Bushedwhacked Bride (38 page)
Chapter Thirty-four
“Who would have believed Miser would cave in?” Jessica said.
“After seeing you in action, who would doubt it?” Cole
dryly replied. “I think the article in the
Republic
did the
trick.
Battle
warned us that the
Republic’s
editor would never run a piece—but you convinced him.”
“Yeah—although Miser was too proud to admit defeat
to our faces.”
Five days later, Cole and Jessica were on horseback,
warmly dressed for the brisk fall weather, and riding
close to home. They were navigating the narrow red dirt
road snaking through the mountain passes east of Mariposa. Jessica took deep breaths of the crisp, evergreen-
scented air and enjoyed her view of late-blooming
wildflowers, stands of aspen turning colors, and above
them, snow-capped peaks soaring into the hazy heavens.
Elijah Miser hadn’t given up without a fight. But after
Jessica had arranged for an article two days ago in the
Re
public
—an in-depth piece that had accused Miser of abu
sive conditions at the mines—Miser s associate Mr.
Peavy had called on Jessica and Cole, relaying the news
that Miser had agreed to their terms: He’d close the mines and pension the miners if they would agree to leave town
and never darken the door of another Colorado Springs
newspaper.
“Do you suppose the news has reached Mariposa yet?”
she asked Cole.
‘That Miser is closing the mines? I doubt it. I expect
the tidings will come from us first.”
Jessica tapped the pocket of her shirt. “And I’ve got a
copy of Miser’s announcement in yesterday’s
Little London Times
to prove it.”
Cole frowned. “Jessie, everyone in town may not be
thrilled. Some folks may even say we’ve gone to meddling.”
“Why?”
“Because mining has been this town’s livelihood.
Sure, Miser is offering each miner a stipend to save face.
But folks in these parts will essentially have to start
over.”
“It’s better than letting all the men be killed.”
“True—but I may have a better solution.” He pointed
ahead at a fork in the road, at a narrow, twisting trail
heading north. “Let’s turn off here.”
“But that isn’t the way home.”
“I know. There’s something I want to show you.”
“You like being mysterious, eh?”
“Yep.”
Though perplexed, Jessica followed Cole’s lead as he
guided his horse up an obviously abandoned trail clogged
with roots and undergrowth. They ascended a hillside
dotted with yucca and piñon pine, finally pausing in a
clearing before an opening in the rock that was covered
with boards. A pitiful gray shack was collapsing on itself
off to one side, amid weeds and rubble.
“What’s this, an abandoned mine?” Jessica asked.
Dismounting, Cole chuckled and approached her
horse. “I wouldn’t call it a mine, darlin’,” he said, offer
ing his hand.
Accepting his assistance, she slid to her feet. “What would you call it?”
“A failed example of coyoting by a fool.”
“Coyoting? What’s that?”
“Come along and you’ll see.”
Cole moved aside some boards and he and Jessica
crawled inside the dank, dark expanse. Wrinkling her
nose at the unpleasant musty smell, she shivered as he lit
a hurricane lantern, then gazed about at a small dirt room
cluttered with boards, axes, and other debris. The room
tunneled off into the mountain and ended in an obvious
cave-in—a huge pile of broken rock.
“This excavation was started by a coyoter,” Cole ex
plained. “Coyoters are mavericks who dig mines on their
own. Since they seldom bother with safety measures
such as supporting timbers, most of ‘em end up buried
alive.”
Jessica looked at the pile and grimaced. “You mean
whoever started this mine—”
“Has likely returned to dust in that heap of debris
yonder.”
She shuddered. “Why did you bring me here?”
“For this.” He strode to another corner of the small
room and began moving aside rubble, revealing a
medium-sized black box..
“A safe!” she cried. “So this is your cache, your hideout.”
“Yep.”
“It’s not very big.”
Cole flipped the dial and opened the safe. “Come have
a look.”
Jessica strode to his side and hunkered down, gazing at
a number of gold bars and piles of currency. She whis
tled. “Wow. An impressive stash, but hardly the accumu
lation I’d expect from years and years of robberies.
Where’s the rest, Cole?”
He chuckled. “Here I am trusting you with the location
of my hoard, and you’re greedy for more.”
“Not greedy. It just doesn’t make sense that this is all
you’d have.”
He shut the safe and stood, offering her a hand up. “It’s
not all, but it’s enough.”
“I agree. But what happened to the rest? Did you give
it to your spy out at the mines?”
He grinned sheepishly. “What spy?”
“Come on, Cole, ‘fess up. You have a spy, or you’d never
have known when those shipments were coming through.”
“All right, then, I’ll confess. We do have a spy, an old
friend of my real pa’s, though I took a blood oath never
to divulge his name. And, yes, we’ve compensated him
well. But that isn’t where the rest of our fortune has gone.”
“Then where?”
“Remember when Billy and me went away for several
days on business?”
“Yes. I thought you were off chasing women.”
“Well, we weren’t. Every couple of months, we take our
plunder off to some small mining town, convert it to cash,
and deposit the money in the local bank. That way, we
have our wealth safeguarded in several banks in the state.”
“Very smart of you.”
He gestured toward the safe. “What we have here is our
getaway money, the grubstake we’ll use if we have to
leave
Colorado
in a hurry.”
