The Sheriff

Five

Kate awoke at dawn feeling rested and ready to start her new life. She hummed happily as she donned a simple blue-and-white gingham dress and brushed her blond hair. Optimistic, tingling with excitement, she left the hotel with map in hand. She was eager to explore the town, but first she wanted to locate her newly inherited property and inspect the house her aunt had left her. She planned to return to the hotel for her belongings later and then move in. She was sure there would be no reason to stay another night in the hotel. She would spend it in her own home.

Kate passed—two doors down from the hotel—the offices of Dr. Milton Ledet, the kindly white-haired physician she had met on the steamer ride to Fortune. She dashed past his office windows in case he was inside. She had no time to visit this morning.

Kate walked to the very end of the sidewalk and soon left Fortune behind. Her breathing grew short from the altitude, and her legs quickly grew weak, but she climbed an ill-defined lane up through the towering green conifers and white-trunked aspens, swatting low, leafy limbs out of her way.

When she’d gone no more than a half mile, Kate stepped out into a broad, lush clearing and saw a large white house looming in the distance.

She had, she knew, located the real estate she now owned.

Set amid the tall sheltering pines, the property bordered a breathtakingly beautiful deep turquoise lake no more than a hundred yards from the front door of the house. The lake was fed by a clear, crystalline stream flowing out of the mountains on the north side of the estate. Swift waters poured down from the melting Sierra snowpack. Kate could hear the crystal water gurgling and splashing over the rocks.

With her lips parted in awe at the spectacular scenery surrounding her, Kate skirted the grassy banks of the placid turquoise lake and headed toward the house. When she stood directly before the large, two-story structure, she clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

Before even going inside she could see that the once splendid Victorian mansion was uninhabitable.

Kate despaired. Like it or not, she would have to live in this badly neglected house. She had no choice. If she were to have enough money to hire men to work her mine, she could ill afford to live at the hotel, even for a brief period of time.

Kate exhaled heavily and made her way across the weed choked grounds to the mansion’s broad front steps. The second step was missing. Kate grimaced, lifted her skirts and cautiously stepped over the gaping hole.

She crossed the broad veranda and paused at the entrance. There was no front door. It had been removed from its hinges and carried away. Kate shook her head and went inside.

The mansion had been ransacked. Most of the furniture had been carted off; only a few odd pieces remained. A French gilt chair with a broken leg lay on its side before a magnificent black marble fireplace. A gigantic crystal chandelier that had been carelessly pried from the ceiling was on the floor, its fragile prisms shattered. There were blank spaces on the faded, silk-covered walls where massive mirrors and oil paintings had undoubtedly hung. Remnants of an elegant silk shade dangled from an open window.

Kate quickly realized that more than half of the solid wooden doors had been carried away. Most of the windows had been broken.

Kate climbed the stairs to the second floor. She jumped, startled, when she stepped into the spacious master suite and a bird flew in through an open window.

“Shoo! Fly away!” she shouted, chasing the winged intruder, flapping her skirts to scare it. “It’s bad luck to have a bird fly into one’s house. Get out, get out!”

The bird circled the room, then sailed away.

Kate shuddered with the dawning knowledge that the bird might not be the only creature that had the run of the place. No doubt there were black bears and sleek bobcats and all manner of dangerous animals roaming these rugged mountains. How would she stop them from taking up residence in the mansion? And how on earth could she survive the coming winter with no windows and doors to shut out the cold?

Kate shook her head again as she slowly went back down the grand staircase, whose steps sported only remnants of the fine carpet that had once covered them.

Kate had been in Fortune for less than twenty-four hours when Sheriff Travis McCloud heard about her arrival. His deputy, Jiggs Gillespie, had been the first to mention it. Dr. Ledet, the second. The newcomer quickly became the topic of conversation all over town as word spread that the young woman from Boston who had inherited the old Colfax mansion and the abandoned Cavalry Blue Mine intended to make Fortune her home.

They were all certain she was in for a big disappointment. There was no gold in the Cavalry Blue. Travis knew that. Everyone knew that. Which meant, mercifully, she wouldn’t be staying long in Fortune. That suited Travis fine. The sooner she gave up and left, the better.

