A Fortune for the Outlaw's Daughter

by Lauri Robinson

  He pulled his gaze off her to resume hanging the door on the front of the outhouse with leather hinges, but her swift movements had his gaze snapping right back. She’d scooped up a shovelful of riverbed and was hurrying to the shoreline, where her pan and Homer waited.

  She filled the pan with water and then dropped in handfuls off the shovel to swirl about, and then repeated the actions several times. When she lifted her head and looked around as if to see if anyone was watching, he averted his gaze and took off his hat to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

  Miners now lined the banks, mostly on the other side, which didn’t make a lot of sense. The water was deeper and faster moving on that side, leaving little or no sandbars for the gold to collect upon. Still, a group—the Fenstermacher brothers, Abe, Albert and Tim—had made camp directly across the river from them. Those men were busy panning, mostly the little creek that trickled into the river next to where they’d set up their tent.

  Maddie had pointed that out to him, how they’d set up a tent and started mining immediately. He’d chosen to ignore her statements rather than argue with her. She’d see sooner or later, when the first rainstorm hit and the Fenstermachers’ camp floated downriver.

  Built high above the water, on a nice little knoll complete with grass for the mules and chickens, their camp would remain dry. She’d appreciate his hard work then.

  Flagging a hand at the squawking Homer, she stood, and though she appeared to be walking normally, Cole caught the glimmer in her eyes. He set down his hammer and moved toward her, his heart thudding, which happened every time he was close to her now.

  Homer was the first to speak. In a raspy bird whisper, he said, “Gold.”

  “Hush, now,” she said to the bird before telling him, “Come into the tent.”

  Cole followed, grinning to himself. He hoped she had found a nugget. She’d been working hard enough.

  At the framed-in wood door, she said to Homer, “You go on home now.”

  The bird squawked, but ran for a few feet before his wings caught air and he flapped his way downriver.

  “Shut the door,” Maddie whispered, already standing near the table inside the tent.

  Cole did as instructed and moved closer, watching how her hands shook as she lowered the pan onto the tabletop. Holding back the desire to lay a hand on her shoulder, just to steady her nerves, he focused his attention on the pan. Wet, shining black dirt covered the bottom of the pan, and mixed amongst it was gold. Not big flakes or nuggets, but a splattering of fine grains. He dipped a finger in the dirt and examined the gold more closely.

  “It’s gold, Lucky,” she said. “Gold.”

  A hint of the fever filtered Cole’s bloodstream—something he’d contracted back on the Mary Jane, when Whiskey Jack had opened a bag of dust and poured a little out in his palm. He recognized it right away. How his mouth went dry and his heart raced. How he couldn’t pull his eyes off the fine specks.

  “Will you tell me?”

  Cole snapped his head up. Maddie had crossed the room, stood by their bed and was staring at him with woeful eyes.

  “Tell you what?”

  Her arms fell to her sides as if heavy and useless. “What I’ve done to make you so mad at me,” she said. “So angry not even gold excites you. Makes you happy.”

  Cole brushed the dust off his finger back into the pan with his thumb and crossed the room to where she stood. He was happy, happier than he’d been in a long time, but the gold had little to do with it. Letting out a tiny chuckle, he shook his head. “I haven’t been mad at you, Maddie.”

  She frowned, but then grinned. “That’s gold, Lucky. What we came here to find.”

  The shimmer in her eyes sent him right to the end of his rope. “It sure enough is, darling,” he whispered, dipping his head while tilting hers back to line up their lips. The connection was startling. Her lips were softer, sweeter, than his memory could recall, and when her arms wrapped around his torso, he ran his tongue over the entire length of her lips.

  Her sigh mingled with his breath, and he kissed her cheeks, her chin and the corners of her mouth before teasing her lips apart and kissing her more deeply and thoroughly than he’d ever kissed a woman.

  Images of lowering her onto the bed behind them caused him to ease out of the kiss.

  Glassy eyed, she blinked and then grinned. “That was a real kiss, wasn’t it?”

