Of Gold & Blood Series 2 Books 1 & 4

by Jenny Wheeler

“With our sincerest condolences for your loss,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry to intrude at a time like this, but I think we have some mutual interests that might benefit both of us, which can’t wait.”

  Lisette nodded and bent down to the little girl at her side. “Seraphine—this is Minette,” she said in a half whisper. “Why don’t you take her to play with your dolls in your room?”

  The two little girls considered each other for a few seconds, and then Seraphine took Minette’s hand and led her out of the sitting room.

  Graysie turned as if to follow them and then checked herself. “They won’t go outside will they? I want them within hearing.”

  Lisette shook her head. “They’ll just be in the next room.” She sighed. “It’s all been such a dreadful shock. We have no family here…” As she gestured for them to sit, her voice, lightly accented with her original French, trailed off.

  “We won’t impose, Mrs. Guilliame. We are grateful you are willing to see us,” said Nathan.

  Lisette Guilliame gave him a pained stare, but she gulped in a breath and gave a wan smile. “Thank you Mr. Russell. Andre’s death has turned our lives upside down, but I must carry on for the sake of my daughter. That’s what Andre would have wanted. But I’m sure you are not here to talk about that.”

  Nathan nodded in sympathetic agreement. “If you feel able, we would like to talk to you about the Ruby Mine. I understand your husband was very involved in managing the operation. Miss Castellanos has inherited shares in the Ophir next door, and we are just wondering what’s been happening with the Ruby over the last six months or so.”

  Mrs. Guilliame sighed. “That mine! Sometimes I wish Andre had never laid eyes on it. He did very well out of it, I appreciate that. But if he hadn’t been there that day when the timbers caved in…”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I had no idea…”

  Nathan felt a fool for not being better informed, but Lisette Guilliame took no offense.

  “Oh, Andre wasn’t killed in the mine, but he got a very bad leg fracture that became infected. He died from complications several months later.”

  Graysie cleared her throat. “Things hadn’t been going so well at the mine, is that right?” she said with a sympathetic smile

  Lisette Guilliame nodded. “Not for a year or more. The ore Andre was getting was poor quality. It wasn’t paying enough to cover the costs of extracting it. Then the manager he had working for him left, and he couldn’t afford to replace him, so he tried to fill in himself.

  “He couldn’t afford to do the maintenance that was needed. In the end, the timber just gave way. Andre was standing nearby when it did. He was confined to bed for weeks. With him injured and not enough money coming in to pay workers, we had no choice but to close the mine.”

  Nathan nodded in understanding. “What will you do? Would you consider selling up?”

  Lisette fingered the black fringe on the sofa arm nervously. “To tell you the truth, Mr. Russell, I’ve already had an approach from the man who used to manage the mine for us. Andre owned a majority share but there is one other shareholder—the manager I spoke of who left us a year ago. Octavius Weavers.

  “For a time he was willing to accept mine shares instead of wages. We couldn’t afford to pay him, you see, so Andre kept giving him more shares. By the time he left, he owned thirty-three percent of the Ruby.

  “Now I am worried he is going to sell his share and leave me exposed. I can’t do anything with the mine myself. I want to just sell up here and go home to France where Seraphine can be with her grandparents and cousins.”

  Her breath quickened, and Russell noticed a fine sheen of sweat on her cheeks and forehead.

  “Lately, this Weavers has been badgering me. Telling me the mine is worthless and that my shares are worthless too. He says I’d be best to just sell them for what I can get. He claims he has someone who is interested in buying them, but he won’t say who. And when I said I did not think what he was offering was enough, he got nasty. He hinted I should be grateful for the offer or I might be sorry.”

  “You have no notion who this mystery buyer is?” Nathan asked.

  “Mr. Weavers says the buyer insists on anonymity,” Mrs. Guilliame said. “It is so difficult, no, to decide? Andre certainly believed the mine was worth a good deal more than what’s been offered.”

  Nathan nodded. “And just to be clear—this secretive purchaser is also buying Weaver’s shares, so whoever it is will own one hundred percent?”