But that could take awhile. Gold fever was a sickness from which it was hard to recover. She might stay weeks, even months in the vain search of a treasure that did not exist.

Travis ground his teeth at the possibility. He hoped to hell she was homely. Protecting a young, single woman from a townful of lonely, lusty miners would be anything but easy.

Kate returned to the Eldorado, collected her belongings, paid her bill and trudged back to the ruined mansion. She deposited her things in the drawing room at the very front of the mansion. She looked around, sighed, then turned away. She’d see to making the room livable later.

First things first.

By noon she was back in town to visit the Federal Land Office. When she stepped down into the street, she encountered a dirty, drunken man weaving dizzily toward her. Kate shook her finger in his face and warned him off, threatening him within an inch of his life. The drunk anxiously backed away.

Chin raised, Kate stepped past him and into the land office. Deed in hand, she introduced herself and handed the document to the balding clerk. He studied it for only a minute. Then he looked up and shook his head pityingly.

“Miss VanNam, I’m sorry you’ve traveled all this way for nothing.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re wasting your time,” he informed her. “All the placer gold is gone from the stream on your property. Has been for years now.”

“Placer gold?” she repeated, having no idea what he meant.

“Placer. The pebbles containing particles of gold that wash down the stream from the mountains. It’s all long since been panned and sold. There is no more.”

“No, of course not,” she said. “I knew that. But the mine…”

“Miss VanNam, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the Cavalry Blue has been abandoned for years. All boarded up. And with good reason. There has never been a single speck of gold brought out of that mine.”

Kate said calmly, “I know.”

“You do?” He frowned and scratched his gleaming pate.

“Yes. I came up on the steamer from Golden Quest with Dr. Milton Ledet. He mentioned that the Cavalry Blue has never produced any gold.”

The man nodded.

Shoulders squared, Kate continued, “I informed the good doctor and now I’ll tell you. The gold obviously remains inside. I will bring it out.”

Travis got his first glimpse of Kate VanNam at noontime.

He was alone in the front office of the city jail, doing nothing. Leaning back in his chair, booted feet propped up on his desk, hands folded behind his head. He yawned and exhaled slowly, enjoying the peace and quiet that came all too infrequently in this wild mining community.

He looked out the window at nothing in particular and his eyes immediately widened.

He spotted her sunlit hair, shining as brightly as the gold she sought.

Kate VanNam.

He knew it was her.

Travis swore under his breath. He was instantly reminded of another golden-haired Jezebel whose memory was still vivid after all these years.

Travis scowled as Kate encountered the weaving, drunken Zeke Daniels, but his frown quickly turned into a grudging smile when the delicate young woman shook a finger in Zeke’s liquor-veined face and rebuked him.

Zeke backed away as if he had encountered a bobcat.

As the sheriff studied the woman, he noted that her gleaming golden hair was not her only attribute. She was tall and appealingly slender. Her lithe, willowy body was draped in a girlish blue-and-white gingham dress with flounces and bows that made her look all too young and innocent. Her fine-boned face was exquisite, her ivory skin flawless. She was very pretty, very feminine, very desirable. She did not belong in Fortune, California.

Six

Map in hand, sunbonnet on her head, Kate went up into the mountains alone the very next morning and easily located the Cavalry Blue claim. The entrance was boarded up, just as she’d heard. She peered curiously through wide cracks in the weathered timber, foolishly hoping she might detect a vein of gold winking at her from deep inside the dark cavern.

She saw nothing.

It would take further exploration to uncover the treasure. She was undeterred. Gold was likely buried in the floor and the walls of the mine. The solid granite would have to be hammered and chiseled, and the crushed rock that fell away carefully probed and sifted and picked through. She couldn’t possibly do it by herself. She would, she realized, need to hire at least a couple of strong-backed men to work the claim. Kate returned to the mansion and decided she would wait no longer to begin the daunting task of making a home of sorts in the downstairs drawing room. For the time being, she would leave all the other rooms untouched.

