She’d seen Will march up the street toward the Chinese camp late yesterday, and wondered why he’d spent so long there. He viewed her as a troublesome responsibility, one he likely hadn’t thought through when he’d agreed to their bargain.
“All the same, keep that pistol handy, and your father’s rifle by the bed.”
She nodded, silent, dazed over this change of events.
“When I get back, we’ll leave for San Francisco. Be ready.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond. Clods of mud splattered her shift as he dug his heels into the gelding’s sides and the horse took off up the hill.
For the second time in as many weeks, Will Crockett was gone.
Chapter Eleven
“Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty.” Kate trailed a finger along the stack of tightly nested gold pans.
“Same as yesterday, Miss Kate.”
“I know.” She’d only counted them again to keep her mind occupied.
In the day and a half since Will had left to work Matt Robinson’s mining claim, not one customer had visited the store. Kate peered out the window at the empty street and wondered what they were going to do.
“New strike in south,” Mei Li said.
“Aye.” She’d heard the news that morning from the blacksmith. “Near the place the Miwok call Mokelumne.”
“Much gold there. Many men go.”
“So they say.” She hoped for all their sakes that Matt Robinson’s claim would be even a fraction as bountiful.
The steady stream of immigrants and transient miners she and Will had counted on for business had all but vanished. Most, she suspected, had been lured south on rumor of the new strike.
Those who did pass through Tinderbox spoke of the thriving businesses—mercantiles, hardware stores, groceries—springing up overnight in Sacramento City. Competition for goods was fierce, and Dan Dunnett still hadn’t returned.
To Kate, the silence that had descended on Tinderbox was almost eerie. She had Mei Li for company, and the Vickerys, too. But yesterday morning as she’d watched Will ride away, an overwhelming sense of aloneness had gripped her.
Which was ridiculous.
She’d traveled for months on her own before she’d even heard of Will Crockett. She’d always been independent, had never relied on anyone. Yet his absence weighed on her.
She missed him. It was as simple as that.
“No sad face,” Mei Li said. “Husband come back soon.”
Kate snapped to attention. “I—I’m not sad. I was just…thinking.”
“Of Crockett.”
“No, not at all.”
“I think, too. On my husband.”
“Husband? You mean you and Matt—”
“No, not real husband. Not like Crockett.”
Kate’s eyes widened in response. Given the circumstances of her union with Will, she would hardly describe him as a real husband.
“Matt Robinson husband of heart.”
“Oh, I see.” An image of Mei Li and Matt together, kissing, that afternoon on the ridge flooded Kate’s mind. “You love him something fierce, don’t you?”
“More than anyone know.”
“And he loves you.”
Mei Li nodded, a mischievous grin blooming on her face. Kate followed her as she all but floated across the room, stopping in front of their small inventory of women’s undergarments.
“How do you know? That he loves you, I mean?”
“He say words, up on ridge by berries.” Mei Li’s black eyes lit up, remembering. “I say back.”
“Ah.” Kate recalled Will’s possessive kiss that very afternoon, and her own unbridled response to it. A kiss very much like the one she’d witnessed between Matt and Mei Li, though she and Will had exchanged no such tender words. They’d argued, in fact. And he’d been more aloof than ever in the days since.
“What will you do?” She knew if Mei Li and Matt married here in Tinderbox, Landerfelt and some of the other townspeople would make trouble for them. Mixed marriages were frowned upon even here on the frontier.
Mei Li pulled a corset from the stack of undergarments and held it up against her tiny frame. “We leave. As soon as Matt find gold.”
“You’re leaving? But your father, your brothers—what will happen to them?”
“Nothing.” Mei Li studied the hooks and laces of the corset and frowned. “How this work?”
“Nothing? You can’t just leave them.” She snatched the corset from Mei Li’s grasp and unfastened the front hooks. “Here, like this.”
Mei Li wrapped the corset around her, over her baggy blue tunic, and fastened the front hooks according to Kate’s instruction.
