Raven and the Cowboy: A Loveswept Historical Romance (31 page)

Tucker didn’t question how or what she’d seen. Too many times she’d been right in this crazy adventure. If she said someone was coming, someone was coming. He hurried back to the horses, removed the saddlebags, and searched for the necessary objects, wasting precious minutes before he found a limb.

At the last second, he swatted Onawa and Yank on the rear, sending them up the trail around the mountain peak. Whoever was coming behind them should follow the horses, leaving him and Raven behind.

Quickly he returned to the spot where Raven waited.

“We have to crawl through this hole,” she said. “Can you do it?”

He looked at the hole and down at himself. “I’ll make it.”

“Good. I’ll go first. You light the torch and hand it to me.”

“I’ll go first.”

“No, Tucker. It must be me.”

He wanted to argue, but something about the set of her shoulders told him that would be futile. He nodded.

She dropped to her knees and started through the opening. There was little clearance for her. Tucker wondered how he was going to follow. He wasn’t sure he could even force himself to try. Then she disappeared into the mountain and he knew he had to do it.

He lit the torch and handed it through the hole, then pushed his head inside. His shoulders touched the sides. He couldn’t even lift his head to look. A moment of panic swept over him. He was about to get stuck, and both he and Raven would be trapped forever in a tomb of treasure.

Then, as he inched forward, the sides of the rock became slick, as if they were greased. After what seemed like
an eternity, the darkness began to grow light, and suddenly he was through the hole into a chamber. Raven was holding the torch high, lighting the small, cool, empty cavern with a vaulted ceiling.

“Look, Tucker. What do you make of this?”

She was standing before the far wall, moving the torch up and down.

Tucker joined her, studying the smooth light-colored surface. “It looks like some kind of clay wall. But it’s almost too smooth.”

“That’s what I thought. Somebody built it here.”

Tucker ran his hand over the surface. “But how? And why?”

“There are pockets of mud throughout these mountains. The swallows build their nests in them. Someone probably brought the mud in here to build this wall. The treasure is behind here. I know it.”

Tucker put his head against the wall and tapped. He moved down a few feet and tapped again. “I believe it’s hollow behind, at least for a section in the middle.”

Raven lifted the torch and stood back. “Use the shovel. Break into it.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Remember Luce’s warning.”

“ ‘Beware the bronze dagger.’ ” Raven looked around again. “I don’t see any sign of a bronze dagger, do you?”

“No, but suppose it isn’t what we think it is. It could be some kind of trap.”

Raven leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. “I don’t think it means us harm. We’re supposed to do this, Tucker. I feel it.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be in a big hurry. Let me look around some more.”

“No! We don’t have much time. Give me the shovel. I’ll use it.”

“No you won’t, Raven. If you insist, I’ll do it.”

Using the shovel like a pick, he broke through the thin layer of mud with little effort.

“I feel like one of those swallows, pecking a hole for a nest,” he mumbled as he reached into the space behind. The mud was dry and easy to crumble under the pressure of his strength. Their torch was beginning to die as he widened the hole. Soon he had a hole large enough to poke his head through.

“We’ll take a quick look, then we’ll have to go back and get more light.”

“Let me see,” Raven said.

He stepped back and let her go. It was her quest, her treasure. It was only fitting that she have the first look at whatever was beyond.

“Tucker, there is a very large statue standing in the entrance. I believe he’s made of bronze. Maybe that’s what the warning is about. He seems to be guarding the treasure.”

The shadow man he’d seen in the vision at Luce’s pool. It was real. “We have to have more light.”

“I can get to the outside and back quicker.” Raven turned toward the entrance. “Wait for me.”

“The saddlebags are hidden outside the hole,” Tucker said. “I sent the horses up the mountain so that if someone is behind us, they’ll follow them.”

“What if it’s Lucky?” she asked.

“He’ll probably fall in the hole and find us by accident.”

“Wait here,” Raven ordered and disappeared outside.

