“There’s stew in that pot.” Maddie pointed to the kettle on top of the stove. “Would you like some?”
Jack hesitated, which had her adding, “Albert brought it over earlier.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Jack said.
Maddie gathered a plate and two cups. Coffee she had learned how to make, and had grown to like it. The two of them sat at the table, and while Jack ate, Maddie fed Homer a few raisins, which were now quite hard, but the bird didn’t seem to mind. She also forced herself not to ask if Jack had seen Lucky.
“I told Cole that Homer and I would come and check on you this evening,” Jack said.
She lifted her gaze.
“When he borrowed the boat earlier,” Jack explained. He frowned, though, as if he expected her to already know that. “I reckon he’ll stay in Bittersweet until the rain lets up.”
Nodding, she gave Homer another raisin.
“I sure was taken aback when he told me about the hurricane today.”
Surprised, and confused, she frowned. “What hurricane?”
“The one that wiped out DuMont Shipping last year. Belmont started the company, Cole’s grandpappy, but his grandmother, Annabelle, she’s the one who built it. After Belmont died, Cole’s father and Trig took over hauling in stores for Annabelle to sell. She did, too, sell things. Made a fortune doing it, but I guess it’s all gone now.”
Maddie bit her lips together. Lucky hadn’t mentioned any of that.
Jack scraped the bottom of his plate with his spoon, gathering the last bits of stew. “Cole’s other uncles are helping her, but they lost a lot, too. One grows cotton, the other sugar beets, so I guess that leaves it up to Cole and Trig.”
“Leaves what?” she asked before remembering she was pretending to already know all this.
“Getting enough gold to rebuild the docks and warehouses.” Jack shrugged. “Trig’s ships run under DuMont Shipping. Half the South got their supplies from those shipyards. It’s gonna take a lot of gold.”
“I imagine so,” she murmured, understanding much more than before.
His chair scraped against the floor as he stood and walked to the stove to refill his coffee cup. Jack held the pot toward her, but she shook her head. He set it down again. “That’s how it is,” he said. “Once a man builds a house, he has to stay there, take care of that house. Even when it all gets blown away.” Sitting down at the table again, he took a swig from his cup. “That was never the life for me. Houses are for men who want to stay in one spot. That’s not miners, or sailors.”
The tiniest of shivers tickled Maddie’s spine.
“Cole sure was lucky to find a wife similar to his grandma. She never tried to make Belmont stay put, and she gladly handed over money to those boys of hers to build their businesses,” Jack said. “Seems only right they all help her out now.” He sighed heavily then, and set his cup down with a thud. “I didn’t know any of that when I invited Cole up here to go mining, but now that I do know, I’ll be heading out with him, taking all the gold I can down to Annabelle to rebuild. She deserves it.”
With so many things twirling inside her head, Maddie wasn’t sure what to focus on. What to think. Other than what made her stomach turn. Directing her attention to Jack, she asked, “Heading out with him?”
“Yeah, I hope we hit Dabbler while ships are still sailing in and out.”
Too frozen to do much, Maddie nodded.
“If only this rain would stop so I could investigate my one last hunch.”
Not overly interested due to her concentration being on other things, she asked, “Oh, what’s that?”
“I didn’t tell Cole about it today, I wanted to wait until I’d panned a few more specimens, but since it’s still raining, and I just dried out—” he gestured across the room “—and since Homer’s set in a good roost on your bed post, I’ll tell you. Considering we both want to help him.”
Drawing her gaze off the big red bird perched on the log making up the headboard of her bed with his head tucked beneath one wing, Maddie turned back to Jack. All this time she’d thought about Lucky helping her, not the other way around. Yet that appealed to her. “What is it? Your hunch?”
Jack shoved aside his plate to use a finger to draw on the table as he started, “The river runs like this, with all these little tributaries coming into it.”
She nodded.
“There used to be other tributaries, too, ones that were covered up by landslides over the years.” He made two imaginary x’s on the table. “I figure the hills behind your place and mine, well, that’s where a couple of those creeks used to be, and I believe those were the ones that carried the gold into the river. If a man dug deep enough, he’d find those old creek beds and the gold lining them. Real pay dirt. More than enough to help Annabelle.”
Maddie was intrigued. One of the books she’d read back on the Mary Jane suggested the most gold would be found underground, but she also knew, just as Jack said, it would take money to get it out, and time. Not even two people digging all day and night would be able to sluice all the dirt and process it in one season.
“If it panned out, I’d have to hire men to help dig.” Jack sighed then. “But it’s getting late in the year.”
Growing excited, Maddie insisted, “Not too late. How many men do you think it would take?”
“Well.” Jack drew the word out as he scratched his chin. “Let’s see...”
The two of them talked for a long time, and when Jack finally took his leave, the rain had stopped. He’d offered to stay, but she assured him that she’d be fine. The brothers were just a shout away.
Maddie prepared for bed and banked up the fire with new dreams dancing in her head. Which died quickly when she climbed into bed. Lucky had never been gone all night before. A fleeting thought of Mad Dog formed, but she ignored it. She wasn’t fearful, just lonely, and that was worse.
