Knowing about the babe didn’t change his plans where she was concerned. He’d still get her out of here. Still help her settle on his family’s ranch. Still do his best to make her love him as much as he was coming to love her.
But he had so many questions about how she’d come to be in her condition. What he needed to ask might not make for polite conversation, but he had to know. Especially considering how invested his heart was in her already.
Did she love the father? Or did she bear scars from an ordeal Gil could hardly stand to imagine?
He needed to know. Everything in him wanted to pull her close and protect her.
He rinsed the dish, then set it on the towel to dry.
A rustle by the door had him turning in time to see Jess slip in. His chest tightened, both at the fresh blast of her beauty and what he had to say.
Her eyes were wide with excitement though. She glanced around the room. “Is Father here?”
“Nope.” He dried his hands on the cloth. “He went back to work.”
Her eyes sparked with a light he’d rarely seen there. “I remembered another storage room.” She moved toward the curtained area where they slept. “I tried to get in, but it’s locked. I think I can open it though. I just need something.”
Turmoil twisted inside him. He was desperate to ask his questions, but if they had a chance to find the sapphires, they couldn’t waste it.
He followed her to their sleeping area. “What can I do?”
“Get another lantern. We might need more than one.” She motioned toward the cluster of them hanging near the door.
Within minutes, they slipped out of their home, and she led him around the base of the mountain, where they entered the cave she’d brought him to the day they’d first met. She lit the lamps just inside the entrance.
He kept his voice low. “Are you sure it’s safe to have lanterns?”
“This tunnel is rarely used anymore. It was the first passage Father found when he started mining this mountain.”
Jess led the way, moving slowly enough that he was able to study the walls on both sides. This did appear to be a natural cave, at least the first part. Now that he looked closely, he couldsee where the natural cave ended and tools had been used to chip away the rock and carry the tunnel onward.
Ahead, Jess had stopped to study the wall. As he neared, he noticed an outline in the rock. A stone door? It must be incredibly heavy. On the left side halfway between the low ceiling and the rough floor, a round lock protruded a little from the stone.
Jess crouched on the right side though. Down near the bottom… Was that a hinge? A glance upward showed another near the top on that side.
He dropped to one knee next to her, bringing his lantern close so she could see better. There was a difference in coloring between the wall and the door. In fact, the door looked…painted?
He touched the surface, which was a rough texture but not cold stone. Definitely painted. And was that…? He made a fist and knocked.
Wood.
What remarkable camouflage. In the dim light of the tunnel, even carrying a lantern, he would have passed this twenty times before spotting the lock or hinges—if he’d ever seen them at all. The hinges and handle had been inset as much as possible, the wood meeting the stone around it so cleanly, that the seam was barely visible.
“It’s so hard to see, I often forget it’s here.” Jess was picking at the hinge with the metal hatpin she’d brought.
It had been fastened from the inside, making it secure. But Jess had poked the tip of her hatpin into the narrow opening between the door and cave. “I saw my father do this once when I was a girl. I remember being curious about how he’d managed to take the door off the hinge, so I looked at it from the inside later. I think I can remove the inside pin. It just might take a minute.”
All Gil could do was watch while she worked.
Her face twisted as she worked, her brows lowering and her mouth puffing out on one side like she was biting her tongue. Adorable. And she was so smart. This woman had lived a life no young girl should be forced to endure, but she’d come through it with intelligence and savvy.
How could he not admire her?
Her expression brightened as she leaned in to exert more pressure. “I think…” Her face fell as frustration snuffed out the hope. “I lost it.”
She readjusted the angle of the hatpin, and her mouth twisted again.
He could start on the upper hinge if he had something pointed like her hatpin. His pocketknife had an edge, but not a round point like her tool. He could try.
