Digital ISBNs
EPUB 9781771457484
Kindle 9781771457491
WEB 9781771457507
Amazon Print ISBN 9781771457514
Copyright 2015 by Barbara Baldwin
Cover art by Michelle Lee Copyright 2015
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
Peavine, Nevada Territory -- July 4, 1870
"You must undo the disaster that happened." A gravelly voice scraped against the dark cave walls, echoing in the frigid air.
Zeke literally shook in his boots, searching the gloom to locate the body that should have accompanied the voice. He could feel shivers shoot up and down his spine. Glancing at Lucky, he could see him, but he couldn't really see him. His brother shimmered against the dark walls of the mine, his scruffy beard and wrinkled face casting a glow such as it never had in real life.
Real life. That was the stickler, they had recently found out. Zeke and his twin brother, Lucky, had spent sixty years on this earth. Now it 'peared they both run plum out of any kind of luck. Else ways, why would they be shimmering in the dark hole of a mine, speaking to a body they couldn't see and having visions of the devil hisself rising up to take them to hell?
"Are we dead, Zeke?" Lucky always was slow on the uptake.
"Of course, we're dead. You think you glow like that 'cuz you took a bath last Saturday night?" Zeke growled at his brother.
"It doesn't appear to have sunk into your thick skulls just exactly what has happened." The voice came again, a blast of cold air against the old miners. Their worn flannel shirts did little to deflect the chill.
"We're dead, so I guess something pretty bad happened." Zeke figured if he was dead, he couldn't get no deader, so he might as well have his say.
"Your situation can be changed, if you decide to undo the disaster that occurred."
"What's he talking about, Zeke?"
"Jesse Cole's dead." Zeke didn't know how Lucky could forget that.
"We didn't mean for that to happen," Lucky said, tears springing to his eyes, for he had always been the emotional one. "It were an accident, pure and simple."
"I know," replied Zeke, "but we was his friends and we should've been watching his back." Nobody could feel worse about Jesse's death than Zeke, but he didn't see how nobody could change the facts.
"Jesse Cole is dead, and he shouldn't be. It wasn't his time, and plans had been made for him." The voice continued, gloomy as a hanging judge. "When something like this happens, it upsets the entire master plan, as well as the individual scheme of things. Numerous other incidents will occur which shouldn't, and those in turn cause other accidents, which in turn . . . You see what I mean."
Zeke wasn't sure he did, but agreed anyway.
"So you will just have to go back and fix it." The voice, now hard and unrelenting, grated on Zeke's nerves.
"How we going to do that?" Lucky questioned.
"Your current state of being allows you certain, shall we say, knowledge, and you'll know when and where."
"Oh, boy." Zeke didn't think he liked the sound of that.
"There's just one thing you must remember. You can't tell anyone in Peavine what actually happened."
"Now, how we going to manage that? Won't Jesse know he ain't dead no more?" Silence answered Lucky's question.
Zeke looked madly around. While he tried to find the source of the voice, at the same time, he almost hoped he couldn't.
"Hello?" Lucky's voice quaked.
More silence.
Zeke looked at Lucky, who stared back at him. Shrugging their shoulders in unison, they turned and trudged toward daylight at the end of the tunnel.
Present Day -- northwest of Reno, Nevada
"Come back, damn it!" The girl kicked up dirt. "Curse your hide, you lousy --" she continued to shout and shake her fist at the cloud of dust until it drifted away at the end of the road leading from town.
She then curled her arms over her head in an angry gesture, turning in a circle. She continued to rant and rave, but Zeke knew she didn't yell at him or Lucky, since she couldn't possibly know they were there. After all, Peavine was a ghost town, and nobody lived there.
Zeke and Lucky glanced at each other, then back at the girl. "Boy, she's got a mouth on her, don't she?" Lucky asked.
The girl spun around and stared right at them, eyes wide and mouth open. Zeke hoped she didn’t start hollering. Other times, people had come to Peavine and Lucky had decided, on a lark, to spook them. Most times, Lucky was the one that got spooked, but sometimes the women would cut loose with screams like banshees.
Lucky jerked his arm, but Zeke didn't even notice how hard he pulled. He was staring at the girl.
"Do you see what I see?" Lucky jerked again and this time Zeke did feel it. He pulled away.
"Yeah, I see, but I don't think--"
"Why not? The voice said we'd know what to do when the time come, and I think over a hundred years is 'bout time enough."
"Let's get a closer look." Zeke took a step forward.
"I'll be danged and hog-tied." Zeke whistled through his teeth as he came face to face with the girl. The wind blew her blonde hair around an oval shaped face. He could see more hair, tied back with a scarf, though it weren't as long as Elizabeth's.
