Chapter 38Charlotte Lane
Chapter 38
Spring Break Treasure Hunt
Charlotte Lane
C harlotte shivered as the frigid wind brushed over her skin. When she and Wade had left the Double K that morning to continue their search for the first Kirklands’ cave, it had been nice and warm. But as the afternoon rolled in so had the weather. The sun had retreated behind the clouds and the sky had darkened to an early twilight. It seemed the rain was determined to find them. And looking out across the endless sea of prairie grass surrounding them, she knew there would be no shelter from the oncoming storm.
Next to her, Wade glanced at the sky, then turned to look behind them and muttered a curse. Clearly he was thinking the same thing she was. The rain would be coming in soon, and turning back to the Double K wouldn’t help get them out of the storm any more than riding forward. They were at least three hours away from the ranch; that’s how long they’d been riding anyway, and out here, there was nothing to hide under but half-dead mesquite bushes.
“Do you want to turn back?” Wade asked.
Charlotte knew that as much as he wanted to find the cave, he would retreat for her sake. But she also knew how much ground they would lose if they did.
They had spent the past three days searching for the first Kirklands’ cave. The first time they’d ridden out here with Jake and followed the creek as far as the fork before they’d had to turn back because of the setting sun. Yesterday, the foreman had ridden with them as far as the fork before leaving to finish his duties on the ranch while Charlotte and Wade had followed the creek bed southwest. The scenery had been beautiful, with the wild colors of the canyon spreading out like a kaleidoscope across the land. But there had been no cave in sight.
This morning Charlotte and Wade had set off alone as the sun had risen in the sky. Their progress was faster now that Wade was more stable in his saddle, and they’d made it to the split in the creek with plenty of time to search the northwest part of the fork.
Charlotte and Wade had yet to find more than a few outcroppings, but as they traveled the rocky creek bed, they noticed small rises in the land. Sharp-edged hills sprinkled with rocks rose up about twenty or thirty feet and looked like miniature models of the canyon that the area was known for. If what Jake said about Millie loving an area that overlooked the creek was true, then the cave could be in this part of the ranch.
Charlotte didn’t want to turn back now and risk not finding this place again. Especially if turning back wouldn’t help them escape the rain anyway.
“I’m good,” she replied. “Let’s keep going. What if your cave is just around this bend?”
“All right, if you’re sure.” He straightened in his saddle. “Let’s go. Yee haw.”
Charlotte laughed to herself. She’d seen teacher Wade and coach Wade, but she had a feeling cowboy Wade would be sticking around for a while. He was definitely a character. One that was growing on her more and more.
The wind picked up and flung dirt in every direction. Her horse moved closer to Wade’s.
Lightning sparked behind the clouds, and Charlotte’s horse swung its head as if wanting to turn back. She patted the roan’s neck and made cooing sounds like she’d heard some of the ranch hands do when their horses got skittish around the cattle. She might not be a real cowgirl, but she figured the horse just needed a little comfort like everyone else.
Raindrops began to fall as the dried-up creek curved out in front of them like a large S, disappearing slightly at one end as the ground swelled up again and seemed to swallow it. Charlotte lifted her face to the sky, wishing the rain would wash away the doubt that always seemed to haunt her, pushing her into safe routines, and into doing the same things at the same job with the same people over and over again for years. The doubt that made it easier for her to believe Wade was just a friend.
She closed her eyes against the droplets caressing her face. She didn’t want to be that anymore. The plain girl with the plain life. She wanted adventure. She wanted to live.
Lightning flashed through the sky, highlighting the red and orange streaks in the rocks rising above them, and Charlotte thought she saw that one of the rocks toward the top had some kind of symbol etched into it. She guessed it was nearly a foot wide. The lines of the drawing were too perfect to have been sketched by nature. She nearly squealed with excitement.
“Wade, look. Up there. I think I see something.” She swung off her horse and slid in the mud as the rain picked up. She made her way toward the closest boulder, trying to see if there were more carvings closer to the ground.
“Charlotte, wait.”
She turned at the urgency in his voice, and immediately saw what was making him nervous. While Blue had stayed ground tied like Jake had told her it would, her horse had drifted slightly away from Wade. The horses were skittish, and her first-time cowboy was holding on to his reins for dear life.
She yelled to him, “Just jump down and come over here. The horses are trained. They’re not going to go anywhere.” She turned back to the rocks, trying to make out shapes in the dim light.
She ran her fingers over the stone and felt nothing but the smooth surface that had been sanded down over time.
“Here.” Wade leaned over her shoulder, handing her a flashlight. “This might help. Now, do you want to tell me what the hell we’re doing? What are we looking for?”
