Page 27 of Red Hawk's Woman

But of one thing, there was no doubt. Though he had bathed himself again and again, when there was no need, he did not meet the sea dog this day.

Chapter

Seven

The mist was ushering in another fine morning as Effie stepped to her room’s only window. Staring off due east, she could see that the sky was still navy blue, a sign that she had awakened long before the others were to arise. Unbidden, her thoughts turned to him, the boy from her youth.

Where was he? And why was he etched so deeply in her mind?

Effie had spent a sleepless night. Not due to the boy, but rather because of the previous evening’s “guest.” Alas, she had barely closed her eyes.

Tired though she was, sleeplessness wasn’t the worst of her troubles. Effie was worried about the turn of events. She could no longer leave the artifacts in her room. Locked or not, this hotel was not now the safe haven she had once thought it to be.

Briefly, she considered her options. She could carry them in her purse or she could even purchase a safety deposit box.

On this last thought, she frowned. No, she couldn’t put them in a deposit box. A bank might be too easily robbed, particularly in an out-of-the-way mining town like Virginia City. Plus, there was an additional difficulty: She would require these artifacts to be at hand as soon as the digging commenced. If their excavation did uncover the other two nuggets, only as a complete set of four could they be presented to the Lost Clan.

But surely there was something else she could do to protect the golden valuables.

“I could ask Madeline or Carl to keep them for me,” she mumbled to herself. “Or perhaps Lesley might be willing to hold them in trust.”

No. In reality, Effie wasn’t certain she could trust Lesley or even any of the others in her group.

She immediately pulled up on that thought.

What a terrible thing to believe. After all, out of the many different kinds of people in this town, her crew was probably the most trustworthy.

“And yet…” She paused.

It was that uncertainty that made Effie hesitate to include the others in her confidence. True, everyone in her party had already seen the artifacts. It had been necessary to show them to her crew so each would know what the nuggets looked like. Indeed, identification without a good representation of what needed identifying was almost impossible.

But this had taken place while they were back East. It was her understanding that Madeline and Carl Bell thought that Effie still held the valuables there. Only Lesley, and perhaps her husband, knew the entire story of the legend, and only they were aware that all four artifacts were required to be present together, otherwise…

“You don’t suppose…?”

No, that was another rather unpleasant thought.

Still, Effie couldn’t shake the rather startling idea, and she wondered, could Lesley be the one who was trying to steal the artifacts? Had she sent her husband to do her dirty work? Was it he who had broken into her room?

Effie frowned. It could be.

It was certainly true that Lesley liked the finer things in life, and the nuggets would fetch a handsome dollar.

“No, it can’t be,” Effie whispered to herself.

Hadn’t she known Lesley all her life? Though Lesley might be more than a little spoiled, and mayhap a bit frivolous, Effie could not envision the other girl as a thief.

But if not Lesley, then who?

Perhaps Lesley or her husband had let slip to someone that Effie carried the precious nuggets. Had some conversation between the two of them been overheard?

If that were the case, then the thief could be anybody.

It was all rather confusing. For a moment, Effie wondered if her father had realized what dangers would follow in the wake of the artifacts leaving their secure place back East. Had he realized that if his daughter carried them on her person…?

Wait! On her person.

Surely that might present a solution. Could she not carry them? Hidden in her effects?