The Treasure of Como Bluff Read online

  She squared her jaw. “No, I’m not.”

  “So you should understand why I have to do this.”

  “I understand you’re just another man chasing after the goose that lays the golden egg, or, in your case, silver.”

  A wave of hurt washed across his features before his eyes narrowed. “That’s oversimplified and unfair.”

  A needle of guilt skewered Caroline. He was right, but she didn’t care. How could he kiss her like she was the last woman on Earth and then announce he was leaving? She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I’m sorry, but that’s how I see it.”

  “Then there’s nothing left to say. I hope your delusions bring you comfort.” He scooped up his few possessions and stalked out in the direction of the shed.

  Caroline sank to the stool with a thud. That was it. The best part of her life was over. Tomorrow Nick would be gone, taking her heart with him.

  Chapter Twelve

  September, 1879

  Bang!

  The cabin door slammed behind her, and Caroline leapt to her feet, hammer in hand, ready to fight off the intruder. But there was no one. It must have been the wind. She’d left the door open to bring in more light while she nailed the lid on the crate containing the last of her supplies. The barren little room stood lonely and silent, empty except for the meager pile of her belongings.

  It was over—her adventure, her dreams, everything. In an hour she’d be gone, on her way to town to spend her last night at the hotel before catching the train in the morning. After months of backbreaking labor in primitive conditions, she was returning to the comforts of the New York townhouse with nothing to show for her efforts but calluses. Arthur would never let her hear the end of it.

  She sighed and wandered to the doorway to gaze across the landscape one last time. Six months ago, she’d found a stark beauty in the rocky, windswept slopes, but now disappointment had turned her world a dismal, lifeless shade of gray. And the weather didn’t help. Overhead, dark clouds roiled, and a cold wind sliced through her wool jacket. Autumn came hard and early in Wyoming.

  Something whipped across her field of vision, something small and light. Surely it couldn’t have been a snowflake. It wasn’t even October yet. She shivered and hurried back inside to finish packing. If an early storm did strike, she and Jasper would be better off in town.

  Thump.

  Drat that door. She glanced up from her trunk, but the door was still shut.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  It almost sounded like knocking. Caroline’s heart fluttered in her throat. She reached for the gun lying on top of the nearest crate. “Who is it?” she called out.

  No answer.

  Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  It appeared her visitor wasn’t going away. Well, she didn’t have the time or inclination to wait him out, whoever he was. She raised the pistol and reached for the door handle with her left hand. After a deep breath to steady her nerves, she flung the door open.

  There he stood. Nicholas Bancroft. In the flesh.

  “Do you mind putting that down?” He tipped his chin toward the gun. “I’m not here to steal anything.”

  Too late for that.

  His blue eyes crinkled at the corners, and his crooked grin broke what was left of her heart. She steadied her aim. “What do you want?”

  He removed his hat. “Let me in, Caroline.” His voice was deep and warm, like melted butterscotch.

  She stood her ground. “There’s nothing for you here.”

  Nick peered over her shoulder and frowned. “You’re leaving. Why?”

  “I’m finished.” In every way. She sighed and lowered the pistol.

  “Did you make your big find and publish your paper?”

  “No.”

  “Then will you come back next year and keep digging?”

  “No.”

  He remained silent, but his eyes were filled with questions. After a long, expectant pause, she threw up her hands. “All right,” she stormed, “if you must know the truth, the whole endeavor was nothing but a sham.”

  Nick’s brows drew together. “I don’t understand. Professor Marsh seemed genuine enough.”

  “He’s a genuine something all right, but he’s no scientist.” Her voice rose with fury. “He and Cope are nothing but a pair of self-important dilettantes. Do you know what he did?” She poked a finger at Nick’s chest. “He sent me a telegram with instructions to blow up a shipment of specimens to keep them out of Cope’s hands. He ordered me...ME...to use dynamite!”

  “I assume you didn’t comply.”

  She fixed him with a glare. “What do you think?”

  He stepped past her into the cabin. “I’m surprised at the professor, but I’m pleased by the good news.”

  The satisfaction in his voice lit a flame under her resentment until it boiled over. “Good news? You find my failure good news?” She was shouting, and she didn’t care. “Is that why you came back after two months, to gloat?”

  “No, no. Caroline, sweetheart—”

  He reached for her, but she shrugged him off with a violent jerk. “Don’t you sweetheart me.”

  He stepped back with a rueful look. “I probably deserve that.”

  “You bet you deserve it. Now answer my question. Why are you here?”

  “I have something to show you.” He slid his saddlebags off his shoulder and lifted the flap on one side.

  “I have no interest in anything of yours.”

  He reached into the bag and removed an oddly shaped, burlap-bound lump. “I think you’ll be interested in this.” Cradling it in his hands like a precious treasure, he offered it to her.

  Caroline’s curiosity tempted her to accept, but pride held her back.

  “Take it,” Nick urged softly.

  She might have withstood the seduction in his voice, but she made the mistake of meeting his gaze. His eyes glowed with blue fire, like the first spark of a match before it bursts into flame.

  “Take it.” He pressed the bundle into her hands. “Open it.”

  She peeled away the wrapping until she uncovered the object, and her pulse pounded in her chest. It was a fossilized scapula but unlike any she’d ever seen. Como Bluff contained dozens of species of dinosaurs, but this bone was different. The angles were all wrong. Her senses perked up at the whiff of discovery.

  “Where did you get this?” she demanded without taking her eyes off her prize.

  “From my ranch.”

  Caroline’s head jerked up, and she narrowed her eyes. “When you left you said you were prospecting for silver.”

