«Whip has more gold than he knows what to do with,» Willow said. «Ingots of Spanish gold so pure you can mark it with your fingernail.»

Shannon looked startled. «I didn’t know that. Then why is he going to Reno to find out how to dig more gold?»

«If Whip offered you his own gold to buy supplies or a home in a safer place than Echo Basin, would you accept it?» Caleb asked.

«Never,» Shannon said softly. «I’m a widow, not a harlot to be bought by any man with an itch in one pocket and gold in the other.»

Caleb smiled slightly and nodded, unsurprised.

«Why don’t you stick around until Whip comes back?» he asked. «You shouldn’t ride all the way to the basin alone.»

«No, thank you. My dog was injured defending me from the Culpeppers. I should have gone back days ago.»

«Stay,» Willow said quickly. «Whip has…tenderness toward you. He might…»

«Settle down?» Shannon whispered, shaking her head and smiling sadly. «Only love could hold Whip, and Whip loves only the sunrise he hasn’t seen.»

15

Whip rode up to the small home whose finishing touches were still being completed. When he reined in his tired horse, a young woman with hair and eyes the color of pure gold came running out of the kitchen. She leaped lightly off the low porch that ran the length of the house and smiled up at Whip.

«It is you! What a lovely surprise! Reno thought the yondering urge must have come over you again and taken you to the far side of the earth.»

«Not yet, Eve. I’ve got some gold to dig, first.»

«You? Gold?»

The startled look on Eve’s face made Whip smile despite the bleak emotions knotting his gut. The long ride from his sister’s ranch hadn’t eased his temper or his pain one bit.

«I thought you hated gold mining even worse than Caleb does,» Eve said.

«I do,» Whip said as he dismounted.

«Then why —»

Eve’s breath broke when Whip turned toward her and she got a close look at his face.

«What’s wrong?» Eve demanded anxiously. «It’s not Willow, is it? Or the baby? Is —»

«Everything’s fine at the Black ranch,» Whip interrupted.

«Then what has you looking so grim around the mouth?»

«Nothing some gold won’t fix. Where’s Reno?»

«Right behind you,» Reno said.

«Yeah, I thought so,» Whip said, turning around. «Someone has been watching me ever since I forded the river.»

Reno smiled. «Great view we have from our house. Saw you coming from a long way off.»

«Nice of you not to shoot.»

«Once I got that bullwhip in my sights, it was tempting,» Reno agreed, deadpan. «But then I got to thinking you might be bringing some of Willy’s biscuits to share around.»

«All I’m bringing is an empty belly and a favor to ask of you,» Whip said bluntly.

«That explains the look on your face. You always did look about as friendly as a wounded grizzly when you were hungry.»

While Reno spoke, he glanced at Sugarfoot through narrowed green eyes. The horse’s coat showed signs of having sweated and dried several times since the animal was last curried. The way the gelding tugged at the reins, trying to get close to grass, said that the horse was as hungry as its rider. And as tired.

«You and Sugarfoot both look like you’ve been rode hard and put away wet,» Reno said.

«I left Cal’s ranch just before supper yesterday.»

Reno’s black eyebrows shot up. «You must have ridden most of the night.»

Whip shrugged.

«I’ll help you see to Sugarfoot,» Reno said, «while Eve makes something for you to eat.»

As soon as the two brothers reached the pole corral, Reno turned to Whip.

«All right. Let’s have it,» Reno said bluntly. «What’s wrong?»

«Like I told Eve. Nothing that some gold won’t cure.»

«One of those Spanish bars is buried right under your feet. If I dig it up, will it put the light back in your eyes?»

Whip said something terrible beneath his breath, lifted his hat, raked his fingers through his hair, and yanked his hat back into place.

Without a word or a glance toward his brother, Whip turned to Sugarfoot and uncinched the saddle. With one hand he lifted the heavy saddle and flipped it onto the highest rail of the corral. With his other hand he took the saddle blanket, turned it over, and laid it out to dry on top of the saddle.

Bending swiftly, Whip hobbled the gelding and turned him out to graze. Sugarfoot went forward eagerly, for the margin of the river that ran within a hundred feet of Reno and Eve’s home was lush with grass.

