Fool's Gold (14 page)

‘Chen Kai has many talents and skills which I could never hope to master,’ she laughed, ‘but he cannot take a decent plate to save his life!’

He was quiet for the rest of the morning, holding the surveying stick while she adjusted the theodolite, carrying her board for her and generally keeping out of her way when he was not needed.

In the afternoon they came up with a couple of the ranch hands riding patrol along the boundary, which at that point followed a small creek.

‘Any sign of trouble?’ asked Cornish anxiously.

‘Not a sniff of it,’ replied the older man, who spoke in a strong Scottish accent with overtones of Georgia. ‘Just being here’ll be enough to keep them off, for you could see them coming for miles.’ He gestured across to the open land on the far side of the creek. ‘Lachie was about to pour some coffee, if you’d join us …?’ His voice trailed off as he took in the sight of the woman behind the Colonel.

Cornish dismounted. ‘I’m sure Mrs Owens would appreciate a rest as much as I would,’ he replied heartily, hoping she would not think herself above sitting with the hands.

‘More!’ exclaimed Alicia, urging her mare forward. ‘I’d forgotten just how long it was since I’d been on horseback!’

She winced as she tried to bring her leg over the pommel to dismount. Impeded by the heavy skirts and with the mare restless under the unaccustomed handling, she looked as though she might end up on the dusty ground. Cornish swiftly crossed to her side, picked her up easily by the waist and lifted her down to the ground.

She bit her lip in annoyance.

‘I can usually manage by myself,’ she protested.

‘I know it.’ He spoke softly and his eyes, when he looked down at her, were gentle and understanding.

‘Thank you, Colonel,’ she murmured — and meant it.

Sitting in the sunshine on a small rocky outcrop while the coffee bubbled on the fire, looking across the drifts of blue ookow lilies and the clumps of yellow rock roses to the Sierras, she thought how happy she could be in such a peaceful place. Sharply she shook her head to dispel such foolish thoughts. She could not afford to grow sentimental. Within a month, two at most, she would be back in Sacramento again, trailing around the milliners and dressmakers, looking for another position to support her and Tamsin. She took a heartening sip of the strong hot coffee.

The younger man, Lachie, was speaking to her.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I was asking, ma’am, if you hailed from San Francisco? I’ve a notion your face is familiar.’

‘Not San Francisco, no,’ she replied hurriedly. ‘We always lived further north — much further north.’

‘Shasta, would that be?’ enquired Calum Mackechnie.

‘We were there for some time,’ she said airily. ‘All round the northern mines.’

‘Owens,’ mused Mackechnie. ‘Don’t rightly remember that name though.’

She glanced up from her coffee to find Cornish’s cool gaze on her. She looked away again swiftly; she could only hope he thought the matter of the name not worth bothering about.

By the end of the day they had surveyed and mapped all the way along from the Sacramento to the border with Lamarr’s territory and were heading towards what had been McDowell’s and was now the little town of Washington. As the sun began to dip towards the peaks of the Coast Range, they packed their gear and turned back to Tresco. It had been a long day.

Chapter Eleven

Chen Kai hurried out to help her down from the saddle with the little girl close on his heels.

‘Tamsin!’ she exclaimed in surprise, holding out her arms to hug the child warmly.

‘Hello, Lisha!’ she said with a grin. ‘Chen Kai let me get up after lunch and we fed the doves. Look, aren’t they pretty?’ She pointed up to the roof where the white doves sat gently cooing, picturesque against the warm red tiles. ‘Chen Kai says there’s an old dovecote on the other side of the fort, but he wouldn’t take me there today …’

‘Tamsin,’ she chided the child gently. ‘Colonel Cornish will think you have forgotten your manners.’

The child put her hand up to her mouth with a little giggle. ‘I’m sorry, Lisha!’ She turned to Cornish, who was unbuckling, the saddle from the powerful stallion he rode before handing him over to Luis to take to the stables. She crossed to stand in front of the rancher and held out her hand. ‘How do you do, Colonel Cornish?’

He bent down to take her hand, smiling at such formality from so small a child. ‘I am very well, I thank you. The better for seeing you recovered.’

‘Oh, I’m
much
better now,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘And I’m glad you let Lisha and me come and see Chen Kai again. I
did
miss him so much!’ Then, disconcertingly, ‘I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?’ She tilted her head to one side to look up at him curiously.

‘When Jo Chen came to work at Tresco,’ he replied gravely. ‘And I think I saw you at Miss Cooper’s house, though I didn’t realise then that you were Jo’s friend.’

‘Oh, yes! I liked it there. I hope Lisha will take me there again.’

‘I’m sure Miss Cooper would be delighted to see you again. Perhaps next Sunday …’ he began, then pulled himself up short, aghast.

Alicia saw the sudden change of expression on his face.

‘Come, Tamsin,’ she commanded, in a voice that brooked no discussion. ‘We must not trouble the Colonel. I am here to do a job, not go a-visiting.’

Chen Kai had exceeded his instructions and, instead of preparing one of the upstairs rooms, had cleaned out two rooms which opened on to the verandah which ran round the courtyard, so that she would be by the main house and yet independent of the household.

