Journey to Yesterday (10 page)

Removing her gloves, she picked up her cards one by one.
Jack of spades, Queen of spades, nine of spades, three of diamonds, eight of
spades.

Alejandro picked up his cards, looked them over, removed two
and placed them face down on the table, then picked up the deck again. “How
many, Digger?”

Digger took three, Henry took two, Spooner took one.

Shaye asked for one. She tossed the three of diamonds on the
table and picked up her new card, gasped when she realized what she had. What
were the odds, she thought.

“I’d say she got the card she needed,” Spooner remarked
drily.

Digger laughed.

Henry nodded.

Alejandro smiled at her, his eyes twinkling. “I can see we
need to work on your poker face,” he drawled.

Warmth filled her heart and spread to her cheeks. “Maybe I’m
bluffing now,” she said tartly.

Digger tossed a double eagle in the pot, Henry raised him
ten dollars, Spooner upped the ante another five dollars. Alejandro saw his
raise and raised it five more.

“So, it’ll cost me forty dollars to stay in?” Shaye asked
dubiously.

Alejandro nodded. “That’s right, darlin’. Unless you want to
raise the stakes.”

She had never bet more than five dollars on the turn of a
card in her life. “No.” Taking a deep breath, she added her money to the pot.

Alejandro grinned at her. “All right, darlin’, let’s see
what you’re holding.”

Her heart was beating wildly as she put her cards on the
table, face up, one at a time. Ten of spades, Jack of spades, Queen of spades,
nine of spades, eight of spades. A straight flush.

Alejandro leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “That’s
my girl,” he murmured.

“Beginner’s luck,” Digger muttered. “Damn, I had a good
hand, too. Best one I’ve had all night.” He tossed his cards on the table.
“Full house, kings and tens.”

“Hell…er, heck, Digger, I had four of a kind!”

“Doesn’t matter what you had,” Alejandro said, chuckling,
“it wasn’t good enough. The lady wins. Rake it in, darlin’, it’s all yours.”

“Well, actually, it’s yours,” Shaye replied.

“Keep it.”

“No, I couldn’t.”

“We’ll settle it later.” He gathered the cards and began to
shuffle them.

Shaye was about to insist she couldn’t keep it when one of
the saloon girls sashayed up to the table. She wore a low-cut red dress, a
pure, lustful shade of red that was guaranteed to draw every man’s eye, black
net stockings, and high-heeled slippers. “Drinks, gents?”

“’Bout time you got over this way, Ginny girl,” Digger said.
“Bring me a whiskey. And make sure it’s the good stuff, and not that rotgut Rojas
keeps under the bar.”

“You buyin’?” Spooner asked.

“Sure,” Digger said.

“I’ll have the same then,” Spooner said. “And make it a
double.”

“What’ll you have, Rio honey?”

“Whiskey’s fine with me. Shaye, do you want anything?”

She wasn’t much of a drinker. On those occasions when she
did drink, she usually ordered a Singapore Sling, or Seven and Seven on the
rocks. She was about to order the latter when it occurred to her that the
bartender would have no idea what she was talking about, and that Seven-Up
hadn’t even been invented yet.

“Shaye?”

“Nothing, thank you.”

“You sure? Digger doesn’t buy often,” Alejandro said with a
grin. “Better take advantage of it while you can.”

“Could I get a glass of wine?”

“Wine?” Ginny said with a look of disdain. “This is a
saloon, honey. We’ve got whiskey, bourbon, and beer.”

“The lady wants wine, Ginny.” Alejandro handed the woman a
couple of greenbacks. “Send someone over to Occidental. Tell Floyd it’s for
me.”

“Alejandro, there’s no need…”

“Wine you want, wine you get,” he said with a wink. “Right,
Ginny?”

Ginny glared briefly at Shaye, then looked at Alejandro.
“Sure, Rio,” she said. “Whatever you want.”