At some point during the long and cold night, her mood turned dark and brooding as she speculated the reasons that Lucky had gone to town. In the past, he’d always made a list first, and asked if she needed anything. For whatever reason, probably because she missed his warmth in the bed beside her, she took to wondering about the women who had traveled on the Mary Jane. Similar ones lived in Bittersweet, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucky had visited any of them.
* * *
The bright sunshine when she stepped out of the tent the next morning did little to brighten her mood. The rain, having fallen for days, had washed deep grooves into the hill the tent sat upon and had completely dissolved the neat set of steps Lucky had shoveled into the dirt for her to step upon while trekking to and from the river.
A glance across the river brought about a wave from Albert, Abe and Tim—all standing knee-deep in mud. “Good morning!”
She waved in reply and went about feeding the chickens and looking for any other damage. A large puddle had pooled on one side of the outhouse. The other side, though, still held the large pile of dirt from when Lucky had dug the necessary hole.
A sigh left her chest. As outhouses went, this one was rather charming. He’d built it large enough to also accommodate a washstand, where he shaved every morning. The bench itself, which held the required round hole cut out of the wood, was along the back wall. Lucky had even made a cover to put over the opening when not in use.
He’d also pulled up the first floorboard just inside the door for her to stash their gold beneath, claiming no one would look for it there.
No one might look for it, but the rain might have dislodged it. Lucky needed gold. Every last ounce. With mud clinging to her boots and more building up with each step she took, Maddie reached the outhouse. There was an opening cut high in one wall, so the space wasn’t completely dark when she shut the door behind her, yet she lit the lamp hanging on the wall, knowing
she’d need it to thoroughly inspect the area beneath the floor.
She lifted the board and leaned it against the bench before unhooking the lantern and holding it over the opening. Some of the loose dirt from the pile had washed under the foundation and she bent down, scooping it aside to count the bags.
All ten little canvas sacks she’d sewn to hold their gold were still there. Thankful, she stood and set the lamp on the washstand to wipe the mud off her hand with the other one. That was when her heart shot into her throat.
* * *
Spending the night in town hadn’t helped Cole one bit. If anything, he was more worried that Maddie might follow through with her threat. Bittersweet was a rough town, full of saloons and cutthroats. No place for a woman to spend the winter. Neither was their camp. Or one she might attempt to build farther upriver. He was more convinced of that after talking with Truman. The shop owner said last year the snow was so deep no one had traversed in or out of town for three months.
Provisions had run low, and some folks had taken to eating their mules. Cole’s travels had taken him many places, but he hadn’t encountered anything like that and didn’t want to.
All in all, he was thinking harder about leaving, heading south. He’d have to convince Maddie of it, and didn’t know how he might manage that. Competing for a woman’s favors had never been something he’d considered before, but he had to conclude, fighting another man would be a hell of a lot easier than fighting gold. Especially where Maddie was concerned.
There was another thought he hated—that of failing his family. Staying meant gold. Leaving meant Maddie would be safe. He still had enough money to travel to Seattle and wait until Trig arrived—if his uncle didn’t take too long.
It was early in the day when he moored the boat at Jack’s place. He’d only gone to town because of what he’d said to Maddie, and he hadn’t purchased anything. Therefore, after conversing with Jack long enough to be courteous, Cole headed upriver. The other man said she’d been fine last night, but Cole wanted to know how she was this morning. Last night had been the loneliest of his life.
Rounding the last bend in the river before their camp, he saw Maddie working the sluice box, and his heart hit the bottom of his boots. As badly as he needed gold, he knew if she’d found another small vein, convincing her to leave would be next to impossible.
The flapping of wings overhead and Homer squawking, “Lucky, Lucky,” caused Maddie to look up. After slowing the stream of water flowing into her box with a flat stone, she stood and, using her arms for balance, walked along the large boulders separating the Long Tom from the river’s edge. Her black hair, which she usually tied back or tucked inside a hat, flowed down her back, twisting and curling in the wind that was also whipping her skirt around her ankles. Cole, watching, felt a hitch happen inside him. He hadn’t forgotten how beautiful she was, would never be able to. It was the other thing he noticed.
She was glowing.
“You’re just in time,” she said as he walked closer.
It was there, all right. Her inner excitement. The shine in her eyes and the smile on her face proved it. She’d found gold again. And that had a chilling effect on his heart—which was still pumping blood from his feet.
“Oh?” he said.
She nodded.
“For what?”
“The first cleanout of the day.”
His feet came to a halt, or maybe his heart did. Either way, Cole froze where he stood.
She moved closer, still smiling, eyes still twinkling. “I found it, Lucky. We found it. The bonanza.”
“The bonanza?”
Nodding, she kept walking, coming closer with each step. “The mother lode.”
Cole took a breath to prepare himself, but it wasn’t enough, not when she leaped and landed in his arms. He stumbled backward, but managed to keep them both from falling.
“More gold than you can imagine, Lucky,” she said, hugging him with both arms around his neck. “Pounds, not ounces.”