Well, a girl could cut her hair, couldn't she? Even as he thought it, he knew Elizabeth would never do that. She was always primping and patting her curls.
As they watched, the girl lifted slim-fingered hands to her narrow hips, scrunched up her eyes and turned slowly around. When she stopped, her gaze sliced right through the two brothers to survey one dilapidated old building after another.
"It's kinda fun when they can't see us, ain't it, Zeke?" Lucky chuckled as he stepped behind the girl and poked her in the ribs. She swiveled around, quick as a wink, her eyes growing wide.
"Look at them brown eyes. She's the spitting image of Elizabeth."
"I know," Zeke breathed softly. Finally, after more'n a hundred forty years floating around Peavine, watching it slowly fade to dust as the mines petered out and people moved on to other ventures, it 'peared the time had come. The voice had said they'd know what to do, and lord knows they'd already had plenty long enough to figure it out.
This here girl looked just like Jesse’s fiancée, Elizabeth Calhoun. He and Lucky’d had many a discussion ‘bout the explosion that killed Jesse back in '70, and they came to the conclusion Elizabeth must have had something to do with it. Proving that might be like holding a lit stick of dynamite, but prospects looked a mite better right about now. Even so, he hesitated.
"'Pears she ain't going nowhere, so let's just keep an eye on her for a spell."
"What for? Let's just take her and run. I'm mighty tired of living like this. I've a hankering for a good game of poker and a bottle of whiskey."
Zeke turned to his brother. "She might look just like Elizabeth, but she sure don't sound like her now, do she? S'pose we take her back and Jesse finds out real fast that she ain't the real thing -- what then?"
* * *
Ellie's gaze rebounded wildly from one end of the old ghost town to the other. There was something spooky going on here. After that jerk of a guide had taken off with her camera, purse and cell phone, she had been just plain mad. Now, fear edged its way into her consciousness. She swore she heard voices a few minutes ago. And just as certainly, she thought she felt hands on her as she stood in the middle of the street. Perhaps it was the wind. She prayed it was the wind.
She dug in her jeans’ pocket for her cigarettes. Thank goodness those had been in her pocket instead of her purse. As she lit the slightly bent cigarette, her gaze flickered from ruin to ruin, stopping only when she thought she saw a shadow against the wall of the building across the dusty street. "Calhoun's Bank and Trust," she said the name out loud. "Doesn't sound like a mining name at all."
She sniffed and shrugged her shoulders. The joke was on her. Before she started this assignment, she knew nothing about mining towns. Even now, her research had barely scratched the surface. She had told Hartman, her editor, she didn't want to know anything about the old west, but that hadn't gotten her out of the assignment.
"I want a story on ghost towns and old mines," he had insisted that day in the offices of Hartman Publishing, whose specialty was in travel magazines. "You get paid to write stories. What’s the problem?"
"Why the old west? The closest I've ever come is liking the Eagles' song, Desperado," Ellie had replied. "You've always sent me to the eastern seaboard and on European tours. Why do you want to bury me under things old and dusty?"
"You know Jake is covering Civil War reenactments and Becky Sue is on maternity leave. That only leaves you.”
Becky Sue and Jake -- now those were names that belonged in the west, Ellie had thought miserably as her boss droned on.
“Our largest client, Gold Mine Casino, wants a bigger draw, but most tourists don’t go to Reno just to gamble any more. They want other things to do during the day. So, I figure we focus on hiking around nearby ghost towns, mines, panning for gold -- you know. Now, get a ticket and go west, young . . .woman."
So Ellie had spent days researching and digging around other old ruins in the hot, dry desert after landing in Reno a week ago. Last night, the cool, dark interior of the casino had beckoned, and she had spent most of the night playing Black Jack. Perhaps if she hadn't, she would have noticed the shifty eyes of the new guide who had been out front bright and early to pick her up. The casino had made the arrangements, and boy, would she let them have it when she got back.
Ellie sighed as she surveyed the old buildings. Regardless of whether she had wanted this assignment, she was still a professional and had done her background research. Peavine didn't look much different than Hunter's Station and Crystal Peak, two ghost towns she'd already visited.
She got up from the splintery boardwalk and sauntered around the buildings. She could almost visualize how it would have looked in 1870. Her gaze followed the line of old timber as she ticked off the buildings in her mind -- mercantile, hotel, bank, church. Unlike refurbished Belmont and Steamboat Springs, today's Peavine was totally deserted.
In her meandering, Ellie came to a creek that ran along the back edge of town. Her research hadn't uncovered much information about the creek, but this would make her story even better. She reached down and scooped some crystal clear water into her hands. Not only could people dig through the rubble for artifacts, but they could pan for gold in the creek. Very touristy.
