Wes raised his head and smiled. ‘‘I heard you coming since you left the river.’’
She tilted her head. Of all the things she’d thought he would say, that wasn’t one of them. He didn’t reach for her as she hoped he might.
‘‘Why’d you come, Allie? Didn’t you know I’d be back as soon as I could?’’
He made no sense. How could she have known he’d be back? It was time to say what she planned.
‘‘I came to be with you.’’ She moved a step closer so that she could see his face clearly in the moonlight. ‘‘If you don’t want me, you’ll have to say so face to face. I am of your tribe. I should travel wherever you travel.’’
Wes pushed away from the wall. ‘‘Daniel was right when he said I’m not much of a catch as a husband. I just played my last card inside and didn’t win the hand. There is no Goliad gold. A priest told me he has seen a dozen old maps like the one I had. They’re all worthless.’’
‘‘The gold doesn’t matter.’’
‘‘Not to you, but I can’t ask you to be my real wife when I have nothing to offer. You deserve more, far more.’’
Allie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He didn’t think himself worthy of her.
A flicker of light blinked above them from the window. The faraway sound of stone scraping against stone creaked through the air.
‘‘Someone’s in the church,’’ Allie whispered. ‘‘Should we go?’’
A thud echoed from inside, then another.
Glancing at the light, Wes shook his head. ‘‘No one should be there at this hour.’’
‘‘Maybe it’s the ghosts.’’
‘‘Maybe.’’ Wes laughed. ‘‘Come to get their own gold.’’
A rattle whispered from the church. A tapping. Someone running.
Wes grabbed Allie’s hand and headed toward the entrance. ‘‘If the map’s worthless, why would anyone be in the church so late? Those aren’t ghosts.’’
They passed huge, hand-carved doors as they entered the almost total darkness of the mission.
Allie pulled at Wes’s hand. She didn’t want to invade this place. She could feel the sorrow, the sadness, the pain of hundreds who’d once been imprisoned here.Allie knew what it felt like to be locked in when all hope of escape vanished.
‘‘Hello!’’ he shouted.
The tapping stopped.
Crossing to the lantern sitting on the floor beside a stone that had been pried away, Wes knelt and waited as he drew his Colt.
After a while, the priest he’d given what he thought to be a worthless map crawled from the opening. Dust clung to him like a second skin. ‘‘You were right!’’ he shouted at Wes with an almost wicked laugh. ‘‘The map was true. There is a tunnel beneath this stone.’’
Wes moved closer, not believing the man’s words. If the tunnel existed, the gold must also exist.
The priest pulled off his robe and tossed it away. The clothing slid across the floor of the mission. Beneath the robes he wore the clothes of a wrangler, not a man of the cloth. ‘‘We’ve been looking for months and hoping the map hadn’t disappeared in that stampede. I’ve grown weary of wearing those robes every night and pretending. We almost gave up hope that anyone with a true map would show up.’’
Wes braced himself for a fight. ‘‘You laid a trap tonight.You don’t belong here at the mission. You’re one of the men who tried to kill Vincent.’’
The accusation did nothing to lesson the man’s joy as he pulled a box of tools and explosives from the shadows. ‘‘What if I am? Who will you tell? The gold is mine. All you provided was the last key to the puzzle.’’
Wes raised his gun. ‘‘I don’t think so.’’
The man glanced up from his work, as though Wes were no more than a gnat bothering him. ‘‘Go ahead, shoot me. But you’ll have to watch your lady friend die.’’
Glancing behind him, Wes saw a short man with massive, hairy arms holding a long knife to Allie’s throat. She stared at him, paralyzed in the stranger’s grip.
‘‘Choose!’’ the imposter priest shouted. ‘‘The woman or the gold.’’
Without hesitation, Wes lowered his weapon.
Laughter echoed as the wrangler sneered. ‘‘Now get out. I’m too excited to have you both killed tonight. And don’t come back, McLain. You see, there’s a difference between you and me. I’ll do anything, including kill, for this gold. You don’t want it that badly. It’s not worth your life.’’
‘‘You’re right.’’ Wes pulled Allie beneath his arm. ‘‘I’ve found something far more valuable.’’
As he walked away, he heard the two men talking as they scrambled to haul dynamite into the opening. One said a section about ten feet down had collapsed, but the map showed it was another five feet to the gold. They had no time to dig. They had to reach the gold and be gone before dawn, when the real priest arrived.
Wes no longer cared if they found the treasure or not. Allie was safe. In a blink of time, he’d made his choice.
They walked down to the river in silence. When they reached the shadows of aging cottonwood trees, he pulled her close and held her against his heart.
‘‘You gave up the gold for me,’’ she whispered when he pulled away.
‘‘It doesn’t matter,’’ he answered. ‘‘I couldn’t allow any harm to come to you, you’re my wife.’’ He caressed her gently. ‘‘I didn’t want you to come with me tonight because you might be in danger, but you made me realize I already have a treasure.’’
Allie stared at his chest, unable to look into his eyes. ‘‘When I told Jason he was of my tribe,’’ Allie told him, closing her eyes as she remembered the words, ‘‘he said, ‘I love you too.’ ’’
Wes raised her head. ‘‘Are you saying you love me, Mrs. McLain?’’
‘‘I am.’’
Wes kissed her nose and pulled away. ‘‘Then there’s something that needs doing.’’ He lowered to one knee and held her left hand in both his. ‘‘Allie, will you marry me? Will you have me, rich or mostly poor? Will you sleep beneath my blankets for the rest of your life?’’
A sudden blast shattered the night. The ground beneath them shook. For a second, Wes thought it was his heart. A light bright as day blinked from inside the mission.
‘‘Stay here!’’ Wes shouted as he ran across the field.
Allie heard shouts from the buildings around as people emerged in their nightclothes to see what had happened. She couldn’t wait. She ran to catch Wes.
When she reached the huge doors, she saw him turn away from the opening in the floor.
‘‘What happened?’’
‘‘The dynamite must have gone off before they could get out. The whole tunnel’s caved in. If they weren’t blown to bits, they’re buried ten feet down.’’
Allie pushed past him and grabbed the loose square of stone that the men had removed. ‘‘Help me,’’ she whispered, ‘‘before others get here.’’
Wes lifted the other side of the stone. ‘‘Why?’’
‘‘Let the gold stay with the ghosts of Goliad. It’s wrong for anyone to take it.’’
Wes helped her slide the stone into place. ‘‘So we leave a fortune buried along with the men who tried to take it?’’
Allie straightened and nodded. People were already filling the church, asking questions and trying to figure out what caused such an explosion.
She remained silent.
A real priest hurried in, trying to look around as he calmed his flock. Seeing the two strangers, but nothing amiss with the building, he demanded to know why they were in the mission at this hour.
Wes took Allie’s hand and said simply, ‘‘We want to get married.’’ He glanced in her direction. ‘‘If she’ll have me? I’d like to do it right this time,’’ he leaned close and whispered, ‘‘without you holding a knife.’’
‘‘But all the ghosts?’’
‘‘I don’t think they’ll mind.’’
The priest let out a long breath and straightened his robes. Quick weddings and fast funerals were a way of life in this country. ‘‘Do you want to marry this man, young lady?’’