  Nick grinned. “I was, but I found something better.”

  “The last time I saw you, you were headed for the Amazon.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t get quite that far.”

  “How far did you get?”

  “Colorado.”

  “And you bought a ranch? Why?”

  “You’ll understand as soon as you see it. It’s the most beautiful two hundred acres this side of heaven, with stands of pine and spruce, a big meadow, and a stream with plenty of fresh water.”

  “It sounds lovely, but I’m going back to New York.”

  “You can’t, not now. I bought it for you.”

  She gave him an incredulous stare. “Have you hit your head again? What would I do with a ranch?”

  “Uncover the rest of this, for starters.” Nick gestured to the bone in her hands. She’d forgotten it in her shock at his announcement.

  “The stream cuts through a gorge,” he continued, “and the walls are studded with fossils. It will take years to dig them all out. And you wouldn’t have to send them to anyone. You could photograph your finds and publish the results yourself, or even start your own museum.”

  Drat him! He was tempting her with the one thing she’d wanted as long as she could remember, but at what cost? Such an offer couldn’t come without strings. “What about you?”

  He shrugged. “I could help you dig. Ra
ise a few head of cattle...and maybe a baby or two.”

  She froze. What was he saying?

  He took the bone and set it on a crate before grasping her hands. “Marry me, Caroline. You’re the most fascinating, beautiful, and brilliant woman I’ve ever known, and I love you. Come with me to Colorado. I want to start our own family, our own empire. Not our fathers’, not our brothers’, but ours.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say yes.” He tugged on her hands until she came into his arms. Then he lowered his head and kissed her until the world spun on its axis and floated away. When Nick finally drew back, he reached inside his shirt collar and fingered a silver chain. “Do you remember this?”

  Caroline felt as though he’d dumped a bucket of ice water over her head. Lucinda’s locket! She shoved him away. “Of course, I remember.”

  “I’ve worn it next to my heart every day since I left you.”

  Confusion and pain squeezed her chest and threatened to suffocate her. He’d just told her he loved her. Now he wanted to show her his former fiancée’s photograph?

  Nick popped open the locket and held it out. “Look. Look inside.”

  She crossed her arms. “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Look closely.”

  Something in his voice broke through her resistance, and she reluctantly glanced at the locket. Then she squinted, trying to see it better in the gloom of the cabin. It looked different; the photo had changed. She reached for the locket and pulled Nick closer to examine the tiny picture. He slid his arms around her waist to anchor her to him and leaned forward to nibble her neck.

  “Hold still,” she admonished. “I’m trying to see this.”

  He planted a quick kiss on her earlobe. “Do you recognize it?”

  Caroline stared. It was a picture of her—not a woman who looked like her, but her—standing in front of the ridge of sauropod vertebrae. It was one of the photos Professor Marsh took the first day at the dig site. “Where did you get this?”

  “I stole the plate from the professor.” Nick was unapologetic. “He had plenty of pictures of the bones. I needed one of my beautiful wife.”

  “I’m not your wife,” she corrected automatically while trying to absorb the enormity of what he was saying.

  “But you can be.” He dipped his head for a seductive nibble. “Mmmm. What do you say?”

  She squirmed in his arms. “Will you stop that? You’re making me tingle.”

  “That sounds promising.”

  “I can’t think when I’m tingling,” she protested.

  Nick sighed and held her still, gazing deep into her eyes. “Caroline, sweetheart, has it occurred to you that there’s a time for thinking and a time for tingling, and now might not be the time for thinking?”

  “I’m a rational being, and I need to consider your proposition rationally.”

  “You’re a lovely, sensual woman, and you need to surrender to your feelings from time to time.”

  “And you think this is one of those times?”

  “I know it.” He brushed his thumb lightly across her cheekbone. “Close your eyes and listen to your heart.”

  Caroline clutched his upper arms and searched his eyes for an assurance she couldn’t name. He asked so much. How could she give up the control she’d fought so hard to gain and trust another being with her future, her whole life?

  “Listen to your heart,” he repeated.

  Suddenly she wanted to. Experimentally, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the warm persuasion of his lips. By the time he broke the kiss, she could swear she heard singing.

  “Can you hear it?” he murmured against her ear. “Can you hear your heart?”

  “I think so.”

  “What is it telling you?”

  “That I’ve lost my mind.”

  “Good. You don’t need it right now anyway.” He pressed a row of kisses from her collar bone to her ear before nipping the lobe.

  Caroline’s nipples puckered, and she shivered. She had no defense against this madness. Her body was nothing but one big tingle.

  “Come with me. Marry me,” Nick urged between kisses along her jawline.

  She ventured a shaky laugh. “I can’t seem to form a coherent thought. Are you prepared to spend the next fifty years with a crazy woman?”

  His wicked grin promised a lifetime of unimagined delights. “That’s all part of the adventure, sweetheart.”

  “Then I guess you can count me in.”

  A word about the author...

  Alison Henderson is the author of three Western historical romances. For as long as she can remember, her heroes have always been cowboys. She grew up in Kansas City on the edge of the prairie, and one of her favorite memories is of the fringed turquoise cowgirl outfit she received for her fifth Christmas. She went off to New York to study art history at Vassar College but never lost her admiration for the fortitude of the pioneers who settled the American West.

  Although she has traveled the world from Japan to Tunisia, Alison has never strayed far from her Midwestern roots. She and her husband are empty-nesters living in Minnesota, and their daughter is a graduate student in Chicago.

  She invites you to visit her website at www.alisonhenderson.com.

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