In a back room, Kate located a sofa that had once been a grand piece of furniture. Elaborate mahogany trim on the couch’s arms and high back was artistically carved. The once plush rose velvet covering was faded and torn, but the sofa was long and comfortable, ideal for a bed. She would move the heavy sofa once she’d thoroughly cleaned the drawing room.

The sun had already reached its zenith as Kate made a short list of necessities and walked back to town. Once there, she took the opportunity to fully explore Fortune, strolling leisurely up and down Main Street.

The bustling alpine community was spectacularly framed by the pine covered peaks of the high Sierras, and it was larger than she had realized. There were a half-dozen hotels—the Bonanza, the Eldorado, the Alpine, the Sierra, the Frontier and the Mint. There were at least twenty-five or thirty saloons. The Glitter Gulch. The Bloody Bucket. The Quartz. The Mother Lode. The Golden Nugget. The Amber Lantern. And many more.

Fortune had five general stores, the largest of which was Barton’s Emporium and Dry Goods. She also found one doctor’s office, four banks, an elaborate two-story opera house, a stationery store, a bakery, three express offices, two barbershops, four blacksmith shops, five livery stables, three assay offices, two fire companies, two undertakers, a newspaper and a city surveyor.

And, of course, the city jail.

When Kate had reached the southernmost end of town she saw a large tent city that stretched for a half mile down a gentle incline. As she gazed at row upon row of small canvas shelters placed very close to each other, she wondered who was unfortunate enough to live in the tents.

When she reached Barton’s Emporium and Dry Goods, she walked among its display tables looking at the varied merchandise while Clifton T. Barton, owner and proprietor, pointed her toward her requests. He never moved from his cane-bottomed stool behind the counter.

A big man with droopy eyelids and large ears, Barton paid little attention to Kate as she gathered up a broom, a mop, a large pail and a coal oil lamp. She came over to place the items on the counter.

“That it?” he asked, continuing to sit.

“Not quite.”

While Cliff Barton scratched his chin, Kate turned away and went in search of sheets, a blanket and a pillow.

“All right, I guess that’s all for now,” she announced, and placed everything on the counter. She reached for her reticule. “How much do I owe you?”

The store owner finally got off his stool and totaled up her purchases. Kate was stunned when he informed her she owed him $28.75.

“That can’t be. You’ve surely made a mistake in addition,” she said. “These few items can’t possibly cost—”

“Everything’s expensive up here, miss,” he interrupted. “You’re in a gold camp high in the Sierras. Everything has to be transported up from San Francisco.” He grinned then and added, “Just wait till you want to buy a mincemeat pie from Mrs. Hester down the street at her bakery. A dollar and a half is how much it’ll set you back.”

Kate shook her head in disbelief. “I can live without mincemeat pie and…” She sighed, took the blanket and pillow from the stack of merchandise she’d chosen, and pushed both back at him. “I can sleep without a pillow. It’s almost summer, so I need no blanket.”

“You can say that again. Gets hotter than the hell up here in the summertime.”

Kate nodded, paid for her merchandise and left.

Out of breath by the time she reached the mansion, she allowed herself only a few short minutes to rest. Then, covering her hair with a cloth, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work. She spent the remainder of the day making the large front parlor as livable as possible. She swept the hardwood floor, sneezing and coughing from the dirt she stirred up. She mopped with water brought up in a pail from the lake. She cleaned the marble fireplace.

Kate returned to the back room where she’d found the faded sofa. She batted the dust from it and polished the wooden trim. Then, puffing and groaning, she dragged the heavy sofa through the wide center hallway and into the spotless drawing room.

Come nightfall an exhausted Kate blew out the coal oil lamp. She tiredly climbed onto the sofa, which was now made up with the newly purchased sheets. Wishing she had a pillow, she folded an arm beneath her head and turned her face toward the tall front windows looking out on the untended yard and turquoise lake beyond.

Kate was grateful for the full moon that shone with an almost day-bright radiance. The light made her feel safe and secure. No one could possibly slip in and surprise her.