“And the rest?”
“That’s what I wanted to tell you about. The last time
Billy and I were gone, I made some arrangements. I set
up a trust for the miners of Mariposa and their families.”
“You did?”
He took her hand and smiled at her tenderly. “I’m serious about what I’ve been telling you, sugar. You’ve gone and reformed me. I think all of us need to move on and make a fresh start, just like we discussed. And after we’re gone—well, the rest of our fortune will go to the citizens
of Mariposa. It’s only fitting that the miners get it. They
dug it out of the ground, after all.”
Deeply touched by his disclosures, Jessica flung her
self into his arms. “Oh, Cole, I’m so proud of you! And I love you so much.”
He clutched her close. “I love you, too, sugar. And as
soon as the boys persuade their sweethearts, we’ll all get hitched, then move on. Deal?”
“Deal!”
***
When they arrived at the farm, Jessica and Cole were be
mused to note an unfamiliar buckboard parked in the
yard. “Looks like someone’s come calling,” Cole mut
tered. “Wonder who.”
“At least it doesn’t look like a lawman,” she remarked.
“Yeah.”
They dismounted and walked inside to view an amaz
ing scene in the parlor. Billy and Dumpling, appearing
supremely happy, were seated on the settee together, with
Dumpling’s mother and father on either side of them. Ma
was seated in the rocker, Gabe and Luke in the wing
chairs. Wes squatted on the hearth.
Equally astounding, everyone was eating apple pie and
drinking coffee.
Ma spotted Cole and Jessica first. Her weathered face
split into a wide grin. “Well, speak of the devil. Welcome
home, you two.”
“Howdy, folks,” Cole said with a perplexed frown.
“Miss Wilma, Joshua, Miss Dumpling.” He raised an eye
brow at his mother. “What’s going on here?”
“Well, Bobby and Dumpling just made an announce
ment.”
Before Cole or Jessica could comment, Dumpling
burst out, “Bobby and me is engaged. He asked my pa
and Pa said yes!”
“Yeah, we’re gonna get hitched!” added an exuberant
Billy.
“Well, this is wonderful news,” said Cole, grinning.
“Indeed,” added Jessica. “Congratulations to you
both.”
As the betrothed couple beamed, Ma glowered at
Gabe. “Well, don’t just set there. Offer the lady your
chair.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Gabe shot to his feet. “Miss Jessie.”
“Thanks.” She sat down.
Ma struggled to her feet. “I’ll go fetch Jessie and Clay some pie and coffee so’s they can help us celebrate.”
After Ma lumbered out of the room, Cole grinned at Dumpling and Billy. “When did you two decide this?”
“A few days after you left,” said Billy.
“Well, it’s great news.”
Joshua was eyeing Cole and Jessica curiously. “If you
don’t mind my asking, Clay, where have you two been?”
With a wave of his hand, Cole deferred to Jessica.
“Mr. Lively and I went to
Colorado Springs
,” she ex
plained.
Both Wilma and Joshua appeared shocked. “Without a chaperon?” Wilma asked.
Joshua winked at Jessica. “Now, you two ain’t kissing
cousins, are you?”
As the boys chuckled, Jessica felt herself blushing.
“Actually, the trip was business. We decided to play a lit
tle hardball with the Aspen Gulch Consortium.”
“You did? What do you mean?” asked Joshua.
Jessica glanced questioningly at Cole, and he said to Joshua, “Guess we may as well tell you, since the news
will be out soon enough. Jessie here persuaded Elijah
Miser to close the mines.”
“She did?” Joshua appeared quite taken aback. “But what about the town?”
“There’s not much future for the town once the mine
collapses,” Cole said. “You know it’s on the verge,
Joshua..”
“And Mr. Miser will be paying each miner a stipend
for two years,” Jessica went on. “Enough to get you by
till you can get started at something else—farming or ranching, perhaps.”
At this bit of news, Joshua appeared somewhat less crest
fallen. “Well, then there could be cause for celebration.
Aside from Dumpling and Bobby’s good tidings, that is.”
He grinned at Cole. “And after the mischief you two have been up to, I’m betting Miss Garrett’s people may show up with shotguns to make you two do the right thing.”
While Jessica was wishing she did have “people” here
to share her joy, the boys laughed and Cole winked at her.
“I’m more than willing,” he said.
“Wonderful!” declared Wilma, clapping her hands.
“And there may be even more good news,” put in Gabe.
“Oh?” Wilma questioned.
Luke spoke up. “Yeah, the rest of us boys ain’t gonna
let Bobby out-trump us and beat us to the altar. Ain’t that
right, Co— er, Clay?”
“Yep,” agreed Cole proudly, his gaze fixed tenderly on
Jessica. “Looks like there will be a
lot
of weddings in
these parts before long.”
***
After the Hicks family had left, and Ma had gone into the
kitchen to prepare supper, Gabe, Wes, and Luke contin
ued to tease Billy. Gabe drawled, “Hey, Wesley, Luke,
looks like we got us some sparkin’ to catch up on or
brother Billy may show us up good.”
With a derisive laugh, Luke added, “Aw, I think Billy
needs a head start on the rest of us—considering it may
take one of them newfangled steam wagons to push Miss
Dumpling up the aisle.”