Of Gold & Blood Series 2 Books 1 & 4

by Jenny Wheeler

  No! She was not going to accept that their situation was hopeless. She wrenched herself forward a few inches, putting space between herself and the hateful intimate pressure at her back.

  Martens seemed momentarily shocked at her audacity and then pulled her tight again, pressing the gun even harder against her temple. At the same time he lent down and hissed in her ear, “Stand still or he dies.”

  Nathan was standing five or six feet away, still advancing at the same slow drumbeat pace, seemingly daring Martens to pull the gun away from her temple and shoot him. Graysie braced herself for the confrontation.

  “I feel sick,” she rasped. “I can’t help it. I’m going to be sick.” She made a retching noise in her throat.

  She felt Martens freeze and involuntarily step back. The moment was here. Nathan sprang forward. She plunged her hand into her skirt and pulled out the Derringer, ducking under Martens’s arm as she did. In a flash she had the little pistol pressed hard and close under his ribs.

  Nathan had anticipated her move, and as she spun and ducked he brought a stiff upper cut to Martens’s gun arm, jolting it upwards. The gun exploded with a roar, and fragments of rock rained down on them. The gun rattled uselessly on the gravel ridge beside them. She pressed her pistol harder into Martens’s gut.

  He leered at her, his lips stuck in a sneer that seemed to fill his whole face. In the strange twilight his eyes were a strange hateful yellow.

  “Go on then. Do it. Kill me.” The words rang with contempt. “Bet you can’t do it.”

  They stood like that, suspended in time. And then, purposefully, he placed his meaty hand over her much smaller one and squeezed the trigger.

  Fifty Five

  Monday, July 27

  After they’d had time to luxuriate in hot baths, sleep as long as they wished, and to eat and recover their equilibrium—although Graysie was unsure how long that last item was truly going to take—they gathered together around the table in a private dining room at the Orleans.

  Basil and Alycia, who had been mortified to discover their names had been used to lure Graysie into jeopardy, joined them, but Hector de Vile was not invited. As the investigating deputy, Sebastian took the lead role, and over a long, lazy beef and pork pie lunch he gave them a full account of how he saw the saga of the Ophir and Ruby mines playing out.

  Graysie sat between Alycia and Nathan, feeling numb and strangely disconnected from everything going on around her. Despite the warmth of the day, she was shivering. She’d only slept in short snatches. Every time she’d drifted into deeper rest she’d jerked awake with one memory playing over and over again.

  The pistol exploding under Martens’s crushing fist, the warm blood flooding over her hand as Martens crumpled beneath it. She snuck an anxious sidelong look at Nathan, but he was fully engaged in what his brother was saying.

  “De Vile originally heard about Vance Pedersen’s assay reports because he sent his samples through Burnadetti and Co,” Seb was saying.

  “I suspect he was doing the report for Andre Guilliame, though Andre hadn’t mentioned that to Lisette. They may have even been considering working the property together, but then of course Andre was injured. And Vance didn’t have the money to buy her out, so he parked the report.”

  He shot a look around the table and caught Graysie’s eye. “Of course that’s where Octavius Weavers came in. He was in charge of their assay program,” said Sebastian.

  “That information should have remained confidential, but somehow Weavers found out. That in itself isn’t so surprising, we all know it happens. But when Weavers suggested to de Vile that he should take advantage of the situation, that’s when it crossed over into the dark side.”

  He paused and took a sip of water from his glass.

  “I suppose, with the mines owned by a grieving widow on the one hand and an absent and then more recently deceased owner on the other, they saw it as a perfect opportunity for might to triumph over right.

  “De Vile has a reputation for being ruthless when it comes to grabbing lucrative properties. They basically went in and helped themselves, based on what they’d been able to glean from Vance’s assays.”

  The dining room door opened. Sebastian waited for the hotel staff to collect their empty lunch plates and then bring in the dessert—a holiday trifle with candied cranberries. For a few minutes their attention was distracted as they loaded their dessert dishes with the delicious concoction, but gradually attention returned to Sebastian.