Kate lowered a hand and touched her uncle Nelson’s Navy Colt revolver where she had placed it on the floor. Then she laid her arm across her waist and closed her eyes.

She was almost asleep when a noise from the back of the house shattered the silence. Kate snatched the gun and sat up. She lit the coal oil lamp with shaking fingers, and then, gun in one hand, lamp in the other, she moved down the wide hallway in search of the intruder.

“Who’s there?” she called out, expecting to encounter a bear or man any minute. “Show yourself or I’ll shoot!”

No response.

After a thorough inspection of all the downstairs rooms turned up nothing, Kate began to relax. She told herself the noise she’d heard had probably been nothing more menacing than a field mouse. Laughing at herself for being so easily frightened, she went back to bed.

She returned the revolver to its place beneath the sofa. She exhaled tiredly, yawned, and again gazed out the windows to the placid lake beyond.

The moon was full.

The gun was loaded.

Kate was soon fast asleep.

After spending several fruitless days trying to hire help to work her mountainside diggings, Kate was becoming exasperated.

She had thoroughly combed the community for laborers, finally realizing that she was looking in the wrong places. She knew exactly where she had to go. There was no use delaying any longer. She needed to go where men congregated.

In the saloons.

Kate waited until well after sunset.

Then, making sure the loaded Colt revolver was in her reticule, she walked the short half mile to town. Once there, she headed directly to the largest, liveliest saloon on Main Street.

The Golden Nugget.

As she approached she heard loud music, men’s voices, thunderous laughter, and what could only be a fierce fistfight in progress.

Kate slowed her steps. Then blinked in astonishment when a man with a bloody nose and a bruised face came flying out the saloon doors and landed flat on his back in the middle of the street.

She gasped and put a hand to her mouth. Hesitating, she strongly considered abandoning her mission. She knew she should just turn around and go right back home.

But she couldn’t do that.

Kate squared her shoulders and marched forward. She had never been inside a saloon, but she had to go in and find men willing to work the Cavalry Blue.

Kate reached the saloon.

She drew a quick breath, stiffened her spine and placed a hand atop the slatted bat-wing doors.

But before she could push them open, a low, masculine voice warned, “Hold it right there.”

Seven

Kate’s head snapped around.

She found herself looking squarely at a shiny silver badge resting on a man’s broad chest.

Kate tipped her head back and looked up.

Sheriff Travis McCloud stood with his booted feet apart and his thumbs hooked into his low-riding gun belt. His facial muscles were drawn tight and his dark eyes cold.

“You’re not going in there, miss,” he informed her in soft, low tones.

“And why ever not?” she retorted. “There are ladies inside. I hear feminine laughter.”

He looked at her and his expression changed. His lips widened in a slow smile and his dark, daring eyes held the probing scrutiny of a highly virile man. Kate was instantly unnerved by him.

After a pause that seemed interminable, he said, “They are not exactly ladies. I imagine you are.” There was another pause. “So you’re not going inside.”

“You know nothing about me, so how…?”

“I know a great deal about you,” he said, taking hold of her upper arm and firmly turning her away from the saloon’s swinging doors. “You are Miss Kate VanNam from Boston and you’ve come to take up residence in the house your late great-aunt Arielle VanNam Colfax left you.”

“The house is the least of it, Sheriff.” Kate attempted to pull her arm free of his encircling fingers.

He refused to let her go. “Ah, yes. So you’ve seen the elephant.”

“Seen the elephant?”

“Never mind. You’re here for gold,” he said, shaking his head.

His air of egotism was offensive. Kate gave him a sharp look. “Why, yes, if you must know, I intend to bring gold out of the Cavalry Blue. Which is why I was going into the Golden Nugget. I need to find laborers to work my claim.”

Travis quickly set her straight. “That’s not going to happen, Miss VanNam. You won’t find anybody willing to work at the Cavalry Blue.”

“Why not?”

“The people in Fortune are dreamers, just as you are. They work at their own small claims and diggings, hoping to strike it rich. That’s why they came to California, the ‘land of second chances’.”

