Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

P anic flooded Gil as the water covered Jess. For a frantic moment, fear paralyzed his mind. Had she hit her head and drowned?

But then she rose so both shoulders cleared the surface.

Relief crashed through him, overpowering every other emotion.

Water streamed down her face and hair. She pushed the wet strands back, wiping liquid from her eyes. Only when her face held the hint of a smile did he let out a breath.

He reached down to help her out. “Are you all right? What happened?”

She took his hand and let him help pull her up the steep side of the pool. When she reached dry ground, she collapsed to sit in the moss. Her skirts hung limp, fully drenched and probably heavy. Her shirtwaist clung to her, outlining every one of her curves.

He forced his gaze back to her face as he crouched in front of her. “Did you slip on a rock?”

“Went lightheaded. My vision blackened for just a second. By the time I could see again, I was already toppling.”

Concern clenched inside him. “Why? What’s wrong?” Was she ill? Did she have a disease she hadn’t told him about? Maybe from living in that cave without enough sunlight.

“Nothing’s wrong. I don’t think so, anyway. This has happened a couple other times since I learned about the baby. I remember my mother saying she swooned once when she was carrying me.”

Baby .

He froze. Was she saying…? His mind reeled as he tried to process what she meant. "Baby? You're...with child?"

Her eyes narrowed, confusion gathering in her brows. “I told you I was. When we spoke to my father.”

His body finally thawed enough that his heart surged, hammering through him. “I thought it was a desperate ploy to make him see he had no choice but to accept we were married.” His legs could no longer hold him, so he dropped to sit on the ground beside her. He couldn’t pull his eyes from her though, even as he tried to wrap his mind around what her revelation meant.

Who was the father? Where was the father? Why hadn’t he married her? And not just as a pretense.

How far along was she?

A new thought pressed in, smothering out the rest as anger roared back to life. Had someone accosted her?

She placed her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry I didn't make it clearer before. Everything happened so fast, and I..." She trailed off, looking out over the water.

He searched for something to say. His muddled mind couldn’t find a coherent word.

“I need to get back. The food.”

He leaped to his feet before she could untangle her sodden skirts enough to stand, then gripped her arm to help her balance.

Clearly, she didn’t want him asking all the questions that hammered him. Maybe, hopefully, if he gave her space, she’d tell him in her own time.

She sent him a quick smile before pulling away and striding back the way they’d come.

As he followed her to the cave, one thought finally came clear amidst the muddy mess of questions. The stakes in this mission had suddenly become so much higher. He had to get Jess and that tiny life inside her to safety. No matter what it took.

L ater that afternoon, Gil scrubbed the last of the dishes, his thoughts a whirlwind. Sitting beside Mick while they ate the midday meal had been just short of torture, especially with Jess gone to tend Ezekiel. Gill had disliked her father when he’d arrived, but he was coming to loathe the man more every day. Which made being civil to him just a hair shy of impossible.

Now Mick had finally gone back to his work, and Jess hadn’t yet returned.

The water sloshed around the tin plate as Gil worked off the remnants of their lunch.

Knowing about the babe didn’t change his plans where she was concerned. He’d still get her out of here. Still help her settle on his family’s ranch. Still do his best to make her love him as much as he was coming to love her.

But he had so many questions about how she’d come to be in her condition. What he needed to ask might not make for polite conversation, but he had to know. Especially considering how invested his heart was in her already.

Did she love the father? Or did she bear scars from an ordeal Gil could hardly stand to imagine?

He needed to know. Everything in him wanted to pull her close and protect her.

He rinsed the dish, then set it on the towel to dry.

A rustle by the door had him turning in time to see Jess slip in. His chest tightened, both at the fresh blast of her beauty and what he had to say.

Her eyes were wide with excitement though. She glanced around the room. “Is Father here?”

“Nope.” He dried his hands on the cloth. “He went back to work.”

Her eyes sparked with a light he’d rarely seen there. “I remembered another storage room.” She moved toward the curtained area where they slept. “I tried to get in, but it’s locked. I think I can open it though. I just need something.”

Turmoil twisted inside him. He was desperate to ask his questions, but if they had a chance to find the sapphires, they couldn’t waste it.

He followed her to their sleeping area. “What can I do?”

“Get another lantern. We might need more than one.” She motioned toward the cluster of them hanging near the door.

Within minutes, they slipped out of their home, and she led him around the base of the mountain, where they entered the cave she’d brought him to the day they’d first met. She lit the lamps just inside the entrance.

He kept his voice low. “Are you sure it’s safe to have lanterns?”

“This tunnel is rarely used anymore. It was the first passage Father found when he started mining this mountain.”

Jess led the way, moving slowly enough that he was able to study the walls on both sides. This did appear to be a natural cave, at least the first part. Now that he looked closely, he could see where the natural cave ended and tools had been used to chip away the rock and carry the tunnel onward.