She snorted as she stood, ready to head back to the buildings and look for a way into town. "Hell, the only thing Peavine needs is a couple of grizzled, old miners."
* * *
"Howdy, little lady." Zeke decided to make his presence known, figuring there was no other way they could get the girl’s cooperation. When she whirled around at the sound of his voice, her eyes wide with fright and screeching like a polecat, he changed his mind but it was too late. Knowing that becoming invisible again would only make a bigger problem, he gritted his teeth and continued.
"I heared you hollering and yelling and wondered if I could help?" As he spoke, she scooted back, slipping on loose gravel along the creek bed, but she didn't go down.
“Who are you?” She whispered. Her voice sounded much better than when she shrieked, but Zeke wasn’t a’tall sure she sounded like Elizabeth.
He stood still, hands at his sides, as she gave him the once over, staring at him so hard he almost blushed.
“Where did you come from? How come I didn’t see you before?” The girl managed to keep her distance, one hand up in the air as though to ward off danger. Zeke could tell she was a mite curious and more’n a mite scared.
“Well, I live here.”
She glanced around wildly. “Nobody lives here. It’s a ghost town.”
“Looky, Miss, I ain’t gonna hurt you. I was up in the hills ‘til I heared you.” He figured it'd take a few minutes for her to decide he meant no harm.
The girl continued to stare, then slowly allowed her gaze to shift side to side. Zeke figured she was looking for someone else to jump out and grab her. He just hoped Lucky didn’t show up yet.
She about made Zeke jump out of his skin when she sprung right up at him. "You have a car! You can get me back to Reno!" The girl was awful excited all of a sudden, waving her arms in his face.
"A wh … what?" Not seeing too many real people in the last century, the girl’s closeness and excitement caused Zeke to stammer.
"A vehicle -- jeep, car, motorcycle -- I don't care as long as it can get me back to town."
"Well, we ain't got one."
"You don't -- you have to. How could anyone live out here without a car?" She was hollering again, and Zeke scrunched his head into his shoulders.
"What sense do it make to have something that we can't work?" Zeke shrugged and turned. He had seen contraptions like the girl mentioned whenever tourists had come to the ghost town. But the few times people had wandered off to the creek and he and Lucky had tried to work the horseless wagons, they couldn't get them to move. "Heckfire, we don't even got a mule no more. Come on."
The girl sized him up once more. Zeke guessed since he was old as the hills and shorter than her, she figured she could outrun him if’n he tried anything.
She followed him to the porch of Murphy's. Zeke watched her light a cigarette. He sniffed appreciatively at the wisp of smoke. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had tobacco, though he usually chewed. He was just about to ask her if she had a plug when he saw Lucky running up from the direction of the mine. Zeke could tell by his shimmer that Lucky hadn't solidified hisself.
"'Cuse me, Miss," Zeke said hurriedly and jerked his head at Lucky as he scooted back into Murphy's, hoping his brother would follow.
"You talked to her." Lucky accused, poking Zeke hard in the belly with a bony finger. "You showed yourself."
"How else we going to get her to help us?"
Lucky didn't have an answer for that, and hung his head.
Zeke knew how to make Lucky feel better. "Make yourself visible, Lucky."
Together they moved back outside. Night had fallen and for a minute Zeke panicked, not able to locate the girl. When the flicker of a fire caught his eye, he breathed easier.
They hurried passed the alley to the hotel, where the girl sat huddled on the boardwalk, her knees hugged tightly to her chest. She glanced up as Zeke drew near, eyes widening at the sight of Lucky. She grabbed a piece of wood from the edge of the fire and swung it at them.
"Who's he?"
Zeke thought he heard a note of fear in her question, but at least she didn’t scream again.
Before he could answer, she chuckled and shrugged, dropping the wood back into the blaze. “Hell, I asked for two grizzled old miners, so what do I expect?” She looked from one to the other, an eyebrow raised. “You are miners, aren’t you, or is this some incredibly sick joke of Hartman’s?”
“‘Course we’re miners -- the best.” Lucky boosted, then his face fell and shoulders sagged. “Well, we used to be, a’fore the accident back in seventy--”
“Who’s Hartman?” Zeke interrupted, poking Lucky in the ribs before he could spill the beans.
“Never mind. I really doubt you two would know him.” The girl shrugged off his question. She tossed more wood on the fire, the flames now jumping and sparking several feet in the air.
"You trying to burn the town down?" Lucky demanded.
That brought a snicker. "Like it would make any difference?"
"'Course it would. Peavine's one of the richest gold towns in the territory."
