Page 77 of Rocky Mountain Promise

“How long do you think she’s been gone from here?” Rosemary’s question came quiet enough it was clearly directed to White Horse.

He rose and shook his head as he turned toward the ashes of her campfire. “I do not know.”

“What is this?” Lorelei dropped to her haunches beside the fire ring. Without taking her eyes from the cluster of burned sticks, she waved them over. “Bring the light.”

They gathered around as she lifted something from the ashes. Something that glittered against the dim light of the fading flames.

“Blue beads.” The awe in Rosemary’s voice was impossible to miss. Both women looked to White Horse, and the expression that passed between the three of them spoke of a certainty.

Then the last of Tanner’s flames died, casting the cave into darkness again, save for the faint glow of the stick in his hand.

“Bring it outside.” Rosemary’s voice initiated a flurry of shuffling as they all moved to the cave entrance.

When they stepped into the daylight, Lorelei was at his side, one hand on his arm and the other holding a string of light blue beads.

The others gathered around her, and she handed thediscovery to White Horse. “They look just like the ones she gave our father.”

White Horse let the string drape across both his hands as he nodded. “These are hers.” He kept his gaze fixed on the crystals. A fine powder of soot still covered them, but a few shimmered in the sunlight.

Then he lifted his face, his gaze rising above their heads to the peaks on the other side of the valley. “She say treasure is found in ashes.” His focus dropped to Rosemary, and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “She hide gifts there for me sometimes. Sometimes they point to others I must search for.”

Rosemary regarded him. “Like clues for a treasure hunt?”

He nodded. “Yes, hunt.” He studied the beads again, lines furrowing his brow.

The question in his mind was easy enough to guess, so Tanner spoke it aloud. “What clue does the necklace give? Where should we go from here?”

White Horse lifted his gaze to the mountains again. After an extended moment, he murmured, “I do not know.”

“Should we start by searching this area more? The surrounding mountains?” Rosemary’s voice offered a gentle prod.

White Horse blinked, then nodded.

Rosemary turned to Tanner and Lorelei. “Let’s go back down to the horses. We can eat and make a plan.”

As she and White Horse started down the animal trail to the valley where they’d left the animals to graze, Lorelei slipped her hand in his. “Do you have time to help search more, or do you need to get back to the fort? Will Riley be able to manage there without you?”

He met her gaze, sinking into those eyes he loved, running his thumb over the back of her hand. “I told him I’d be gone two days, so I can stay here until late tomorrow afternoon. There aren’t many trade goods left in the store, so I told him he’s free to lock up the fort and go check on your sisters at the ranch anytime he needs to.”

Lorelei’s sweet smile curved her mouth and lit her eyes, even brighter than the sun’s rays shimmering down on them. As she leaned into him, he couldn’t help slipping his free hand up to her jaw and lowering his mouth to hers. Just before he touched her lips, he said, “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“You should probably say it once more,” she murmured.

A chuckle slipped out, and he let his kiss do the talking for him.

As he tasted her sweetness, White Horse’s words from moments before slipped through his mind.

Treasure is found in ashes. There was a time in his life, he’d felt that everything good had been consumed by flames, leaving only the ashes of his hopes behind.

Yet he never would have met Lorelei Collins if he’d not endured that fire. The heat had sent him out of Boston and thousands of miles away to this mountain wilderness.

He’d found treasure here, for sure. Far greater than anything he’d dreamed of.

He’d been given the promise of love. The promise of a future he couldn’t wait to begin