Smitten Book Club (16 page)

She clasped her eyes shut and cupped her hands in prayer and then made her phone call. She punched the numbers into her cell phone while her heart pounded in her throat as she waited for an answer.

“Hello.” Wyatt’s deep voice resonated so that she felt the vibration.

“Wyatt, it’s Abby Gray.”

“Abby, is everything all right?”

She liked the sound of concern in his voice. “I’ve been thinking . . .” Her voice trailed off.

Wyatt exhaled. “Do you want me to come over?”

“No,” she answered, betraying her true desires. “On Saturday. I want to cancel the fishing. I want to go hang gliding. I can go with you, right? I don’t have to do it by myself.”

“Of course. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. Your father would be so proud of you. Not that he isn’t already.”

“Thanks. So you’ll make the arrangements?”

“I will. I’ll call Molly and ask to borrow the tandem glider.”

“Oh—”

“Don’t worry, Abby, I won’t tell her who it’s for, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She loved how he didn’t ask her if she was certain. Nor did he question her motives. He simply did as she asked, and she felt empowered. Besides, the sooner the temptation of Wyatt Tanner and his suntanned biceps were off her radar, the more able she’d be to find contentment in the life God handed her.

Matters of the heart can consume the mind. Don’t neglect friendships in the midst of courtship.

P
EARL
C
HAMBERS
,
The Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship

CHAPTER SEVEN

F
riday morning Abby dressed in her new outfit and slipped into the low heels that her friends had bought her.

With the new dress that fit her curves, but bloused out so that she didn’t feel self-conscious, she noticed that her librarian hair needed more attention. So she pulled it down from its bun and straightened it. When she did that, her lips looked naked, so she applied a little lipstick. When she did that, she seemed pale, so she added the slightest dab of blush. By the time she left the bathroom, she looked like a completely different person. Her hair’s blond streaks showed up more readily when she left her golden hair down.

Her mother’s expression stiffened at the sight of her. “My, my. Is that the outfit your friends bought you?”

“Don’t you like it?”

“It’s lovely. It looks very expensive.”

“It was.” She brushed her waist. “It’s from that fancy boutique on Main Street. I think that Heather paid for it all. Now that she’s found love, she’s convinced that all of us need to up our game to find romance in Smitten.”

“There can’t be many single men at the library in the middle of the afternoon. Maybe you should wait to wear that on Sunday.”

“I’m wearing it for myself, Mom, because it was a gift from my friends and because it makes me feel good,” she said gently. “Not because I’m trying to snag a man.”

“Well, all right. If you say so.”

“It’s my book club tonight, so Caroline is bringing you dinner. She said she’d come by the library first to pick up a movie. I’ll make sure it’s something you like.”

“Something with Sinatra, maybe?” her mother asked.

“I’ll see what I can find. I’m going to stop by Molly’s this morning before I go to work. I found something in the book last night that made me wonder if maybe the treasure could be real.”

Her mother clapped her hands together. “Really?”

“Probably not, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t at least check?”

She kissed her mother good-bye on the cheek and drove the short distance to Molly’s house.

Abby knocked on Molly’s door, but there was no answer. She was probably out with Noah running errands. Abby reached into the planter and pulled out the spare key and let herself into the old farmhouse.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice echoed.

She screamed and turned to see Heather. “What are you doing here? You nearly sent me out of my skin!”

“I saw you pull up. Thought it might be fun to surprise you.” Heather wore coveralls and was clearly there to do some kind of gardening. “Just wanted to get to some of the weeding here. Molly has enough to do.”

“Well, you surprised me, all right.”

Heather put down her pruning sheers on the front porch and followed Abby inside. “Look at you in your dress. Don’t you look gorgeous.”

Abby twirled. “I do feel gorgeous. Thank you, Heather. What you girls did for me was really nice. I’m sorry I was a grump about it. I’ve been thinking . . . maybe my growing up adopted has made me kind of self-conscious about being in debt to people.”

“But it’s not debt if it’s a gift. And we’re your friends. We love you. We wanted to do that for you.”

