The Treasure of Como Bluff Read online

  Jasper grinned, showing big, muley teeth.

  “That’s enough, you two,” Caroline said. “We need to get to work before it’s too hot.”

  Nick loaded the tools, a basket of food, and extra canteens on the travois before mounting his horse.

  “You look relieved,” she observed.

  He settled his new hat with a firm hand. “When I said I would never ride that mule again, I meant it.”

  Caroline took advantage of her captive audience on the ride to the dig site to continue her lecture on excavation techniques and the Jurassic period. Each time she paused to take a breath, her stomach tightened. How would she ever be able to pack enough instruction into two days to pull off this masquerade?

  For the next several hours, they toiled to expose the vertebrae she had discovered three days earlier. Rather than dig them up, she’d decided to leave the bones in place to demonstrate the geologic strata and the richness of the fossil bed to Professor Marsh. That way, he could join in the excitement of the actual excavation if he wished.

  By late afternoon, Nick’s quick grasp of the basics began to feed her nascent hope. By the following evening, the possibility of success taunted her.

  When they returned to the cabin, Caroline whipped up a batch of skillet biscuits and used the morning’s bacon drippings to make gravy, but she was too anxious to eat. Leaving Nick to his dinner, she stepped outside and gazed at the deep purple mountains silhouetted by the glow of the setting sun. A fine shiver raced through her limbs. Her future lay buried in that rugged ridge.

  “Don’t worry,” a deep voice said from behind her shoulder.

  She didn’t turn but wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the evening chill. Even in summer, the temperature at this elevation dropped after sunset. A pair of long, warm arms slipped around her, pulling her back against a solid wall of muscle. Caroline hesitated for a second then succumbed to temptation and relaxed into the strength and comfort of Nick’s embrace. “I can’t help it.”

  He rested his chin on her head. “Together we can do it. Trust me.”

  And oddly, she did.

  The next morning, she rose early. After dressing in her green serge dress, the only one she’d brought with a proper bustle, she stepped into the main room and found Nick still asleep on the floor in a tangle of red and white quilt. An invisible imp pointed out how appealing he looked with his dark brown hair mussed and the shadow of beard defining his jaw, but Caroline banished the tempter. She had no time for such thoughts now.

  “Wake up.” She shook his shoulder. “We have to leave for town in half an hour, and you need to shave. Oh, and wear a clean shirt.”

  Thirty minutes later, they were mounted and on their way to meet the professor at the Burley House Hotel.

  “What’s my name?” Nick asked as they neared town.

  Caroline’s anxiety ratcheted up a notch. Was he deliberately trying to make her crazy...or crazier? “If you don’t remember, we’re in serious trouble.”

  “I don’t think a woman would call her husband by his initials, so what are you going to call me?”

  Oh. She huffed, and her bangs puffed. “I don’t know. How about Caldicott, or Cyril, or maybe Cuthbert?”

  He chuckled. “I was thinking of something easier to remember, something like Charles.”

  “That’s fine...Charles it is.”

  They arrived at the station with minutes to spare. Caroline clasped and unclasped her hands, wishing she’d worn gloves. In the East, properly dressed ladies never appeared in public without gloves, but all she had was the heavy leather pair she wore for excavating. She didn’t even have a decent bonnet. She’d had to wear her wide-brimmed straw hat. She tried to remind herself the professor was unlikely to notice her attire. He was coming to meet C. P. Hubbard, paleontologist, and for the time being that was Nick.

  She scanned the passengers as they spilled onto the platform until she spotted a middle-sized, middle-aged man with a sharp gaze and luxuriant beard. It was Othniel C. Marsh; she would know him anywhere from his photographs in the New York Herald.

  She raised her hand and started to wave. “Profess—”

  Nick jerked her arm down. “Remember, you’re my wife,” he whispered.

  Caroline flushed. How could she have forgotten already?

  Nick pasted a big smile on his face and strode toward the professor. “Professor Marsh? Welcome to Como Bluff.”