The saloon girl smiled at Alejandro, a come-hither smile if
Shaye had ever seen one. Then, bold as brass, she bent over, giving him a clear
view of her ample cleavage.

“I’ll be waiting for you later,” she whispered, just loud
enough for Shaye to hear. Then, smiling smugly, she moved away from the table,
her hips swaying seductively.

Alejandro looked at Shaye. She was watching him, one brow
arched in wry amusement.

Digger and Spooner exchanged knowing grins. Alejandro
shuffled the cards again, then slid the deck in front of Digger, who cut the
cards.

Shaye picked up her cards as they were dealt, but for a
moment, they meant nothing to her. All she could see was Ginny bending toward
Alejandro, offering him a clear view of her cleavage and the delights that were
his for the taking. Would he go to her later?

“Shaye, are you in?”

Alejandro’s voice drew her back to the game at hand. She
glanced quickly at her cards. A pair of queens, an ace, a four, and a seven.
“Yes.” She picked up a double eagle and tossed it into the center of the table.

“Cards?” Alejandro asked when the pot was right.

Digger took two, Spooner took one, Digger took one, Shaye
asked for three, and Alejandro took two.

Shaye picked up her new cards, kept her face carefully blank
as she added them to her hand: a pair of kings and a trey. Two pair. Not bad.

“Shaye, it’s up to you.”

She hesitated a moment, then put five dollars in the pot.

Digger, Spooner and Henry folded.

“I’m gonna see your five,” Alejandro said, “and raise you
ten more.”

A thrill of excitement spiraled through her. “I’ll see your
ten and raise you ten more.”

Alejandro regarded her for a long moment, so long she felt
her cheeks grow hot.

“The pot’s yours,” he said at last.

“Two pair,” she said, and placed her cards on the table,
face up.

“I’ll be… Are you sure you haven’t played before?”

“What were you holding, Rio?” Digger asked.

“A full house,” Alejandro replied drily.

Shaye couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.

She lost track of the time. She kept telling herself just
one more hand, and then she would go back to the hotel, but she couldn’t bring
herself to leave. She enjoyed bantering with Digger and Spooner and Henry.
Flirting with Alejandro. Several times, the play was just between the two of
them. She never beat him again though, and as the night wore on, she began to
wonder if he had let her win the first time.

She loved to watch him shuffle and deal the cards. It was
almost as if he caressed each one. More than once she found herself wondering
what it would be like to feel those long bronze fingers moving over her skin,
delving into her hair. Once, his gaze met hers and the attraction between them
sizzled like summer lightning. For a moment
,
it
was as if they were alone in the room, just the two of them. She could almost
feel his hands sliding around her waist, pulling her close, feel his breath on
her face, his lips moving over the sensitive skin just behind her ear, hear his
voice, low and husky with desire as he whispered her name. The heat of his eyes
caused a seductive warmth to spread through her, and she wished they were
alone, wished she could crawl onto his lap, feel his arms around her, his mouth
on hers…

A raucous shout from the next table broke the spell between
them. Shaye looked away, afraid everything she had been thinking was clearly
visible on her face.

A short time later, Digger decided to call it a night.
Spooner and Henry agreed it was time to quit and the three men gathered up
their winnings. They bid Alejandro a good night, assured Shaye she was welcome
to join them any time, and left the table.

Alejandro smiled at her. “Tired?”

She shook her head. “Not really.”

“Care to take a walk around town before turning in?”

“Isn’t Ginny expecting you?”

He laughed softly. “No, darlin’, not tonight or any other
night. Now, how about that walk?”

“Yes, I’d like that.” She looked at the greenbacks and
silver in front of her. “Thanks for the loan.”

“Keep it.”

“No, I couldn’t.”

“Have you got any money?”

“No.”

He winked at her. “Then keep it.” He held up a hand, staying
her protest. “You can pay me back if it’ll make you feel better.”

“All right. Thank you.” She picked up her gloves and slipped
them into her skirt pocket. “You’re very kind.”