“How will your brothers get on without you?”
“Same as always. They work railroad. Papa run card game. Life go on.”
“But they depend on you. To cook and clean and take care of them.”
Mei Li stepped to the window. Light reflecting at an angle allowed her to see her reflection in the glass. “I not servant, and they not children.”
“Aye, I suppose not.” For the dozenth time that day Kate thought of her brothers back home. She reminded herself that the youngest, Patrick and Frank, were children. “You won’t miss them?”
“Every day.” Mei Li twisted the corset on her torso, grimacing. “This tight. Feel like prisoner.”
Kate stared past her into the empty street and thought about her years growing up. “Aye, but one gets used to it.”
Mei Li swore as she struggled out of the corset and dumped it unceremoniously onto the counter. “Wise man once say, ‘Free woman make happy home.”’
“Hmm?” She hadn’t been listening. Mei Li repeated the proverb, and Kate smiled. “Perhaps he’s right.” Though it didn’t seem right, no matter how badly she wanted it.
She knew she had to drive these wild dreams from her head once and for all. She had to go back. Her brothers needed her. Even if they didn’t—if there were no debt, if Frank and Patrick were grown—what reason had she to stay?
She closed her eyes and conjured the feel of Will Crockett’s mouth on hers. He’d wanted her, and she him. But he didn’t want to keep her. That fact was clear as day.
“Maybe tomorrow we make visit.”
Kate’s eyes flew open. “W-what visit?”
“To claim. Good idea you see husband.”
“It’s not a good idea. And I don’t need to see him. Besides, he just left yesterday.”
Mei Li snatched the corset and stuffed it back into the pile of women’s underclothes. Under her breath she whispered another of her proverbs, one Kate did not take kindly to.
She started for the back room and Kate followed. “That’s nonsense. And this has nothing to do with—”
The bell over the storefront door tinkled to life, and Kate’s response died on her lips. “Afternoon, Mrs. Crockett.”
She turned, the hairs on her nape prickling at the southern drawl. “Mr. Landerfelt.”
Eldridge Landerfelt stood in the doorway, dressed to the nines, sporting new snakeskin boots, his hat in hand. He smiled charmingly at her, his trademark cigar notably absent.
“Just thought I’d stop by to see how you’re getting on. What with your husband gone and all.”
Kate started toward him but felt an insistent tug at the back of her skirt. She looked back at Mei Li, who stood just inside the living quarters, out of Landerfelt’s sight, frowning.
“It’s all right,” she whispered, and turned her attention back to the merchant. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine, thank you. My husband will be back in a few days.”
“Will he now?” Landerfelt strolled to the counter and ran a manicured finger over the tendering scale. “You sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure. What do you mean?”
“There’s a whole lot of gold to be had down south. Maybe he won’t be comin’ back.”
Kate stiffened. “He’s not in the south. He’s gone east, just a hal
f-day’s ride, in fact. I expect him back—”
“East? There ain’t no gold east. Everyone knows that. He must be putting you on.”
She frowned. “Putting me…on?”
“Lying.” Landerfelt grinned. “Men have been known to lie now and then to their wives.”
A dozen good reasons why she shouldn’t listen to him warred with seeds of doubt. All the same, in her heart she knew Will Crockett wasn’t a liar.
“What do you want, Mr. Landerfelt? As you can see, I’m very busy.”
He looked around the nearly empty store, eyeing their remaining inventory of odd items. “Not much business to be had, I’m afraid. For you or me.”
“Aye, that’s true.”
“Maybe we should throw in together. Just until your, uh, husband gets back.” He raked his eyes over her in a way that made Kate feel uncomfortable.
“You’re not serious.”
“Sure. Why not? Your inventory’s low and so’s mine. But together we have a decent stock.”
Mei Li had told her that just yesterday Landerfelt had sent the Packett boys off to buy more goods in Sacramento City. It was true his inventory had also suffered from new competition.
