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One year later
“So this is the place.”
Matt set the brake on the wagon and tossed the reins down. He sighed and stared at that cursed cave mouth for the first time in years. Somebody had planked it up with boards and put a “Stay Out” sign over the entrance.
“Yeah.”
He climbed down and walked around the wagon to help Rosa down. She waited for him, slid into his outstretched arms, and kissed him for a long, pleasant moment before he sighed and pulled away.
“We need a light.” Matt walked to the wagon, lifted a lantern from the bed, and led the way into the cave with Rosa trailing his heels. It was a strange way to end a honeymoon, but he couldn’t move on with his new life until he’d put the old one to rest.
Matt kicked the boards away and swiped the spider webs aside as he walked into the shallow, sandy cave. He raised the lantern and looked around sadly. He saw Melissa Avery’s terrified eyes staring at him from the shadows, Beau’s sly, confident grin. He heard George Avery’s anguished voice echoing from the darkness.
Rosa’s hand curled around his shoulders. “Are you all right?”
Matt bit his lip. He was going to be unraveling his past for years to come. Turning it over, considering it, giving it a name. But he had to take full responsibility for his part in it.
“I’m all right.”
He walked a few paces deeper. There were signs of older visitors scattered over the cave floor: shovels, old lanterns, a rusted pickaxe. Maybe used by the sheriff and his deputies, looking for the ransom money. There were holes dug in the floor and parts of the cave wall that seemed to have been chipped away.
But he was willing to bet the searchers had come up empty. Beau had been too smart to hide that bag in any of the obvious places. He tried to remember that day, where Beau had stood, what he’d said. If he’d mentioned hiding the bag.
He couldn’t pin anything down, and now he wondered if Beau had meant to keep the money all along. Looking back, the signs of that intention had been there, and he wondered why he hadn’t seen them earlier.
Maybe he hadn’t wanted to see them.
He lifted the lantern up and walked the length of the cave entrance. Beau wouldn’t have had time to find a hiding place farther back. He’d probably put that bag somewhere near the front of the cave. If he’d gone to the back, Walter or Harry might’ve seen him through the back opening, since they were on the hill behind.
He was convinced now that Beau hadn’t meant that to happen.
He turned at the back of the cave, and the motion startled a flurry of bats. They flashed past him and out of the cave, and Matt raised the light to see where they’d come from. There was a low shelf in the ceiling, visible only from the back entrance, about fifteen feet above the cave floor. Matt frowned and raised the lantern higher.
He lowered it and handed it off to Rosa. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Rosa watched him walk off with a puzzled expression, and he returned with the unhitched horse. He walked it under the shelf, turned it around to face the front, and climbed up onto its back.
Rosa frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Hold him steady.”
Rosa moved to hold the horse’s head, and Matt carefully stood upright on its back. He could just reach the edge of the rocky shelf.
“Give me the lantern.”
Rosa handed it to him, and he moved the light in a wide arc. “The horses were in the cave that day,” he explained. “They were waiting for us right here.”
He moved the lantern, then stopped and strained up as far as he could reach. He smiled as his hand closed over a heavy burlap bag.
He tossed it onto the floor and climbed down.
“You found it!”
Matt stared at the bag. He could see it in his mind: gunfire popping outside. Beau jumping up on the horse, turning its head, and looking around for some place to ditch the bag. Someplace no one would see. He saw Beau swing his arm, saw the bag disappear into the ceiling, saw Beau kick his mount and bound out the back exit.
He bent down to pull the draw cord open. The bag was filled with cash, and everything else faded for a moment as he saw George Avery toss it through the air.
Rosa’s voice brought him back to the present. She stared down at the bag, then up at him. “What are you going to do now?”
Matt licked his lips. That money would set him and Rosa up for life. It would be enough for them to buy a little ranch of their own, make it so he didn’t have to slave in the heat and dust on somebody else’s spread.
But that kind of thinking was what had wrecked his life. Stolen the lives of his friends and almost taken his own.
Killed an innocent man and robbed a little girl of her father.
He shook his head. “It isn’t mine to keep. I’m taking it back.”
Rosa stared at him, and he held her eye uneasily. For a second he was afraid she might not understand, but she slipped her hand in his.
“That’s right,” she said softly. “That’s how you really pay your debt. From here.” She tapped his chest and smiled at him.
“I guess.”
Matt leaned down to kiss her, then took her in his arms with a sigh. Those words hadn’t come as easy as he’d hoped, but he’d said them. He couldn’t help being tempted.
All he could control was what he did about it.
He gave the bag to Rosa and led the horse back to the wagon. When it was hitched up and ready to go, he turned it toward town.
