Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting)

by Love Under Two Lawmen (lit)

  “How much gold was in the shipment?” Warren asked.

  “The official report put the estimate at about a quarter of a million dollars,” Adam said.

  “A quarter of a million dollars?” Amanda shook her head slowly. “According to my father, it was a great deal more than that.”

  All gazes turned to Sarah. Clearly, everyone wanted to carry on with the discussion. Everyone’s interest had been captured. Amanda wouldn’t mind getting on with her revelations, either, and waited to see what her cousin would say.

  “My goodness you men are like children eager to tear into their gifts on Christmas morning.” Sarah rolled her eyes, then looked at Amanda. “It would appear these men will not rest until you share your legacy,” she said.

  “The book is in my carpet bag,” Amanda said. “I’ll go get it.”

  * * * *

  Warren loved seeing Adam excited.

  He didn’t have the same connection to the gold as the others did. He’d been a clerk in the War Department and hadn’t faced the same dangers as his lover and their friends. But their excitement infected him. No longer content to just sit on the sidelines, he got up from his chair to stand behind Adam and read over his shoulder.

  Adam wanted to begin at the start of the journal, of course, and read chronologically.

  “Here, listen to this.” He looked up at Warren for a moment before casting his gaze back to the yellowed page before him.

  “I knew as soon as I saw him that Jeff was deeply troubled. He said nothing as he poured two glasses of whisky. He offered me one, then gestured to the chair, impatience on his face.

  ‘We were friends before I came into this accursed office, Bill,’ he said. ‘Now I am about to leave it, and the broth of failure is a bitter brew indeed.’

  ‘We stood nobly against the forces of Northern aggression,’ I assured him. ‘We did our best. There should be no shame in that.’

  ‘But there is, and nothing more I can do on that front. I’ve called you here for a specific reason. I’ve arranged for the rest of our monetary reserves to be gathered together, and I will leave Richmond in accompaniment of the shipment. We gave our word to the French we would repay their loan, win or lose. If our struggle, our suffering, is to stand for anything, then our word must be honored.’

  ‘Of course.’ There was no question of this in my mind whatsoever. Apparently, though, there had been great discussion amongst members of the cabinet. They felt the gold should be kept here, some desiring to use it to rebuild after the devastation of war, others to set aside against a future day when we could resume our crusade. And others wanted the money for themselves. It was this last group Jeff feared would have their way, for they had already departed for Savannah, even now conspiring to liberate the shipment before it reached the docks. Clearly, action needed to be taken.

  “I understood what Jeff was asking of me. I would need help, and of course there was only one man I would consider having by my side and at my back. So I took my good friend Robert into my confidence and told him of this one final duty to our country and our president.”

  “That has to be Robert Montgomery,” Joshua said.

  Amanda nodded. “Yes, it was.” When all gazes looked at her, she shrugged. “Sorry. I have read the journal several times. I almost have it memorized.”

  “Well, hush,” Adam said.

  Warren smiled, even as he noted that Sarah looked nearly aghast. Amanda, though, just chuckled. Her cheeks took on a bit of pink, and he was reminded how appealing she was when his cock stirred to life.

  Thank God he was standing behind Adam so no one would notice.

  Adam continued to read.

  “Robert and I chose but a few men, men who’d served with us faithfully. The President acted upon my suggestion and placed Captain Billy Parker, one of our best naval officers, in charge of the expedition that was to escort the gold. We waited until dusk, and then the ten of us, dressed as plain, common farmers, stole into the campsite and surrounded the officers. As I had hoped, Billy recognized me. He immediately ordered his men to stand down and to lower their eyes.

  “From the moment we made ourselves known until we were leading the wagons away, not even a half hour had passed.”

  Adam stopped and looked over at Caleb. “You questioned Captain Parker, didn’t you?”

  “I did. He swore that the bandits got the drop on him, ordered him to tell his men—they were not much more than boys, if memory serves—to stand down and avert their eyes.”

