Spent and exhausted, Maddie sank onto his chest and stayed there, still connected to Lucky in the most intimate way until sleep overtook her.
She found herself alone and chilled a few hours later. Instantly afraid, she sat up, but then sighed when she noticed him easing off the edge of the bed.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Lucky whispered. “The fire went out.”
“We don’t need it.” She wrapped her arms around him. His body was so warm, so perfect. Sighing, she rested a cheek against his back. “We won’t freeze to death before morning.”
He twisted, wrapping his arms around her and tucking his legs back under the covers. “I suspect we won’t.”
“No,” she agreed, “we won’t.”
Hours later, euphoric from spending a night in paradise, Maddie stretched her arms over her head as she watched Lucky build a fire. Her contented sigh had him looking toward the bed and smiling, causing her heart to swell. He was so handsome, especially when he smiled.
“Gonna stay in bed all day?” he asked.
“No,” she answered. “Just until it warms up a bit.”
His laughter had her cheeks growing flush. For the one who claimed they didn’t need the stove, she certainly relished the heat it provided and he knew it.
Fully dressed, he lifted his coat off the back of the chair. “It’ll be warm in a few minutes. I’ll go gather eggs for breakfast.”
Biting back a grin, Maddie nodded. When the door closed, she threw back the covers and dressed quickly, near the stove that was already giving off heat. She moved to the table then and, staring at the gold, drew in a long breath.
This was the mother lode. She just had to figure out a way to tell Lucky it might take them all winter to mine all of their outhouse gold.
Chapter Eleven
Cole questioned his sanity. Six weeks, at most, was all the time they had before winter set in. They had to be on a boat then, or soon after, while the waterways were still open. Turning about, he settled his gaze on Maddie. Face flushed and blue eyes full of pleading, she’d never looked more woeful or charming.
He had enough money to help Gran. More than enough. They’d already mined more gold than DuMont Shipping had made in several years. Maddie wanted to hire a tribe of men to mine all of the gold beneath the outhouse, and he’d do it. Hire the men. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for her, and he might as well accept that.
Aw, hell. Life would be a whole lot easier right now if she’d stuck to mining gold and left his heart alone. But she hadn’t. She might as well put it in one of her little bags, for it no longer belonged to him. However, Cole wasn’t ready to turn everything over to her. Not all of him. He was not going to spend the winter here.
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said after a bit more thoughtful consideration.
Her brows furrowed and she tugged the opening of her coat tighter across her chest. “What kind of deal?”
The wind was bitter today. Whitecaps rolled down the river. Cole turned to the hill where their camp sat. Leave it to Maddie to find gold beneath an outhouse. The one place no one would attempt to look. His grandparents had built a dynasty by taking advantage of the opportunities set before them. The pay dirt beneath that outhouse was an opportunity. One he couldn’t ignore. “Thirty days,” he said with finality.
“What happens in thirty days?”
He turned back to where she stood next to the tub. He’d just dropped in the blanket and furs out of the sluice box so they could rinse out the gold. All day yesterday and again this morning she’d talked nonstop about hiring men to work their claim. Jack had put the notion in her head. She told him all about that, too. It would work. With the right amount of good workers, decent weather and a bit more equipment, they could have a fortune that would last a lifetime and still head south.
“I’ll hire the men needed to mine the gold,” he said, “but only if you agree to leave with me in thirty days.”
The excitement that momentarily flashed on her face turned to bewilderment. “What if we still have gold to mine?”
“It doesn’t matter. We still leave. You and me.”
“And go where?”
“South,” he answered. “Leave Alaska. Take a boat from Bittersweet to the coast.” That route was longer than going to Dabbler to catch a ship, but taking the overland trail so late in the year could be a death trap.
“Forever?”
Biting the inside of his cheek at how thunderstruck she sounded, he nodded. “Yes, forever.”