“Kind? Me?” He laughed at that as he began gather up his
cash. “My winnings in the left pocket, yours in the right,” he said. He grabbed
his hat, settled it on his head, then offered her his hand.

His fingers were long and warm and strong as they folded
over her own.

Mesmerized by his nearness, by his touch, she was hardly
aware of leaving the saloon.

Outside, the air seemed unusually fresh after the stale,
smoky atmosphere of the saloon, giving her a new appreciation for the No
Smoking laws in California in the twentieth century. All that smoke, combined
with dozens of unwashed bodies and the cheap cloying perfume the saloon girls
wore had given her a headache.

Hand in hand, they walked away from the town, leaving the
noise and confusion behind. The sky was clear, peppered with a million
twinkling stars. A butter-yellow moon hung low in the sky.

Shaye felt a shiver of nervous tension, an awareness of the
man walking beside her. She hadn’t realized how tall he was, how broad his
shoulders were, until now. An aura of self-confidence surrounded him. He was a
man who knew who he was, a man comfortable in his own skin.

They walked until they had left the town far behind, until
they were surrounded only by the sheltering darkness, and the vast indigo vault
of the sky.

They walked in silence, the tension thick between them.
Nervous, she cast about for something to say. “I don’t recall seeing any opera
house in town,” she remarked, remembering that Henry had said Shep was there.

Alejandro laughed softly. “The Opera House is a dance hall.
It backs up to Bonanza Street.”

Shaye frowned, then nodded. Bonanza Street was where the
doves plied their trade.

“It’s a popular place.”

“What’s it like inside?”

Alejandro shrugged. “Just a big building with a pine floor.
Men go there and buy tickets to dance.”

“Oh.”

They walked on, the silence between them thick enough to
cut, and when at last he stopped, she knew he was going to kiss her.

“Shaye.” She heard the confusion in his voice, knew he was
just as disconcerted by the attraction between them as she was. “We’ve met
before, haven’t we?”

“No, not really.”

“Dammit, I know that I know you. I’ve seen you before,
haven’t I?”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s impossible.”

“So is what I’m feeling right now,” he muttered, and
sweeping her into his arms, he kissed her.

It sent every rational thought out of her mind, left her
drowning in a tidal wave of sensation. His lips were warm and firm and tasted
faintly of whiskey. His arms were strong around her, familiar somehow, even
though that was impossible. She moved closer, and closer still, until her body
was molded to his, until his hard masculine length was pressed intimately
against her body from shoulder to thigh, until she couldn’t tell where he ended
and she began.

No one had ever kissed her like this, made her feel like
this. The tip of his tongue like a flame dancing over her lips. She opened to
him with a sigh, and the flame became an inferno.

It was a moment that seemed to last an eternity, yet ended
all too quickly.

Breathless, they stared at each other.

She was twenty-eight years old, she had been married and
divorced, yet he made her feel young and giddy, like a schoolgirl with her
first crush.

She looked up at him and whispered, “More,” felt herself
falling into the same pool of sensation as his lips claimed hers once again.

She was standing on the brink of a bottomless pit. One more
kiss, one more caress, would send her plummeting into the abyss.
Oh, Lord,
please don’t let me fall in love.

Love! She’d been down that road before; she didn’t intend to
open herself to that kind of hurt again. With an effort, she put some distance
between herself and Alejandro.

Took a deep breath. He’s not real, she told herself. None of
this is real.

“It’s late,” she said.

“Yeah, must be all of ten o’clock.”

“Well, it’s been a long day. I’m tired.”

He nodded, his gaze intent upon her face, his dark eyes all
too wise. “Come on,” he said, taking her by the hand, “I’ll walk you back.”

Shaye felt as though a vast gulf had opened between them as
they walked back to the hotel. Try as she might, she couldn’t think of s single
thing to say. She had to find her way back home, she thought desperately, had
to get out of here before she did something incredibly stupid.