  He took a step back in order to keep her at arm’s length while admitting, “Yes.”

  Her lips twitched as a smile formed and her cheeks turned red. “You’re right. There was a difference.”

  There certainly was, and places inside him were throbbing in response. Although he wanted to kiss her again, he laughed and pulled her into a hug.

  Maddie attempted to draw in a breath of air, but her lungs seemed to be locked tight. The thrill of being in Lucky’s arms was like coming home after trekking through a snowstorm. “I’ve missed you holding me at night,” she whispered.

  “I’ve missed holding you at night.”

  His gaze had gone to the bed, and Maddie knew why. She rested her cheek against his chest. Before leaving her with Smitty, Bass had left her many other places, and more than once that had been with one of the women who’d been smitten by his black hair and blue eyes. Lately she’d been remembering the winter she’d spent with Roseanne and the houseful of women similar to those in the hull of the Mary Jane. Though once repulsed by what had taken place in their bedrooms, experiencing such things with Lucky had taken on an intriguing appeal.

  He leaned back and frowned at her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking about.

  They weren’t married, even though people still thought they were, but those women hadn’t been married, either.

  “Maddie?”

  She didn’t want a man taking what was rightfully hers, telling her what to do, but she didn’t want to be alone, either. Lucky wasn’t like other men, hadn’t been from the very beginning, and there were things she wanted to share with him. Like kissing. That was something she sincerely wanted to do again.

  A thrill shot through her, and Maddie took a chance. Stretching onto her toes, she pressed her lips to his.

  He didn’t move—not even his lips twitched beneath hers—and Maddie’s heart threatened to stop beating right then and there. She wasn’t a quitter, though, not when it was something she wanted, so she reached up, grabbed the sides of his head and pressed her lips harder against his.

  A smile formed on his lips; she felt it, and her heart took to racing. She grinned, too, and then giggled.

  “Aw, darling,” he said as his arms wrapped around her. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Kiss me,” she suggested.

  He lifted her feet off the floor and spun around in a wide circle until they were both laughing. “Like this?” he asked as his lips danced over hers playfully.

  Growing dizzier by the second, even though he’d stopped spinning, Maddie laughed. “I didn’t know there were so many ways to kiss.”

  “Too many to count,” he said, nibbling on her bottom lip.

  It was amazing, and made her want more. She grasped his shoulders, pulling herself onto her toes again, and parted her lips. His parted, too, and she swept her tongue inside his mouth, as he’d done earlier. A quiver raced through her, and she nestled in closer, completely swept away by the game of tag happening between their tongues.

  The game was utterly fascinating, as was the way his hands roamed her back. Every caress, every swirl caused other things to happen inside her. Her nipples tightened at being pressed against his shirtfront, and deep down, in her most secret spot, heat spiraled as if there was a miniature whirlpool inside of her.

  A squawk along with a gruff voice stating, “Don’t mean to interrupt,” brought everything to an abrupt stop.<
br />
  On the outside. Inside Maddie was still as worked up as she’d ever been.

  Lucky’s nose bumped hers as they both glanced toward the doorway. To her own surprise, no hint of embarrassment rose up as Jack, along with Homer, entered the tent. There was no room, Maddie suspected, for such feelings when her entire being was overflowing with joy.

  “The bird told me you found gold,” Jack said.

  “She sure enough did,” Lucky answered, hugging her to his side with one arm. “Come take a look.”

  Arm in arm they walked to the table, and the thrill of the gold specks glistening in the pan was ten times greater this time than when she’d first seen them. Especially when Lucky kissed the top of her head. She glanced up, and the gleam in his eyes was enough to make her joy overflow. Though she covered her mouth with one hand, her happiness let a laugh escape.

  Lucky laughed, too, and hugged her again while Jack whooped.

  “That’s some mighty fine color, there, girl,” Jack said, examining the pan closer. “Mighty fine color.” He turned his wrinkled, smiling face to Lucky. “Looks like we need to get that sluice built right quick-like.”

