Fool's Gold (15 page)

‘At your convenience, Mrs Owens,’ he said with a slight inclination of the head. ‘Another hot day, by the looks of it. Today we will survey the lower land grant section.’ He paused as though struck by a pleasing notion. ‘The lower land grant section,’ he repeated, then turned sharply on his heel and out into the yard, shouting for Jo Chen.

In a few moments he was back.

‘I’ll just fetch my equipment,’ she said hastily, rising from the chair with a wince that did not go unnoticed.

‘Jo’s in the yard collecting up all the linen for a washing day,’ the Colonel informed her casually. ‘Anything you or the child want washed, get it for him now.’

He saw her hesitation. ‘No room on a ranch for false modesty, ma’am,’ he said laconically. ‘I doubt you’ll have any time for laundry these next three or four weeks.’

When she finally tracked Chen Kai down she was surprised to see him outside the stables, loading baskets of washing into an old-fashioned solid wheel cart, the like of which she had not seen since her first years in California.

‘Kai! Whatever is going on?’

‘Corr-onel Jack says we go into the foothills to do the washing.’

‘But who will look after Tamsin?’

‘Tamsin is coming with us,’ came Cornish’s voice from the doorway. Alicia turned swiftly to see him emerge from the shadows with Tamsin perched on his shoulders, held up by one hand, chuckling as they jogged along.

‘In you go, young lady,’ he ordered, swinging her down easily and depositing her in the back of the cart. ‘Get in, Mrs Owens. Luis! Xavier! Come on, you rascals! Where’s that basket?’

The two young lads, no more than thirteen or fourteen, came puffing across the yard, carrying a large wicker basket between them.

Their father Juan hitched two riding horses to the back of the wagon, then climbed up to the front of the carriage and clicked his tongue at the great heavy carthorses harnessed in tandem to the shafts. They headed away from the river, along a barely visible track which led up into the lower hills.

A questioning look at Kai brought nothing but a shrug of the shoulders. Exasperated, Alicia leant back in the chariot and, as the warmth of the early morning sun soothed her, she determined to let the day take care of itself.

The broad beautiful valley was unfenced and dotted with browsing wild horses and longhorn cattle. After an hour of bumping and jolting which no spoked cart wheel could ever have stood up to, the chariot turned into a smaller canyon and among the oaks she could see plumes of smoke rising.

‘
Agua caliente
, Mrs Owens,’ announced the Colonel, drawing his horse alongside.

Hot springs! Not smoke,then, but steam!

The chariot drew up at the foot of a gentle slope and everyone climbed out. Above them twin streams tumbled down the hillside, cascading through two series of pools marked by columns of steam; water, strong with minerals, flowed over the rim of one crusted basin to the next until at last they ran together at the foot of the slope and flowed down a worn channel to the broader stream at the end of the canyon. The whole hillside was thickly covered with ancient oaks and patches of willow which screened each basin from the next.

The horses were released from the shafts and turned loose to eat the wild oats that grew so profusely at the lower end of the canyon, while Luis and Xavier, no strangers to the
agua caliente
, began to carry the sacks of linen to the lower basin. They rubbed soap on the linen and then jumped into the basin to trample the laundry on the rocks until it was clean. To high spirited lads, the splashing and leaping was as much play as work and Chen Kai had to do no more than supervise.

Cornish cleared a patch of ground away from the open breezy grassland and built a fire. He set a pot to boil for coffee, then wandered across to Alicia, still standing by the cart.

‘Now, Mrs Owens, if you and Tamsin would care to take the first dip in the top basin?’ He laughed at the look of doubt on her face. ‘It is very well screened, Juan is down with the horses, the boys are under Jo’s watchful eye and I have a feast to prepare.’ He picked up a saddlebag and passed it to her. ‘I think you will find all you need in there. Believe me, you’ll feel much better for it: the hot springs are better than ordinary water for aches and pains and we must have you back in the saddle by this afternoon.’