“I think the idea is growing on me. But anyway, thanks.”

“Is the idea of Wyatt Tanner growing on you?”

She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Wyatt?”

“Abby, there’s nothing wrong with being human. Wyatt is a respectable, gorgeous, single man. What is wrong with admitting maybe you dressed up for him?”

Abby walked through to the dining room. “I didn’t. I’m only trying to feel better about myself, like I’m worthy of a pretty dress like this.”

“And a man like Wyatt,” Heather said.

“You’re impossible.”

“What did you find out from the book?”

“Well, a couple of things, actually. First off, gold is mentioned in quite a few places. I think I may have found a pattern. Look here.” She opened the book to scraps of paper where
Pearl marked the words of interest. “‘Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above gold.’ Pearl replaced the word
rubies
with
gold
.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Heather, in Proverbs, the actual text reads ‘A wife of noble character is worth more than rubies’—not gold. I can’t imagine she’d make a mistake like that. It has to be intentional. Pearl was a woman who knew her Scripture.”

“Oh, good catch. Well, she might have just thought gold was worth more. Who knows, maybe back in the day it was.”

“That’s what I thought too, but then I saw that she flagged something about gold ‘saved for the generations.’ Maybe the treasure is no longer in the cave. Could she have mined it already and then hidden it?”

Heather looked wary. “Surely one woman couldn’t do that.”

“Maybe not, but look at this passage that’s highlighted. It says a ‘golden cord of three’ is not easily broken.”

“And?”

“In Proverbs it’s just a ‘strand of three,’ not a
golden
strand. She’s deliberately misquoting these for some reason.”

“This is exciting! You think the treasure is real now, too, don’t you?”

“I’m not sure,” Abby said. “But yesterday at the library I looked up the old Chambers homestead records to see exactly where the property lines were back when Pearl wrote this book. Turns out Molly’s barn wasn’t on the property until just a few months before Pearl’s death.”

“So?”

“So what if the barn was built as some kind of hiding spot? If Pearl mined the gold somehow.”

“Abby, we have to check this out.”

“I agree. Can we go out back there now, before Molly gets back?”

“You’re going to wear your new dress into that barn?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. But we don’t have time for me to change. I promise not to dig or anything. We’ll just look around a bit.”

The barn smelled musty and was filled to the rafters with sports equipment, old wood, and wet hay, and sawdust was everywhere. Abby kicked some into her shoe and shook it out.

“Abby, you’re ruining your new shoes!”

“Look, Heather!” In the corner of the barn lay a wooden box. Abby kneeled down gingerly to inspect it. “It’s a sluice box.”

“What?”

“It’s a way that Pearl might have mined the gold by herself. She could have had help with the ore and mined it in this sluice box.”

“Why would they have kept the mineral rights on the property, then?”

Abby looked up at Heather. “Maybe she didn’t get it all. It would have been hard rock mining. If Pearl did it by herself or with a few helpers, she wouldn’t have been able to get all the ore. She would have needed dynamite.”

“I hate to think of Molly struggling so much financially when Pearl might have left her with everything she needs. Why wouldn’t she make it obvious?”

“This was a rough town back in the day. A logging town. A prudent woman like Pearl would have kept it very quiet.” She stood and heard a tear.

“Abby, your dress!”

Abby gasped and looked down at her silky skirt, which was in two shredded ribbons, one for each knee. Part of her brand-new skirt was still on the nail that stuck out from the barn wall. “What have I done?”

“Maybe solved part of a mystery,” Heather said. “But you’ve definitely proven your point. You might require some tougher gear. I still don’t condone orthopedic shoes, but I’m definitely going to go with rayon over silk.”

“I’m sorry, Heather. But I really want to be Anne Elliot, not Scarlett O’Hara.”

“You tried to tell us.” Heather gave her a hug. “Find Molly’s gold and you can be both. Which would Wyatt prefer?”

