Tall, Dark, and Determined (34 page)

It'll be her undoing
, Chase told himself as he left the kitchen to join the men in the diner. What remained to be seen was whether or not he wanted to hasten it along. For all his time in Hope Falls, he wasn't any closer to discovering the truth behind the collapse of Miracle Mining. Until he did, Chase needed to do a better job of getting on her good side.

He hadn't missed the undertones behind what Miss Higgins and Miss Thompson said in the kitchen: the women he'd won over were starting to wonder if they'd made the right decision in hiring him. Chase would have to walk a fine line from here on.

The boisterous din of more than a dozen men drowned out any chance of thinking. Chase surveyed them, watching for any sign of trouble, but they seemed in good spirits. Mrs. McCreedy circled the room with a fresh pot of coffee, refilling mugs. Mrs. Nash claimed the end of a bench near her brother, looking faintly green around the gills. Chase decided to join them.

At best, he might learn something from the two people who shared a house with the women running the town. At worst, he'd be in position to keep an eye on Lawson. After the stunt he'd pulled a week ago in the store, Chase made a point of watching the man. Lechery lurked beneath those fine manners, making Lawson next to Williams as most likely to cause trouble.

“Morning,” he greeted Mrs. Nash and plunked down on the bench facing her and her brother. Lawson, he noted, didn't look pleased to see him. Chase's mood improved a notch.
Good
.

“Good morning.” Mrs. Nash made a brave attempt at a smile. From the way she looked and what Chase gathered about females in the family way, her stomach troubled her. She sounded upbeat though. “Looks like we're all rained in today, doesn't it?”

“Looks like it,” he agreed and ran out of conversation.

“Shame to lose a workday.” Lawson filled the gap. “Though perhaps we'll think of something to make the day interesting.” He faltered at Chase's scrutiny, evidently remembering the last time he'd been caught finding something “interesting.”

“I offered to teach you how to knit,” his sister teased.

Lawson understandably chose not to recognize the remark. Instead he turned his attention to the diner door, which swung open to admit a thin man along with a blast of cold air. The newcomer paused at the threshold, scanning the room before making his way over to their table. Lawson supplied the name Chase couldn't quite recall. “Good morning, Mr. Draxley.”

“Morning, Lawson. Mrs. Nash.” The blond-haired man gave her a nod and folded himself onto the bench, looking like he attempted to fold himself away from attention. Only then did he mutter, “Mr. Dunstan. Didn't know whether we'd see you today.”

After the debacle in the kitchen, this rubbed a raw nerve. Chase shrugged rather than ask why the man thought he wouldn't show up on a day the women needed protection. More likely than not, the man referred to Chase's habit of bypassing the bunkhouse in favor of his tent, but assumptions were dangerous.

“I knew you'd be here,” Mrs. Nash assured him. She lowered her voice and leaned forward to add, “After what happened the last time we were all rained in together, you'd need to be.”

“I should hope you didn't find yourself in the middle of that brawl,” Chase said to her, but looked at the brother who should have been doing a much better job of protecting her.

“Oh no,” she hastily corrected. “I heard of it later. Just before it all broke out, I came down with the most dreadful headache. My brother had taken me back to the house to rest.”

“Good.” He turned to the men. “If either of you saw it firsthand, I'd be interested in hearing your account.”
And learning whether Granger really got rid of the rabble-rousers
.

“Like Arla said, I'd escorted her back to the house.” Lawson acted as though that explained everything. “I wouldn't leave her unattended and undefended with the men milling about.”

So you left Miss Lyman and the others to fend for themselves?
Chase swallowed the accusation and looked to Draxley for his answer instead. He doubted the skittish fellow could offer much insight; Draxley looked the sort to hop away at the first sign of trouble. In fact, he looked terrified to realize Chase was even asking for his recollections of the brawl.

“Can't say,” he mumbled. His glasses slid down his nose, only to be pushed up again and repeat their descent. “Went back to the telegraph office after lunch finished, didn't I?”

“Telegraph office?” Chase's interest sharpened. Was it possible Draxley had been hired on as part of Miracle Mining's operation and stayed on? “How long have you manned the post?”

“Since they put the lines in,” he confirmed. Inspired by his work, he went on. “Before that I headed an office in Richmond, you know. Different sort of setup, much more advanced, but the code coming in always stays the same.”

“What prompted you to make the move?” Chase directed the conversation back to Hope Falls. “Thirst for adventure?” It took some doing, but he got the question out without laughing. If anyone would steer far clear of adventure, it was this man.

“Favor to a friend. Lost him in the collapse, you know.” He sighed, mustache twitching at a rapid pace as though attempting to brush away the unpleasant memory. “Everyone had such high hopes for the mines, but you see how that turned out. My old office already hired a replacement, so I couldn't go back to Richmond when things went south. Terrible tragedy …”

The way he put it made it sound as though the loss of his old post was the great tragedy, but Chase figured the man meant well. Poor fellow was one bundle of nerves. Obviously he regretted his choice to move to the Colorado Territory.

But Chase didn't regret it at all. He'd just found the only person in town who'd been there when the mine collapsed. “Sorry to hear that. What was it like when it went down? I wonder if the town felt the vibrations or if it's set too far back.”

“Morbid thing to wonder.” Lawson looked at him askance.