“But what good is stock when there aren’t any customers?”
“There are,” Landerfelt said. “They just ain’t here.”
Kate eyed him, her brows furrowed into a frown. “Go on.”
“Here’s what we do. We load up the wagon with—”
“Your wagon? The one with the bright yellow wheels? I thought it had gone to town with the Packetts.”
Landerfelt shrugged. “So we borrow Vickery’s wagon. We’ll load it up good, drive south a couple hours to where the spur road from Sac City comes in. Hundreds of men’ll be on that road, headin’ south to the new strike.”
Landerfelt was right. From what Kate had heard, what they’d all heard, there would be scores of men on that road. Scores of would-be customers.
“We’d go just for the day, you mean. Not overnight?”
“Hell, no. Just for the day. You and me. What do you say, Kate?”
It wasn’t a half-bad idea, she had to admit. The only bad thing was the man who proposed it. Kate wavered.
What if Landerfelt was right? What if Will didn’t intend to come back? What if he had gone south, and not to Matt Robinson’s claim at all? What if he dug a fortune in gold and decided to keep it for himself? He’d be gone to Alaska, and she’d still be here, waiting for him to return.
“Psst!”
Kate turned at the sound and spied Mei Li peeking through the doorway at her from the back room, beckoning impatiently with wide dark eyes. Landerfelt spotted her and frowned.
“I’ll just be a moment,” Kate said to him, and hurried into the back room.
Mei Li pulled her into the corner by the bed, out of Eldridge Landerfelt’s sight. “One more thing wise man say.”
“Oh, the wise man again, is it? Go on, then, tell me.” Kate looked into Mei Li’s troubled eyes and had a bad feeling she already knew what it was.
Pulling her close, Mei Li whispered it in her ear. “‘Beware of weasel who come to henhouse smiling.’”
Will hefted another chunk of barren granite and, with a grunt, tossed it toward the front of the cave. He collapsed, breathless, against the damp rock wall and felt blindly for his pickax amidst the rubble surrounding him.
“Let’s take a break, partner.” Matt grabbed the lantern and crawled toward him on hands and knees.
“No. We keep digging.”
“Key-ryst, Will. I’m soaked to the skin. So are you.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He blew hot breath into his hands to ward off a chill. It was cold as an arctic winter in the cave where Matt had staked his mining claim.
“If I’d a known you was gonna work me to death, I might not a asked ya to go in with me.”
“Too late now.”
Matt laughed, and the sound echoed eerily in the dark, wet confines of the cave. The lantern provided minimal light. Their kerosene supply was low already—Will had taken half of what was left in the store—and to conserve, Matt had adjusted the flame as low as it would go without going out all together.
“So, ya reckon we’ll be rich men before the week’s out?”
Will made a derisive sound in the back of his throat. “Don’t count on it.”
“What is it with you and money?”
He didn’t answer.
“I known ya a long time, partner, and in all those years not once did ya want to make anything more a yourself than a sorry-assed fur trapper livin’ from hand to mouth and movin’ from place to place.”
“That’s what you do, isn’t it?”
“For me it’s all right. But for you…seems a waste to me, is all, seein’ as how smart ya are.”
He laughed at that. “I’m not so smart as you think.” If he was, he wouldn’t be here right now, cold and wet and tired, poking around in piles of rock. “And another thing…just because a man chooses to make his life on the frontier doesn’t mean he hasn’t made anything of himself.”
“Well, ya know what I mean.”
He knew, all right. A man’s success was measured by the size of his bankroll, no matter what contemptible things he’d done to grow it. Or here in California, by the weight of his gold pouch.
“I just need enough to get out of here,” Will said, and swiveled around onto his knees.
“Yep. Me, too.”
He shot his friend a questioning look. “Where are you going? No farther than a day’s ride from a certain Chinese camp, I’ll bet.”
“You’d lose that wager, partner. I’m leavin’ and takin’ her with me.”
“Mei Li?”