Cole held his breath as her blue eyes bounced between him and the cleanout barrel, and willed his tongue to stay put. He’d made his ultimatum. If she chose the gold, so be it. At least he’d know. He’d know, too, what it had been like. Not being lucky for the first time in his life.
She folded her arms and tilted her head slightly to the left, looking at him thoughtfully. “I could stay here while you go south, and—”
“Yes, you could,” he interrupted. There were several things he could point out, yet he simply stated, “But that’s not the deal.” His insides churned. He was making her give up her dream, just like his mother and Rachel had tried to make him, but this was for her own safety. That was different.
She sighed heavily and her gaze went back to the barrel. When she lifted her chin again, a grin had formed. “All right.”
His apprehension collapsed, yet he asked, “All right? Thirty days?”
She nodded. “It doesn’t give us much time, but thirty days it is. Then I’ll leave with you.”
Gold had little to do with the thrill that shot through him, and it ignited a burst of energy. Reaching forward, he grasped her waist with both hands, then lifted her into the air and spun around. Laughing. She laughed, too, and after a good, long and thorough kiss, he set her on the ground.
“You’ll have all the gold your little heart desires, Maddie, girl,” he said. “Enough to buy that soft bed, build that big house and hire those servants. I promise.”
The smile slipped off her lips slowly as a dark and unhappy thought entered her mind. Her grin reappeared a moment later, as if she’d realized it had disappeared and caught it, but it wasn’t as bright as before. “Well,” she said, taking her hands off his shoulders and swiping them across her thighs, “if we only have thirty days, we best get started.”
“We’ll start by hiring the Fenstermacher brothers,” he said.
“Yes,” she answered, kneeling down next to the barrel, “and Sylvester Whitehouse, and Jack of course. It was his idea.”
“Remind me to thank him,” Cole said drily.
She glanced up and then grinned as she started swishing the blanket around in the tub. “Frank Harper seems like a nice man. His claim is next to Sylvester’s, and Roman Carmichael hasn’t found anything on his claim. He’d probably appreciate a job.”
Cole swallowed a hint of uncalled-for bitterness. He’d been the one to encourage her to be neighborly, but Roman Carmichael wanted Maddie for himself in the worst way. “We’ll need more equipment, too. Bigger equipment,” he said, taking the subject off men to hire.
“It’ll take a lot of money, won’t it?”
“Don’t worry,” he answered. “We can afford it.”
“But will it be a good investment?” she asked.
“We’ll know soon enough.” He nudged her aside. “Let’s get this cleanout done so I can start hiring men.”
Over the next few days, men appeared out of thin air. That was what it seemed like to Maddie, and though she tried to be neighborly—as Lucky called it—she found it hard. Not all, but some of the new men reminded her of those that had ridden with her father, and she took to tucking her gun in her pocket again. After months of it sitting on a shelf, it felt heavy and foreign. She’d use it, though, if needed, as she had in the past.
The gun, though, didn’t help with the other things happening. While some men continued to use the small sluice boxes, others were building a much larger and far more elaborate one. The pounding and sawing never stopped, nor did the mining. Torches were lit and men worked around the clock.
Crews took turns sleeping and working, which meant the hustle and bustle never slowed. Albert was hired to cook meals for everyone and found two men to assist him, including one who stayed up all night, feeding those working.
The outhouse had been moved and though their main tent remained in the same spot, nothing resembled their old camp. Lucky said it was all necessary to harvest the gold. Though none of it was how Maddie had envisioned things.
Her fingertips were sure to be wrinkled permanently from having her hands in the cold water so much, and awaking this morning to three tubs awaiting her was troublesome rather than exciting. She couldn’t grow lax on her duties, and wouldn’t, but frustration gnawed at her, and she knew why.
She and Lucky no longer had any alone time. Not even at night. When he finally entered the tent it was to fall on the bed exhausted. It seemed the more men he hired, the more work he had to do. That was true of the gold, too—the more they found, the more work it made. The gold dust and nuggets could no longer be safely hidden beneath the outhouse floorboards. Instead, it had to be transported to Bittersweet to be refined into bullion for shipping.
