted off to the pokey for nothing. But how was I to know that the Old Stone Fort had been moved? I thought it had always been on the campus.”
He didn’t respond.
“I suppose I should have considered that it’s quite a distance from downtown. Towns usually stay in the same place—even after a hundred years.” She managed a sickly smile. “At least the police chief had a good sense of humor.”
“Did you notice that before or after he said I have to pay damages for criminal mischief?”
“No,” she snapped, growing tired of his hostile attitude, “I noticed it when he nearly split his sides laughing when you spouted off about Laffite’s treasure map. What
possessed you to tell him about my map?”
“The truth was better than that idiotic tale you invented about being on a scavenger hunt.”
She stiffened her spine and tilted her nose. “It might have worked.”
He made a rude sound.
Tess refused to be daunted any longer by his fractious behavior. “Why don’t we check out the original site the policeman told us about?” she asked.
He slowly turned his head and looked at her as if she’d suggested that they defect to China.
Crossing her arms, she sniffed. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt to look.”
He heaved a big sigh and shook his head, but a few minutes later he pulled to a stop on the brick-paved main street. Businesses were not yet open and the district was almost deserted. They got out and crossed the intersection to read the brass plaque in front of a large building.
“Yep, it was here,” Tess said, looking up at the hulking red brick structure that covered half a block. “I wonder—”
“No!”
She raised her eyebrows. “No, what?”
“I’m not blowing up a bank, Tess. Not even for you.”
She laughed and hooked her arm through his. Feeling a little puckish, she pursed her lips. “Hmmm. I hadn’t considered that, but—”
As he silenced her with a forefinger over her lips, a trace of amusement played around his mouth. “Don’t even think it.”
Smiling, she said, “I was just wondering if they found anything when the land was sold and the original fort was torn down in 1902. They must have excavated the area before they built here.”
“We’ll never know.”
She laid her head against his shoulder and sighed. “We’ll never know. And it looks like our last chance for my house and Pirate’s Pleasure are kaput.” Tears stung her eyes, and despite her efforts to keep them in check, one escaped and rolled down her cheek.
Dan hugged her close and wiped the tear away with his thumb. “Maybe not.”
Her heart surged with new hope. “Do you think we could get some divers to find the stash under the lake? Or maybe we could rent one of those big earthmoving machines and search the place by the springs again.”
“No, babe, I think finding any of Laffite’s treasure is a lost cause. Let’s get some rest and head back to Galveston. Well talk about options later.”
“Are you still angry with me?”
He smiled and shook his head. “I wasn’t really angry with you, love. I was frustrated and embarrassed.”
They went back in their hotel room, cleaned up, and slipped into bed. Both were totally exhausted. Tess snuggled against Dan with her head on his shoulder and her hand across his chest.
“You never believed that we would find any treasure, did you?” She absently threaded her fingers through the fine curls along his breastbone, taking comfort from their silky texture and the warmth of the flesh beneath.
“No . . . and I should have talked you out of coming. I didn’t want you to be disappointed.”
“You couldn’t have talked me out of it. I was so sure the gold was buried somewhere, just waiting for me to find it. I felt it deep down in here.” She patted her chest. “It’s strange, because when I get a feeling like that, I’m never wrong.”
“This time you were.”
She yawned. “I suppose. Sorry I dragged you along on my crazy adventure?”
He laughed and rubbed his cheek against her forehead. “I imagine, Tess Cameron, that life with you will be a series of adventures.”
“I imagine,” she breathed as her eyelids fluttered shut.
* * *
Tess awoke gradually, yawning and stretching. It took a moment for her to get her bearings. When she saw the familiar sampler on the wall across from the foot of her bed, she realized she was in her own room in Galveston. They had come home from their futile search the night before. Aunt Olivia had told her that the sampler had belonged to Tess’s mother, made for Anna’s tenth birthday by her great-grandmother, Casey Prophet.
You may follow rainbows to find pots of gold, the stitching proclaimed, but the real treasure of the family is in the foundation of our home.
She threw aside the covers and got up grumbling, “That’s all well and good for you, Granny, but you had a home. A hundred years of progress beat me out of my chance at the pot of gold.”
In the bathroom, Tess turned on the shower and stripped off her nightgown. Her sleep had been fitful. Although she’d tried to be philosophical about not finding the treasure, especially around Dan, she’d been bitterly disappointed. For so long, all her fantasies had revolved around her house. No, not her house anymore. The house. Her option to buy would run out in two weeks. Perhaps she and Dan could find another, more affordable one, to restore. But it wouldn’t be the same. That house had been meant for them, for their family. She knew it.