  “I understand so,” she said.

  “Doesn’t that compromise Mr. Weavers in negotiating a sale on your behalf? What is to stop him getting a good price for himself and then pushing you to accept a lot less? You can see that an unscrupulous buyer might suggest to Weavers that if he got you to settle for a low price he’d get a pay-off?”

  Her eyes widened in sudden comprehension. “You know I hadn’t thought of it that way… but you are right, of course. I have had such a bad feeling about this whole thing. And then for him to hint something horrible might happen to us if we stayed here much longer… It is like he is trying to frighten me into taking the money and disappearing.”

  Nathan felt his heart thump so loudly he was sure it was bumping his rib cage. “Surely no one in Grass Valley would intend harm?”

  Lisette Guilliame darted an uncertain glance at Graysie, and when she spoke next it was much more quietly. “It is safe to mention this, yes?” When Graysie nodded, she said in a whisper, “He said I should be careful or the same thing might happen to Seraphine that happened to the other little girl. Except I wouldn’t get Seraphine back.”

  “No!” Graysie half rose in shock and took a few steps towards the door, then pivoted and paced back. “I can’t believe… Is it possible…?”

  Nathan stood and led her back to the sofa where she’d sat before. She slowly sank back.

  “When was this?” he asked.

  “This morning. He has called before, but he was furieux—furious—today. He said the buyer was losing patience.”

  Nathan had the sensation of things moving too fast to process. His pulse was racing like it did after he’d been sprinting. The chatter of childish giggling sounded through the wall. At least the girls were having a good time.

  Even as he listened to their childish delight, Nathan felt his stomach clamp tight. There was nothing random about the hit on the hotelier. Suddenly he had to ask the question—had he unwittingly led the assassin to Madam Ring’s hiding place?

  Come to think of it, was it possible he was the prime target, and Madam M was just unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Had he been looking at everything from the wrong end of the telescope? And had he now led the killers to Lisette Guilliame’s door?

  He turned to the French widow. “Mrs Guilliame, could I ask you, did you commission anyone to do a report on the Ruby recently?”

  Lisette Guilliame ran her hands through her hair with a distracted air. “Report? No. Nothing like that. Why?”

  Nathan looked at Graysie and shook his head. “Just wondering. No real reason.”

  No point in making her more anxious, but he was certain he’d guessed the relevance of Vance Pederson’s last whispered words. Not Ruth, but Ruby. It wasn’t a woman he was remembering, it was a mine.

  Sixteen

  “You what?” John Russell lowered the double barrelled shotgun he’d raised to fire and stared at Nathan, who stood outside the low fenced circle that marked the boundary of the shooting range. Vulcan was one of the two French hounds that circled them with excited yaps, eager for the chance to collect killed or wounded birds.

  “I went to see the French widow who owns sixty-seven percent of the Ruby mine this morning. She’s under a lot of pressure from Octavius Weavers to sell cheap to a mystery buyer. He threatened to make her daughter ‘disappear’ like Minette.”

  “He what?” John’s head jerked back and his spine stiffened. He gave a low whistle. “Unbelievable.”

 
; A thin, grubby boy of eleven or twelve who crouched a few feet away with a rock pigeon cupped in his hands, ready to release it on command.

  “Hold the bird, boy.”

  John leaned his gun up against the fence and stepped out of the shooting circle. The dogs followed excitedly, and Vulcan nudged Nathan’s hand. He stroked the dog’s silky head as he waited for his brother to respond.

  John’s reluctance last night to believe that Willoughby Martens was a fraudster still felt like a kick in the guts, but over the last few days Nathan had sensed a reawakening of the bonds formed during their Hong Kong years. Thanks to Arabella. She had a motherly instinct that had defused their petty rivalries and drawn them all together, and Nathan knew John still thought highly of her.

  “Is that right? He said what exactly?”

  “That she’d better be careful or her girl would disappear ‘like that other one’ but she wouldn’t be so lucky, she wouldn’t come back.”