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving.” Tucker gave a snappy salute. As soon as she was out of sight, he began to dig in earnest. If there was danger from the statue, he wanted to find it before she returned. Widening the opening, he exposed two huge feet, laced in sandals. Two massive legs
were attached to a short skirt. Above the torso were two hands folded across the warrior’s chest.

No, he decided as he broke through the upper section of the hole, not folded, they were holding some kind of crossbow, set with a dagger, ready to be fired.

A dagger.

The bronze dagger.

There was a creak and Tucker dropped down instinctively. He didn’t know what he was facing, but he wasn’t taking any changes on having that thing topple over on him.

At that second the torch burned out, leaving the cave pitch-black.

Tucker closed his eyes for a long moment. Logically he knew where he was. Raven would return with another torch and they’d be fine.

If she returned.

If she could fashion another torch.

He might have remained calm, except for the sudden rush of movement somewhere overhead. Rocks fell. There was a large creak and the statue seemed to groan. Something, or someone, was up there.

He had to protect Raven.

Tucker opened his eyes.

An unexpected faint glow of light inside the hole he’d just made kept the cave from being totally black.

He heard the sound of Raven’s return behind him. She handed him another torch.

“There’s light inside.” She hurried to the opening and wiggled through.

“Wait, Raven. We don’t know—”

“Tucker,” she said in a voice filled with awe. “We’ve found it. It’s really here, the lost treasure of the Arapaho people. Can you get through?”

Throwing caution to the winds, Tucker quickly widened
the opening and pushed through, sliding around the bronze body into a cave washed with a stream of light from overhead. Sitting in the midst of gold and jewels was Raven. She’d dropped the unlit torch and was holding a golden cord laced with rubies in one hand and an elaborate Spanish comb of gold and jewels in the other.

For a moment Tucker was so stunned by the opulence of the treasure that he couldn’t speak. The baskets that had once held the bounty had partially disintegrated over time, allowing coins and nuggets to spill across the floor. There were jeweled crosses, bowls, statues, and swords, all glowing in the dim light.

“Where’d the beacon of light come from?” he asked.

“Look up.”

Overhead he saw a fissure in the roof of the cavern, through which the sunlight slanted. A man couldn’t get through the crack, and unless he were on top of the spot and looked through at exactly the right time of day, the cavern would never been seen.

Tucker couldn’t refrain from touching the jewels. For just a moment, he was giddy with a feeling of euphoria. He’d never truly believed that the treasure existed. And even if he had believed in it, he would never have expected to find it.

There were gold pieces, pearls and rubies as big as robin eggs. One huge ruby was attached to the point of a crown, with other jewels forming an elaborate design along its crest.

Raven took the crown and plopped it on Tucker’s head. Lifting an emerald-encrusted sword, she tapped each shoulder, then his forehead. “Tucker Farrell, I proclaim you king of the sacred mountain.”

“And I declare you to be my queen.” He planted the prongs of the Spanish comb in the weave of her braid.
Around her neck he draped ropes of pearls, and on her slender wrists, he threaded bands of golden bracelets.

“I didn’t believe you, Raven,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t have to,” she answered. “I knew we would find it.”

“And did your visions tell you how we’re going to get all this back to civilization?” he asked curiously, only now beginning to realize how remarkable their find truly was.

“We aren’t. One of the first things an Arapaho learns is that the earth provides. We take what we need, but we do not take more.”

Her reply was as beautiful as her bejeweled body. Tucker knew as they looked at each other that it wasn’t just the treasure that was remarkable, it was the woman and what they’d been through together.

He’d feel humble in her presence if they’d never found the treasure. Then it suddenly hit him; the search was over. Their time together was about to end.

He felt a pain squeeze him, twisting his insides until he thought he would die of it.

“No,” he whispered. “I don’t want this.”

“I don’t understand,” Raven said. “This is what we set out to find. Why don’t you want it now?”

“Because—”
Because I’ll lose you
, he thought, realizing that what he felt for Raven was more than just physical, more than admiration, more than need. He’d turned his back on possessions, on any kind of future. He’d lost everything he once loved and he’d worked hard at not filling those dark places in his life. Now his tightly protected life had been ripped open.

