Cold Gold (13 page)

Randolph and Montgomery stepped aside as Stiles passed them. They looked at each other,
then at Stiles’ retreating back.

“Do you think that was an accident?” Randolph asked quietly.

“No, I don’t,” Montgomery replied. “And I’m positive Stiles attacked you. He must have been up to his neck in this business and saw a way out by killing King. For all the facts we do know, there are some questions that will probably never be answered now.”

Randolph nodded his agreement. “
If you don’t mind,” he said. “I’m going back to my wife.”

Montgomery grinned. “Give her my congratulations. She could cut a whole new career path, as could you. It’s been a pleasure working with you. If you ever want to take up
full-time detective work, get in touch with me.”

The two men shook hands and Randolph wasted
no time in getting back to the club.

As soon as she saw him, Serena tore herself away from Maggie and Lorelei and threw herself into his arms
again. She had traveled so far, had feared for his life, and now could not bear to let him out of her sight.

“Randolph, don’t you
dare ever leave me again.” Her eyes bored into his. “If you do, I swear I will shoot you.”

Randolph looked into her clear
gray eyes, saw the love behind her threat, and smiled.

“We can’t have that,” he said, an
d dipped his head to kiss her.

Maggie,
Lorelei, Hetty and the people still milling around the club cheered them, and Randolph good naturedly waved them away.

Serena looked up at him. “Please take me home,” she whispered.

~*~*~*~

Home for the moment was their room at the
Eldorado. The fire blazed brightly with a stack of wood on the hearth ready to replenish it. Lucy had furnished a tray with cold meats, cheeses, breads and cake. The food went unnoticed.

Serena, now wrapped in a satin robe, retrieved Randolph’s watch from its nest in his jacket pocket. She went to him and curled up like a contented cat on his lap.

“Hold out your hand,” she ordered.

He did so and she pressed the watch into it.

Randolph sat up straight, relief clear on his face. “How did you get this?”

Serena dropped her head on his shoulder. “King gave it to me. I don’t know how he got it. Either stole it from you, or whoever hit you on the head gave it to him. How is your head, by the way?”

“Better.” Randolph rubbed the small lump he suspected might always be there. “If it hadn’t been for John Woo coming to feed the dragon, I’d probably be dead.”

Serena jolted upright. “What did you say? What was that about a dragon?”

“Um, that was the excuse John gave his work crew when he left them to come and look after me.” A puzzled frown creased Randolph’s forehead. “Why?”

“Because that dirty old town drunk kept telling me to feed the dragon,” Serena gasped. “How could he have known?”

“Oh, you mean Trader.” Randolph hugged her. “Well, that dirty old town drunk as you call him apparently has quite a knack for predicting things. And I predict that I am going to kiss you breathless.”

Randolph tilted his head and leaned in to kiss his wife, but Serena broke away and looked him in the eye.

“So let me get this right,” she said. “Douglas King stole gold from the Cold Creek Mining Corporation for years.”

Randolph nodded his dark head. “Correct.”

“So that’s where he got the money for the club,” Serena mused.

“Very much so,” Randolph agreed. “What’s worse, there is no way to even begin to assess how much that might be.”

“And when we went to Australia you were there to learn about the gold mining process.”

“Also correct.”

“Why couldn’t you share that with me?” Accusation gave a strong edge to Serena’s voice. “And why didn’t you tell anyone about me?”

“Because I didn’t want you to worry,”
Randolph told her. “When I came to Cold Creek I thought I would be here two, maybe three weeks and then be on my way home which is why I never talked about you to anyone. But when I discovered how King was manipulating shares so that he could take control of the Corporation, I had to stay. I did write to you again, but I suppose you had already left by the time that letter arrived.”

“I
wanted to be with you so much.” Serena snuggled into his shoulder again. “But after the way we parted I wasn’t sure you would want to see me again.”

“Not see you?” Randolph sat up and gripped her shoulders. “In God’s name, Serena, why would you think that?”

The doubt that had festered in her now seemed futile and she lowered her gaze, embarrassed. “Because I thought you didn’t love me.”

Randolph groaned deep in his throat and gathered her into his arms. “I love you more than life, you silly girl. Don’t you know that?”

Serena caught his face between her hands and looked into his eyes. “Then why won’t you love me completely, Randolph? Why, when we are in bed together, do you always leave me at the end?”

“I make you happy, don’t I?” he asked, whisking a tear from her eye
with his thumb.

“Always,” Serena whispered, remembering his soft touch and the way his sure fingers brought her to one peak of delight after another. “But
not in the way it should be.”

Randolph set her gently aside and stood up. He went to the fireplace, placed his
hands on the mantle shelf and dropped his head on them. If he was going to make Serena happy, he knew he had to tell her. He had to get out the words that so often choked him. There was no going back now.

“
I don’t want to have to make the same decision my father did.”

“What has your father to do with anything?” Serena went to him, wound her arms around his waist and laid her head on his back. He covered her hands with his own.

“I had a brother.” His voice was heavy with sadness. “Mother was forty-two when she became pregnant. She was ill almost from the start and had to stay in bed for most of that time. The birth was long and difficult. Finally the doctor asked my father who should he save, my mother or the baby. Father chose my mother. The baby was a forceps delivery.”

Serena felt him shudder and held him tighter. She closed her eyes to prevent the tears spilling over
, but couldn’t check them. She could not imagine what he must have endured. He would only have been twelve years old, with no one to hear his fears or comfort him.