  John stabbed at the ground in front of him with the toe of his riding boot. “If that’s how it is, she needs protection. I’m still trying to process the implication that Minette was kidnapped. That there was no mistake, like someone accidentally leaving a door open.”

  Nathan nodded. “The other thing is, it’s come to me what Vance Pedersen was trying to say when he died. You know Graysie heard him whisper something that sounded like a woman’s name—Ruth or Ruby, she thought at the time. It should have occurred to me earlier than this, but I bet it was the Ruby mine he was thinking about. And I’d wager his death has something to do with that mine as well.”

  “I respect your instincts, Nathan, I really do… but… I wonder if the upheavals you’ve suffered this last twelve months or so…” He put one foot up on the lower rung of the wooden fence and gazed over the field.

  “Well, I hate to say it, old boy, but have they affected your judgment? This just all seems so, well, far fetched.”

  Nathan felt the slow burn of anger in the pit of his stomach but fought to keep his voice low and controlled. “Upheavals? We’re not back on this tack are we, John? Firstly isn’t it more about the fact that you don’t want to give up on your dealings with Martens in case you lose a few precious dollars?”

  John blanched. “Now steady, old chap. That’s not fair.”

  “Isn’t it?” Nathan’s blood was roaring in his ears, the rage dictating his words. “What’s not fair is you hinting that, what, I’m unstable? My judgment can’t be trusted? You can’t dispute the fact that he was dismissed for embezzlement. Why would you want to do business with a man like that?”

  He clenched his fists and turned sharply away so his brother wouldn’t see how hurt he was. When he’d recovered his equilibrium, he swung back to stare John down.

  “No, old boy, my judgment is not unhinged by the deaths of my wife and son or my stepfather’s suicide.” He spat the words out. “The things I’ve gone through have forced the carefree adventurer to grow up faster than he might have done. And maybe made me appreciate life more. Having a shotgun leveled at your chest tends to do that for a man.”

  John shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not trying to minimize what you’ve been through, Nathan, believe me. And I take your point about Martens. You’re right.”

  Nathan let another half minute lapse and added, “When I think it could be a woman or child facing that gun… Well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

  John flicked at a beetle that had landed on the sleeve of his coat. The day was fast heating up, and grass flies buzzed around their faces. “Do you really think it could come to that? Because if you do, then yes, I agree. We can’t just do nothing.”

  Nathan picked up a stick Vulcan had dropped at his feet and threw it down the orchard. Both dogs took off in a rush to chase it.

  John watched the animals, tails waving, for a minute or two, deep in thought. Then he turned and stepped over the fence back into the ring. He took a stance with his gun pointed skyward and yelled, “Boy. Release!”

  The boy leapt up, twirling on his toes as he lifted the bird into the air and released it. A plump blue-feathered pigeon flapped energetically, rising fast before momentarily pausing in flight to sense the direction of the sun.

  Two shots in quick succession set off an alarmed clamor from the pheasants in the nearby field as the pigeon fell with a plop to the grass inside the circle.

  “Release!”

  In quick succession, the boy released four more birds from a lidded basket at his feet, and four more birds landed within the circle. As the fifth bird dropped, John lowered his gun with a satisfied grin. As if on cue, the dogs loped over to the dead and dying birds. Gathering them one at a time in their mouths, they returned them to the boy, who put them in the basket as John watched.

  “Take them to the kitchen, Jeb,” he instructed as he turned back to Nathan. “Why don’t you go visit Willie Watson? He knows more about the old mines around here than anyone except maybe Vance, and I think he once did some work on the Ruby. He might have a clue what’s going on. But be careful, Nathan. Why don’t you take Vulcan with you? He’s taken a shine to you, and he might be useful. And make sure you’re armed.”

  He wandered over to Nathan and punched him affectionately on the shoulder. “Look, I do respect your judgment. The things that are going on—they’re just so extreme, and it’s hard to understand why a clapped-out mine could be so desirable. But let’s not allow that to get in the way of us reconnecting.