Raven had slid inside and wrapped herself around his heart. It hadn’t just been about protecting her; he’d been healing the pain of the past and now he had nothing to hold on to. The hate was gone, replaced with responsibility
and desire. The past was dead and the future was laid out.

A ranch in Oregon. A new life.

Alone.

No, that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted Raven—forever.

“I don’t want the treasure,” he said, “because we’ll never get out of the valley with it.”

Her eyes widened, dark and wet. “We must, Tucker.”

“No. This time the voice inside of me is saying ‘Go.’ This is too big a risk, Raven. Always before I—”

Always before, he’d gone, left before he was confronted with taking a chance. That’s what he’d done since the war. That’s what he was urging Raven to do, take the safe way. Give up without trying.

Why hadn’t he realized it before? If he left before he had to take a chance on happiness, he would avoid the hurt that he might feel instead.

But we have to feel the pain, else how will we appreciate the joy?
That’s what Raven had said when he’d made love to her. She understood that all along, and she was willing to take the risk. Still, this was her life he was talking about, not his. And he didn’t want her to take the risk.

“Let’s get out of here. We don’t need this, Raven. I’ll find a place for us. I’ll take care of you. I—”

She reached out and took his hand. “I know that you want to spare me pain. Thank you for that, Tucker, but I have to see this through. What I might want is unimportant. This is my destiny. Whatever happens was meant to be.”

He was going to lose her. The very thing he’d tried to avoid was going to happen. “What about us?”

“If we are to be together, we will be. If not, we will survive.”

“Raven, I don’t want any spiritual answers. I’m just a
man and you’re a very special woman. All this has been some kind of dream, from the moment we ended up on that ledge together. I guess what I’m asking is for us to wake up and be ordinary people.”

“It’s not a dream, Tucker. Look around you, it’s real. We’re real and there is nothing ordinary about either of us.”

Nothing about what was happening seemed real except the cold spot in his heart. Not even the tremor he felt beneath his boots. Not even the creaking that had begun in the walls of the mountain.

“I think your sacred mountain is angry, Raven. I thought I heard something earlier, now I’m sure of it.”

“What?”

“There was someone overhead. Loose rock must have fallen through the crack and set off tremors inside the cave.”

“An animal, a mountain goat.” She looked up at the crevice, hoping it was an animal and not their pursuers.

“Hello, down there,” a low whispery voice called out as a shadow fell across the opening. “Mrs. Farrell?”

“Lucky? Is that you?”

“Yes. How’d you get down there?”

“There’s a small tunnel in the mountain. I’ll come and get you.” Raven started back toward the statue.

“No, don’t do that. Porfiro and his men are headed toward us. I just climbed up here to hide. You stay put and I’ll try to lead them away.”

“No, Lucky. You don’t know the mountain. You’ll get hurt.”

“Don’t try to stop me, Mrs. Farrell. This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”

There was another tremble, another crackling noise as the mountain seemed to shudder. Next came a noticeable ripple in the rocky floor on which they stood.

“Raven, I think we’d better get out of this cave.”

Raven was torn between her concern for Tucker and Lucky and fulfilling her mission. Surely Mother Earth wouldn’t let them find the treasure, then keep them from using it to save her people.

“You must leave, Tucker. Removing the treasure was never your responsibility. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“Sure, I’ll just step outside and tell Porfiro that the mountain is unhappy with his presence. He’ll have to go.”

Tucker was making a joke, but she was only too aware that Porfiro’s men were behind them and the tremors were getting worse. Overhead, particles of earth sifted down. Beneath their feet, cracks were beginning to etch across the floor.

“I can’t leave, Tucker. I can’t come so far and fail. It wasn’t meant to be like this.”

“You can’t know what the spirits planned,” Tucker argued, studying the interior more carefully. If the bandits were behind them, they might have to find another way out. The cavern was large, but there seemed to be no tunnels leading away. Only the rift in the ceiling.

“Remember my dream, Raven. I think it was a vision. You’re going to fall. Please, let’s take our chances with Porfiro and get out of here, now!”