Only 04 - Only Love

for the girl with autumn hair and eyes as deep as the mountain sky.
    But he knew it wouldn’t.
    Nothing could compete with Shannon except the sunrise he hadn’t seen—the vast distance calling his name, promising him the freedom of the world and the mysteries of a thousand Edens.
    And Whip had just thought of a way to be certain of keeping that promise.
    By the time Whip reached the claim, he was somewhat calmer. Even so, Reno gave his brother a wary look when he saw Whip waiting for him just beyond the entrance to the mine. The look in Whip’s eyes would have done credit to a trapped wolf.
    “Lose something?” Reno asked mildly.
    “No. I found it.”
    Reno’s green eyes asked a silent question.
    “Gold,” Whip said succinctly.
    “Where?”
    “In your corral.”
    “If I wait long enough, I suppose I’ll hear something that makes sense,” Reno said.
    “How much chance do you think there is of finding gold on Silent John’s claims?”
    “Real gold? The kind that buys bacon and beans and freedom for dumb yondering men?”
    “Yes,” Whip said savagely.
    “About a snowball’s chance in hell.”
    “That much?” Whip retorted. “I would have put the odds a lot lower, myself.”
    Reno smiled despite his irritation with his thickheaded brother.
    “I was trying to let you down easy,” Reno said.
    “Truth is, horseshit has more gold in it than this mine.”
    Whip gave a crack of laughter that was almost painful.
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Whip said. “Yet Shannon talked about Silent John bringing pieces of ore down the mountain that were so rotten with gold they came apart in your hands.”
    “Then Silent John must have had God’s own claim. But it isn’t on Avalanche Creek,” Reno added with certainty.
    “Shannon doesn’t know that.”
    “She will when I tell her.”
    “Don’t.” Whip’s voice was curt, final.
    Reno waited.
    “Do you still have nuggets and dust stashed around from your old claims?” Whip asked.
    Reno nodded.
    “Dig up one of those ingots of Spanish gold Eve gave me,” Whip said. “Swap it for nuggets and dust.”
    “Hold it. I don’t have that much loose stuff.”
    “Make up the difference with my gold. Shave it or melt it and pour it into the dust or put dynamite under it and blow it to hell and back. Just get that damned gold up here in pieces.”
    Reno’s black eyebrows rose.
    “Bring Eve,” Whip continued relentlessly. “Salt that damned useless mine. Put on a show with the Spanish needles. Do whatever you have to, but make sure Shannon believes the gold came from Silent John’s claim.”
    “If I do what you say, I’ll end up with at least three kinds of loose gold—placer, dust, and shot-gunned into the rock,” Reno said. “In addition, the gold will be different colors from what is found uphere. Some of my gold has more copper, some has more silver. Hell, some of it is placer gold, worn smooth as a baby’s bottom.”
    “So?”
    “So it wouldn’t fool a miner who knows Echo Basin gold mines,” Reno said impatiently.
    “That’s not a problem. Shannon doesn’t know gold from granite.”
    Reno took off his hat and slapped it against his thigh. Rock dust rose.
    Warily, Whip waited.
    Reno whacked the hat a few more times and put it back on his head with a smooth, quick motion.
    “All right,” Reno said. “I’ll be back in six days with Eve and enough gold so that Shannon can be free of Echo Basin—and you can be free of her.”
    Whip’s eyelids flinched in silent pain, but he said nothing. With hungry eyes he watched the arc of the sun across the sky.
    “Make it four days,” Whip said flatly.
    “Judas Priest. If you’re that restless, just leave. I’ll take care of things here.”
    Slowly Whip shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just that the longer I stay with her …”
    Whip turned and walked away without saying any more. He didn’t know how to explain that each day spent with Shannon made it harder to leave her.
    And each day made it more certain that the pain of parting would be deeper.
    I never meant to hurt you, honey girl.
    Yet Whip would, and he knew it.

20
    T ORN between hope the gold hunt would succeed and certainty that success meant the end of her time with Whip, Shannon watched Reno work the valley next to a slender woman whose hair was the color of gold dust. Their movements were smooth and elegant, in complete harmony.
    As Reno and Eve turned, Shannon could see that each held a Spanish needle