“Does that include you, Marshal?” She smiled when she saw the slight narrowing of his eyes, then told him, “It really shouldn’t matter to you why I’m here. My presence in Fortune is none of your concern and I—”

“You’re wrong there, Miss VanNam. It is very much my concern,” Travis said. “I’ve been hired by the Committee of Vigilance to keep the peace in Fortune. That’s exactly what I aim to do.”

“Well, I should hope so,” she retorted. Glancing up at his handsome face, she immediately felt the same frightening tingle she’d experienced when she’d looked out from the riverboat’s porthole upon arriving in Fortune. She mentally shook herself, and then flippantly teased, “I promise not to cheat at cards or get into fistfights or shoot up the saloons.”

She laughed.

He didn’t.

Stopping in midstride, he yanked her to such an abrupt halt her head rocked on her shoulders. Drawing her close, he fixed her with his dark eyes. “Listen to me, Miss VanNam, and listen well. In case you’ve failed to notice, there are at least fifty men to every woman in this community. Any idea what that could mean to you?”

“No, I—”

“Word has already spread that you are to be living alone up there in the Colfax mansion. How safe do you suppose you are?”

“I don’t see—”

“No, you don’t see. If you did you’d climb right back on the steamer and head downriver to—”

“Listen to me, Marshal, and listen well,” Kate interrupted. “I’m going nowhere. I am staying in Fortune until I find the gold in the Cavalry Blue. You don’t want me here? Too bad. This is now my home. I have no other and nothing to go back to Boston for.”

Travis frowned. “Your family?”

“I have no family left,” she declared, no longer counting her brother, Gregory, as family. “But I’m made of rather stern stuff, Sheriff. One of my ancestors, Ebenezer Stevens, participated in the Boston Tea Party. Like him, I don’t back down or frighten easily. Now if you’ll kindly unhand me, I am going home.”

“I’ll see to it you do.” He finally released his hold on her arm. “I’ll walk you there.”

“Not necessary.” Kate was swift to turn down his offer. “You surely have troublemakers to apprehend.”

“I’d say you’re presently the biggest troublemaker in Fortune,” Travis gently teased.

Kate was not amused. “There is no need for you to escort me home. Good night to you, Marshal Mc-Cloud,” she repeated, and walked away.

Travis stayed where he was, crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head in annoyance. Then he easily caught up with her.

“It will be a good night once I’ve seen you safe inside behind locked doors.”

Kate sighed irritably. She didn’t want him to go with her. She knew what would happen. He would see what bad shape the house was in and insist she couldn’t live there. She didn’t like this big, bullying marshal. She didn’t trust him. He was too decisive, too commanding, too cocksure.

The thought struck her that this tall, hard-faced sheriff was nothing like her gentle companion and friend, the boyish, soft-spoken Sam Bradford, half a world away back in Boston. Instinctively, she knew no one would dare boss this handsome Virginian around, as she had so often done with the good-natured Sam.

The pair reached the end of the wooden sidewalk. As she stepped down onto the ground, Kate glanced up at Travis and made a misstep. He reached out to steady her, and she found herself leaning against him.

The moonlight struck his face fully. He was even more handsome than she had thought. For a moment they stayed as they were—she pressed against his side, her hand lying on his hard abdomen, he holding her until she could regain her balance, his eyes focused on her upturned face.

Travis wanted to lift a hand and run his fingers through her long golden locks, which gleamed silver in the moonlight. He was tempted to bend his head and kiss her cherry red lips as they parted over her perfect, small white teeth.

“Sorry, Sheriff,” Kate said finally, and pushed away, shaken by the contact with his lean, hard body. “I lost my footing. How clumsy of me.”

“Quite all right, Miss VanNam,” Travis said, his eyes glinting as he spoke.

Kate realized she would only waste her breath if she again told him she could walk home alone.

The moonlight disappeared as they left town and climbed through the dense pine forest. After walking only a few yards they were forced to continue single file, Travis falling in behind Kate.

Over her shoulder, she explained that the house was in need of a bit of repair, but that she had already fixed it up some. She would have to keep him far from the mansion so he wouldn’t notice the missing front door, among other defects.