The girl looked around. "Excuse me if I'm missing something here, but there's nobody in this town. Who’s going to care?" Although Lucky was dense at times, the girl's sarcasm wasn't lost on Zeke.
Lucky continued as though she hadn't spoken. "In 1870, why, there was over two hundred people living in this town. This here hotel you're hell bent on burning down had real leather seats inside." He turned and pointed across the street. "Calhoun's bank backed more'n one mining venture. There was even a church and post office called Poeville and a ten stamp mill."
"Well, la-tee-da." The girl didn’t act at all impressed.
Zeke had a feeling she was all bluster to cover up her fright.
"This here's Lucky, my brother." Zeke felt maybe knowing their names would help set her heart to rest. "I'm Zeke."
She looked from Lucky to him, back to Lucky then to the fire, ignoring them both. How would they get her to help them if she wouldn't even talk to them?
Lucky didn't take no offense and began chattering away. "We don't get us many visitors here. Why'd you come? What's your name?"
"It doesn't matter. I just want to get back to town."
"That'd be a feat, for sure, seeing as how we got no way to get you there."
Silence met his statement.
Finally, with an audible sigh, she said, "Ellie."
Lucky's face fell. "Your name ain't Elizabeth?"
The girl made a face. "God, no, although that would be better than Eleanor. That's why I go by Ellie."
"But can we call you Elizabeth -- since you don't 'pear to like your own name?" Lucky asked hopefully and Zeke got the feeling he was pushing way too hard.
Ellie's forehead scrunched up. "What is your problem? Why would I want to be called that?"
Zeke piped up when he saw Lucky's face scrunch into a frown. "I'll explain to Miss Ellie."
"Why can't I explain?" Lucky argued.
"'Cuz I'm the oldest, that's why."
"You always say that and it ain't fair. We're twins."
"Yeah, but I come out first."
"P-l-ea-se." The girl interrupted them, then proceeded to cuss. Lucky's eyes opened in shock and Zeke had an awful feeling even if they convinced this girl to help, it would only get them in more trouble.
Zeke turned to the girl and tried to explain. After all, the voice didn't say outsiders couldn't know. But, how could he explain that their friend, Jesse, was dead and they had to make him undead?
"Look, we can try to get you back to town, but could you maybe help us out first?" He took her silence for a good sign and continued. "We got us a friend named Jesse Cole that's in trouble. The only way to fix it is to keep something else bad from happening."
"I'm sorry about your friend, but I did lose a lot of equipment, not to mention my purse and ride back to Reno,” Miss Ellie replied, waving a hand off to the west, even though Zeke knew Reno laid to the south. “The sooner I get back and report it, the better chance they'll have of finding the guy. Besides, what's your friend got to do with me?"
"You look just like Jesse’s fiancée, Elizabeth, so we was thinking you could take her place 'til we find out who killed . . .uh . . .tried to hurt him." Zeke waited for that idea to soak in.
"Now wait a minute. I'm not doing any kinky sex games."
Zeke could feel his face flame. He cleared his voice. "No, no. Lucky and me think Miss Elizabeth had something to do with what happened. If you was to take her place, then we’d figure it out for sure this time.”
“You want me to play undercover cop? How’s that going to get my equipment back?” She raised a brow in question, looking just the same as Miss Elizabeth did whenever she had quizzed Zeke about Jesse’s whereabouts.
Zeke hoped God would forgive him for lying. It just seemed to him a man’s life was worth more’n a couple pieces of equipment. “We’ll get your stuff back, Miss, but first we gotta take you back to Peavine with us and make sure things go right this time."
"Back to Peavine? This is Peavine, and there's nothing here. What exactly do you mean?" Now she not only looked like Elizabeth, but sounded like her too -- always questioning him.
Before he could come up with a likely excuse, Lucky jumped right smack into the middle of things.
"If'n we take her back to Peavine, how we going to tell her apart from the real Elizabeth?" He asked.
Zeke thought, then said, "It's got to be something visible."
The girl held both arms in front of her, elbows bent, her fingers straight and close together. She widened her stance and braced her feet and Zeke thought she might try to hit them. She didn't look the least ladylike, and he began to doubt she'd be much help a'tall. Still, they had to try. He took a step toward her, and she raised a hand threateningly.
"Get away from me, damnit! I don't trust either of you and I don't believe your story."
"She has ear bobs," Lucky said, having ignored everything else since his earlier concern. "I'm dead sure Miss Elizabeth don't, cuz it just might hurt to have a hole poked in your ear."
"That might work," Zeke agreed, "but we gotta do something 'bout her swearing. Miss Elizabeth would never say words like that and how we gonna make sure this one don't?"