When she entered the outer room, her eye first took in the bright Mexican rug that covered the earth floor, then the motley collection of furniture that Kai had gathered together. She was too tired to do more than murmur thanks to him, but he had seen her eyes light up with pleasure as she walked in and that was sufficient reward for him.

Half an hour later Cornish wandered into the kitchen to find Chen gazing anxiously into the cauldron.

‘Mrs Owens joining us later?’ he asked casually.

‘I think not, Corr-onel,’ replied the cook. ‘She is tired. Not that the work was too hard for her,’ he hastened to assure him, ‘but it is long since she sat a horse and she is stiff. What she needs is a hot bath. I gave her some stew. She may already be asleep.’

‘Damnation!’

‘I am very sorry, Corr-onel. If we had known …’

‘Not your fault, Jo. Nor hers. I suppose it was only to be expected she’d be saddlesore. But I’d hoped to discuss this idea of hers to buy a camera. Still, you can advise me on that, no doubt.’

‘She … wants … you … to … buy … a … camera?’ asked Chen carefully.

‘Yes. Great idea of hers. Make plates showing the boundary markers in their proper place, to submit to the Land Register …’

‘She is mad!’ Chen’s face had gone the colour of old ivory.

‘Oh, I don’t know. If she can do it at the same time as the mapping, I don’t see it will slow us down any. When you’ve got got that stew sorted out, perhaps we can discuss equipment …’

‘
So
sorry, Corr-onel,’ said Chen, bowing submissively. ‘Would help, but I was only humble assistant. I know nothing of such matters.’

Cornish narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but Chen only gazed back at him impassively.

‘Oh, damn you, get on with the cooking!’ he growled in exasperation, and turned on his heel and stormed out.

Cornish and Kerhouan dined together in the overheated kitchen and then, after the strong-flavoured mess had been cleared away, Cornish resolutely sat down to sort through some more of the papers.

Leaving Luis and Xavier to clear away in the bunkhouse and clean the dishes, Chen Kai hurried across the courtyard to knock urgently on the door of Alicia’s room.

‘Who is it?’ came a sleepy voice at last.

‘Me. Kai.’

She opened the door in her nightdress, drawing a shawl around her shoulders, barely managing to suppress a yawn.

‘Corr-onel speaks of a camera,’ he snapped.

‘Yes. Isn’t it a good idea? If we can fix the positions of the boundary markers, it will give added weight to the map.’

‘And of course it was your suggestion? A good way to show Corr-onel you are not the witless person he holds all women to be?’

‘You don’t think I did it just for that? Chen Kai! Just for my own pride? Of course it’s not essential as the map is. But it will help his claim, really it will!’

‘And who will go into Sacramento and buy this camera?’ he demanded angrily. ‘Corr-onel Cornish?’

‘Of course not!’ She furrowed her brow at his slowness of understanding. ‘He knows nothing of cameras!’

‘So you or I will go into Sacramento and walk into King’s or Beal’s Daguerrean Gallery and select one?’ he hissed. ‘Alicia, I think you left your brains behind when you came out of prison!’

‘I — I — never thought … but nobody cares in Sacramento … we’re far enough away from San Francisco.’

‘Do you think that there are so many cameras bought in California that news of a lady or a Chinaman buying one will not filter through, back to San Francisco, where Beal or King go to collect their supplies? And if it comes to Fisher’s ears? Do you think he can no longer put two and two together? Or do you think he will look in his mirror and tell himself that it no longer matters?’

‘What can we do?’ she whispered.

‘We have to explain to Corr-onel Jack —’

‘No! Not all of it, Kai? I — I couldn’t bear it! I just couldn’t!’

He heard the rising hysteria in her voice. ‘Alicia! Stop it!’ He grasped her shoulders and shook her roughly.

She caught her breath on a shuddering sob. Pressing her hands to her mouth as if she could force the sobs back, she looked round the little room with wide, tragic eyes.

‘I felt safe here,’ she said tragically. ‘“The pretty green place” Tamsin calls it. A refuge, an oasis. And now I’ve put it all at risk with one thoughtless, boastful remark.’ The tears were streaming unheeded down her pale cheeks. ‘Must we go on the road again, Kai?’ she whispered brokenly.

‘No! We haven’t come through all this just to be beaten by that bastard!’ His voice hardened. ‘Dry your eyes, Alicia. Leave this to me.’

‘Then you’ll tell him …’

‘As much as I have to,’ he said with a shrug. ‘And as little as I can get away with.’

She didn’t expect to sleep again that night, but the exhaustion of her body overcame the turmoil of her mind and she was soon asleep, to dream of wide open spaces and green hills, of prison bars and the hangman’s noose.

*

As Chen Kai closed the door noiselessly behind him, he saw a movement across by the stable entrance and whipped out his knife.

‘Who’s there?’ he hissed.

A light flared and Colonel Cornish stepped out of the shadows.

‘It’s me, Jo,’ he declared, a trifle impatiently. ‘Who in Hell did you think it was?’ As he turned the lantern on the other man, he saw the flash of the knife in his hand. ‘I’ve told you before about that damned knife of yours — you’re a deal too ready with it. What would you have done if it had been one of the hands? Stuck the blade in him?’