“I wasn’t allowed to see my mother until much later, but my old Nurse took me to see the baby. His name was Daniel. He was wrapped in a white blanket with a
bandage on his head, but it didn’t disguise the shape of it. The forceps, you see, crushed his skull.” Randolph’s voice was quiet and as far away as his thoughts. “I touched his hand with my finger and he gripped it. That tiny boy somehow found the strength to hold me. I couldn’t let go. I didn’t want to let go. I stayed with him until he died. He was just ten hours old.”

Tears sta
ined her cheeks as she listened to his story. An anguished sob tore from his throat and the face he turned to her was tortured and alien.

He wrapped her in his arms and she felt his tears in her hair. “I want nothing more than to sink into your body and love you, but I can’t risk losing you. I won’t risk losing you
or any child we might have.”

Serena cradled him in her arms, her heart full, her mind racing. He loved her. He wanted her. It was his fear of getting her pregnant that kept him from
fully making love to her. She loved him, would always love him and for now that was all that mattered. She blinked back her own tears, trying to find words with which to comfort and reassure him, but she could not speak for the sob in her throat. She stroked the back of his head until she felt him relax. He looked down at her with a silent plea in his eyes. She stood on tiptoe, pulled his head down and kissed him.

The soft, warm pressure of her
lips on his uncoiled the serpent that slept around his heart. He swept his tongue over hers, tasted her, teased her. She felt his body respond and then, instantly, she felt him tense and hold himself in check.

“No, Randolph,” she whispered. “Not
this time. I am not your mother. I am a young, healthy and strong woman who loves you and wants your child. This time,” she undid the sash on her robe and let it fall away revealing her full breasts and flat stomach, “you will love me as you want to, as I want you to.”

She twirled naked in the firelight and
saw the love shining in his eyes. She sank to her knees in front of the fire and beckoned to him.

“
I think it’s time to feed the dragon,” she whispered.

Her eyes glowed with mischief as she watched an expression of amazement bloom on his face when she told him what she was going to do.

Thank you, Maggie, thank you Lorelei, she thought.

“But if you don’t want to
do that,” she added casually, “if you think it unladylike behavior, then perhaps we should just eat Lucy’s bread and cheese and talk about the weather.”

S
erena lay back with one arm behind her head and watched the beginnings of a smile curve Randolph’s mouth. The smile spread to his eyes, lit the golden tints in his brown irises so they reflected the firelight. He began to laugh until it boomed in his chest and echoed around the room. He joined her on the floor, rolled her into his arms and kissed her.

“Damn the weather,” he
growled. “And you, Serena my darling, will always be a lady.”

The End

Also published by Books We Love

His Dark Enchantress

A Victoria Chatham Regency Romance

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Before there were tablets, iphones and ipods, laptops and computers, television and radio, the only entertainment available was that performed at home or at the theatre. Theatre was beyond the pocket of average working people, so they flocked to the music hall, or vaudeville as it was known in America. The biggest stars, performers like Marie Lloyd and Florrie Forde (who was born in Australia), were well known in both England and America.

Because miners and the services they needed, popped up wherever gold was found, or rumored to be found, it is quite likely they would have known these songs. They might even have heard of Gilbert and Sullivan, whose
HMS Pinafore
opened in London, England, in 1878. It ran for 571 performances, the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece of the time and became a world-wide sensation.

If you wish to listen to some of these old songs, many of them can be found on YouTube, particularly in performances from BBC TV’s ‘
The Good Old Days’
.

SONG LIST.

1843 I DREAMT I DWELLED IN MARBLE HALLS – aria from The Bohemian Girl by Irish composer Michael William Balfe.

1885 THE BOY I LOVE IS UP IN THE GALLERY – written for Miss Nelly Power by George Ware and made famous by Marie Lloyd. (UK)

1885 THREE LITTLE MAIDS – from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. (UK)

1891 TARARA BOOM DE AY
- written by Henry J. Sayers, sung by Miss Lottie Collins in “Miss Helyett”. (US)

1895 WALTZING MATILDA – written by Banjo Patterson. (Australia)

1905 WAIT TILL THE SUN SHINES, NELLIE 
- written by Andrew B. Sterling / Harry von Tilzer. (US)

1906 WAITING AT THE CHURCH – sung by Vesta Victoria. (UK)

1907
DOWN AT THE OLD BULL AND BUSH – written by Russel Hunting, Percy Krone, Andrew B Stirling and Henry Von Tilzer and recorded by Florrie Ford. (UK)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Victoria Chatham's first
writing mentor predicted that she would write historical fiction. Having disliked history at school because she could never remember dates, Victoria vetoed the idea. But then a scene popped into her head and she sent it to her critique partner, A.M. Westerling to ask if it had merit. That scene grew into her first Regency romance, His Dark Enchantress. There will be further Regencies, but Victoria is currently working on The Buxton Chronicles trilogy. Book 1 is set in 1907, Book 2 in 1913 and the final book in 1918.

Apart from her writing, Victoria is an avid reader of anything that catches her interest, but especially Regency romance.
She loves all four-legged critters, particularly dogs but it’s her passion for horses that gets her away from her computer to ride when she can and volunteer at Spruce Meadows, a world class equestrian centre near Calgary, Alberta, where she currently lives.

You can follow Victoria on:-

www.bookswelove.com/chatham.php

www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaChatham

NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Thank you for purchasing and reading this Books We Love eBook. We hope you have enjoyed your reading experience. Books We Love and the author would very much appreciate you returning to the online retailer where you purchased this book and leaving a review for the author.
Best Regards and Happy Reading, Jamie and Jude

http://bookswelove.net

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