Cinderella in Overalls (24 page)

Her eyes latched onto his and didn’t let go. The intensity of his gaze gave her the strength to follow him. She didn’t allow herself to think of the canyon below. She thought of him, only of him and put herself, quite literally, into his hands. His grip was warm and strong, and be pulled her steadily as the switchbacks took them higher and higher.

Suddenly Pedro and the burros disappeared over the top of a ledge, and the only sound was the wind whistling through the canyon. Despite his hold on her hands, Catherine’s step faltered and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

“Look at me,” he ordered, and she obeyed. His blue eyes reflected the sky above, and in his gaze she found the courage to go on. “It’s only a few more feet. Pedro’s already there,” he assured her.

At the top she fell forward into his arms and he held her tightly. His shirt was cool and dry against her cheek. She was embarrassed by her vertigo, but he patted her on the back as if she’d just climbed Everest. She wound her arms around his neck and wished she could stay there forever. Forever. That word again.

She dropped her arms and slowly looked around. They were standing in an amphitheater ringed by rocky and barren mountains in air so clear that the Cordera Range, more than two hundred miles away, was a blue-purple mass. In between lay green fields and willows. To the west was the sun setting on the Esquinas River.

She was so intent on the view that she almost missed the rubble at their feet. Huge stones and rocks lay in heaps as if a giant had tossed them about. Pedro was right. The God of Thunder had surely been there.

“Where’s Pedro?” she asked, and they looked around. Suddenly he appeared from an opening in the side of the mountain, his small body dwarfed by the rock that had blocked him from sight. A smear of mud covered his forehead.

“The shaft has opened again,” he said flatly, but his eyes betrayed his emotion. “Somewhere inside are the bodies of the miners, my friends.” He shook his head and tears filled his eyes.

Josh put his hand on the old man’s shoulder, able to understand his sense of loss and realizing what the words meant. “We won’t stay long,” he promised. “Just long enough to take samples and bring them home.”

From a saddlebag Josh dug out his lantern. He knelt on the ground and carefully filled it with gas, pumped it up and lit the mantle. In the dusk it cast a dim light on the expectant faces of Catherine and Pedro. He wanted to tell them now what he knew in his heart. There was no silver there. There were only lost dreams and lives. Failure and disappointment. But he couldn’t say it. They’d have to see for themselves.

“Let’s go,” he said, walking to the entrance.

“Now?” Catherine looked around at the vast emptiness, the cold rocks and the darkening sky. Pedro shook his head and backed away. Josh didn’t see him.

He was only dimly aware of the apprehension in Catherine’s voice. His heart was pounding, his pulse racing. Was this the feeling that drove men to leave their families and sail for California in 1849? Was this what made his father leave his family to travel the four corners of the globe? Was this what they called gold fever?

“Now,” he said, and she followed him to the opening of the tunnel. Suddenly it was dark and cold. She shivered and he grabbed her hand. The lantern cast its beam down a narrow tunnel, caked with black mud. The clammy walls seemed to close in on them, and the mud oozed at their feet.

“If the mine caved in once, couldn’t it happen again?” she asked, tightening her grip on his hand. A spider scuttled across the toe of her boot while she watched in fascinated horror. When it disappeared from view, she bent down to pick up a chunk of gray rock with a streak of red running through it.

“Do you want to wait outside?” he asked.

“No,” she assured him, slipping the rock into her pocket. “I’ve already found something. Maybe it’s valuable. Who knows?”

“The avalanche seems to have been much farther back.” He shone the lantern on the slats of wood that braced the walls and the ceiling. “I think we’re safe here.” He scraped a blob of mud from the wall and held it in his hand.

“What is it?” she asked, her pulse quickening.

“Probably just mud, but we’ll take it and have it analyzed.”

“It doesn’t look like silver.”

“Silver weathers and oxidizes. It’s hard to identify by sight.” In his mind he saw the gleam and felt the smooth surface of the precious metal, and he knew deep down there wasn’t any in this mud. “Tomorrow we’ll go farther, as far as we can. If it’s there, we’ll find it. But silver is tricky. Sometimes it’s found with lead or zinc.”

Surprised by his knowledge of mining, she followed him out into the fresh night air. Inhaling deeply, she asked, “How do you know all this? From your father?’’

He shook his head. “I’ve been doing some reading.”

The sight of Pedro roasting a chicken over the open fire made her realize how hungry and tired she was. Her knees buckled under her, and Josh caught her under the arms.

“Whoa,” he said, lowering her gently next to the fire. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she told him, holding her hands out to warm them by the hot coals. He knelt behind her and massaged the tired muscles in her neck until her head fell forward and a sigh escaped her lips. “Still making it up as you go along?” she murmured.

Instead of answering, he kissed the back of her neck while his hands continued to work their magic on her shoulders. If there was heaven on earth, it would feel like this, she thought Gradually his palms moved to the small of her back, and just when she thought she couldn’t stand another moment of this exquisite pleasure, Pedro coughed loudly to get their attention. Dinner was ready.

They ate around the fire, tearing the chicken off the bones with their fingers. When they finished, Pedro placed his bedroll as far from the entrance to the mine as possible, while Catherine and Josh put theirs next to the fire.