‘I — I thought it was someone listening …’ stammered Chen lamely.

‘Listening to what, for God’s sake?’ he demanded irritably.

‘I think I have to talk to you,’ responded Chen softly, putting the knife away as he spoke.

When they were seated at the table in the kitchen, he sat and gazed down at his hands for a few moments.

‘Corr-onel, I believe you are an honourable man. What I say to you now, let it go no further. Tell no one, not even Ker-hwan. In this I trust you.’

Cornish nodded.

‘You remember, Corr-onel, I told you Alicia — Mrs Owens — and I, we travelled round the mining camps? You have realised by now that Alicia took daguerrotypes.’

‘A talented woman. But why give it up? Lack of customers?’

‘No. We didn’t give up willingly, I assure you!’ He laughed harshly. ‘We were very successful!’ It was not a boast, but a statement of fact. ‘We had our own wagon, and in time also our own studio in San Francisco. They flocked to it: the traders, the miners on the town, the saloon girls, the gamblers … Ay me, the gamblers!’ He sighed heavily. ‘And that was our undoing.’

‘How so?’

‘A man — I spit on the grave of his ancestors! — a man came to the studio with one of his whores. A bad man, an evil man, but in San Francisco very powerful. My friend had come across him before I knew her. He was, it seems, obsessed with her. They had words. Very foolish.’ He shook his head over the folly of it. ‘From that day on our fortunes changed. Small things at first. Thefts of chemicals. And then the props.’

‘Props? The only props I know are pit props — and what would they be doing in a daguerrotyper’s studio?’

‘Properties. It is, I believe, a theatrical term. In our business, you do not just need a camera and tripod. Many of the miners who come to have their likeness taken want to impress their families back east with their prosperity. We lend them — lent them — a fancy coat, a top hat, a gold watch chain; in the studio we had velvet curtains for them to be photographed against, an elegant little antique table with a tasteful plant …’

‘Good God!’

‘It is as important as the skill of the photographer,’ agreed Chen solemnly. ‘Mrs Langdon — Alicia — often said that the gilt on the frame of the photograph was the nearest most of them ever got to gold.’

‘A perceptive woman,’ he assented gravely. ‘And so these — er — props went astray?’

‘We did not despair. We had savings. We bought more. Then one day a miner came in — blind drunk — stumbled against the tripod and smashed the camera. By accident, it was said. And suddenly, no one could sell us a new camera. Three days later, our studio burnt down.’

‘There are many fires in San Francisco …’

‘On a damp day in autumn? No. It was no accident. I smelt the oil myself.’ And heard the child’s screams, he remembered, reliving for a moment the horror of the realisation that Tamsin was still in there.

‘But you still had the wagon?’ The rancher’s voice brought him sharply back to the present.

‘Yes. We were in Coloma, trying to persuade an old man to sell us his camera, when our enemy finally sprang the trap on us. A note signed by her husband, pledging the wagon to this man against a gambling debt. And a sheriff’s man to enforce it.’ He sighed. ‘It was a lie, of course, for there
was
no wagon until after her husband’s death. But they took it!’ He banged his fist on the table in sheer frustration at the memory. ‘Although they had no use for it, they took it.’

‘But some of it was your share. Surely he had no claim to that part?’

‘For the sake of your ranch, Corr-onel, I hope you are not really so ignorant of the laws regarding property. Not only can a Chinee not give evidence in court, he cannot hold property. Any claims I might have had had no standing in California law.’

‘So what did you do?’

Chen hesitated a moment, biting his lip, and Cornish wondered if he would hear any more.

‘There was much trouble — much. And so we had to leave.’

‘No wonder the poor woman looked so worn,’ said the rancher sympathetically. ‘But who is this enemy?’

‘Better you do not know. I only tell you this so you understand that it is out of the question for either Alicia or me to buy a camera. We have finished with that life — this must be a new start.’

‘You surely don’t think this enemy is still looking for you?’ he demanded incredulously.

Chen rose to his feet. ‘Corr-onel, I bid you goodnight,’ he stated.

‘So be it,’ agreed the rancher reluctantly. ‘Then we’ll stick to the maps.’

When Alicia awoke the next morning, she found a note pushed under the door.

‘No more worry’, wrote Chen Kai in his customary scrawl. ‘All is settled. Say nothing. Colonel is an honourable man’.

*

‘Good morning, Mrs Owens,’ said Cornish with the hearty air of a man who had already been up some hours. ‘Ready to leave shortly?’

‘Whenever you wish, Colonel.’ She reached over to straighten Tamsin’s apron.

‘Lisha’s legs are hurting her from the horse riding,’ piped up Tamsin.

‘Tamsin!’ snapped Alicia angrily. ‘Little girls should speak when they are spoken to!’ She felt herself colouring furiously under the rancher’s keen scrutiny. ‘Now eat your bread and be quiet.’ She poured some more coffee into her mug. ‘Pray take no notice of the child, Colonel Cornish. I shall be ready as soon as you require.’