*

Alicia closed her eyes and lay back in the hot water of the mineral spring pool, letting the warmth seep into her tired limbs and draw out the chafings and aches that the day in the saddle had brought about. Tamsin sat in the shallows, splashing and chuckling, singing one of her little songs to herself.

In the lower cascades she could hear the two young boys calling and whistling in high spirits, with the occasional deeper voice of Juan or Chen Kai calling them to order when they got a little too carried away. The upper cascade was well sheltered from below by a tangled screen of goat willow and alder trees in which the birds were singing merrily to one another. The sun beat down on their faces and Alicia had to make a great effort to stop herself falling asleep as the little waves caused by Tamsin’s splashing slapped at her body.

At last she dragged herself out of her torpor and began to wash Tamsin vigorously with the hunk of soap she had found in the saddlebag, together with a couple of huckaback towels and clean linen for herself and Tamsin. She could only hope it had been Chen Kai who had put it there!

Tamsin was fidgety and rather cross about being taken away from her splashing games and she wriggled energetically under Alicia’s hands until at last the soap went into her eyes and she howled.

‘Hush, Tamsin,’ chided Alicia. ‘The men will hear you,’ The last thing she wanted to do was remind the Colonel of the ‘burden’ of the child. Why, this day of all days, could she not behave?

‘Don’t care!’ screamed the child defiantly. ‘My eyes hurt!’

Impatiently Alicia splashed clean water in Tamsin’s eyes. ‘There now, it’s gone!’ she snapped. ‘Now for goodness’ sake, hush that noise. Get out and dry yourself!’

Tamsin’s bottom lip stuck out mutinously but Alicia ignored it. She had caught the smell of fish cooking and realised guiltily that she had been here for far too long. Swiftly she soaped herself and sank once more up to her neck in the warm water to rinse off the residue, then, with a quick glance around, stood up into the warm sunlit air, shaking her hair out and making the drops sparkle in the brightness as they scattered around her.

She reached down to the saddlebag, only to find that it was empty. Tamsin had dried herself and pulled on her drawers and chemise, and now she was wandering past the little thicket and down the path to the lower cascades. One towel was wrapped around her head in a rather lopsided imitation of the turban Alicia usually wound her wet hair into, the other was trailing behind her in the dust.

‘Tamsin!’ she hissed in panic. ‘Bring those towels back here
at once
!’

She realised her mistake as the child whirled about, her eyes lit up with mischief.

‘You come catch me!’ she cried gleefully, quite convinced that this was a repeat of the bath time romps that she and Alicia had enjoyed in those far-off good times when they had had the wagon and the nice house in the big city. ‘I keep it till you catch me!’

‘Not here, Tamsin!’ she pleaded desperately. ‘We can’t play here!’ Her voice grew stern as she tried to suppress the rising panic. ‘Tamsin! Give me that towel
now!
You are a naughty girl!’

‘
You
naughty!’ cried Tamsin. ‘You won’t play! So I won’t give you the towel! So there!’

Down below she heard the clanging of iron on iron, calling them to eat. And she had not even begun to dry her hair! Whatever would the Colonel think?’

In despair, she grabbed her chemise and held it across her middle as she tried to grab the towel, but Tamsin, content now that she had persuaded Lisha to play, darted just out of reach.

‘Tamsin!’ she cried in desperation as she darted back around the corner of the alders.

‘What in tarnation’s keeping you, Mrs … Owens …’

Cornish’s voice died in his throat as he came sharply round the corner of the thicket and face to face with Alicia. They both stood rooted to the spot.

He knew he should have looked away, turned his back on her to save her embarrassment, but he was quite unable to move.

How did I ever think her old?

She looked absurdly youthful, her rich hair dripping round her face, each drop of water shining like a crystal in the strong sun. The chemise she held in front of her could not conceal the slimness of her shapely legs, the swell of her firm breasts and her soft, pale, sloping shoulders.

I want to reach out and touch that beautiful body. But if I do, would I stop at touching?