"I'm not going anywhere with you so what difference does it make?" The girl hissed at him through clinched teeth.
In the next instant, Zeke knew they were in trouble. His brother started shimmering and glowing 'til Zeke could hardly see him. One look at the girl's face told him she was having the same trouble. Lucky sometimes forgot to concentrate on being solid.
Zeke might have been able to explain the shimmer, but Lucky reached out to grab the girl's arm and his hand went right through her.
Zeke began to count. "One, two, three, four, five--" The girl fell forward in a dead faint and Zeke caught her under the arms. "Well, she lasted longer than most."
Lucky shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't mean to scare her."
"Might be the best thing you ever done." Zeke grunted as he turned the girl over. "Now concentrate and grab her legs." When Lucky caught hold, together they carried their burden to the mine.
"I guess we can worry 'bout her swearing once we get her back to Peavine." Zeke shook his head and sighed. He only hoped he’d be rewarded for his patience, for the Lord knows he was gonna need lots of it.
In the distance, where the mine shaft intersected with another tunnel, Zeke could see a bluish glow off to the right – the same light that had vanished the day Jesse Cole died.
"Come on." He motioned to his brother and grabbed the unconscious girl. They scurried towards the glow, never slowing down as the light became brighter and brighter until it appeared to swallow them right up.
Zeke dropped his burden when he felt himself falling, empty space all around as he tumbled head over heels. He couldn't shout, couldn't feel nothing as the brightness swirled around him. He only hoped his brother and the girl were following him through the spiraling emptiness.
Ellie landed with a thunk in front of an old cabin. She rolled to her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath. A few minutes later, a man dropped to his knees beside her.
"Elizabeth, I glanced out the window and saw you sitting here in the dirt." There was a pause in which all Ellie could hear were her own frantic gasps for breath. "Where’s the buckboard? Are you all right?"
Ellie couldn't think, and the man's questions confused her. She looked around wildly, her gaze finally focusing on the two old coots from the ghost town.
They pointed a finger at her and the man, then patted themselves on the back as though they couldn't believe they were really standing there. They somehow looked different, too, but it took too much energy for Ellie to stay focused on them. She closed her eyes to stop the dizziness and tried to recall exactly what had happened.
They had asked for her help and she said no, she was sure of that. She scrunched her forehead, looking around, but all she could see were trees edging a small clearing. At the back sat a cabin. Where had the ghost town gone?
She shook a finger at the two men, sucking in a breath to yell, and immediately began to cough. The man patted her none too gently on the back, which didn't help at all.
"Elizabeth, where's the buckboard?" He asked again.
"Who?"
Zeke hurried up. "Jesse wants to know where the wagon is, Elizabeth." He stressed the names and Ellie realized that regardless of her wishes, these two crazy old men had managed to take her to their friend's home. Exactly where that was, she had no idea, but she didn't have to like it.
In anger, she pushed herself back on her haunches, turning to the man they called Jesse, ready to malign him for having such idiotic friends. The words died in her throat.
Plaid flannel covered incredibly broad shoulders, and while she couldn't tell his height because he squatted beside her, there was entirely too much of him to be short.
Stormy blue eyes scrutinized her to see if she was hurt. Even as she watched, their color lightened and crinkle lines appeared as he grinned. A scruffy growth of beard and tousled black hair framed his face and yet he looked great. Definitely not GQ, but he had a rugged appearance that ignited Ellie's basic instincts.
Perhaps she could manage a few hours as this man's fiancée. After all, she didn't have a ride back to town yet.
"Elizabeth, are you hurt?" The words came out deep and throaty. "How did you get here?"
Never one to be taken in by a man, Ellie now found herself mesmerized by his voice. But his eyes questioned her, and she suddenly realized she had no idea what he had said. On top of that, she didn’t know how to respond because she wasn’t Elizabeth.
Lucky rushed to her aid. "Maybe she decided to ride out here?"
Jesse chuckled. "Ride? A horse? This is Elizabeth, Lucky. She'd just as soon eat rattlesnake as ride a horse." He turned to her with a grin, apparently pleased with himself for defending her. "Isn't that right, Elizabeth?"
Ellie had finally caught her breath and could utter more than one word at a time, and now she was so mad she sputtered. She had never ridden a horse and had absolutely no desire to do so. However, she detested the smug expression on this man's face and his words that implied she wasn't at all capable.
She glanced around but could see no horse. Regardless, she jutted her chin out and lied defiantly. "As a matter of fact, I did ride out here, but the horse--"
"--got spooked and throwed her," finished Zeke.
