Free Heart of Gold by Lacy Williams Page A

long.
    A restaurant.
    Opal allowed herself to be ushered into a table in the middle of the room, settled her hatbox on an empty chair, and watched as three burly, shifty-looking men came in and sat down at a long bar along one wall. They made no pretense, but stared right at her.
    At least there were plenty of witnesses in case anything should happen.
    “Do you have a weapon? A revolver?” she whispered. She thought all cowboys wore guns, but she’d been so wrapped up in everything else she hadn’t noticed whether Charlie was armed or not.
    “I won’t need one, because there’s not any gold. There’s not any gold,” he repeated, talking directly to the men at the bar. “She’s been out in the sun too long today.”
    Opal narrowed her eyes at him, momentarily forgetting the other men. “While that’s certainly true, since my train arrived well over an hour ago, it has nothing to do with—”
    “I’m real sorry for the delay,” he interrupted her, shrugging. “Had to deal with a calving heifer in no rush to deliver her little bull calf.”
    She didn’t care about baby cows. She cared about the orphan children back home in Omaha. They were depending on her and she couldn’t let them down.
    Charlie relaxed back into his seat, wide shoulders releasing the tension Opal hadn’t even realized they’d held. “They’re gone.”
    She glanced quickly behind her to verify the ruffians that had followed them into this establishment had left. “Good. Then you can give me what I came for.”
    “I told you there’s not any gold.”
    “But I have proof,” she insisted, taking care to keep her voice low. She had no intention of garnering more unwanted attention.
    His skeptical frown induced her to pull out the scrap of paper she’d kept tucked into her pocket because she wanted it close. She thumped the newspaper clipping onto the table and slid it toward Charlie.
    “I’ve asked my father for more money the last few times we’ve corresponded, but he hasn’t forwarded any additional funds,” she told him as he read the words she’d memorized.
    The famous Lost Cabin gold mine has been found and its riches are even more…
    Charlie’s lips thinned, and when he looked up at her his eyes had narrowed. “I can’t answer for your pa, but there isn’t much cash to spare around the Circle B.”
    “But what about this?” she demanded, pointing to the news article.
    “First of all, this mine here?” He tapped a long finger on the clipping. “This is on the complete other side of the Big Horns. Nowhere close to your pa’s land.”
    She started to argue, but he went on quickly. “And second of all, it takes every hand we’ve got to keep things running on the Circle B. Even if your pa wanted to dig a mine, he wouldn’t have enough men to do the work and run his cattle at the same time.”
    His brown eyes were so serious that she had no choice but to trust his words. “If you don’t believe me, you can talk to your pa when we get to the Circle B.”
    Opal felt the last bit of hope—hope that had sent her on this trip to see her father—wither and die. She needed the gold, needed the money for the children.
    At least she had one option left. It wasn’t one she wanted to accept, it meant marrying a man she didn’t love, but if it meant the children would have a place to stay…
    Charlie didn’t seem to notice her despondency, but waved over the waitress and asked for a cup of coffee and the daily special: meatloaf. He turned to Opal with an expectant look on his face. “Best eat something filling now. The food on the trail won’t be nearly as good.”
    She ordered the meatloaf, too, but not because she was afraid of the trail food. She’d probably eaten worse on one of her visits to see the orphaned children. She ordered because she had exactly enough funds to purchase a train ticket back to Omaha, and no more. This would be her last meal until she reached home.
    She and Charlie did not share