Reno watched Whip with green eyes that missed nothing, especially the ease of his brother’s movements. Seeing Whip’s muscular grace made some of the tension in Reno loosen; he had feared that Whip had some injury or illness he was trying to conceal.

«Cal and Willy and Ethan are all right,» Reno said.

It wasn’t exactly a question, but Whip nodded.

«You’re as fit as a cougar, despite a ride that took the starch out of that tough gelding of yours,» Reno said.

Whip shrugged.

«You haven’t had bad news about any of our brothers?» Reno pressed.

«No.»

Reno waited.

Whip said nothing more.

«Well, that cinches it,» Reno said, smiling slightly. «It must be woman trouble.»

«What the hell are you talking about?» Whip asked, nettled.

«The lines around your mouth and the look in your eyes that says you’d like to kill something, and God help anyone who gives you the excuse.»

Whip flexed hands that kept wanting to become fists. He had come to talk about gold, not about a woman he shouldn’t take and couldn’t leave alone.

«Are you going to talk,» Reno asked mildly, «or would you rather fight first?»

«Hell,» Whip said in disgust. «I came here to ask a favor, not to fight you.»

«Sometimes a fightisa favor.»

Whip made a low sound that could have been a curse or laughter or both combined. Then he looked up, straight up. The sky was as deep and blue as Shannon’s eyes.

«Have you ever wanted two things,» Whip said slowly, «even though having one of them means giving up the other, and you can’t give up either one, because you really want both of them, so you keep turning in tighter and tighter circles like a dog chasing its own tail until finally you don’t know which end is up?»

Reno’s smile was oddly gentle for a man who looked as hard as he did.

«Of course I have,» Reno said softly to his brother. «It’s called being human. Stupid, but human.»

«What did you do?» Whip asked curiously.

«When you finished tearing strips off me, I figured out what was important. Then I married her.»

Whip’s mouth turned down. «I’d make a piss-poor husband. I’d always be looking over the fence and pacing like a mustang fresh off the range.»

«Still chasing sunrises?»

«I can no more help my yondering streak than you can help being left-handed and hell on wheels with that six-gun of yours,» Whip said flatly.

«Probably, but you never know.»

«What does that mean?»

«When you started yondering,» Reno said slowly, thinking as he spoke, «you were hardly more than a kid. Like me, you left home as much because our older brothers were restless — and Pa had a heavy hand with the belt on our backsides — as for any wanderlust of your own.»

«Was that it?» Whip shrugged. «It’s so long ago now, and I’ve seen so many places and done so many things since then, it’s hard to remember what started me yondering.»

«But you don’t want to give it up.»

«How do you give up your soul?» Whip asked simply, his eyes haunted.

Reno had no answer except the quick, hard embrace he gave his brother.

«Come on,» Reno said after a moment. «Eve will be fretting about what’s wrong with you. It galls me to admit that she has such poor taste, but she cares about you almost as much as she does about me.»

Whip smiled slightly. «I doubt that. But I have a real fondness for her. She has the kind of laughter and sheer courage that I admire in anyone, especially a woman. Eve is solid gold. What she ever saw in you I’ll never know.»

A crack of laughter and a slap on the shoulder was Reno’s answer. Side by side, the two brothers walked toward the house with long strides. When they reached the back door, Whip looked dubiously at his boots, and then at Reno’s.

«Something wrong?» Reno asked.

«There are parts of this world where you would be insulting your host and hostess by wearing your boots across the threshold of their home,» Whip said. «Especially boots like these and a new home like yours.»

«Eve must have been to those same places,» Reno admitted. «She leaves a pair of moccasins next to the door for me to swap for my boots.»

Reno’s smile was wry and amused at the same time. Eve’s pleasure in having a home of her own had been a keen satisfaction to him.

«What about my boots?» Whip asked. «Will she settle for stocking feet?»

«She’ll think of something. She protects this house like a tigress with only one cub.»

«Can you blame her? An orphanage like she was raised in would make a body crave a home of their own.»

Reno and Whip washed up at a small bench Reno had built at the back of the house. The water waiting for them was warm and scented with lilac.

As cheerful as the scent was, Whip couldn’t help remembering the spearmint freshness that he associated with Shannon, and the small ritual of handing him a towel and inspecting his face so carefully for any speck of lather.