Ahead, Jess had stopped to study the wall. As he neared, he noticed an outline in the rock. A stone door? It must be incredibly heavy. On the left side halfway between the low ceiling and the rough floor, a round lock protruded a little from the stone.

Jess crouched on the right side though. Down near the bottom… Was that a hinge? A glance upward showed another near the top on that side.

He dropped to one knee next to her, bringing his lantern close so she could see better. There was a difference in coloring between the wall and the door. In fact, the door looked…painted?

He touched the surface, which was a rough texture but not cold stone. Definitely painted. And was that…? He made a fist and knocked.

Wood.

What remarkable camouflage. In the dim light of the tunnel, even carrying a lantern, he would have passed this twenty times before spotting the lock or hinges—if he’d ever seen them at all. The hinges and handle had been inset as much as possible, the wood meeting the stone around it so cleanly, that the seam was barely visible.

“It’s so hard to see, I often forget it’s here.” Jess was picking at the hinge with the metal hatpin she’d brought.

It had been fastened from the inside, making it secure. But Jess had poked the tip of her hatpin into the narrow opening between the door and cave. “I saw my father do this once when I was a girl. I remember being curious about how he’d managed to take the door off the hinge, so I looked at it from the inside later. I think I can remove the inside pin. It just might take a minute.”

All Gil could do was watch while she worked.

Her face twisted as she worked, her brows lowering and her mouth puffing out on one side like she was biting her tongue. Adorable. And she was so smart. This woman had lived a life no young girl should be forced to endure, but she’d come through it with intelligence and savvy.

How could he not admire her?

Her expression brightened as she leaned in to exert more pressure. “I think…” Her face fell as frustration snuffed out the hope. “I lost it.”

She readjusted the angle of the hatpin, and her mouth twisted again.

He could start on the upper hinge if he had something pointed like her hatpin. His pocketknife had an edge, but not a round point like her tool. He could try.

As he started to rise, metal clattered on the other side of the door.

“Got it.” She pushed the bottom corner of the door, and it wiggled a little. Not much, but more than it had before.

She stood, hatpin in hand, and reached up to the top hinge.

“Let me try that one? Might be easier for me.” The hinge was at his eye level, but she’d have to stretch to reach it, which would surely hurt her arms after a minute.

She didn’t hand him the hatpin, just kept on with what she’d been doing. “Let me fit it in the notch between the pin and hinge, then you can work the pin up.”

Less than a minute later, she stepped back, holding the hatpin secure in the crack with one hand. “Careful not to dislodge it. You have to be really gentle. Just a slight wiggle until you get the pin loose.”

As he placed his hand over hers and she pulled away, he did his best to keep the hatpin still. He needed to get a feel for how much effort he should apply to make it wiggle. She was right though. He had to use the slightest of movements or the tool would slip out of the crack between the hinge and the hinge pin.

Jess was trusting him—even though a man might struggle with such a delicate touch. From the corner of his gaze, he checked her expression.

Hopeful. Maybe a bit nervous. He would prove worthy of her trust.

It might have taken him a little longer to release his hinge than it had her, but at last he worked the pin high enough that it fell out of the hinge.

He blew out a breath as he lowered his arms.

The door shifted a little, but not much.

“We should be able to pull it out of the lock.” She mimed sliding the wood to the right, probably pulling the lock bar out of its secure setting in the stone.

He placed the hatpin and both lanterns behind them so he’d have room to maneuver the door.

Jess was already there, trying to pull it, but her arms barely extended the width of the wood.

He bit back a chuckle. “Can I try?”

She stepped away to allow him room. In the hinge side, he could now work his fingers in the crack between the door and frame, but he had to pinch the edge of the wood to pull it enough to create a finger space on the lock side.

When he did, he gripped the door with both hands and slid it sideways.

The lock bar pulled free, and he moved the door fully out of the way, resting it against the cave wall.

His heart hammered as he reached for his lantern.

Jess already had hers and was stepping into the doorway.

He stood beside her, lifting his lantern high to take in the sight before them.

Crates piled all the way to the ceiling, just taller than Gil. Some were slightly smaller, but most looked very familiar.

He stepped closer to touch one. He and his brothers built the crates for their gems, and didn’t mark them until they were ready to be shipped. Even then, they’d usually be labeled as potatoes or pickles or some other relatively heavy staple that shouldn’t stir undo interest.

But these…they had to be from the Coulter mine. He could see at least five crates that looked like theirs. Adjusting his lantern, he pulled one down from the top of a stack and placed it on the floor. The lid had been nailed shut, but everything about the outside proclaimed it to be from his family’s mine. He had to know if the sapphires were still inside though.

Jess watched him without speaking.

He gripped the edge of the lid and pulled upward, working the nails loose. He opened the lid enough to expose the contents.

A layer of black felt lay on top.

Jude always packed their gems in black felt.

Gil lifted the fabric, bringing the lantern closer to make out the rich blue of the stones inside.

He’d found his family’s stolen sapphires.