After her shower, she searched through her closet to find something to restore her spirits, but not even her favorite orange overalls and fuchsia camp shirt helped. She dawdled with her makeup, hating to go downstairs with the bad news. It had been late when they got home the night before, and everyone had been in bed. Now it was time to face Aunt Olivia and Aunt Martha with the fact that there would be no horse, no house. There was no treasure. Damn!
When her shoes were finally tied and her last excuse used up, she pasted a bright smile on her face and went downstairs. Dan and the entire crew were gathered around the dining table having breakfast. From the look on their faces when she walked in, she knew that Dan had already told them that their trip had been a total washout. She was grateful he’d spared her the task.
“Good morning,” she said to the group, striding into the room on a ray of sunny laughter. “I guess Dan’s told you that the bedraggled knights have returned without the Holy Grail. Even though we didn’t find anything, we had a grand adventure. Some of it was a real hoot, wasn’t it Dan? Did you tell them about our run-in with the law?”
A band of pain constricted Dan’s heart when he looked up and saw Tess. Although no one would guess from her broad smile and jaunty step, he knew she was hurting. And he would have given his last dime to be able to soothe the hurt away. Tess was so used to giving to others, and people were so accustomed to taking from her that he suspected that no one ever considered that Tess had needs of her own. She was as strong and gutsy as any woman he’d ever known, but she needed someone to take care of her sometimes. She needed him.
Dan rose and smiled at her, hoping that the love and concern he felt shone in his face. “I was saving that tale for you.” He helped her into her chair.
Ivan stood. “I make my best French toast just for you. Don’t start the story until I get back.” He strode from the room.
Tess glanced at the two older women. “I’m sorry Aunt Olivia, Aunt Martha. It looks like your plans for Pirate’s Pleasure are out the window.”
Olivia shrugged and gave a dismissing wave of her hand. “Easy come, easy go. Don’t sweat it.”
Martha reached across and patted Tess’s hand. “Oh, pooh, Tess, what did two old ladies need with a racehorse anyway? If you want to know the truth, horses are really very messy, smelly creatures. Aren’t they, Olivia?”
Olivia nodded. “Piles and piles of very smelly mess.”
Hook’s gold tooth gleamed as a grin split his face. He poured Tess a cup of coffee and passed it to her. “I want to hear about your brush with the law.”
“Not till I get back!” Ivan shouted from the kitchen.
By the time breakfast was over, Tess and Dan had everyone laughing at the embroidered version of their exploits. Each tried to outdo the other as they related their quest.
“Police! Freeze!” Ivan boomed, then slapped the table as he guffawed. “I wish I could have seen the looks on your faces.”
“Danny”—concern wrinkled Martha’s brow as she leaned over to her grandson—”does this mean you’ll have a record?”
He laughed. “I think I can still pass for a solid citize
n, Gram.” He glanced over at Tess, who looked like she had had all the phony joie de vivre she could handle for a while. “Tess,” he said, rising, “next week is my sister Kathy’s birthday. I thought I’d go shopping for something on the Strand, and I need some help picking out a proper gift. Would you come along?”
“Danny, I’d love—” Martha jumped and gave a little yelp. She glanced at Olivia, then pursed her lips into a tight pucker.
Hook’s gold tooth flashed, and Ivan became acutely interested in his fingernails.
“Yes, Gram?”
Martha shot Olivia a haughty look and said, “I was just going to say that I’d love for you and Tess to pick out something for me to send Kathy as well.”
“Let’s go,” Tess answered. “I’m in the mood for some shopping.”
She jumped up, waved good-bye, and headed out the door with Dan in tow before anyune else could say a word. She was glad to escape for a while. Her disappointment would fade with time, someday she would be able to look back over their exploits and truly laugh, but just now the wounds were too fresh to keep pouring salt over them by talking about it and forcing laughter she didn’t truly feel. For the rest of the day, she didn’t even want to think about buried treasure.
They drove Buttercup to the Strand and parked on a side street.
“What kind of things does Kathy like?”
“What does every woman like? Clothes and jewelry. But she always complains that everything I buy for her is too conservative.”
Tess grinned. “Nobody has ever accused me of that.”
Dan laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He pulled a picture of Kathy from his wallet and handed it to Tess. “All of her sizes are on the back.”
She studied the photograph of the pretty strawberry blond, who shared a more feminine version of Dan’s features, then turned it over and glanced at her statistics. “I know just the thing. It’s in the shop on the corner.”
They got out and walked the half block to Morgan’s. Once inside, she greeted the owner of the campy boutique and headed for a rack of silk separates. Flipping through the clothes for the proper sizes, she selected a gossamer-fine jacket of celery-colored silk, handpainted with dramatic coral lotus blossoms, and a matching camisole, pants, and skirt in solid celery.