  “Looks like we do,” Lucky agreed, tugging her closer yet. “Looks like we do.”

  “Well, let’s get at it,” Jack said.

  “Gold,” Homer squawked. “Gold.”

  “Blabbermouth,” Maddie muttered. The men laughed again, but a tainted and dark memory slipped into her thoughts to destroy her bliss. “What if the men across the river see us?”

  Lucky frowned. “The Fenstermacher brothers?”

  She nodded.

  “Of course they’ll see us, girl,” Jack said, chuckling. “Most likely they’ll be green with envy, too.”

  “Exactly,” she said. The Fenstermacher brothers were huge German men who were always yelling at each other. Though they’d been over a few times to talk with Lucky, she’d stayed away from them. “Maybe we could mine at night.”

  Lucky turned her to face him by grasping both of her upper arms. “Maddie, honey, you need to learn to trust people.”

  Trust was not something that came naturally to her. “Why should I trust them?”

  “Because we’re all in this together, girl,” Jack said. “Mining gold. They may be green with envy, but they’ll protect your plot as much as they will their own.”

  That made absolutely no sense and she turned her gaze back to Lucky. “They could steal it, our gold.”

  He shook his head. “No, they won’t. They’ll be happy to know there’s gold in this part of the river. If it’s on our side, chances are it’s on their side, too.”

  Her insides quivered so hard her stomach flipped. “But stealing ours would be easier than mining their own.”

  “Now, listen here,” Jack started. “Miners—”

  “There’s a stack of boards behind the tent,” Lucky told him. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Grumbling, Jack left, taking Homer with him.

  Maddie attempted to take a step back, but Lucky’s hold tightened. He was frowning. Her past hadn’t been all that pleasurable, but it had never hurt quite like it was right now. Perhaps because she and Lucky were so different. His upbringing had been nothing like hers. He hadn’t told her about his family, Jack had, and about the mansion he lived in, how his grandparents had made the entire family wealthy beyond most. In her mind, it all came down to how Lucky didn’t understand people like she did. “Most every man tries to steal something or another.”

  Lucky pulled her toward him gently, as if she might break if he tugged too hard. “No, they don’t, honey,” he said softly. “Besides, I’m here. I won’t let them steal your gold.”

  Maddie wanted to believe him with all her heart, but it was hard. She was conscious, too, of the precarious position she was in. If she and Lucky were truly married, she might feel more secure, but as it was, he could cast her aside on a whim. She’d seen that, too.

  “You trust me, don’t you?”

  Though trust wasn’t something she was overly familiar with, and the little bit she had known was most likely rusty from not being used, she did trust Lucky. Had from the moment he’d raced down the alley and rescued her. “Yes,” she admitted. “But I don’t know that I can trust the Fenstermacher brothers.”

  He grinned, and a moment later his lips met hers, unhurried and tender.

  When the kiss ended, her insides were all warm and swirling again. Even her fears had diminished into little more than a mingling thought in the back of her mind. The fact Lucky could affect her so, just by kissing her, had a blush creeping over her face.

  “We’ll find a safe place to hide your gold. A real safe place, where no one can find it. Will that help?”

  Tongue-tied by her twisted thoughts, she nodded.

  He kissed her again, just on the end of her nose. “All right, then. Let’s go get that sluice box built.”

  They hadn’t been outside more than ten minutes when the Fenstermacher brothers arrived, having rowed across the river in a boat much too tiny to hold all three of them, yet to Maddie’s disappointment, it didn’t sink.

  Lucky was a tall man with broad shoulders, but even he looked small next to the barrel-chested Germans. As the men climbed out of their boat, Maddie sidled up closer to Lucky and tried to keep from glancing at the tent, where she’d left the gold she’d found. Then avoided glances at her shovel, still half full of black sand and lying on the riverbank.

  Smiling as he set down the saw he was using to cut a board in two, Lucky laid a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry, darling. They’re good men.”