When they stepped out into the broad clearing by the sparkling lake, Kate turned to face Travis. She put out her hand for him to shake and said sweetly, “I do appreciate you walking me home, Sheriff. It was most kind of you. Good night.”

Travis didn’t take her offered hand.

His eyes were on the darkened mansion. Without a word he left Kate standing there, and moved along the curving bank of the lake, headed directly toward the house. Kate gritted her teeth and followed.

“As I mentioned, the place needs a little work and—”

“Jesus Christ.” Travis swore as they reached the overgrown yard. “There’s no front door.”

“Well, no, but…that’s…wait…wait! Where are you going?”

Travis had crossed the yard, climbed the front steps and walked right into the house. He took a sulphur match from the breast pocket of his white shirt, struck it on his thumbnail and looked around the wide central corridor.

He glanced into the large front parlor and spotted the coal oil lamp on the floor beside a long sofa. He went inside, sank down into a crouching position and lifted the glass globe. He touched the match to the wick and the lamp blazed to life.

Kate entered the room as he was replacing the globe. She gave him an apologetic little smile and said, “I told you the house…”

“I had no idea this place had fallen into such bad repair,” he said, shaking out the match. He rose to his feet. “Are you out of your mind? You can’t stay in this house. I can’t leave you here alone and unprotected. Get some things together and I’ll take you back to town. You can sleep in a vacant cell at the city jail.”

“Thank you, no.”

“I don’t want to argue, Miss VanNam. Get your clothes. You’re coming with me. You’ll be safe at the jail.”

Travis stood with his feet apart, his hands at his sides. The lamplight cast eerie shadows on the mansion’s walls. And on the marshal’s scowling face. He looked angry.

“What an absurd proposal.” Kate swiftly vetoed the idea, uncaring how angry it made him. “Have I done something illegal? You don’t own me, Marshal. You can’t tell me what to do.”

Travis exhaled heavily. “I’m trying to help you here.”

“I don’t need or want your help, Marshal. All I want is for you to leave. Now. And in the future, if you’ll kindly stay out of my way, I promise I’ll stay out of yours.”

Travis gazed at the gorgeous golden-haired girl standing there with her hands on her hips and her chin raised, speaking to him as no one else dared.

“Do you have a gun, Miss VanNam?”

Kate raised her right arm. From the drawstring reticule dangling from her wrist, she withdrew her Colt revolver. “I am armed, Sheriff.”

“You know how to use that thing?”

“Certainly,” she lied. “I’m an excellent shot.”

“Fine, you hear anything moving, shoot and ask questions later. Anything comes around here, be it bear or panther or man, shoot to kill.”

“Does that include you, Sheriff?” The minute she’d said it, Kate wished she could take it back.

His dark eyes blazed and he took a menacing step toward her. “Try it, sweetheart.”

Kate swallowed hard. She started raising the revolver. In a flash he was next to her and had taken the gun away from her. He grabbed the sashed waistband of her dress and yanked her up against him. His face was now inches from her own. “Never aim a weapon unless you mean to fire it. You hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it to hell, I knew it.”

“Knew what?” she asked, intensely aware that his slim hips and long legs were pressed flush agains thers. She could feel the power and heat radiating from him.

“That you’d be trouble. You are trouble. You’ll have trouble. You’ll cause trouble. For yourself. And for me.”

“That’s a lot of trouble, Sheriff.”

“Too much trouble.” He released her, stepped back and placed the revolver on the sofa. “Why don’t you be a good girl, pack up and leave before anybody gets hurt?”

“You must have a hearing disorder, Marshal,” Kate said acidly. “My uncle Nelson was hard of hearing, so I’m used to having to raise my voice to be heard.” She then shouted loudly, “I am staying in Fortune, and if you don’t like it I’d suggest you stay out of my sight.”

Both annoyed and amused by her determination, Travis raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, Miss VanNam, but I catch you anywhere near a saloon or out on the streets after dark and you’re going to jail.”

“Fair enough, Marshal,” Kate said. “And if I catch you anywhere near this house after dark, I’ll be forced to shoot you.”