She pulled her sleeping bag up to her chin, a thousand questions on her mind. She watched the firelight play on Josh’s face, turning his eyes into fathomless holes, his jaw to chiseled rock.

“What if there isn’t any silver?” she asked at last. “What will you do?”

“Walk away from it,” he said. “What else can I do?” He lay back and looked at the sky. “I didn’t come for the silver, not really. It would just be a bonus.” He didn’t say what he had come for, but she knew. He had come to find himself. To find the dreamer within himself and make room for that part of himself in his life. If he couldn’t do that, there wouldn’t be room for her, either.

If Josh had come to find himself, what had she come to find? Had she come to find out what kind of a man he was? If so, the trip was a success. He was strong, but not macho. He was tender, but not weak. He could make her laugh and make her cry, too. He could make her want him in a way that made her feel worse than she’d ever felt before. But he could make her feel happier than she ever thought possible. What if it doesn’t work out? she asked herself. And she knew the answer. Walk away from it, she told herself. What else could she do?

She brought her arm out of her sleeping bag and reached for Josh. He rolled over and faced her. Taking her hand in his, he pulled her close to him and put his arms around her sleeping bag. She sighed, buried her head on his shoulder and felt the warmth of his body through the thick padding of her sleeping bag until she fell asleep.

The air was cool in the morning. They stood around the fire in their down vests, drinking coffee, their eyes drawn involuntarily to the entrance to the mine. Josh set his cup down and rubbed his hands together. He studied Catherine’s face, noticing the lines etched between her eyebrows. Cupping her chin in his hand, he smiled reassuringly.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t need the silver. Neither does Pedro. Whatever happens our lives will go on.”

She nodded automatically, but he didn’t think he’d convinced her. Maybe he hadn’t convinced himself yet. It was true he didn’t need the silver. But he needed something else. What it was he didn’t know. He wouldn’t know until he found it.

“Are you ready?” he asked, a shovel in one hand, the lantern in the other, and a pouch attached to his belt for samples.

Catherine grabbed the pickax, and with Pedro watching from a safe distance, they entered the long tunnel to the mine again. She shone her flashlight on the rocks, and a scorpion crawled out and ran from them. She clamped her lips together to keep from screaming. Particles from the ceiling showered them as they walked. Catherine shook her head and captured some in her hand.

When she spoke, her voice was a whisper. “Silver dust?”

Dubiously he looked at her palm. “Put it in the bag,” he instructed. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Josh leaned against the loose dirt wall. Looking down where his lantern cast its light, he saw an old rusty hand drill and next to it two pole picks.

He set his lantern down and knelt in the dirt. Bracing his hand on the ground, he felt something solid under the dirt. “Catherine, over here. Shine your light this way.” He dug into the soft dirt with his fingers. His heart pounded with excitement. Was this what treasure hunting was all about, this feeling that the world had stopped spinning and everyone was holding their breath waiting... ? After digging for a moment, he held up a soft, worn leather case in the palm of his hand.

Catherine shone her light on it. “What is it?” she asked in a hushed voice.

He held the case up and pressed his fingers over the letters. When he tilted the case, a heavy object slid into his hand. “My father’s magnifying glass,” he said in a hollow voice.

He handed it to her and dug deeper into the soil before he found a compass, its cover cracked, its needle swinging wildly from north to south. “And his compass.” He knelt for so long studying it that the lantern began to dim.

“Josh.” Catherine’s voice sounded worried. “Let’s take the things out and get some air.”

He stood stiffly and put the objects safely in his pocket. With the picks and the drill under their arms, they made their way back to the entrance. Squinting in the bright sunlight, Josh felt as dazed and shaken as if he’d been caught in the avalanche of forty years ago. When his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he sat on a rock and took the magnifying glass out of his pocket.

Pedro approached cautiously, relieved to see than again. Josh held out the magnifying glass for him to see.

“My father’s,” he said in Spanish, and Pedro’s eyes grew round in his narrow face.

“El padrón,” he said. “Your father was the padrón.” Then he turned and went back to the mine, keeping watch for his old friends once more.

Catherine traced the initials JB on the leather.

“James Bentley,” Josh said. “I knew he’d lost it. He had others, but they weren’t the same. When he lost these things, he lost the silver mine, too. He thought there would be other mines, other ways to make a fortune, but you know what happened. He died broke.” He turned it over in his hand. “Well, we found the glass, but not the silver.” Disappointment settled over him like a dark cloud.

Catherine knelt at his side. She leaned forward, her dark eyes intense. “You said you didn’t need the silver. You said it didn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter, not to me. But it mattered to him. I wanted to find it for him. So he could be a success. At last.” Josh stuffed the magnifying glass back into his pocket and stared across to the mountains beyond the valley without seeing them. “I didn’t realize how much I wanted it.” Bitterness, hurt and disappointment filled his throat and choked off his words. Catherine rose and stood at his side.

“Can you believe my father spent his life thinking about this place?” he asked her, looking around at the barren outcroppings. “What a waste.” He shook his head. “That’s the part that gets me. That a man could waste his life looking for lost treasure.”

Catherine’s heart ached, for Josh, for his father and for herself. For Josh, finding the treasure would have meant finding himself. For herself it would have meant finding a man who allowed himself to have both dreams and goals. Her eyes filled with tears.