  “I’ll form my own opinion,” she stated.

  Lucky grinned and then made introductions. Abe, Albert and Tim. All three had curly blond hair and whiskers that said they hadn’t shaved in years. Albert was the largest, but Tim, a few inches shorter, was the loudest. His booming voice rattled the insides of Maddie’s ears.

  “Gotta forgive my brother, Mrs. DuMont,” Abe, the shorter one, who proclaimed to be the eldest of the brothers, told her in a rather normal tone while shaking her hand. “He lost most of his hearing when he fired off one of Pa’s shotguns years ago and doesn’t realize how loud he is.”

  Maddie nodded, while pulling her hand back. Her heart had fluttered oddly at being called Mrs. DuMont. Others had called her that, but after kissing Lucky, the name seemed to carry more weight.

  “It looked as if the lady found something,” Abe said to Lucky. “We thought we’d come see what it was.”

  Shouting as if they all stood a mile away, Tim declared, “We’re hoping it was a nugget the size of a horseshoe. We ain’t seen nothing on our side yet.”

  “It wasn’t a nugget,” Lucky said, “but some good dust and a few flakes.”

  “Promising stuff if I ever saw it,” Jack added to the conversation.

  The air in Maddie’s lungs was growing stale, and when Homer had to stick in his bird squawk, “Gold,” she huffed out a good amount.

  Lucky hooked her hip with one hand, tugging her closer to his side.

  “I’d say that calls for a celebration,” Albert, the middle brother—in age—said. “I shot us a deer just this morning. I’ll cook up enough for everyone.”

  Maddie glanced up at Lucky, expecting him to decline, yet the glimmer in his eyes said he wasn’t opposed to a celebration.

  Catching her gaze, he said somewhat unenthusiastically, “We need to get a sluice built.”

  “We’ll help,” Abe answered. “The faster you get it built, the faster you can get that gold out. We’ve been wanting to build one ourselves, but haven’t taken the time yet.”

  “You help us build this one, and if it works, we’ll help you build one of your own,” Jack said.

  Frustration was building inside Maddie, more so as the men co
ntinued talking about sluice boxes, and when Lucky agreed, saying it sounded like a good plan to him, she had to pinch her lips together to keep from proclaiming that it did not sound like a good plan. The Fenstermacher brothers rowing back across the river sounded good to her.

  “While you’re building, I’ll be cooking,” Albert said.

  “I’ll row you across the river,” Tim shouted. “And bring back another saw and hammer.”

  “We have plenty of food,” Maddie whispered to Lucky. “Tell them they don’t need to cook for us, and we don’t need their help.”

  “They’re just being neighborly,” Lucky whispered.

  “Well, we don’t need to be neighborly in return,” she insisted.

  “Yes, we do,” he replied.

  “Don’t you worry about cooking today, Mrs. DuMont,” Albert yelled while stepping into the boat. “I’ll do it. Lots of food for everyone.”

  Abe, conversing with Jack a few feet away, turned toward her and Lucky. “Albert had rheumatic fever when he was little and Ma wouldn’t let him out of the house afterward. He grew up cooking right alongside our sisters.”

  “That’s why they brought me to Alaska,” Albert shouted as the boat started across the river. “To cook while they mine gold.”

  Maddie didn’t respond. As much as she didn’t want company, she would admit—to herself—she wasn’t overly fond of cooking, or very good at. Truth was, she really didn’t know what to do with the things Lucky had insisted they pack in their bags before leaving Dabbler, or with what he’d hauled back from Bittersweet.

  She’d never had much practice using store-bought things. Smitty had taught her how to snare rabbits and shoot grouse to roast over a fire. She’d shot a few deer, too, in the fall, and had made jerky to last them through the winter. Boiling that into a stew was simple enough. Beans, too, she knew how to boil, and she doubted there was a person alive who couldn’t fry a fish.

  She and Smitty had normally just eaten one meal a day, Lucky, though, even while on the trail had insisted on eating three times a day.