  “Thing was, although they got a sniff of the value, they had no grasp of its true depths, because Vance was wily. He obscured the most detailed information by separating his report into two parts; one section contained records of dozens of samples he had taken along the line of the ore outcrops in different parts of the mine. He recorded the actual readings of those samples in a separate document he concealed in the chess board.

  “To fully understand what you were looking at, you needed both documents, and you needed to cross-reference them. Only with the two together did you have a complete assay plan noting the ore values and calculating the reserves.

  “With both of those documents together Vance was able to reach a highly scientific assessment of the total value of the blocks.”

  Sebastian viewed Basil and Alycia, further down the table. “I’m sure as an experienced mine owner you’ll appreciate just how valuable those details are when they are married up.”

  Basil gave him an appreciative smile. “Most certainly. And I’m impressed they went to such lengths to assess the potential. I suppose when Graysie turned up asking questions they had to silence Vance. It’s just a shame Eustace died before he understood the Ophir’s full significance.” Basil gently squeezed Alycia’s hand, which rested on the table beside him, as he spoke of her brother.

  Sebastian nodded. “As for the mayhem that erupted after Graysie arrived and made it known she intended to try and re-open the mine? I’ve concluded that was mostly Willoughby Martens’s doing.

  “De Vile was certainly in on the plan to abduct Minette. Amazingly he saw it as a justifiable way to exert pressure on a commercial rival. But after that, Martens ran amok and de Vile wasn’t able to control him.”

  He looked around the table. “It’s a sad thing to say about another human being, but he did us all a favor by pulling that trigger.”

  Graysie felt her heart lurch and her eyes filled with unshed tears. She took a deep breath and willed herself to keep a tight rein on herself. What was wrong with her? Martens was a monster who certainly would have faced the hangman if he hadn’t executed his own end, so why was she so upset?

  She felt Nathan watching her, but she couldn’t look at him. She was frightened that if she glimpsed his sympathetic eyes she would burst out crying. She stared at her empty dessert dish as the room fell silent.

  She had wanted to save Nathan, and in a roundabout way she’d achieved that, but Nathan had also saved her. If he hadn’t slammed the gun out of Martens’s hand at the exact moment he did, she could have been the one bleeding out on the cave floor, so why did she feel so guilty?

  As they rose to go, Alycia gently restrained Graysie’s arm. “Can I come by with you and pop in to see Minette? Just for a minute or two.”

  A curling sense of surprise licked up her spine. Alycia’s eyes searched hers, and Graysie saw that the woman she’d judged as cold and judgemental on their first meeting was regarding her with gentle appreciation.

  “I want to get to know my new nieces as well as I can—and that’s very well indeed,” she said with a fleeting smile. “We’ve practically lost a lifetime already. I don’t want to lose another day.”

  *****

  Lisette had Minette and Seraphine sitting on floor cushions beside an occasional table in fits of giggles around a deck of cards while she hovered, supervising their moves. She gestured to the girls with a smile as they came into the room.

  “They’re learning to play ‘Old Boy—Vieux Garcon’—the French
version of Old Maid,” she explained with a Gallic shrug. “Confirmed Bachelor—so much more fun than Old Maid.”

  Alycia chuckled and slid into an armchair beside Minette. “This I must see.” She opened the reticule that hung from her arm. “And look what I’ve found to help your thinking.” She pulled out two twists of brown paper. “Here we are. Just what you need to help concentration!”

  Alycia untwirled the paper necks and handed them on to as they danced around her. “Diablotins—little devils!” squeaked Seraphine. She clapped her hands in excitement. The chocolate-covered candied fruit was a favorite with children and adults alike, and for a few minutes the cards were spared mauling by chocolate-covered fingers as the children consumed their treat.

  Much later, when the children had finished their game and retired to play with their dolls and the women relaxed over coffee, Alycia’s face grew serious. “Graysie, it’s been such a turbulent time for you.”