When they reached the hotel, Alejandro walked her up the
stairs, waited while she unlocked the door.

“Thank you for dinner,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

“Good night.”

“Shaye?”

She looked up at him, mute, every fiber of her being
yearning toward him.

“What did I do wrong?” he asked quietly.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. Too quickly. “Everything’s
fine. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

He reached for her, and she backed away.

“Dammit, Shaye, what’s wrong?”

She shook her head, wishing she could explain, wishing she
could tell him the truth, that she didn’t belong here, that some quirk in time
had sent her through time and space and dropped her in an unfamiliar world, but
she was certain he would never believe her. Even now, she could hardly believe
it herself.

“All right, darlin’,” he said softly. “Good night.”

“Good night.” She started to turn away, then paused when he
called her name.“Here,” he said, reaching into his coat pocket. “You forgot
something.”

He pulled her share of the winnings from his pocket and
placed the money into her cupped hands. Her skin tingled when his fingers
brushed against hers.

“Where will you spend the night?” she asked, and then
thought what a silly question that was. There were probably any number of women
who would welcome him at any time of the day or night.

“Don’t worry about me, darlin’. I’ll find a place.”

His gaze, dark and smoldering, caressed her like summer
heat, and then he turned and walked away, leaving her feeling cold and empty
and aching deep inside.

* * * * *

Shaye rose early after a restless sleep that had been
plagued with nightmares she could not now recall. She looked at Alejandro’s
side of the bed, and wondered where he had spent the night.

A short time later, after washing her hands and face in a
bowl of cool water and drying with a coarse cotton towel, she dressed and went
downstairs in search of breakfast. She was acutely conscious of the layers of
ruffled petticoats and the long wine-red skirt swirling around her ankles. Her white
blouse…it was called a shirtwaist…had long, poofy sleeves that narrowed at the
wrists. She had shunned the corset and pantalets in favor of her bra and bikini
briefs, which she had rinsed out the night before. The half-boots were far more
comfortable than they looked; she would have preferred pantyhose or even a pair
of socks to the long cotton stockings. She wore a straw bonnet that tied under
her chin. Her reticule, which held her camera and some of the money she had won
in the poker game, dangled from her wrist.

Feeling like she was playing dress-up in her great
grandmother’s clothes, she entered the hotel dining room. It was crowded with
miners, all eating gustily and talking about the latest strike in one of the
mines.

“Hit a rich vein this time!”

“Ore’s top grade, too!”

“I knew I should have bought some stock in that damn mine…”

Shaye hurried across the room toward an empty table and sat
down. Two waitresses threaded their way around the tables, taking orders,
filling coffee cups.

She sat there a good fifteen minutes before a short, plump
waitress wearing a harried expression stopped by her table. “What’ll you have,
honey?”

“What’s good?”

The woman brushed a lock of limp brown hair from her
forehead. “Honey, if you’re hungry enough, it’s all good.”

“A stack of hot cakes, and a cup of coffee.”

With a nod, the waitress wrote it down, then moved to the
next table.

Shaye removed her gloves and slipped them into her skirt
pocket. Looking out the window, she saw the ever-present flood of miners and
wagons that clogged the boardwalks and the streets. The shouts of teamsters,
the rumble of wagon wheels, the distant sound of blasting from one of the
mines, the whinny of a horse, the chiming of a clock, the sound of a
blacksmith’s hammer, all combined to fill the air with discordant music. Added
to this was the constant noise of the Standard stamp mill, which ran
twenty-four hours a day, six days a week. A thick haze of dust hung over the
town, churned up by wagon wheels and the hooves of horses and mules.

She shook her head. She had only been here two days and she
was already growing accustomed to the noise and the dust. Outhouses, however,
were something she would never get used to. If she ever went time traveling
again, she was going to be sure to pack some toilet paper!

She smiled as the waitress returned with her breakfast.