  Adam nodded slowly. “Legend has it the gold is still in the South, buried somewhere in Georgia or South Carolina.”

  “It’s not,” Amanda said softly.

  “Does he tell us where, exactly?”

  “No. His entry soon turns cryptic. But there’s a reason for that.”

  Warren said, “Because his friend tried to turn on him?”

  “How did you guess?” Amanda wanted to know.

  “Because I know men,” Warren said. “We’ve all known some that would do almost anything for money.”

  Warren would never forget what that bastard Tyrone Maddox had done to him and had planned to do to Sarah. Judging by the looks exchanged between them, he suspected that neither of the Benedicts ever would forget it.

  “He only makes one entry during the trip,” Amanda said.

  Adam returned to the journal. He found that entry and read it aloud.

  “We knew they’d search for us, and for our cargo. So instead of heading south, we went West. Robert left the route up to me, and I fell back on my early days, one of my first postings, before I convinced Father to send me to West Point. It seemed an appropriate choice, poetic justice, if you will. And so we who were, in a way, exiled, walked in the steps of those we ourselves exiled, and our tears, though shed inwardly, were just as real as theirs. Bell’s route seemed the best. And I knew that our precious cargo, that which had been entrusted to us, would be safe amid the ruins of an ancient people.”

  “That is cryptic,” Sarah said.

  “I have to admit that part confused me completely at first. But I’m good at figuring out puzzles.”

  “So what does it mean?” Warren asked.

  “Well, I had to do some investigating. I looked into Colonel Gladstone’s military record, and then I had to do some digging into some events of the last few decades. And when I did that, I figured it out.” She paused, and Warren could see her excitement. She fairly vibrated with it.

  “Bell was John Bell, who led a smaller group of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia to the Indian Territory on a march that has become known as—”

  “The Trail of Tears,” Sarah said softly.

  “Yes,” Amanda confirmed. “The group had a military escort, and a member of that escort was young William Gladstone. According to the information I was able to uncover, while the military escort left them at the border to the Indian Territory, they understood the Indians would continue on until they got to the heart of the new Cherokee Nation.”

  “Tahlequah,” Adam said, nodding. “It makes perfect sense. But that is one hell of a big area to search.”

  “Seems to me there are a lot of places—caves, trails, blinds—a man could get lost in that area if he wasn’t careful,” Caleb said.

  “There’s more. You have to read the rest of it. The last page.” Amanda said that quietly. Warren knew whatever was coming next wouldn’t be pleasant.

  “I don’t know how or why I awakened in the middle of the night. I only know that doing so saved my life. I awakened on my side, blinking my eyes until I could discern the shapes in the night. I recognized my old friend by his profile. Robert Montgomery moved stealthily, and at first I didn’t understand what he was doing as he crouched beside each man in turn. But then I did, and anger such as I have never felt surged through me, giving me almost superhuman control. He meant to see us all dead and to take unto himself that which was given us in trust.

  “I had adopted the habit of falling asleep with my
long Bowie knife close to hand after being startled awake by a rattlesnake earlier on the trail. Now I would use it on another kind of snake, just as vile, just as treacherous as that one encountered by Eve in the Garden of Eden.

  “Afterward, I had no shovel with which to dig the graves. It took me two days to place all the bodies of my men in the cave, to tuck them under the overhang with the hidden bullion. Robert’s body I left to the wild creatures, loath to place a murderer with his victims. I set the rest of the horses to running wildly on their own, their empty wagons clattering behind them, and I turned my wagon for home.”

  “Oh, my God,” Sarah said softly. “That’s horrible.” She dashed a tear off her cheek.

  “It is horrible,” Warren said. “And very sad. Because of the nature of the mission, he wouldn’t have been able to tell those men’s loved ones of their deaths.” Warren understood that women who were carrying sometimes became emotional, but he wanted to let Sarah know she wasn’t alone in those feelings in this instance.