  Her eyes flickered to Lisette, who nodded sympathetically. “You may not really have had a chance to take in the full implications of what Sebastian was saying in there today.” She looked from Lisette to Graysie and then back again.

  “He’s confirmed you’re sitting on valuable property. Both of you are. And I know Basil will be more than happy to back you as an investor if you are interested. My brother made some bad mistakes in life, but he’s gone a long way to making good on them in death.”

  A peal of joyful girlish laughter rang out from next door, the excited chatter of young voices just audible from where the women sat. Graysie swallowed hard to push down the lump in her throat that was threatening to find release in tears and felt herself shuddering.

  Imagine if she had been the one to die in the cave yesterday. She went cold inside at the thought. She’d never felt as vulnerable and fragile as she had the past twenty-four hours, and she seemed to be having difficulty shaking it off. If she’d died, what would have happened to Minette?

  Alycia reached out and placed her hand on top of Graysie’s. She squeezed it reassuringly. “We’re all safe. You have nothing more to fear, my dear girl.” Eustace’s gold coated cone—a twin for the one Graysie wore, shone at her throat, keepsakes from a quixotic dreamer perhaps more cherished now, in death, than he’d been in life.

  Alycia’s amber-flecked eyes searched her face. She had the feeling Alycia had been reading her thoughts.

  “Eustace never could take care of you the way he wanted, but he’s made a way for you to do what he couldn’t for Minette. He would be so pleased if he knew.”

  Graysie swallowed hard again. The lump was still stuck hard in her throat, but the feeling of numbness was melting. “I know. I know.” She laughed a shaky laugh and dashed her hand across her eyes.

  “He’s given me the chance to do what I dreamed of doing, and I’m not going to waste a minute getting started.”

  Graysie smiled at Alycia and felt the cloak of death she’d been bearing since the day before lift from her shoulders. She was alive, and she’d just got started.

  Fifty Six

  Friday, July 31

  Graysie gazed around the table shimmering with silverware and candles in one of the Orleans’ luxurious private rooms and gave a satisfied sigh. Seated with her were all the people who, in just a few short weeks, had become precious to her. She tried to think back to her life before Grass Valley, before Sacramento, before the Ophir, and it seemed like a distant dream.

  Basil and Alycia, Pania, Lisette and Seraphine, and of course Nathan and Minette. All here with her. All safe. And tonight all wonderfully replete after a magnificent celebratory dinner hosted by the Stocktons.

  They’d supped on Sacramento salmon, roast pork and apple sauce, wild duck, and venison with redcurrant jelly, with half a dozen side dishes, followed by dessert. Fruit pastries and custard, wild raspberries and vanilla ice cream, lemon cake and ladyfingers, and the final flourish—nougat and candies.

  Graysie noted with a smile that Minette had been determined to hold out for the candy. The Orleans chef was renowned, but tonight he had really outdone himself.

  Five days after the calamitous showdown with Willoughby Martens, life was settling back into normal rhythms. The Golden Queens had finished their Sacramento season showered with superlatives. More stage dates were in the offering if they wished. And when she wasn’t on stage or spending pleasurable hours with Lisette and the girls, Graysie and Lisette had been talking with Basil Stockton about the future of the Ophir and the Ruby.

  The only gap was Nathan. Apart from whispering her thanks to him as she’d been stretchered out of the cavern where Martens had perished, they hadn’t had a chance to talk.

  He’d returned with Seb to Grass Valley immediately after the Orleans lunch on urgent family business, so Alycia had said. No one seemed to know any more than that, and she had to admit she’d felt let down by his absence.

  When they’d met up this evening, she’d felt uncharacteristically shy. She took a last spoonful of raspberries as Basil chinked his glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention and took a deep breath. The next few minutes would decide her future.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Basil began with a wide smile. “We aren’t very formal, I know, but this is a very special night that calls for solemn and ecstatic thanks. As the head of the household, I think a celebratory speech is called for—and you all know how much I hate speeches.” They acknowledged him with scattered laughs.

