Deep Trouble (31 page)
Authors: Mary Connealy
S
o you’ll come to Wyoming with me?” Gabe lit his fire from a piece of kindling he’d brought from the main camp and tried his best to erase the image of Lucas Morgan trying to burn him to death with his eyes while a city man married Tyra. Like that was Gabe’s fault.
“Yes, if you’ll come to St. Louis with me first and meet my mother.”
Gabe was surprised how willing he was to follow her anywhere. “You act like those two are equal. How hard can it be to say hi to your ma?”
Shaking her head, she gave him a pitying look in the growing firelight. “Of course they’re not equal. You’ve never met my mother. A Wyoming winter is nothing compared to the way she’s going to blizzard down on you… on both of us. It’s a good thing we got married out here. We can just present her with a
fait accompli
.”
“A fate of what?”
“That means we got away with it.”
“Oh, well, she might not want a ranch life for you, but she’ll want you to be happy.”
Shannon snorted.
“Uh… Shan, Wyoming is cold. You know that, right?”
“Sure, it’s cold in St. Louis in the winter, too.”
“I’ve been in St. Louis in the winter.” It was Gabe’s turn to snort, but he suppressed the impulse. “Stopped off there after I left home and spent a few weeks one January waiting to head west with my cavalry troop. The wind can get a little stiff, but it’s not the same kind of cold.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“And it snows. Oh, does it snow.”
Shannon smiled. “I need to get my clothes and some furniture left to me by my grandmother, and I have an inheritance I’ll need to take to Wyoming. We can take my family’s train car to Ranger Bluffs.”
“Uh no, we can’t. There aren’t any train tracks there.”
Shannon looked taken aback. “Oh well, how do we haul my things then?” Gabe’s stomach sank. His wife was in for some real surprises.
“I guess we can hire a mule skinner to freight it out there.” Gabe tried to remember where the closest railhead was. Cheyenne for sure had one. Salt Lake City? Maybe they’d built a line a little closer since he’d left. Wherever the train came, it wasn’t close and there was a lot of rugged ground to cover to get to Ranger Bluffs. “How much furniture do you have?”
“Oh, lots. My grandmother left everything to me. Enough to furnish the whole house comfortably.” Shannon turned, looking alarmed.
Gabe remembered that she’d cried before. He braced himself to say whatever he needed to prevent that.
“Is your house already full of furniture?”
“No, I’ve never really lived in the place. I stayed there for a few weeks, right after I bought it, and then I got to wandering. No furniture.” Since Gabe’s house was one room, about fifteen feet square, he had no doubt that was true. There’d been a few things, but he was pretty sure they’d collapsed or been stolen by now.
“Good, because Grandma’s mansion was three stories. We’ll have plenty.”
With a quiet sigh, he decided he’d have to add on a couple of rooms. “We’ll work out all the details as we go along. What’s important is that we love each other and want to spend our lives together.”
Gabe pulled her into his arms, heartily tired of talking. He kissed her until she seemed to have given up planning out their lives. He lowered her to the bed they’d made beside the fire and forgot everything that could go wrong.
But he did have one worry. “I’m sorry we didn’t find any more gold for you, Shannon.” Gabe lay beside her, the fire flickering and crackling. The scent of wood smoke wafting around them.
He felt purely at home here. He fit in the wild country. He hoped his new wife did, too. “There are other buttes in this place. There could be other villages tucked away.” It worried him, this strange affliction of his wife’s for gold. “Are you really disappointed? We could hunt around here more.”
Shannon shifted closer to him. “I’ve thought about it.”
The night chilled, as it always did, after the brutal heat of the day. Which was reason enough for Gabe to pull Shannon closer.
Shannon nestled her head on Gabe’s shoulder. “And I decided it’s right that the gold is buried with Lurene. She was willing to die for it. It should be with her.”
“Do you want me to try and climb down in that pit and look for the cross?” They’d looked down and couldn’t see the bottom. Gabe had dropped a rock, and they’d heard it land—eventually. But the edges were jagged. Maybe the cross was hung up somewhere. Gabe decided they could try again to see where that hole in the ground went.
“I think we’ve spent enough time dangling from ropes.” She rose up so she could see his eyes. “And honestly, Gabe, I’m a little bit surprised at you for offering.”
Gabe blinked in surprise. “Why? I want you to be satisfied with what we’ve done down here.”
“Why are you worried about me being satisfied?” She kissed him, and he almost forgot the point he needed to make.
“Well”—he kissed her back—”because…”
She wasn’t even trying to talk this out.
“Uh… honest, Shannon, I don’t think—” For a while he really didn’t think. Not one bit. But then it came back to him what he was trying to say. “I don’t think we’ll be back. Anything you want done down here, we’d better do now.”
Shannon slid her arms tightly around his neck. “Listen, cowboy, the only thing we need to do right now is be… married.” She lowered her lips to his and blocked out the beautiful moonrise and the stunning sight of the Grand Canyon in starlight.
Gabe’s last thought was to give his worries to God. They’d work everything out. After all, they had a lifetime to do it.
Then together they found the closest thing to paradise a man and woman could find before the day came for them to walk on streets of gold.
ISCUSSION
Q
UESTIONS
Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? Discuss your impressions of it.
Have you ever seen or heard of Mesa Verdi? What do you think happened to the people who build those cliff houses?
Talk about the ancient history of America? With nothing written down, it is nearly all lost outside of archeological discoveries, and many conclusions may qualify as pure guesses. What do you think are some possible things that are lost in history?
Why do you think that North America prior to Colonization didn’t progress—in the sense of building cities, using the wheel, working with iron, having a written language, etc.,—like other continents did?
Can you imagine what it must have been like for someone to enter the Grand Canyon without a map or a guide or a clue about what to expect? How would you have reacted to what you saw?
Did the book capture the awe, the wonder of people seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time?
Was Shannon really interested in her father’s legacy? Or did she just fall into his obsession? How so?
Did Gabe’s need to rescue a woman come from his feelings of failing his mother? Or was he just avoiding going back to his ranch or meeting his brothers?
Recently a man came forward and admitted he had a secret trail down into the Grand Canyon that he’d found years ago, so the idea that there could be many undiscovered ways down is supported by this. Did it seem outlandish that the wild mustangs could have a trail that no one recognized until they saw the horses running up it? Why?
Discuss the Seven Cities of Gold and why a fable like this evolved?
Did Shannon and Gabe need to go after that gold to find happiness? If Shannon had given up her dream, would it have always bothered her? Why?
What happens next? Bucky isn’t a good match for Tyra and life as a rancher. Gabe is in for some surprises when Shannon’s furniture shows up. What do you think the future holds for these couples?
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
M
ARY
C
ONNEALY
writes romantic comedy with cowboys. She is a Christy Award finalist and a Carol Award winner. She is the author of the Lassoed in Texas Trilogy, the Montana Marriage Trilogy, and the Sophie’s Daughters Series.
Mary lives on a Nebraska ranch with her husband, Ivan, and has four grown daughters: Joslyn (married to Matt), Wendy, Shelly (married to Aaron), and Katy. And she is the grandmother of two beautiful grandchildren.
You can find her online at these sites:
www.maryconnealy.com
,
www.mconnealy.blogspot.com
,
www.seekerville.blogspot.com
, and
www.petticoatsandpistols.com
. Mary loves to hear from her readers. Write to her at
[email protected]
.