  “The last thing I’ll show you is the letter that accompanied the journal.” Amanda’s face colored again as she handed the paper to Adam. After meeting her gaze for a moment, he opened it and read.

  “It is the curse of men that wisdom comes not when it would be of most benefit, but rather at the end of a life, when its epiphany brings only regrets.

  “I have learned, in these last few years, that I have devoted myself to a cause to which, among my peers, I alone seem to have remained loyal. I portrayed myself a servant of a genteel and honorable society, and I have discovered all that I believed in, in that regard, to have been proven false. For those who have garnered public respect are in fact the most perfidious of creatures, while those reviled openly are complete innocents.

  “I regret, daughter, my failure to claim you as my own when it would have made a difference in your life. Despite the report of the gossipmongers, I know of your virtue and your pursuit of learning and your achievements. I know that you consider yourself a seeker of truth, and although I have no right to claim it, I am proud of you.

  “These words and this gesture may not atone for my sins, but I pray that they will prove a source of solace and fortune. When we took possession of the gold bullion, its true estimated value was in excess of one million dollars. Today, its very existence is doubted by many and claimed to be hidden by yet others. Since the cause for which it was amassed and concealed no longer exists, I see no reason it cannot belong to whomever manages to find it and claim it. Consider it your legacy. Your father, William Everett Gladstone.”

  When Adam set the letter aside, Amanda said, “And that is why I am here. I had hoped that you’d be able to come with me on this treasure hunt.”

  Sarah smiled. “I don’t think that’s possible. But Caleb and Joshua…”

  “As much as a part of me would love to set off, the rest of me has no intention of leaving you for even a day,” Caleb said.

  “I feel the same way,” Joshua said.

  “We’ll go.”

  Adam’s declaration didn’t surprise Warren in the least. Adam looked up at him and he nodded. Then Adam turned back to Amanda.

  “Warren and I will go with you in return for half of the treasure.”

  Chapter 5

  “You’re a Ranger. Don’t you have to…do Ranger things or something?” Amanda’s thoughts whirled at a dizzying speed. “How can you just drop everything and come with me?” In truth, the idea of spending time alone with these two men made her insides flutter. Just thinking about them, just being near them made her skin tingle and her breath catch.

  Amanda possessed a little more knowledge than the average virgin about the intimate goings-on between men and women. Her mother had always been very frank and honest with her, describing not only the actions, but the feelings of attraction and sexual interest. Not being a hypocrite, her mother had never demanded that she stay away from men. In fact, the chances of Amanda making a decent marriage were slim. People had judged her to be exactly like her mother, and that was just how things had always been.

  Amanda had promised herself she would remain a virgin unless and until she met a man who could make her feel those delicious sensations her mother had described to her. Up until this afternoon when she’d arrived in Waco, Texas, no man ever had.

  It didn’t escape her sense of irony, either, that not just one, but two men had accomplished that feat. Two men who were already in love with each other.

  “Amanda has a point,” Caleb said. “Can you just…go?”

  Adam exhaled and fixed his gaze on Warren. When that man nodded, Adam shrugged. “I got a letter a couple of days ago from headquarters. I’ve been given a promotion to Major and transferred to Austin. They’ve given me a month to get my affairs here wound up.” He paused and looked from Warren to the Benedicts.

  “Everyone I care about is here. I don’t want to go to Austin.”

  “Adam and I have been talking for some time about getting a place of our own, farther from town. I’m not much of a rancher, but I could learn. Or maybe I could offer legal services—sort of like a traveling lawyer—to folks not near a city.”

  “How many times have I told you that we’ll gladly sell you some of our land? We have more than we need—” Sarah sounded frustrated, and Amanda could tell this was an old argument.

  “And we would gladly accept your offer if you charged us a fair price for that land and if we had the money to buy it.”

  “Stubborn.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Adam said.