  “Firstly, Alycia and I want to welcome Graysie and Minette into our family. It’s come as a huge surprise to discover Eustace had a hidden life, but it’s brought us a new joy we weren’t expecting.”

  Led by Pania, everyone beamed and clapped loudly.

  “Secondly, I’m formally announcing we will set up a consortium amalgamating the Ophir and Ruby mines and recommence mining there in the next month.”

  More spontaneous applause.

  “Thirdly, and this may come as a surprise to some here, we are hoping that Nathan will join us in a management role in the new venture. Details to be agreed upon to allow for his responsibilities to his mother and sisters in Australia.”

  Graysie allowed her eyes to rest on Nathan as Basil spoke and saw him give a start when his name was called. His face reddened, and he took a gulp of wine from the glass at his elbow.

  “Nathan, we’ll be eternally grateful to you and Seb for assembling Graysie’s rescue team so quickly. If there’d been any delay, the outcome could have been very different.”

  Nathan ducked his head and stared at his plate. “Mr. Stockton… Everyone.” His eyes burned with admiration, and Graysie found she couldn’t look away.

  “Graysie…” The yearning in his voice was plain to hear. “I don’t deserve any special thanks, for, truth is, I don’t know how my life could continue without Graysie and Minette in it.”

  He paused. “I am touched by your invitation to join the Ophir venture. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity, and I would very much like to talk with you further to see how it might work for us all. We can do that later, I’m sure.

  “Meantime, I want to apologize to everyone, especially Graysie, for my absence these last few days. Seb and I had some critical business to attend to in closing up the Martens file and dealing with Senator Hector de Vile.”

  Lisette drew in a sharp breath and Graysie saw she wasn’t the only one who tensed at the two names. Basil and Alycia were the exception. They sat holding hands, the picture of marital contentment.

  Nathan smiled around the table. “Unexpected, perhaps, but very necessary, and I’m very happy to tell you we reached the desired outcome.”

  He picked up a couple of envelopes Graysie hadn’t noticed previously, which were lying beside his plate and waved them in the air.

  “You’ll recall Willoughby Martens claimed to have siphoned off funds from the Ruby and Ophir operations as his fee for services provided—paying himself something like a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of gold.

  “It did
n’t take too much effort to locate that bullion as part of Seb’s clean up. And as Martens’s brother-in-law I stepped in to arrange his funeral and finalise his affairs. De Vile’s involvement with Martens will always remain murky, but I’m delighted to tell you he was positively insistent that the gold Martens helped himself to should be passed on to the mine owners.”

  Nathan paused and looked around the table with a beaming smile. “Lisette, Graysie, it’s my pleasure to deliver to you the proceeds from your investment—one hundred and twenty five thousand in bullion each, safely deposited in your names. These documents simply advise you of the details of where it is secured.” He stepped around the table and gave each of them an envelope.

  No one spoke. Lisette gave a spine tingling wail that echoed around the room. Whether from joy, or a release of long-held grief, it was hard to say, but it was soul deep. Then the table broke into uproarious applause and everyone was talking at once.

  When the excitement faded away, Nathan had returned to his seat and still held the floor.

  “There is just one more thing. I’ve arranged a little after-dinner entertainment which I hope will delight you all.”

  As he crossed to the door and called for the waiter who’d been serving their meal, Graysie’s heart was beating so hard it could have leapt out of her chest. She watched enthralled at Nathan’s every move, no longer caring if her affection for him was plain for all to see.

  The doubts, the thinly veiled disappointment of the last few days, evaporated. Far from forgetting her, he’d been devotedly working behind the scenes on her behalf.

  The servant appeared. “Can you tell Mr. Herrmann we are ready for him?”

  Herrmann! Not Maximilian Herrmann? The French magician she’d done a stage show with in San Francisco? That had been only a month ago, but it felt like a lifetime. A familiar curly-headed young magician with a thick goatee and imposing twist-ended moustache entered with a twirl of his black velvet coat and a flexing of his white gloved hands. The very same Max.