The pancakes were some of the best Shaye had ever eaten. The
coffee was the strongest she had ever tasted. Even adding a generous amount of
milk and sugar didn’t help much.

She was on her second cup of coffee when she felt a tingle
along her spine. Glancing toward the entrance, she saw Alejandro striding
toward her, felt her whole body react to the sight of him. She licked her lips,
remembering the way he had kissed her the night before and her response to it.

He winked at her as he slid into the chair across from hers.
“I thought I might find you here.”

“Did you?”

The waitress appeared at their table, her brown eyes shining
as she smiled at Alejandro. “Morning, Rio,” she said, handing him a cup of
coffee. “The usual?”

He nodded. “
Gracias
, Addy Mae.”

Cheeks flushed, Addy Mae practically floated away from the
table. It was obvious the girl, who didn’t look like she was more than
seventeen or eighteen, had a crush on him.

“Why were you looking for me?” Shaye asked. Seeing the look
in his eyes, she felt her own cheeks grow warm with the knowledge that he, too,
was remembering the kisses they had shared the night before.

“I wanted to let you know I took another room at the hotel.”

“Oh, good.” It was for the best, of course, but she couldn’t
help feeling bereft somehow, and ridiculously relieved that he hadn’t spent the
night with someone else. “I’d hate to think of you sleeping in the street.”

He grinned at her, and she knew they were both thinking that
he would never have any trouble finding a bed to sleep in, or a woman to share
it with.

“That wasn’t the only reason I wanted to see you,” he said.

“Oh? Is something wrong?”

“No. I was hoping to spend the day with you.”

Her heartbeat speeded up just a little. “Were you?”

“If you don’t mind, darlin’.”

Mind? Was he crazy? “I’d like that.”

“I was hopin’ you would,” he drawled softly.

Oh, Lord, she was going to fall and fall hard, she thought
frantically. Just the sound of his voice made her heart race like chain
lightning across dry grass. She had never fallen head over heels in love. It
had come slowly with Josh, and even then, it had never been wild and
spontaneous, it had just happened. Maybe she had never really loved Josh at
all. Heaven knew she had never felt this way about him. His voice had never
made her heart pound. Of course, it had been just an ordinary voice, not low
and sexy like Alejandro’s. Josh’s kisses had never spread through her like
wildfire. They had given her pleasure, aroused her, but never made her feel
like she was drowning in honey.

Oh, Lord, this couldn’t be happening.

He was watching her, one brow arched, a faint smile on his
handsome face, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“What…” Her voice came out in a high-pitched squeak. “What
did you want to do?”

“Anything you like.”

Visions of cool sheets and hot kisses flooded her mind. She
could feel herself blushing furiously.

“Well, I’ve never seen a gold mine,” she said. She had never
wanted to, either, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

His gaze trapped hers. “Is that what you want to see,
darlin’?”

Addy Mae arrived with his breakfast then, sparing Shaye the
necessity of answering. “Anything else I can get for you, Rio?”

He smiled up at her. “No, Addy, this looks fine.”

Shaye stared at the plate the waitress put in front of him.
It was piled high with pancakes, eggs, sausage, and fried potatoes. It was a
wonder he didn’t weigh three hundred pounds.

“Could I get another cup of coffee?” Shaye asked.

“Coming right up,” Addy Mae replied.

The waitress returned in a few minutes. “Everything all
right, Rio?” she asked as she filled Shaye’s cup.

“As always,” he replied.

Shaye sipped her coffee while he ate, only vaguely aware of
the other people in the room. All she could see was Alejandro. His long black
hair, the bronze of his skin, the way his fingers curled around his cup, his
deep brown eyes, the way his gaze moved over the room. He seemed relaxed, yet
she had the feeling he was aware of everyone in the place.

He finished his coffee and put the cup on the table.
“Ready?”

She nodded, slipping on her gloves while he dropped a couple
of greenbacks on the table. He was, she thought, a generous tipper.