  Amanda was impressed with the gentleness with which Adam answered her cousin. He shook his head, then looked at Amanda.

  “Maybe we won’t find that gold. But maybe we will. I have no doubt as to the authenticity of Gladstone’s account. I know the general area where he hid the bullion. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the three of us, on horseback, should be able to make the round trip in a bit more than a couple of months.”

  Amanda stared at Adam. “A couple of months? On horseback?”

  “Don’t tell me you can’t ride.”

  “Yes, I can ride. My mother arranged for me to learn to ride, and in fact, I’ve done so nearly every week for the past couple of years. But even I know that is a far cry from spending day after day in the saddle.”

  “Well, if you can’t do it—”

  “I never said I couldn’t do it! I can do it!” She narrowed her eyes at Adam. At this moment, the wonderful physical feelings this man caused in her didn’t match the degree to which he could fire her temper and get her mad.

  “We’d need supplies. Did you plan for that?”

  Oh, this man really did know how to stir her temper to epic proportions. “The journal wasn’t the only thing William Gladstone left me, I’ll remind you.” She nodded her head. In fact, she’d expected to have to hire guides as well as pay for supplies. “I brought one thousand dollars with me.”

  “Jesus Christ!”

  “What?”

  “You traveled alone, all the way from Richmond, carrying a thousand dollars? Are you crazy?”

  Amanda opened her mouth and then shut it again. Sometime in the last couple of minutes, she’d gotten to her feet and now stood toe-to-toe with the Texas Ranger. It suddenly occurred to her that everyone else in the room was watching this exchange between her and Adam with all the attention of spectators at the opera. Or a bull fight. Warren wore a big smile, but the other three just looked intrigued.

  “I am not crazy,” she said between clenched teeth.

  “No? What would you have done if some yahoo had come up to you and threatened to rob you? Crowded close like I am now and demanded your money…and your virtue?”

  “I’d have shown him this.”

  The movement was smooth and swift from practice, because despite what the infuriating, gorgeous man in front of her thought, she did know to be careful and she did know how to take care of herself.

  That was just one more thing her mother had seen to.<
br />
  She bent slightly, lifted her right boot, and pulled out her knife, whipping it to within an inch of Adam Kendall’s face.

  Adam’s eyes widened as he took a step back. She had to admit it felt good to surprise him.

  Caleb whistled. “That is some Arkansas toothpick you have there, Miss Dupree.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Benedict. I’m rather fond of Pocahontas, myself.”

  “You named your knife after an Indian princess?” Warren asked.

  “Well,” Amanda smiled at his tone of incredulity, “we are both Virginian women, are we not? And surely a good poke is this one’s specialty.”

  “I hope you know how to use that thing.” Adam had recovered his aplomb, and Amanda knew that she was coming to really like the man, despite his talent for riling her.

  “Yes. My mother arranged for me to take lessons from an expert. I can take care of myself, Adam.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “You gentlemen are staying over, aren’t you? Caleb said it looked like rain, and you’ve already traveled a great deal today.” Sarah turned her attention to Amanda and smiled. “That’s one of the good things about having such a big house with lots of bedrooms. I can always offer to put friends up.”

  “Thank you, Sarah,” Adam answered her. “I think we’re both too tired to travel any more tonight.”

  Amanda looked to her hostess. “Speaking of tired, I hate to be a boring guest, but I’m exhausted.”

  “Of course you must be. And there’s certainly no need to apologize. If I had been a proper hostess I’d have sent you to rest soon after you arrived.” Sarah got to her feet. “So I’ll show you to your room now.”

  Amanda needed some sleep before she tried to engage any further in a battle of wits with the appealing Captain Kendall. And if Warren Jessop continued to look at her with that sweet expression…well, sleep was just an excellent idea all the way around. No way could she get into trouble if she went to her room and straight to sleep.

  “We’ll begin to plan our expedition in the morning,” Adam said as she neared the door to the dining room.