If only he could contain the exhilaration that shot through his body like a bolt of lightning. Or if that thrill was because of gold instead of holding her. It wasn’t. And he couldn’t. So he kissed her, long and deep.
Her response was pure heaven, and he kissed her again and again, until she forced him to stop by pushing on his shoulders. With his hands still holding her hips, keeping her close, he asked, “Your honey hole again?”
She shook her head. “The outhouse.”
Cole smoothed down her windblown hair, and then, stunned, or confused, held both of her cheeks in his palms. “The outhouse?”
After a swift, sweet kiss, she answered, “Yes, the outhouse. Let me show you.”
She led him up the hill to where she’d dug deep into the dirt that he’d already piled up while digging for the outhouse.
Cole’s eyes locked on the dirt while his insides took to quivering. It was gold, all right. More than he could have imagined, and from the looks of it, more than enough to rebuild DuMont Shipping. Scooping up a handful, he let the dirt run through his fingers. How had he missed this?
A bolt of excitement shot through him. He leaped to his feet and grabbed Maddie. “You did it, darling. You did it.”
She hugged him tight. “No, Lucky, we did it. We did it.”
By the end of the day, they’d processed more than all of their other cleanouts put together. Maddie wanted to dance and shout for joy, but she didn’t. There wasn’t time for that. Lucky needed gold, and she was going to make sure he got it. Dumping the last pan of dried gold into a bowl, since she didn’t have any more bags, she set the pan on the table and looked up to where Lucky stood next to her.
His gaze was on their gold. “I can hardly believe it.”
A tiny giggle escaped; she just couldn’t help it. Even though she’d told him several times how the find had come to be, she said, “I couldn’t believe it when I looked at my hand. It was covered in gold. Covered.”
He picked up a fairly good-size nugget—one of many. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it while digging.”
“Your mind was on other things, I suspect,” she said, not wanting him to feel bad. “You were quite determined to get the camp set up before we started mining.”
He set the nugget down and turned, taking her by the shoulders. Her heart skipped excitedly. It had only been one night, but she’d missed him terribly, and wanted to make up for it.
“My mind wasn’t necessarily on setting up the camp,” he said, kissing her forehead. “It was on trying to become so exhausted I’d be too tired to think about holding you.” His lips touched the tip of her nose. “Kissing you.”
“Are you too tired right now?” she asked hopefully.
“No,” he answered.
Feeling a need to clear the air between them, she said, “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday.”
“I’m sorry, too,” he said.
“I like the stove,” she said. “And the outhouse.”
He laughed. “I suspect you do, darling. Especially now.”
She giggled. “I liked it before I discovered the gold.” Running a fingertip along the line of his jaw, she then admitted, “I do like eggs, too. Though I must admit, chickens stink.”
“I’ll agree with that.”
She pressed a finger against his lips. “I like wood floors, too, and our bed.”
He grinned. She wanted to ask why he hadn’t told her about the hurricane, why he’d needed gold so bad, but in truth, it didn’t matter. She knew now, and she was going to make sure he had the funds to help his grandmother.
Maddie started to unbutton his shirt. Even with all the gold, all the while they’d been working, one thing had been on her mind. Her unabashed actions brought a smile to Lucky’s face.
“I missed you,”
he said.
“I missed you, too,” she answered.
After unfastening his last shirt button, she led him to the bed and there, she refused to let him take control. Not this time. He was masterful, though, pushing her hands aside at times to undress her as swiftly as she undressed him. When they were both stripped down to nothing but bare skin glistening in the moonlight, Maddie gave him a hardy shove, and laughed as he landed on the bed. He pulled her down on top of him, and enticed by the position, she stayed atop him as he scooted toward the foot of the bed, drawing his legs up from hanging over the edge.
She slid down then, until sitting on his knees, and stirred by all the times he’d pleasured her so, she knelt down and took him in her mouth. His swift intake of breath and low growl was all the encouragement she needed to continue. Knowing she was providing him the gratification he always gave her increased her pleasure.
Not until Lucky grabbed her by the arms and pulled her upward did she release him. Then she straddled his thighs, positioning herself above him as he had her many times.
Their coming together was exquisite, and Maddie arched her back, lowering onto him until their merging could go no farther. She pulled up then, drawing herself over him slowly and tightening her thighs at the perfection of him gliding inside her.
He growled her name, and she giggled, delighted beyond belief. When he reached up, played with both of her hard nipples, it was her turn to groan at the sweet glory his touch created.
Maddie, in the midst of transformation, overwhelmed by the thrill of being transported to another time and place through their union, continued to be the one to lead the way, rising and lowering herself onto Lucky. As her inner journey climbed upward, grew more intense, she escalated her speed, bringing Lucky with her, and when her destination grew near, she held her breath and pressed deeply against him, locking them tightly together.
Lucky grasped her hips, but fully engrossed in her fiercely liberating moment, Maddie refused to allow their bodies to separate, and experienced a completely new sense of fulfillment when his muscles went hard and he bucked beneath her, giving in to his own release while they were still one.
A Fortune for the Outlaw's Daughter Page 15