  The professor returned his smile and pumped his outstretched hand. “C. P. Hubbard, I presume. Glad to meet you, young man.” He peered around Nick’s shoulder. “And who is this lovely lady?”

  Nick reached back and drew her forward by the elbow in a proprietary, husbandly fashion. “This is my wife, Caroline.”

  “A pleasure, Mrs. Hubbard.” The professor took her hand and tipped his head in a brief bow.

  “Welcome to Como Bluff, sir.”

  Marsh rubbed his hands together. “Now, Hubbard, I’m anxious to see the fossil beds. If you’ll bring your wagon around, the porter can load my luggage and we’ll be away.” He pointed to a collection of cases, trunks, and what appeared to be a collapsed tent.

  Caroline shot Nick a swift, panicked glance. She had completely forgotten to make arrangements for the professor’s transportation, and it had never occurred to her he would bring his own field equipment.

  Nick smiled and squeezed her elbow before answering. “Since the dig site isn’t accessible by wagon, we don’t use one on a regular basis. However, I’m sure I can rent something suitable at the livery stable. If you’ll wait here, I’ll be back to collect your luggage in a few minutes.”

  Caroline breathed a sigh of relief as he marched off to confer with the porter.

  “That’s what I like—a man with gumption,” Marsh said. He reached inside his coat, pulled out a fat cigar, and lit it.

  Her eyes began to water, and bile rose in her throat. She would never understand the attraction men felt toward cigars. Fortunately, Nick returned with a wagon before she embarrassed herself.

  On the drive to the cabin, Professor Marsh regaled them with tales of his earlier expeditions, pausing only for an occasional puff on his cigar. Caroline was grateful for two things: one, that she was sitting upwind; and two, that his discourse offered little opportunity for her or Nick to speak. The professor had such an expansive personality, and she’d admired his work for so many years that she found herself uncharacteristically tongue-tied.

  When they arrived at the cabin, Nick wrestled the trunks and crates down from the rented wagon, and the professor commandeered him to set up his tent. Caroline left the men to their work and scurried inside to change into her work clothes. After settling his gear, Marsh appeared at the cabin door with a tool case slung over his shoulder and a large camera and tripod in his hands. “Let’s go, Hubbard. I’m most anxious to see the site.”

  Caroline viewed the camera with envy. She would love to have kept a photographic record of her finds, but she couldn’t afford a camera with the money she’d managed to sneak out of her trust fund before Arthur had frozen it, and she didn’t know anyone who could teach her to use one. Perhaps she could persuade Professor Marsh to instruct her before he left.

  “Excuse me, professor.” She stepped past him and headed toward the stable. “Nick, could you secure the professor’s equipment to the travois? Since we can’t take the wagon, we’ll need to ride double.”

  Marsh swiveled and regarded her with a quizzical expression. “Mrs. Hubbard, who is Nick?”

  Horseapples!

  Chapter Eleven

  “Mrs. Hubbard, did you just call your husband Nick?” Professor Marsh asked.

  Nick glanced at Caroline’s ashen face.

  “I...I...” she sputtered. Her eyes held a look of desperation.

  He stepped forward and wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulders. “It’s a pet name, isn’t it, dear?”

  “A pet name,” she repeated in a hollow echo.

  “Nicholas is m
y middle name,” Nick offered.

  “But your initials are C. P.” The professor’s confusion deepened into a frown.

  They’d decided on Charles for a first name, but what about the P? Think fast. “My given name is Charles Percival Nicholas Hubbard. Caroline has always liked the name Nick better than Percival, haven’t you, dear?”

  She nodded in mute agreement.

  Marsh chewed his cigar while he glanced from one to the other before giving Nick a brisk nod. “Well, I don’t care what you call yourself. I want to see what you’ve found.”

  Nick expelled his breath in a rush of relief and felt Caroline’s body relax against his side. They’d survived the first major challenge. “Yes, sir. I hope you’ll find my horse an adequate mount. I’ll load your gear, and my wife and I will ride the mule.”