Jesse scowled and looked at the three of them. Ellie doubted he believed them. She wouldn't believe a story like that. Then he shrugged, standing and extending a hand to help her up. "Perhaps that explains your clothes, then."
Ellie glanced down. What was wrong with Levi's and boots? Not much different from what he wore, except his sleeves were rolled up to show very muscular forearms, and the denim hugged his hips and crotch in an almost indecent manner.
"For a woman who's always lecturing me on upbringing and manners, you've displayed a little uncivilized behavior yourself today." Jesse's eyes twinkled as he spoke, and though Ellie thought he teased, she began to think she didn’t like him very much.
She dug in her pocket for her cigarettes. "Look, I only came here because--"
Zeke grabbed her hand before she could withdraw it, interrupting her in the process. "That fall musta jarred your brain." To Jesse he added, "I'm sure Miss Elizabeth could use a cup of coffee."
"You're right. I'm sorry, Elizabeth. My manners do sometimes desert me. Come along." He reached for her hand.
Again, Zeke stepped forward. "Just go on in and get it, Jesse. I'll dust Miss Elizabeth off and bring her to the porch."
Jesse arched a brow but then shrugged and turned toward the cabin.
"Damn it, Zeke, what's going on?" Ellie turned on the old prospector the minute Jesse disappeared into the cabin. “And don’t you dare touch me,” she added when it appeared he would swat her butt with his hat.
"Quit that swearing, Missy." Zeke growled at her, then muttered to himself, "Darn it all. This is gonna be a lot harder than we thought."
Ellie couldn't believe her ears. "You cart me off to Podunk City, or wherever the hell we are, and you think you have it rough? I told you I wouldn't help." Ellie was still searching her brain for some illusive thread of time she had lost in the process of getting from Peavine to here. "Besides, how can I act like this Elizabeth person when I know nothing about this. . . this man you have me attached to."
"Now, you're not attached, 'xactly. Miss Elizabeth hadn’t started making marriage plans or nothing like that. ‘Sides after what happened, I doubt Jesse'd marry her, anyway."
"Just 'xactly what did happen?" Ellie mimicked, but her sarcasm was lost on him. Zeke's face scrunched up in thought and Ellie sighed in exasperation. Lately, nothing in her life had been easy. "Out with it, Zeke."
"Well, seeing as how we're back now, and Jesse ain’t dead--”
“Dead?” Ellie definitely didn’t understand.
“Ah, dead on his feet from working,” Zeke added hurriedly. “Maybe it don't matter no more. What day is it, anyhow?"
"How would I know? It was Saturday when my gear got stolen, but why do I get the impression I've lost some time along with my belongings?" Ellie couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. She looked around, trying to find a familiar landmark, but because of her lack of knowledge of the region, everything looked foreign.
"Say, where's Lucky?" She realized the other old timer had disappeared again.
"I sent him to get rid of the real Elizabeth."
"He's going to kill her?" She couldn't believe two old prospectors could be so callous.
"No, just get her out of the way so as our plan will work."
"If you have this Elizabeth person out of the way, she can't get Jesse into any more trouble. So why do you still need me? Just take me back to town."
"There's more to the problem than that." Zeke looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Look, just watch what you say. I’ll explain the plan . . .later.”
Somehow, Ellie doubted it. A churning started in her stomach. In agitation, she reached for her cigarettes. Zeke tried to grab them away, but Ellie was faster. However, seeing his crestfallen face, she stuffed them back into her pocket instead of lighting up. She looked at him as he nervously shuffled from foot to foot. "You don't have a plan, do you?"
Zeke's silence was incriminating.
"Damn your hide, and Lucky's too," she hissed just as Jesse came out on the porch with two steaming mugs of coffee.
"Elizabeth, are you coming?"
"Elizabeth?"
Zeke poked her in the ribs and whispered urgently, "That's your name."
Ellie narrowed her gaze, hoping to thoroughly mortify him with her anger, and to make him worry what she might do. Then, quick as a wink, she pasted on a sweet smile and turned back toward the cabin. "Coming."
She heard Zeke's frantic whisper behind her. "Remember, no swearing, no smoking, and your name is--"
"Ellie," she stated loud enough for both men to hear.
Jesse looked at her in surprise, then more thoroughly as she sat on the step and took the coffee he offered. A slow grin spread across his handsome features. "I tried to call you that from the time you wore pigtails, but you always said Elizabeth sounded more grown-up."
"Well, perhaps the fall from that horse did some good after all," Ellie replied, wondering if he already saw through their ruse. She began to feel guilty. While she hadn't wanted to help Zeke and Lucky -- she had only wanted to get her assignment done and get back to town -- neither was she a vengeful person. She wouldn't deliberately hurt another human being.