They seemed to have been standing there an age, eyes locked together, when Tamsin broke in on them. ‘Lisha?’ she said hesitantly.

The spell was broken and he turned wrathfully on the child.

‘Give your mother the towel, child, and get yourself down the hill
pronto!
’ he snapped. The little girl looked at him wide-eyed, thrust the towel wordlessly into his hands, put her thumb into her mouth and fled.

His eyes fell to the towel in his hands; he cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed. Alicia could not take it from him without dropping the chemise, so he strode across to her side and draped it around her shoulders. As he wound it around her, he caught a brief tantalising glimpse of rivulets of water chasing each other down a narrow creamy-pale porcelain smooth back towards small, firm buttocks. He hesitated a moment longer, breathing faster, sweat beading his upper lip; he thrust the ends of the towel at her, turned sharply on his heel and headed back down the path.

In five minutes she was down by the campfire, her hair plaited damply over one shoulder. Xavier handed round delicious grilled fish freshly caught that morning in the brook.

Cornish was grateful to see that she did not blush or simper as he passed her a hunk of rough bread to mop up her plate. They had to go on working together and he knew he must force himself to put out of his mind that arousing glimpse of her half naked body.

While the boys packed up the linen that was dry and spread the heavier sheets out on the bushes to dry, Cornish went up to bathe and she lay down under the trees in the shade while Kai played at pitch and toss with a very subdued Tamsin.

Checking her equipment in the saddlebag, she became aware of Tamsin at her side, looking rather doleful. On an impulse she bent down and gave her a swift hug, to be rewarded by a big beaming smile.

‘Be good for Chen Kai? Promise?’

The child nodded.

‘And stay with Juan while Chen Kai has his bath?’

‘I think I will leave that.’ Chen ruffled the child’s hair and watched her skip away to play. ‘She has the imp of mischief in her today …’

‘She’ll be good,’ insisted Alicia confidently. ‘And it’s an experience not to be missed! It’s the first time I’ve felt really clean since I came out of pris —’

Her voice trailed off as a tall shadow fell across them. She looked up at the Colonel with wide scared eyes.

‘Since I left the city,’ she ended lamely.

‘If you’re ready, Mrs Owens?’ Cornish held her horse while Chen helped her up into the saddle.

‘About Tamsin …’ she said to Chen as he handed her the reins.

‘You worry too much, Alicia,’ was all Chen would say.

It was cool in the trees and she was glad to be out of the fierce afternoon sun, but before long they emerged again above the tree-line where they could no longer see the smoke of the campfire or the jets of steam from the
agua caliente
.

‘How far till we reach the boundary?’ she asked as they paused to let the horses drink from a little spring that trickled out of the bare hillside.

‘About ten minutes’ ride,’ he replied, mopping his forehead with a dampened kerchief and replacing his hat. ‘Still worried about the child?’

‘Of course not!’ she snapped.

‘Don’t lie. You’ve done nothing but gaze back since we started out.’

‘I’m sorry.’ She compressed her lips angrily at the implied criticism.

‘Don’t be. I’m sure you won’t let it interfere with your work. And I’m equally sure that Jo can cope with her.’

‘But what if she is naughty for Juan?’ She was betrayed into speaking her fears aloud.

‘Juan? He’s had five children and every one of them ten times more mischievous than your little girl. How old is she? Seven?’

‘Five,’ she corrected.

‘Good God! Then a little mischief is only to be expected. Though I was sorely tempted to dust her seat for her when you didn’t.’

‘I — I couldn’t.’

He gave a sudden loud crack of laughter. ‘Don’t tell me I’ve saddled myself with a Quaker!’

‘Not at all. Just because I won’t smack Tamsin …’

‘Why not?’

‘For reasons — for reasons that are none of your affair!’ she said with a sudden flash of spirit.

‘True. And I don’t intend to discuss that young lady all day. Come on.’ He urged the horse on up the increasingly steep trail.