  He turned towards the house and gestured for Nathan to precede him up the path. “We’re only just getting to know each other after all these years. I’d hate to lose that after having just found it again. Now let’s go and have some pigeon pie for lunch.”

  Seventeen

  Straight after lunch, Nathan loaded a jubilant Vulcan in the buggy and headed up the mountain road to Willie Watson’s cabin, but the place was deserted. He’d have to try him again later. He decided he’d go and take a poke at Octavius Weavers, the middleman who’d been pressing Lisette Guilliame to sell cheap.

  An hour later, he arrived at Burnadetti and Co., the local assay house which combined selling mining supplies with analyzing and transporting gold. Weavers was a burly man with a pugnacious manner, and he wasn’t happy when Nathan turned up at his workplace.

  “I don’t care who you are, I can’t talk now,” he snarled when Nathan told him he wanted to ask him about the Ruby. “I’ve got work to do. And the Ruby is none of your business.”

  Nathan skewered him with an intense stare. “It is if I want to buy shares. Or would you rather I spoke to the Widow Guilliame directly?”

  Weavers narrowed his eyes and abruptly turned on his heel and left the room. Nathan could hear him yelling to someone in the back office. “I’ve got some business down the street, Xavier. Keep an eye on the front, will you?” He grabbed up his hat and stepped around Nathan and shouldered his way through, throwing his voice back as he shouldered the door. “You coming or not?”

  They entered a nearby billiards saloon and settled at the end of the bar farthest away from the felt-covered games tables.

  “So what about the Ruby? What’s it to you? And who wants to know?” Weavers started belligerently.

  “My name is Nathan Russell, brother of Sir John, visiting from Australia. I have a particular interest in mines. And I hear on the grapevine there could be Ruby Mine shares coming up for sale. Firstly, is that correct?”

  Nathan watched as Weavers licked his lips and considered his response.

  “Could be. That widow isn’t going to be able to do anything with them now, is she? But there’s already an interested party out there who’s expressed a willingness to buy… at a certain price.” His face took on a self-satisfied glow. “She don’t want them going to some ordinary cove.”

  “Oh no? And what about your shares? Are they still available?”

  Weavers stiffened. “My shares are already spoken for, by that same gentleman. I don’t even know who he is. P
robably an out-of-towner. Got an agent working on his behalf he has.”

  “I see. And you’re satisfied with the price? ’Cause the mine ran out of ore, the way I heard it. Hasn’t been working for nearly a year. But you’d know that because that’s how you got the shares in the first place isn’t it? Guilliame couldn’t afford to pay you.”

  “That’s right. But there’s things down there he didn’t know about, ain’t there? I had time to look into it good and proper. Reckon you could be getting a good deal more out of that property.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Nathan made a show of taking notes in a small notebook he pulled from his coat pocket along with a stubby pencil. Weavers frowned and bit his lip. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh, just making a few notes about the possible value for when I go and see the widow. If your shares are not available then I’ll need to make her an offer instead, won’t I?”

  “No, you can’t do that… I mean she’s in mourning and everything. She’s asked me to deal with the sale for her. And as I say, the interested party wants hers as well, so there isn’t anything to buy.”

  Nathan ignored him and stared at a spot just beyond the edge of the table they sat at, as if he was already figuring how much he would need to invest to get things going.

  “How many men did you have working it when you were the mine manager? Just trying to do some figuring on costs.”

  Weavers bristled. “I told you, it’s not for sale. Someone has already made a very good offer that we’ve—me and her—accepted.”

  Nathan stared at him with studied disbelief. “Oh, come now, Mr. Weavers, you’re a smart man. You’ve been around in business. You know the deal isn’t done till the money changes hands. What if I want the Ruby so much I’m willing to pay more than this cove you’re talking to? You wouldn’t turn down good money, would you?

  “You certainly shouldn’t be turning it down on the widow’s behalf—Lord knows she’ll be needing every penny she can get, being without her husband and with a child and all…”