“It wouldn’t concern me regardless,” Abby said and fluttered her eyelashes coquettishly. She didn’t risk saying anything more. The fact that she’d be flying with the likes of Wyatt Tanner in the morning would lead her friends to believe she had a shot at romance in Smitten. Adventure, not romance, was the most she would hope for.

The world is a library and those who do not seek adventure, do not read but a single page.

P
EARL
C
HAMBERS
,
The Gentlewoman’s Guide to Love and Courtship

CHAPTER EIGHT

A
bby skipped her morning coffee since her heart was already pounding relentlessly at the thought of flying over Smitten without so much as an engine. She drove her own car to the field; just in case she changed her mind, she didn’t want to force Wyatt to cancel his plans.

Wyatt called out a greeting and jogged toward her dressed in green khakis and hiking sandals. Even though she felt a little queasy, his outdoorsy appearance aroused her appetite.

“Ready to go up?” he asked.

“Don’t I need lessons first?” she asked weakly. This was all happening too fast for her liking. “I thought I’d have time to get used to the idea a bit. To feel the air from a casual three or four feet from the ground.”

“Nope.”

“We’re not going on the practice hill over there?” She pointed to the wide grassy field where several people were gathered around a man she assumed was a teacher.

“Abby, I’ll be doing the flying today. You’re the passenger along for the ride. You just have to enjoy yourself.”

She bit down on her lip as she watched a glider high in the sky with a single person hanging precariously, like the body of a butterfly.

She grasped Wyatt by his wrist and shook her head. “I don’t think I can do this.”

His expression softened, and she marveled at just how handsome he looked. “You don’t have to do this,” he told her.

“The tickets are paid for. I don’t want them to go to waste.”

He lifted her chin so that she was forced to look into his brown velvet eyes that exuded a warmth she would have sworn she felt inside. “You’re so valuable to me, Abby. I wouldn’t take you up unless I knew that I could keep you safe.”

He really did make her feel safe—as though she could trust someone else to be in charge for a change. Her heart seemed to slow a bit. She felt a little lighter, happier.

“Maybe . . .”

“Abby, really. You don’t have to. The last thing I want is for you to resent me because you felt coerced into flying when you weren’t ready.”

“What happens first?”

“I’ll strap you into that little sleeping-bag-looking casing.”

“Like a sausage?”

“Like a sausage. I’ll get into the one that hangs over you.”

“I’m going to be on the bottom? As in, I’m the first to hit the ground?”

“We’re not going to hit the ground, Abby. When we land,
we’ll both put our legs vertical and we’ll start to take a few steps. If you feel weak, pull your legs up and I’ll do the work, but it doesn’t hurt to land. I’ll set us down very easily.”

She nodded. “All right, let’s go. Before I change my mind.”

In the center of the long grassy valley that lined the river stood several hang gliders and their operators. Wyatt took her hand and led her toward the group, then introduced her to three men and one woman. She couldn’t remember any one of their names. She was far too nervous at the sight of the oversized kite.

Wyatt unzipped the glider and showed her the aluminum construction underneath the sail. He explained which bar she would hold on to, how she would be strapped into the contraption, and what would happen when the “tug” or the small, light plane pulled them into the wild blue yonder.

“I just want to go up before I have time to chicken out.”

The woman in the group, who stood beside a pink-and-turquoise hang glider, told her not to worry. “Last week Wyatt took up a tourist who was here for her hundredth birthday,” she said.

“Abby, are you paying attention?” Wyatt asked.

“Oh, sorry. What was that?”

“Your feet will be hanging out of the sleeve. When we land, we’ll be in an upright position. You may have to take a few steps, but most likely we’ll land upright and you’ll be on the ground as easily as we took off. You’ll want to keep the pole where I position it so that it doesn’t strike you as we land.”

Her pragmatic side kicked in. Was her life insurance
premium paid? Who would call her mom if she ended up in the hospital with a broken neck? “No one even knows where I am, Wyatt. Maybe I should have told someone.”

Wyatt rubbed her shoulder gently and pointed to her car. There stood Lia, Molly, and Heather, all spectating from the side of the road. Lia waved.

“What are they doing here?” Abby demanded.