Eugenia he left her gold. Only Eugenia knew where it was hidden. I didn't. I had to search and search.'
Alexi's fingers were a vise around Rex's arm. He could feel her trembling, but she was determinedly standing there--buying time.
“You tried to scare me out, right, Emily?'' she said shakily.
'I tried.'
Alexi kept stalling. In the terrible dark of the night, against the endless monotony of the rain, she was desperately stalling for time.
'You had no reason to ever be afraid of Samson. Samson was your best friend. You could search and search-- and he wouldn't bark.'
'It was easy before you came,' Emily agreed. 'I went through the house at my leisure. I looked and looked and couldn't find it, but I knew that gold was here somewhere. I followed you when you first came. You ran right into Rex. I slipped into the house. I thought you might believe in ghosts. I had to knock you out the other night. And now this man found me. I had to shoot him. It's your fault-- you just wouldn't leave. And Rex... I am so sorry. Really.'
He was going to have to jump her, Rex decided. Throw himself against her to at least give Alexi a chance to run. Alexi's fingers tightened around his arm again. She was thinking the same thing!
'Oh!' Emily let out a startled little scream. The gun raised for a split second. 'Oh, you damned dog!' Samson had nudged her with a cold nose. Maybe he wasn't her best friend after all.
'Get down!' Rex shouted to Alexi. She dived for the porch just as he threw himself at Emily and knocked her down, sending the gun skidding away along the old wood of the porch. Emily screamed then, striking out at Rex with her nails. 'Stop!' Rex commanded her. Alexi was there then, drawing her belt from her shorts, then slipping it around Emily's wrists. Rex caught hold of it and tied it securely.
Lights suddenly appeared, blinding them at first. A car stopped; they could hear the doors slamming. 'Alexi! Rex!' It was Gene.
'Rex? Miss Jordan?'
'We're here, in the back!' Rex called out. 'Mark Eliot,' he told Alexi. She smiled.
'If you can give that nice boy any bit of help, you do it,' Alexi said.
'I will,' Rex promised. He glanced over at John's body. 'He might still make it.'
'He's alive?' Alexi demanded.
'Just barely.' He smiled at her ruefully. 'I thought you had tried to kill him.'
'And I thought you had!'
'He hurt you so badly.'
'You once said that you would kill him,' she reminded him.
Rex groaned. 'Alexi! That was a term of speech!'
'Well...' she murmured.
Emily was swearing viciously, but by that time, Gene and Mark had reached the porch. They both stared at John and then at Emily. It seemed to Alexi that everyone was talking at once. Gene looked so white that she quickly put her arms around him, anxious to assure him that she was fine. Rex was trying to explain the situation to Mark Eliot. Mark took one look at John Vinto's body and hurried to the car, calling for an ambulance. Then he returned and checked the body. 'There's still a pulse--just barely,' he said grimly, staring at Emily.
'Come on, Mrs. Rider. Let's go to the car.' Mark exchanged the belt around her wrists for handcuffs. By then they could hear the ambulance's siren. A moment later, two paramedics were carefully working on John Vinto. Alexi stared at her ex-husband's features. She was shivering, but her fear of him was completely gone. She prayed that he would live. Rex slipped his arms around her as they took John away. 'I wonder what he did want,' she murmured.
'I don't know,' Rex said.
'Why on earth did she shoot him?' Gene murmured.
“He just happened to come upon her when she had discovered her stash of gold at last,' Rex wearily told Gene.
'Gold!'
Rex smiled ruefully. 'Pierre really did leave a 'treasure,' Gene. No Confederate bills. Gold. Could I have your flashlight for a minute, Mark?'
'Take this, Rex,' Mark said. 'I've got to take my prisoner on in. I'll need you all in the morning. Mr. Brandy- wine, now, you take care.'
'Thank you, Mr. Eliot,' Gene said. Rex and Alexi echoed his words, waving until he was gone.
Rex led the way, and they followed him to the ballroom. The bricks around the lower mantel under the portraits had been pulled out. An ancient, rusting trunk lay amid the rubble on the floor.
'It's your trunk,' Rex told Gene.
Gene stepped forward, lowered himself to his knees and flipped the lid on the old trunk. Bars and bars of gold sparkled before them in the glare of the flashlight.
'I'll be darned,' Gene said, flashing his head. 'All these years...'
'He meant it to go to his heirs,' Rex murmured. 'You're his grandson, Gene.'
Gene smiled at Rex a little wearily. 'Poor man. He worried so much, and his wife and his children were a lot stronger than he gave them credit for.' He flashed a quick smile at Alexi. 'A lot stronger, girl.'
Rex slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him. 'Very strong,' he said softly. 'What are you going to do with it all?' he asked Gene.
Gene scratched his head for a minute. 'A museum. Yes, I think a museum. We'll put Eugenia's diary in it, and the clothes from up in the attic--Pierre's old sword and the like. He'd approve, don't you think?'
'That I do, sir. That I do,' Rex agreed.
'Well, well,' Gene murmured. 'It's a bit too much excitement for me for one night. Pierre's treasure almost cost me something he would have prized far, far more.' He touched Alexi's cheek. 'I think I'll go on up to bed here. Do you mind, dear?'
'Gene! It's your house.'
'Yes. But of course you'll have a chaperone now.' He cleared his throat. 'Rex Morrow--just what are your intentions regarding my great-granddaughter?'
Rex laughed. 'The very best, sir.'
'Well?'
'I intend to marry her. As soon as possible.'
'He's only after your land!' Alexi warned Gene.
'Does she ever shut up?' Rex asked Gene.
Gene smiled wickedly. 'Sure she does, boy. You've got the knack, I'm quite sure.'
'Do I?' Rex said, smiling down at Alexi.
'Do you?' She slipped her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe. He kissed her. He meant just to brush her lips, but there was just something about her....
The kiss went long and deep, very long and deep, until Gene cleared his throat. Rex broke from her. His eyes were glittering ebony as he challenged her, his voice gruff with tenderness, 'Will you, Alexi? Will you marry me?'
She smiled. Rex knew that treasure had never lain in gold, nor in silver--nor in any other such tangible thing. Treasure was something that any man could find on earth, if he could trust in himself enough to reach for it.
'Yes, Rex. Yes!' Alexi told him.
He stared into her eyes, dazzled. 'I love you, sweetheart.'
'Well, then, if it's all settled, go ahead and kiss her again,' Gene said. 'But excuse me. I'm an old man.'
'An old fox!' Rex whispered.
'I heard that!' Gene said.
Alexi and Rex laughed and waved good-night. They heard a door close above them.
'Well, my love?' Rex whispered.
'You heard him,' Alexi murmured. 'Go ahead. Kiss me again. Hmm...Morrow...Alexi Morrow.'
'I'll come with you to New York.'
'No, we'll live here.'