“No, no.” Draxley waved Lawson's protest aside. “Curiosity is natural, after all. And when one survives something like that, it's good to get it out in the open.” The man made it sound as though he'd been inside the mines and clawed his way out rather than tucked safely away in his telegraph office.

“You must have been terrified.” Mrs. Nash played into Draxley's dramatics and gave a delicate shudder. “Did everything shake? Could you hear anything? I wouldn't sleep for days.”

“I very nearly didn't.” His chest puffed at her appreciation of his ordeal. Draxley leaned forward to confide, “The shaking wasn't the worst of it. The sound when it came down …” He trailed off as though unable to describe it. “BOOM!” He slapped his hands against the table to underscore the volume.

Mrs. Nash gave a small shriek of surprise, but quieted when everyone in the room started to stare at their table. She gave a nervous laugh. “You certainly managed to give a sense of what it was like, Mr. Draxley. Just the rendition frightened me!”

Chase, unnerved for an entirely different reason, settled into his own thoughts. An avalanche would have gained noise as it gathered speed. A series of tunnels giving way would issue a rumbling sort of roar. What Draxley described more closely fit the sound of a large explosion—the sort of thing that had to be carefully planned out and set up in advance. If Braden Lyman and his partner decided to expand the mines, no workers would've been allowed in the tunnels until the dust cleared and the engineers shored up the passages with reinforced timbers.

Chase finally had more than vague suspicions to go on.

The collapse of Miracle Mining was no accident after all
.

    TWENTY-EIGHT    

C
ora watched as Chase Dunstan sat with his back to a corner, coolly surveying everything in the room. More often than not, his gaze returned to Lacey.
Something's going on there
.

But for the life of her, Cora couldn't figure out what it was. One day the two of them seemed to tolerate each other fairly well—Dunstan going so far as to help Lacey clear out the shop for reorganizing. The next, he became disproportionately angered over something like giving Decoy a bath—which had been an excellent idea, even if the execution of it had a few hiccups.

The way they bickered gave away their heightened sensitivity over the other's words. Sparks flew between the two, but they didn't ignite anything but arguments. This morning, for the first time, Cora wondered if a sort of instinctual wisdom made Lacey protest hiring the man.
Maybe it was a mistake
.

Then again, who knew the hunter's favorite target would be Lacey's temper? Besides, the man unquestionably succeeded in keeping the peace amid their shrinking population.

She'd looked around the dining room after they'd finished a breakfast of Cornish cheese bread and bacon noting with some surprise how swiftly their numbers had dwindled. Originally two-dozen strong, only about fourteen men still remained.

Smooth-talking Robert Kane and the three men he'd led in a failed nighttime raid on the women's house took out four workers with one stroke. The town brawl prompted Granger, Riordan, Clump, and Williams to force another four overly temperamental failures onto the train. With Granger escorting Twyler back to Maine to face justice, they'd lost a solid ten fellows.

If she didn't let herself get worked up over all the unpleasantness preceding their departures, Cora could appreciate how much calmer things were around town. In startling contrast to a few weeks prior, this rainy-day diner congregation showed little inclination to cause a ruckus. They did, however, look bored—and when bored men tried to find a way to pass the time, Cora noticed they usually found trouble instead.

They needed some form of entertainment before they drove someone to distraction—or worse, brawling. And the only thing Cora could think of was the same thing that failed so spectacularly the last time around. Would this time be any better?
Do I dare suggest we attempt a cribbage tournament?

After all, they had more than enough boards to play, and Lacey had gone through numerous trunks and boxes to unearth the pegs she'd packed … just in case. Between the four of them, Cora had no doubt that she, her sister, Naomi, or Lacey managed to haul almost everything along with them to Hope Falls.

Why let it all go to waste?
It had been ages since she'd played any card games, save the whist Braden sullenly cheated at. Besides, Cora knew Mrs. Nash, for one, could use a break in the monotony of days spent resting for the sake of the baby.

“I have a proposition,” she announced to the room at large. “Why don't the men go back to the bunkhouse and fetch their cribbage boards? It seems a good day to get around to that tournament.”
At least, enough time's gone by to try again
.

“Cribbage never did appeal to me,” Draxley declined. Then again, the telegraph operator hadn't taken the initiative to get involved in anything since the women arrived in Hope Falls. Why should they expect a game or two of cribbage to be any different?

“Those who don't wish to play can watch those who do,” Naomi declared. “For more fun, we'll set it up in the style of a tournament. A little competition adds spice to the game.”

“What does the winner get?” Williams, as always, made the question into a demand. His gaze slid to Lacey. “I can't think of a better reward than a walk with the lady of our choice.”

“I'll play for a prize like that!” Chester Fillmore, a faded-looking fellow who blended in with the background whenever he wasn't working, sent a shy grin Naomi's direction.

“Four ladies. That means there should be four winners, ja?” stated Clump.

“Two winners,” Evie corrected. “It would disrespect our fiancés if Cora or I agreed to go strolling with another man.”

“I propose a change to the reward.” Lacey, Cora noticed immediately, was looking at everyone except Mr. Dunstan. “Let there be four winners, and let all of us go for a little picnic on the next Sunday when the weather is fine. Mr. Dunstan will arrange the location and hunt for a suitable main dish.”