  Although nine years had passed since the professor’s first expedition to Como Bluff, he seemed to remember the topography and took off in the lead with Nick and Caroline plodding behind on Jasper. For once, the mule minded his manners and didn’t object to the double load, allowing Nick to concentrate on the feel of the woman in his arms. Being able to hold Caroline close almost made up for having to ride Jasper...almost. But he wished she would say something. He hated seeing her so cowed.

  “Everything’s going to be fine,” he murmured in her ear. “He doesn’t suspect a thing.”

  She turned her head and surprised him with the vehemence of her whisper. “It’s never going to work. I couldn’t even play my role for an hour.”

  “Just wait ’til the professor sees the fossils. He’ll be so excited by the bones, he won’t notice anything else.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She settled back against him and ruminated for a moment. “I can show him the partial Stegosaurus I uncovered last week and the new vertebrae we worked on yesterday. Perhaps he’ll be able to identify the species.” Then she twisted in the saddle. “Or better yet, maybe he won’t. Maybe I’ve done it. Maybe I’ve found something entirely new!”

  Nick smiled to see her face aglow with the passion of discovery again. “That’s my girl.” He planted a swift kiss on her startled mouth then gave Jasper a nudge with his heels.

  When they reached the patch of level ground below the dig site, Professor Marsh had already dismounted and was examining a massive outcropping of sedimentary ledge with the remnant of his cigar clamped between his teeth. He turned and squinted up at the sky, where a wash of thin clouds muted the strength of the late morning sun. “Hurry up, Hubbard. I want to get some photographs of the specimens in situ. The light’s excellent.”

  Nick’s gut tightened. He’d only been to the site once, and at the time he’d still been suffering the lingering effects of his head injury. It was somewhere on the ridge, but he wasn’t sure of the exact location. Caroline would have to take the lead now; he hoped she was ready.

  He lifted her from Jasper’s back, set her on the ground, and gave her waist a little squeeze. “Caroline, my dear, why don’t you show the professor to the fossil bed while I unpack his equipment? I’ll be right behind you.”

  Her eyes answered his unasked question with confidence. “Certainly, dear.” She turned to Marsh with a bright smile. “This way, professor, if you’ll follow me...”

  Nick smiled as she strode off up the narrow path with the professor in tow, rattling on about something that sounded like ah-lee-sor-us. She had finally found someone who spoke her language. Several minutes later, he joined them carrying the bags of excavation tools and Marsh’s camera.

  The professor rose from beside the partially excavated vertebrae and brushed the dust from his knees. “I say, Hubbard, your wife knows a great deal about dinosaurs.”

  “Yes, sir. She’s an avid student.” He winked at Caroline.

  Marsh had turned back to the specimen but beckoned Nick with one hand. “Bring the camera and that box of glass plates, if you would. I need a photograph of these bones.”

  Nick obliged. “Do you have any idea what species this is?”

  The professor knelt and ran his hand over the largest bone. “I can’t be certain until we get the entire specimen back to the museum. Don’t want another episode like that fool Cope and his Elasmosaurus. Identification is a tricky business, Hubbard. Sometimes you think you’ve found a new species only to discover it’s a juvenile form of something you already have.”

  The professor took photographs of the fossils from several angles before motioning to Nick again. “I need you and your wife to stand beside this specimen...for scale, you know. And Mrs. Hubbard, if you would be so kind as to remove your hat. It’s casting an odd shadow. There...that’s fine. Now hold still.”

  When he’d removed the exposed plate and stored it safely in the wooden box, Caroline said, “Professor Marsh, there is also a specimen over here I think you’ll find interesting.”

  “Oh? By all means.” The professor followed her with the camera, leaving Nick to trail along behind.

  By the time they stopped for refreshment, he felt about as useful as a barrel of barnacles. After just a few hours working together, Caroline and Professor Marsh were so deeply involved in paleontological conversation that if Nick suddenly vanished, neither of them would miss him for days.