How would Jesse feel if he found out they were lying to him; that she wasn't who he thought she was? Zeke had said it was to keep him from getting hurt. Ellie didn't know what to believe. She did know that at the first opportunity she had some serious questions that Zeke better be able to answer.
* * *
Jesse invited Zeke and her to remain for supper. While she would rather get on with whatever plan Zeke had concocted, she couldn't very well say no to her supposed fiancée. He took a pot from over an open fireplace, bringing it to the table along with a loaf of bread and a wicked looking knife. He dished up the meat stew and fresh bread and poured them some water in crockery style mugs.
Ellie traced a crack in the mug with a fingernail. Ellie Weaver, connoisseur of fine wines served in the best crystal all over Europe, sat in a rustic cabin in the woods drinking water from a broken cup. There was definitely something ironic here. Yet the man called Jesse didn’t look the least out of place in the one room cabin.
Ellie savored the rich broth of the stew and thought perhaps this guy had some talents -- like cooking -- that she could admire. Especially since she came from a family of microwave dinner gourmets. As she ate, even asking for seconds, she looked around the cabin.
It was definitely old, with a fireplace on one wall, a bed on the other, and the table in-between. Two shelves by the bed held a few books. Figuring this guy probably only spent weekends here and then returned to a nine-to-five job, she wasn’t surprised. She thought she might like a peek at his reading material, though, to see what he liked. With a shrug of indifference, she guessed financial manuals or e-commerce.
She ignored the men's talk as she continued to assess the cabin. Pegs on the wall by the door held clothes, and some roughly made shelves and a counter supported foodstuffs and a pitcher and basin.
Her brow crinkled as she took a second look. She didn’t see a coffee pot, toaster oven, or a ceiling fan. A single lantern sat at one end of the table.
How odd, she thought. Even modern rustic cabins had electricity. Another lesson learned about the wild west for her travel article -- leave your curling iron at home.
Thinking back on her reason for being in Peavine, she still didn't understand how she ended up at this cabin of Jesse's. The last thing she remembered was being on the hotel steps in the ghost town. She recalled Zeke saying he lived in the hills, and assumed this cabin also sat in the hills near the ghost town. Zeke and Lucky must have carried her here. The why of it evaded her.
She would rather they had left her in Peavine, just in case the sheriff came looking for her. Regardless of what the two miners had said about helping, all she wanted to do was get back to Reno in time to catch her plane.
After dinner, Jesse poured more coffee from a battered old pot and Ellie thought how nice it was to be waited on. She listened to them talk about mining, of all things. She supposed she should listen more closely for background material for her article.
Instead, she tried unobtrusively to study Jesse. The combination of black hair, blue eyes and ready smile made him devastatingly handsome. But more than his looks, she sensed a gentleness about him. Most of the men of her acquaintance were too busy being macho to be tender. In Jesse, his sweet smile didn't detract from his masculinity but rather enhanced it.
His voice was somewhat cultured and Ellie wondered how he had ended up in a cabin in Nevada, even for the weekend. Momentarily forgetting her role, Ellie spoke up during a lull in the conversation. "So, what do you do when you're not playing woodsman?"
Jesse cocked a brow at her question.
Zeke jumped in. "Miss Elizabeth, maybe we’d best get you home to rest a spell. You know Jesse's a miner; he don't got no other job."
Ellie shook her head. She'd done enough research to know there were few active mines left, certainly not near Peavine, Nevada, and definitely not any that were privately owned. "The mines have petered out--”
Lucky came bursting through the door just at that moment, breathing hard as though he'd run all the way. Zeke cleared his throat shaking his head vigorously at Ellie when Jesse turned towards Lucky.
"Lucky, where'd you run off to?" Jesse questioned, and Lucky's face immediately turned even brighter red.
"I, uh," he stuttered, then shrugged. "I had me an errand to run." He pulled a plug of tobacco from his pocket and bit off a chew, grinning at his brother.
Ellie hid a grin behind her hand, seeing the agitated look on Zeke's face. Lucky, who always seemed to take orders from Zeke, had apparently stopped somewhere along the way to get himself a treat. Seeing it, though, made Ellie want a cigarette, but knew she couldn’t smoke in front of Jesse. Zeke had said so.
She only hoped a Quick-Trip was somewhere close because her pack was almost empty. Then she remembered she didn't have any money on her, and they were too far from town anyway, so it was all academic.
"I suppose we should be walking Miss Elizabeth back to town," Zeke said, scooting back his chair to stand.
"Town? You can walk me to town?" Ellie sprang up, instantly angry. Did Zeke mean the ghost town of Peavine or back to Reno?