Rising, he pulled out her chair, then took her hand.
Gallant
,
she thought, and tried to remember the last time a man had done the little
things once so common in everyday society. How times have changed, she mused.
Men rarely held a door for a woman anymore, or helped her on with her coat.
Women in her time had to pump their own gas and pretty much look out for
themselves. And while she was perfectly capable of opening a door and filling
her own gas tank, it was nice to be treated like a lady for a change.

Alejandro held the door for her. Outside, he took her arm,
and they walked down the boardwalk. “So, you want to see a gold mine, do you?”

“Not really.”

“Well, there’s not much to do in Bodie this time of day,” he
remarked with a grin.

“It’s a little too early for poker, and I’m not much for
drinking before noon. I guess that leaves digging for gold.”

“You’re kidding, aren’t you? I’m hardly dressed to go
tromping around in a mine.”

He laughed softly. “Have you ever been in a gold mine?”

“No.”

“Come along, then,” he said, and led her across the street
and up the side of a hill.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Robison mine.”

“Will they let us go in?”

“Sure, darlin’. The foreman’s a friend of mine.”

Darlin
’. Never in her life had she heard anyone
caress that endearment the way he did. “Must be a female,” Shaye muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She lifted her long skirts to keep them out of
the dirt, and to keep from tripping over the hem. It had been a lot easier to
climb the hill in her shorts and tennis shoes.

It was a bleak land, she mused as they neared the mine.
There were no green fields, no trees, no birds. Just barren hills that housed
mines with fanciful names: the Oro, the Champion, the Noonday, the Red Cloud.
And acres and acres of sagebrush. Wood was freighted in, or brought in by burro
from the Mono Mill. She seemed to remember reading in one of the books that
Bodie went through one hundred thousand cords of wood a year.

She stopped several times on the way up the hill to take
pictures of the mine and the countryside, wondering, as she did so, if she
would ever get back to her own time to get them developed, and if there would
be anything on the film when she did. She took pictures of Alejandro, too,
amused by the expression on his face.

“There was no flash this time,” he remarked.

“I don’t need a flash in the day time,” she explained.
“Would you want to take one?”

“Sure.”

“What do you want to take a picture of?”

“You, of course.”

She showed him how the camera worked, smiled as he took the
picture. “Come here,” she said, “we’ll take one of us together.”

“How can you do that?”

“I’ll show you. Stand here.” She checked the shot in the
view finder, set the timer, put the camera on a post, then went to stand beside
Alejandro. A moment later, the camera took the picture.

“Amazing,” Alejandro muttered.

“Isn’t it though?”

She knew a moment of hesitation when they reached the
entrance and she looked down into what seemed to be a bottomless hole in the
ground. Thoughts of cave-ins flashed across her mind.

A small cage hung suspended over the pit. Shaye looked at
the man who operated the hoist. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“Safe as anything can be,” he replied with a grin that did
little to reassure her.

Alejandro lifted the bar and stepped inside, then held out
his hand. “You coming?”

Shaye took a deep breath, and nodded

The operator rang a bell, there was a lurch, and the cage
began its descent into the shaft.

Darkness soon closed around them, held at bay only by the
dim yellow glow of the lantern.

“You all right?” Alejandro asked as the cage plunged
downward.

“Yes,” she replied, but her heart was pounding. She had
never realized she was afraid of narrow dark places until now. She remembered
an old Andy Griffith show where Andy and Helen had gone exploring and been
trapped in a cave-in. If anything happened now, there was no Barney Fife to
launch a rescue effort.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Cause I’ve lost the feeling in my hand,” he replied, his
voice filled with suppressed laughter.

Muttering, “Sorry,” Shaye instantly loosened her grip.

“Don’t worry, darlin’. They hoist loads of up to nine
hundred pounds in this thing.” He grinned at her. “And you don’t look like you
weigh near that much.”

“Very funny,” Shaye retorted.