He turned on his light and ran the beam over the stones in front of them. Nothing. Charlotte looked up, trying to find the symbols she’d seen before, but she couldn’t see more than a few feet through the rain now, even with the flashlight.
Lightning struck the sky again, lighting it up like fireworks on the Fourth of July, and illuminating the carvings, high above them on a rock near the top of the rise. As the darkness settled back around them, Charlotte began climbing.
“What are you doing? You can barely see. What if you fall?” Wade’s shouts followed her as the wind screeched around them. “Let’s just head back. We can come out here another day.”
“I’ll be fine. I have a medic with me, remember?” She winked but ended up just blinking water out of her eyes.
She knew she was acting crazy, but she didn’t care. For once in her life, she wanted to be daring. Learning to ride and coaching the high school football team were the wildest things she’d ever done. They had been new and exciting, and if she was honest with herself, it hadn’t been that bad. In fact, she’d loved every minute.
Charlotte’s fingers dug into the loose, clumpy soil as she slowly felt her way up. The rough branches of mesquite bushes scratched at her. Sharp rocks stabbed at the heels of her hands. Once or twice she nearly slipped. But she’d never felt so alive.
“Charlotte, get down,” Wade yelled from below her. “I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to you.”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw him making his way up to her. “What? Are you doubting your doctoring skills?”
His chuckle floated to her on the wind. “Never. Just hadn’t pegged you for the mountain-climbing type. Have you ever had any training for this?”
She laughed with abandon. Maybe she really was losing it. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“True, Dr. Lane.” As she got back to climbing, she thought she heard him say, “But I want to know everything about you.”
Charlotte didn’t have time to analyze the excitement she felt, whether it was because she was climbing a slippery rock-face during a rainstorm or because of who was following her up.
She pulled herself onto the next rock and saw that the surface leveled out into a narrow ledge. She grabbed the flashlight from her pocket and started searching the rocks for the symbol she’d seen from the ground.
Wade pulled himself up and stopped beside her. “I don’t see anything. What did you drag us up here for? We could get struck by lightning.”
“Will you just look? Trust me.”
She ignored his grumbling and followed the light with her hand, running her palm over the smooth surface. Suddenly the ground was giving way beneath her, and her foot sank down. A scream burst out of Charlotte’s chest as she felt a sharp pain stabbing through her leg.
“Charlotte!” Wade grabbed her arm, struggling to lift her out. “I’m not strong enough. I haven’t worked out this arm since I broke it.”
“Are you calling me heavy?” She tried to laugh through the pain, her heart hammering in her chest.
“What? No, no.”
Her leg sank deeper, and she wrapped her fingers in Wade’s shirt as the rain drove into her face. “Please, don’t let me go.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t ever plan on it.”
He planted his feet on a rock stuck deep in the hillside. “Can you use me to climb out?”
Charlotte wiggled, trying to find some kind of purchase and realized there was nothing beneath her foot. No dirt. Just an empty space. Like she’d found a hollow spot. What if it was the cave?
Wade wrapped his arm around her waist, and she used her other foot to help him pull her out. Relief flooded her as her leg lifted from the muddy hole. They slumped against the rocks, panting as the rain soaked through their clothes.
She moved to step around him and gasped as her leg throbbed with pain. Taking her weight off of it, she leaned into him.
He pressed his lips to her ear. “Okay, that’s enough adventure for one day. Let’s go back to the horses and get out of here. You’re obviously hurt.”
“No, wait. There’s something down there.” She slid to her butt and then crawled to the edge of the hole she’d just made and shined her light in. “Look, it’s hollow.”
Wade crouched next to her. There seemed to be an open space that went down several feet. She couldn’t tell how wide it was, but it seemed big enough for her to drop into.
“Why don’t you lower me back down and I’ll take a look around?” Charlotte asked, glancing up at Wade.
His mouth dropped open. “Are you crazy? We just got you out and you can’t even walk right now. Plus, you don’t know how far down it goes. What if the ground isn’t solid and you fall through completely? Then, you’d really be stuck.”
Lightning lit up the sky as thunder echoed over the hills. Charlotte heard the horses whinny and looked up in time to see them run off in the direction of the ranch.
She turned back to Wade, trying to ignore her throbbing leg. She attempted a smile. “Well, it looks like we’re stuck out here anyway. And if we want any chance of finding a shelter, we might as well drop down here and get out of the rain.”
Wade cursed under his breath.
He removed the bright red plaid shirt he’d worn every day to the ranch like a cowboy uniform. And climbed to tie it to a mesquite bush a few feet above them. “There, if anyone comes out this way to look for us, they’ll see that.
“Now, let me go first. We don’t know what’s down there.” He lifted Charlotte up and pulled her into him. He held most of her weight as he circled his arms around her waist. “Trade places with me.”