Jesse touched her arm, his warm hand causing tingles to shoot across her skin. "Elizabeth?" At her annoyed look, he started again. "What is wrong? You've acted strange all day."
Ellie stood, hands on hips, glaring at the three men. Little did she realize her posture so exactly mirrored Elizabeth's that any charade they were trying to perpetrate was instantly cemented. If that hadn't done the trick, her words did. "What's wrong? These two old coots lied to me, that's what."
Ellie saw Zeke standing behind Jesse waving his arms and shaking his head, but that didn't stop her. She was mad. "They said you were in trouble and needed help. They forced me to come out here."
"Forced you? You mean you wouldn't come and see me on your own?" The hurt was unmistakable in Jesse's voice.
"Well . . .that is . . .I had things to do," Ellie tried to backpedal.
"I see. Then perhaps we should get you back to town so you can do them."
Ellie looked outside. "It's dark." She didn’t like the dark.
"Yes, it usually does that at night." Jesse's sarcasm gave Ellie pause. Was he so tenderhearted that her one comment had punctured his entire male ego? Then she saw his grin.
"I'm sorry." She stated simply.
In answer he extended his arm and Zeke and Lucky rushed to open the door, all the while arguing over the plug of tobacco Lucky kept in his possession.
Ellie allowed Jesse to lead her down the path. When they got to a creek, he led her to where flat rocks had formed natural stepping-stones to the other side.
Disappointed, she realized that this was probably the same creek she had seen earlier in the day. That meant they weren't very far from Peavine ghost town, but were too far from Reno to walk -- in the dark. At the moment, she thought she might prefer to stay at Jesse's cabin.
As soon as Jesse hopped the last rock, she clutched his arm again as he walked unerringly forward. She tried to keep from thinking of the blackness surrounding her and the very long dark night ahead in the ghost town. She searched her mind, instead, for anything to discuss so there was noise.
"I understand there are several Fravel mines in the area," she stated, and instantly Jesse's arm tightened beneath her hand.
"Elizabeth, you know I won't discuss anything having to do with Clayton Scott or his mines. Why would you bring it up?" His angry reaction was so startling, Ellie couldn't think of a response. "Is that the ‘something you had to do’ -- visit with Clayton Scott?" Jesse pulled away from her and stomped off ahead.
Ellie could hear Zeke and Lucky "uh-oh-ing" behind her, but she didn't know what she had said wrong.
"Wait," she called out to him. This was like performing in a play when everyone knew the script except her. She hurried to catch up with Jesse, turning to face him and walking backward since he didn't stop when she stepped in front of him. Trying to imagine how the unknown Elizabeth would handle this, and hoping to gain insight into the situation, she smiled sweetly and said, "Jesse, please don't be mad. I keep forgetting--"
"How can you forget Scott owns most of the rights to Fravel's mines on this side of the ridge? Did you also conveniently forget he runs your father's bank, which holds notes to most of those same mines?"
"He does?" Ellie questioned without thinking.
That stopped him. In fact, he stopped so abruptly that Zeke and Lucky just about collided trying to keep from bumping into him. Even in the dark, Ellie could see the questions in Jesse's eyes.
Think fast, she told herself. Being an independent, freethinking woman, she hated what she was about to do.
"Of course he does," she twittered, waving a hand aimlessly. She giggled, hoping she wasn't spreading it on too thick. "You know I have no head for business. Father would always handle that."
"Yeah, well, I wish he were still here to do it. I don't trust Clayton Scott any further than I can throw him." Jesse's tone indicated he was pacified, and as Ellie moved to his side, she shot evil looks at Zeke and Lucky. Boy, did they have a lot of explaining to do.
They broke through a line of trees and suddenly there were lights from town. Ellie blinked and shook her head, an unsettled feeling gnawing at her stomach. Her feet slowed. Soft glows came from several windows, as though fireplaces were lit or candles used instead of iridescent light bulbs.
Ellie’s gaze swiveled from side to side; her stomach plummeted and her chest heaved. She stumbled, a flash of realization screaming through her brain. If Jesse hadn't grabbed her, she would have fallen face first in the dirt.
"El, what's wrong?" It was a question Jesse had kept repeating all day, it seemed, but Ellie sure didn’t know how to answer him.
Buildings swirled in crazy patterns before her eyes. She hugged herself, squeezed her eyes shut, then reopened them, trying to focus on something solid. Newly painted signs hung over several buildings -- Calhoun's Bank and Trust, Murphy's Mercantile and Feed Store. Slowly, as she walked further down the street, she tried to make sense of what her eyes saw but her emotions refused to acknowledge.