all the best places in his opinion were right here.
He led the way up the rapidly narrowing path, aware of the gradually encroaching silence as the vegetation was stripped away, leaving an unrelenting dusty whiteness that sometimes hurt the eyes. He took another turn off the road and finally came to a stop at the flattened piece of land where all that remained of the once-prolific Morgansville silver mine remained.
“That’s it?” Silver asked. She sounded just as disappointed as everyone else who got to visit.
“Yeah.” He pointed past the sealed-up door of the mine and the fluttering yellow tape around the cave-in. “The mine buildings used to stand to the right, but they took out the machinery and anything useful years ago.”
“It’s kind of sad,” she said, her gaze fixed on the DANGER DO NOT ENTER sign. “Is it really dangerous in there?”
“Nearly came down on Rachel Morgan and Cauy Lymond last year when they were trying to locate some drunken dude ranch guests.”
She shivered slightly. “Well, don’t worry about me going down there. I hate small spaces.”
“So does Cauy,” Ben said dryly. “I’m surprised he made it out.”
“I used to be in this kids’ cowboy show—”
“—The Crazy Catsby Cowgirls, yeah.” Ben completed the sentence for her.
She gave him a curious glance. “Most people who watched that show were girls.”
He shrugged. “I used to mind my baby sister, Daisy, and she loved it so I somehow ended up watching reruns with her every day.” He hastened to add, “I don’t normally keep up with all that celebrity stuff, though.”
“Well, in that show there was an episode where me and my big sister Cookie got stuck down a mine.” Silver blew out a breath. “The thing was, I really did get trapped on the set because Dylan Palmer locked me in. It was terrifying. If my mom hadn’t realized I was missing, and hadn’t come back to look for me, I would’ve been stuck there all night.”
“That sucks. I never liked that Dylan guy much.”
“You had good taste, because most of the fans went crazy over him, and he was the vilest, most awful person imaginable....” She shuddered. “I was so glad when he left the show.”
“Can’t say I blame you.” Ben gathered his reins. “Seen enough?”
“Yes, let’s keep going.” She waited for him to ride off in front of her and followed him out, with one last glance back over her shoulder at the abandoned mine. “I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
* * *
Silver raised her arm and coughed into her elbow as the dust kicked up by Calder and Ted the mule swirled around her. She eased back on the reins and contemplated the high walls crowding in on them. It felt like she was in a different silent world and it was getting way too narrow for her liking. The sun was right above the gully and beating down on her head, which didn’t help. She contemplated calling out to Ben and asking how much farther they had to go, but he was probably too far ahead of her.
Not that he’d answer her anyway. He’d already shown a distinct lack of interest in jumping when she snapped her fingers. She tried to tell herself that it was refreshing to be treated like a normal person, but she wasn’t really convinced. Being a star, being on show all the time, was almost as natural to her as breathing, and she wasn’t used to being ignored.
Just as the silence was beginning to get to her, the path widened out into a level plane with the sign PARKING FOR MORGANSVILLE. NO UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES BEYOND THIS POINT.
Ben had stopped ahead, and was already dismounting and tying up the horses on the hitching post. She aimed Ladybug toward him and he caught hold of the bridle.
“We’ll have lunch here, and then you can take a walk through the ghost town if you’d like,” Ben offered.
Silver nodded and swung her leg over the horse to dismount. When she reached the ground, her knees buckled and Ben reached for her elbow to steady her. Her feet felt like they were made of lead and she had no idea how she was going to move them.
“Muscles locked up?” Ben crouched beside her and dug his fingers into the back of her knee. “Hang in there.”
She grabbed for his shoulder as he massaged her leg and groaned somewhere between delight and agony as he expertly stretched out her cramped muscles.