She could feel her heart thudding in her chest and wasn’t sure if it was from a fear of falling again or Wade’s chest pressed against hers.
They turned carefully, as if stepping out the beginnings of a slow dance. Wade released her, and she leaned against the boulders behind her, trying to steady herself. He dropped a few rocks through the hole to gauge how deep the underground space was. When the plop of a splashing puddle echoed through the space below them, they shared a smile.
“What a good idea. What made you think to do that?” she asked.
“Training. Army master sergeant, remember?”
As he jumped into the hole, Charlotte held her breath, listening for the thud that meant he’d landed safely. She shined her light down. He was standing in the middle of the space with his arms spread wide.
“I think this is it! At least, it’s definitely a cave. Drop down to me. I’ll catch you. You’ve got to see this place.”
There was no way she was jumping to him. “That’s okay. I can manage.”
She sat at the edge of the hole and put her feet in. Then, she twisted until her belly was lying on the dirt and she could grip the edge. She tried to lower herself down but didn’t think she had moved at all.
“You’re good. Let’s go.” Wade’s voice echoed in the space below her.
“No.”
“I promise it’s not that far.” His fingers swept across her calves as if to prove his point.
Charlotte closed her eyes and dropped. Wade’s hands slid over her body, slowing her fall. He pulled her in. “See, I’ve got you. You can trust me.”
She felt the warmth of his touch against her cold, wet skin. He carefully set her down.
“We need to make a fire. We’re both soaked, and it won’t be any fun if we catch a chill.”
“Do you know how to make a fire?” she asked.
“Of course I do. We learned all that survival stuff in the Army.”
As Wade moved around the space looking for anything they could set on fire, Charlotte turned in a circle, aiming her flashlight against the walls. Unsurprisingly, dirt coated every surface. Loose in some places, rock hard in others. The reds and browns moved through the layers as if nature had run a paint brush across the walls.
“So you think this is their cave? The cave James Randall Kirkland and Millie survived in their first winter?”
“It could be. We’ll probably have to excavate this place before we find any real answers.”
“Maybe not.”
Charlotte ran her hand over what looked to be a scratch on the wall. She traced it with her finger and realized that it was perfectly curved in some spots and straight in others. Like someone had carved it into the stone. She moved back, careful not to put too much weight on her leg. Shining her light where she’d just been, she saw the rough outline of the Double K’s brand. The same symbol sat proudly above the entrance to the Kirklands’ land.
“James had left his mark,” she murmured.
“What?” Wade asked over his shoulder.
She pointed to the scratchings in front of her. “Look. This is it.” She looked to him as excitement started to take over. “We found it. The first Kirklands’ cave. You did it.”
Wade stood up, wrapped her in both arms and swung her around. For a moment, Charlotte felt like a kid again.
He gently put her feet back on the ground, mindful of her injured leg. “Let’s sit you down over here.” He gestured to a spot on the floor. “I found a few old sticks and dried out tree roots and I’m going to try and start a fire to warm you up. If I can.”
Wade took a thin metal rectangle out of his pocket. He flipped out a smaller piece of metal from the middle of it and started striking them together. They sparked, but nothing caught.
Wade lifted the white shirt he’d worn under his plaid button-up, revealing a small pistol holstered on his hip. Before she could ask him about it, he pulled the shirt off over his head to throw onto the pile of wood, and she was thoroughly distracted.
“What are you doing?” Charlotte nearly squealed. It had been a long time since she’d seen the naked chest of a man.
“I’m sorry if I’m offending your tender sensibilities, Charlotte. But this is the only thing we’ve got that isn’t completely soaked. I’ve got to get this fire going and there’s nothing else here to use for kindling. Unless you’d like to pitch in.” His eyes grazed her wet shirt.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Carry on.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and even in the darkness, she thought she saw a gleam in his eye.
He struck at his fire starter again, and finally there was a little flame licking at the edge of his shirt.
Charlotte settled back against the cool wall and closed her eyes as he rearranged the wood over the small flame. She felt like she’d conquered part of the West today. She’d ridden on horseback over hills and through creek beds. She’d braved a storm and climbed over boulders. And now she was in a cave next to a crackling fire.
Wade sat beside her, his leg resting against hers. “I’m not sure how long that’ll last. We don’t have much else to light aside from a few extra sticks. But it’s something.”
He put his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his chest. She opened her eyes as she felt his skin press against her cheek. The heat of him felt so good after the frigid rain of the storm.
As her heart beat in tandem with his, she noticed a faint pink scar twisting over his heart.
She ran her fingers over the coarse skin. “What happened here?”
“Oh . . . Just your typical broken heart.” Wade laughed under his breath.
But Charlotte heard the pain hiding behind his smile.