  ****

  That evening after supper, the professor retired to his tent, leaving Nick and Caroline alone in the house. She was too exhausted to do more than drag herself to bed, worn out by the stress of playing her role while trying to make the most of the opportunity to work with Professor Marsh. Fortunately, the professor seemed not to notice Nick had stayed in the background as much as possible. Now if they could just maintain the charade for three more days...

  By the last night of Marsh’s visit, Caroline was positively giddy. They’d excavated two more crates of fossils, including most of the mystery vertebrae, and the professor had admired her plaster of Paris technique. The fact that she couldn’t take credit for her work under her own name was the only minor blemish on an otherwise successful venture. That and Nick’s attitude.

  As the days passed, he’d become progressively more quiet. At first, she assumed he was being considerate, allowing her to demonstrate her expertise, but after two days she began to wonder if there were more to it. He never offered a comment, and when spoken to, his responses were barely civil. Tonight she felt like celebrating and had had enough of his silent treatment.

  “What is wrong with you?” she demanded as she wiped the last supper plate with a dishtowel.

  He sat staring at the floor with his elbows braced against his knees. At her question, he glanced up with a pensive expression. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re too quiet. It’s eerie.”

  “Sorry. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

  “Professor Marsh leaves in the morning, and I’m confident he has no idea of our deception. We did it! You should be happy. I certainly am.”

  “You have every reason to be happy. You’ve achieved your dream.”

  Caroline smiled broadly. “Not completely but I’m much closer than I was five days ago. And it’s all because of you.” She had a sudden thought. “Is that why you’re upset? Because I haven’t thanked you properly?”

  He shoved up from the stool and crossed the room to stand in front of her. A hint of a smile played around his lips. “That’s not what’s bothering me, but I’m open to a little thanks.” He reached out and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “What did you have in mind?”

  She raised one brow. “Now that sounds more like the Nick Bancroft I know. The last couple of days you’ve been acting like someone stole your last lemon drop.”

  “It’s nothing that simple. Besides, you’re sweeter than any lemon drop.”

  Before Caroline could react, he pulled her hard against his chest and shoved his fingers into her hair while he plundered her mouth with a searing kiss. She had a moment of panic when she feared he might consume her, but then the familiar tingle started low in her belly. She grasped his shoul
ders and moaned into his mouth. Nick muttered something swift and unintelligible and tightened his grip.

  Caroline lost all sense of time, and when he finally eased his onslaught, she struggled to catch her breath. “What was that?”

  His chest heaved. “I wanted you to know how I feel before I go.”

  She reached back for the edge of the table to steady herself and stared at him. What was he talking about? Her mind couldn’t make sense of his words. “Go? When?”

  He began to pace in front of her. “I’ve made my decision. I’m leaving in the morning. I’ll take the professor to the train and return the wagon to the livery stable. Then I’m off.”

  “But why?”

  “I told you before. I won’t be beholden to my father or brother. I need to find my place in the world, make my own life.”

  Caroline’s heart shriveled. “But I need you here to help me.” Her voice sounded small and hollow.

  Nick stopped and clasped her hands. “No, you don’t. I’ve watched you the past few days. You approach your work the same way you approach your life. You know what you want, and you do what’s necessary to get it.”

  His comments bewildered her. “What else could I do?”

  “That’s just it; you could do nothing else. But I don’t have your certainty, your plan. I need to find those things for myself.”

  “Where will you look?”

  “I don’t know.” His lips moved in a ghost of a smile. “Maybe my fortune will be waiting in the Amazon.”

  The Amazon. She’d thought he was joking when he mentioned it before. He might as well have said the moon. She jerked her hands away. “I’ll never see you again.”

  “I’ll come back.”

  She gave a bleak little laugh. “No, you won’t. And if you do, I won’t be here.”

  “Why not? There are years’ worth of fossils to be discovered in these bluffs.”

  “True, but I want more than to toil away digging up bones for someone else to catalogue and display.”

  “Then I’m sure you’ll get more. You’re not the kind of woman to give up on something she wants.”