Chris rocked back on her heels. “He isn’t any different from other men. He only wants one thing. I thought he felt the same way about me that I did about him, but he told me he wanted nothing to do with me, that I was wrong about him. He told me to leave him alone—except of course I was free to…”
“To go to bed with him?”
Chris nodded, her head down. “I’m not any different from a hundred other women to him.”
“I’ve never seen him act like he did a few minutes ago with another woman. I’ve never seen even the slightest sign of jealousy before. Are you sure you aren’t different?”
Chris stood, taking the bowl of dirty water with her. “I’m quite sure. He’s made it clear what he wants from me and he just doesn’t want anyone else to have what he’s being denied. Tynan doesn’t love me any more than he loves…than he loves that old dog. Now, I want you to rest and I’m going to cook something, if I can find anything around here that’s edible.”
“Anything will be all right,” Pilar said thoughtfully. “Ty will help you. He is quite capable of handling anything.”
“He can’t handle love,” Chris said softly. “He can’t find love at the end of a gun or by using his fists, so he runs away from it. Go to sleep now.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Chris spent an hour trying to make a stew with the few ingredients from around the cabin and from the saddle bags. There hadn’t been much time to pack when they’d been escaping Dysan and now they were feeling the lack of provisions. She looked at the cabin and decided to see if there was anything inside it. So far, the smell of the place had kept her from getting too close to it.
Holding her breath, she went to the door and looked inside. This looked as if it were the old man’s treaure trove. He seemed to have kept everything he’d ever owned. No matter how worn out it was, how deteriorated, how many bugs infested it, the old man had kept it.
Chris glanced over her shoulder toward where Pilar was resting and she felt a renewal of courage. What was a little unpleasant smell or a few crawly things compared to a human’s comfort?
She took the shovel that Tynan had leaned against the outside wall of the cabin and began to carve a way into the interior.
Two hours later, she had made a huge pile outside by the edge of the cliff. She wasn’t going to push anything over until she’d had a chance to inspect it in the daylight, but, mostly, there seemed to be improperly cured hides and hardened pieces of food that were covered with ants.
In the back corner of the single room, she found a little wooden crate, the kind used to ship fragile items across the sea. Lifting it, she carried it outside into the sunlight.
It had a big lock on it, but, like everything else in the cabin, the lock was rusting away, so, after a few minutes of work, she managed to open it. There were a few dollars inside, with mold growing on the bills, a big rock that looked as if it were solid gold, and in the bottom was a photograph of a young, pretty woman. Chris held it to the light, wiped the mold off a corner, and studied the woman. She looked happy and pleased about something and ready to take on the world. With a smile, Chris put the photo in her pocket and began to close the box.
“Anything interesting?” came Ty’s voice from behind her.
“You should be sleeping,” she said. “You were awake all night.”
“I got enough. What are you doing? I never saw a woman who liked to snoop more than you do.”
“I wasn’t snooping, I was cleaning.”
With an infuriatingly knowing little smile, he sat down beside her. “Cleaning inside locked boxes?” he asked, nodding toward the big, rusty lock on the ground beside her. “Find anything interesting?”
“Only about two pounds of gold,” she said smugly, holding out the big rock to him. “This is why your miner doesn’t want to leave this place.”
Ty took the rock, leaned back on one elbow and looked at it. “Fool’s gold,” he said. “The old man doesn’t know gold when he sees it. Up on the side of the hill, there’s a place where he’s been digging for years. He was digging it when I was a kid.”
Chris took the rock from Tynan. “If there’s no gold, why does he stay here? Why does he live like this?”
“He believes there is gold and facts have nothing to do with this man’s beliefs. As for why he lives like this, he’s just afraid to let anything go. If he can’t sell it today, he’ll keep it until it’s worth something.”
“Like babies. They’re not worth much as newborns, but strong little boys can work.” Tynan didn’t reply to her, just gazed at a bird overhead, seeming to be content to lie still for the moment. “How has he lived up here? He must have had money for food from somewhere. Has he always stolen things and sold them?”
Tynan took a while to answer. “He used to steal but now I send him money when I can.”
“You? But why? After what he did to you and the way you hate him, I’d have thought you’d do nothing for him.”
“That old man is the closest thing to a father I’ve ever had. Besides, I didn’t want him selling any more children.”
“I wonder how someone like him got to be the way he is. I wonder what awful things happened to him. I bet he was in love once. Maybe he lost her and never recovered.”
Ty was looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. “What makes you think that old man ever loved anybody?”