“Who else? We’re gettin’ married.”
“What? Are you out of your mind?”
“Might be.” Matt pulled the lamp closer and drew with his finger in the coarse sand lining the rock floor of the cave. “Cape Mendocino, the Injuns call it. It’s on the coast. We’re goin’ there, me and Mei Li, as soon as you and me strike it rich.”
“But—”
“I know what you’re gonna say, so just save it. There’s Russians there—a whole settlement full of ’em. Imagine that. And Mexicans and Injuns. Chinese, too. All kinds o’ folks. That’s why we’re goin’ there.”
He understood now. “No one will think anything of a white man married to a Chinese girl.”
“Told ya you was smart.”
Will laughed. “I was right. You are out of your mind.”
“Maybe so, but I’m a happy man, Will. A happy man.” Matt shot him a loaded look. “Which is more than I can say for some.”
“Meaning?”
“You know what I mean. What the heck are ya gonna do with her? Put her on a clipper outta Frisco and wave goodbye? Just like that?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Ya know what? I was wrong. You’re dumb as this here rock.” Matt chucked a piece of rubble toward the pinpoint of bleak light marking the cave’s entrance twenty feet away from where they hunkered on the wet rock floor.
Will didn’t bother arguing the point.
“Don’t tell me ya don’t want her. I’ve seen how ya look at her when ya think no one’s lookin’.”
He did want her. That was the problem.
Ignoring Matt’s comment, he grabbed his pickax and sledgehammer and crawled toward the back of the cave where he’d been working. They’d been digging around in here all day, and had next to nothing to show for it. A few tiny nuggets culled from a quartz vein. That was it.
What he needed to do was concentrate. Something he hadn’t been able to accomplish for more than five minutes straight since he’d left Tinderbox the morning before.
Since he’d left her.
Two exhausting days and a cold, hard night in between thinking about Kate hadn’t done him any good. It had cleared his head about one thing, though. He was dead wrong about her knowing his father.
The n
otion had gripped him that afternoon when she’d questioned him on the hillside, and had roiled inside him unchecked, fueled by ugly memories of his first marriage.
He shook his head and swung the sledgehammer. The reverberation as it connected with solid rock burned all the way up his arms. “You’re an idiot, Crockett.”
“Hmm? What’s that?” The sound of Matt digging six feet away from him abruptly stopped.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
Matt pulled the lantern closer so he could see Will’s face. “Thinkin’ ya shouldn’t a left her?”
“She’ll be all right. Cheng and his boys will keep an eye on her. Mustart and Vickery, too.”
“A lawyer, a blacksmith and a bunch a Chinese railroad workers. Let’s hope Landerfelt don’t get any more bright ideas while you’re gone.”
The truth of it was he was worried about her, but less so than he might have been a week ago. She had grit, and she was smart. And he knew at the first sign of trouble Cheng would send one of his boys to fetch him back to town.
Still, he cursed himself for being so damned hotheaded. It wasn’t the first time he’d gone off half-cocked without thinking things through.
He told himself it was the shock of his father’s arrival in California followed by Kate’s probing questions that had driven him to the edge. But he knew in his gut there was more to it than that.
He was beginning to care about her. And a whole hell of a lot more than a man who was simply trying to help out a dead man’s daughter should care. That was the problem. And had been since the day he first saw her in Dennington’s Dry Goods, holding her own against the biggest swindler in town.
Two days he’d been gone from her. Two short days, and he missed her more than he’d ever missed any woman. Had Matt not been watching him like a hawk, Will knew he’d slip the painted miniature out of his pocket to have one more look at her.
Not that he needed a picture to remind him how blue her eyes were, how those unruly wisps of auburn hair curled on the nape of her neck. A neck he’d tasted. Skin so heated and soft he hadn’t been able to resist running his tongue along her throat as he’d fondled her breasts and ground his hips into hers.
“So, we’re takin’ a break, then?”
Gold Rush Bride Page 13