Finding the money had been the easy part. The hard part was going to be facing Melissa Avery and putting it into her hands.
* * * * *
When they got to town Matt found someone to tell him where the Avery place was, and after a few minutes he pulled the wagon up outside the house. It was a nice house, a Victorian in the middle of town with gingerbread trim on the porch. There was a young woman sweeping it, and it took him a minute to recognize that it was Melissa Avery.
Rosa turned to him with sympathy in her eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Matt nodded. “I have to do it.”
He climbed down from the wagon and Rosa passed him the bank bag. He clutched it to his chest and walked across the lawn with his eyes on Melissa’s face.
He got to the top step before she looked up. She was a pretty young woman now, almost twenty years old. The shock that slapped across her face showed that she recognized him instantly.
It figured. She’d probably see his face until the day she died.
Her expression twisted, and her eyes were hard and angry as she stuck the broom out in front of her. “How dare you come here!” she spat. “Get off my property, you murdering devil!”
Matt stared into her eyes sadly, remembering the innocent, terrified fourteen-year-old in the cave. Now her eyes were hard and bitter and angry. They reminded him of how Rosa’s eyes had once looked.
He set the bag down on a porch chair. “I found something today that belongs to you, Miss Avery.”
She pulled her mouth down contemptuously. “Do you think you can just come here and throw money at me?” she cried. “Do you think that makes everything all right? You killed my father! He’s never going to see me get married. He’s never going to meet his grandchildren. Nothing’s ever going to change that. You can’t buy my forgiveness. I hate you until the day I die! Get out!”
He tipped his hat and turned to walk down the steps and across the lawn. He could feel Melissa’s hatred beating on his back as he walked, and Rosa’s sad eyes on him, understanding and full of sympathy.
He climbed into the wagon, picked up the reins, and exhaled deeply. Rosa slipped a hand around his waist as horse pulled them away.
“I’m proud of you, Matt,” she told him softly. “That’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He stared at the street ahead. “Is it?”
“Yes,” she replied instantly. “Making amends is always brave. That’s how I figured out you’re a good man. You’re a man who’s willing to suffer to make it right.” She rested her head on his chest, and he put his arm around her shoulder.
“Don’t take it too hard,” Rosa whispered. “I know how she feels. Losing a parent like that is something that never leaves you. But one day, maybe, she’ll understand what you just did. Maybe adjust her opinion a little.”
She smiled at him. “I did.”
He glanced down at her smiling face. “I’m glad of that.”
Rosa pulled him closer. “You did the last right thing, Matt. Now it’s really over. Come on. We have two more days for our honeymoon, and I’m sick of bacon and beans. I want to be wined and dined.”
Matt shook his head. “I have enough left to get us a room at the boarding house and a chicken dinner at the cafe.”
“I’ll take it.”
* * * * *
Later that night, after a good meal and wine, Matt patted the seat of the boarding house swing. Rosa came over to sit down beside him and poured out the last two glasses from the bottle.
She handed him the glass, and he touched it to hers in a gentle toast. “Happy days.”
Rosa stared up at him as he took a sip. A slow smile spread across her face. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to give up that money. I won’t lie, I thought about keeping it, too. About buying a house in town. A nice little yard, a lot of pretty furniture.”
Matt frowned. “Are you sorry?”
She shook her head. “No. I’d rather have a simple life with an honest man than a rich man who can’t meet my eyes. Who has to make excuses to me and to himself.” She smiled and took his hand. “You passed the test, Matt. We both did.”
He leaned down to kiss her, and she smiled against his lips and tangled her fingers in his hair. “We’ll have a place of our own. It might not be this year or next year, but if we work hard and save up, we’ll get there.”
He brushed a tendril of hair back from her brow. “I promise.”
He kissed her again, and they became so lost in one another that Matt didn’t hear the front door open or pay attention to the sound of boots.
At last, a man’s wry voice drawled, “Get a room, folks.”
Matt and Rosa raised their heads to look at the grizzled old man. He lit a cigar, tossed away the match, and walked down the porch steps in a swirl of smoke.
Rosa pressed her brow against his chest and giggled. “Well, you heard him, cowboy. Let’s go.”
Matt grinned, took her hand, and led her across the porch and into the house.
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Guns and Justice in the West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my new western adventure story and the extended epilogue! Please let me know your thoughts below. 🐎
it’s been awhile since I read this but it came back. great ending for a great story. Thanks cowboy
Hey cowboy, so glad you got my email and the extended epilogue. Happy that you enjoyed this one, as I love it. Take good care and thank you for your support!