Maddie accepted that, too, and how Lucky had to accompany the gold, but he’d barely been in bed a few hours. “If you wait until this afternoon, I’ll have the gold collected that dried last night. You can take it with you, too.”
Lucky grinned from where he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling on his boots. “Today’s load can wait until the next trip.” He stood and crossed the room. Stopping in front of her, he ran his hands up and down her sides.
Excitement filled her heart like it hadn’t in days. Lately, they’d barely seen each other and had rarely been alone. Lucky hadn’t touched her, either, not like he was right now, and she’d missed it. Missed him. Silly, considering they were still living together, but it was true.
“Having second thoughts?” he asked.
“About what?”
He shrugged. “Hiring all these men, making our operation so big.”
Knowing he needed the gold, she answered, “No, are you?”
“Not as long as you keep your promise,” he said against her lips.
“That we leave in thirty days,” she said softly, leaning closer against him.
“It’s less than that now,” he whispered.
The kiss, their coming together had scarcely started when it was brought to an abrupt stop. Maddie had chosen to disregard the hard knock, and to her delight so had Lucky, but the opening of the door couldn’t be ignored.
One of the new men—one who left her feeling uneasy every time he looked her way—entered. “Sorry, Cole. Ma’am,” the man said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, but the boat’s ready to be loaded.”
Maddie removed her hands from Lucky’s shoulders and turned to the table that still held their breakfast plates.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Lucky answered.
“You haven’t eaten breakfast yet,” Maddie said. When Lucky’s hand slipped from her waist, she pointed out, “You didn’t have supper last night, either. You can’t keep going without eating.”
“I’ll start carrying out the gold while you eat,” the other man said.
A shiver of pure fear crawled up Maddie’s spine at the thought of that man being in her tent. Maybe it was because of the gun in her pocket, but a deep foreboding had settled in her stomach. Maddie lifted her gaze, wondering if Lucky felt it, too.
He didn’t, not according to the twinkle in his eye and the smile on his lips. Without taking his eyes off her, he said, “I’ll be out in a minute.”
“You want—”
“I want you to leave,” Lucky interrupted the man. “Now.”
The door slammed shut. Maddie didn’t have a chance for relief to settle in before Lucky said, “What are you so afraid of?” He caught her beneath the chin. “I’ve seen you mad and sad, and happy and excited, but I’ve never, not even when you fell over the side of the mountain, seen fear in your eyes, not like what I saw a moment ago.”
Maddie attempted to draw in a breath of air, but it lodged in her throat.
“Did that man do something to you? Say something when I wasn’t here?”
She shook her head.
“Then, what is it?”
Telling him she didn’t know what it was would be useless, other than it would give him one more thing to worry about, and that she didn’t want. “It’s nothing,” Maddie said. “There have been so many changes, so much to do.” Stretching onto her toes, she kissed his cheek. “And worrying about you not eating isn’t helping matters.”
He grasped her shoulders and tugged her close to fully kiss her, and no one knocked this time to interrupt them. Lucky ate his breakfast then, and afterward, Abe and Tim helped him haul the gold out to the boat.
The Fenstermacher brothers had been thrilled to join ranks in mining the gold and were as committed to the adventure as she and Lucky. More so, possibly. So was Jack, and Homer, well, the bird was just naturally happy. He squawked her name twice before landing on the ground next to her feet.
Lucky laughed and kissed her cheek. “We’ll be home before dark.”
Though she had the urge to hug him hard, she realized that was just her own jitters, so she nodded instead. “Be careful.”
“We will,” Lucky assured her. He stepped into the boat and nodded for Tim to shove them off the shore.
Maddie watched until they floated around the bend in the river, and let out a long sigh before turning around. “Come on, Homer, we’ve got work to do.”
The bird flapped his wings and strutted along beside her. Tim had waited, too, and in his booming voice, declared, “Sunny day. We’ll get a lot of work done today.”
She offered a false smile and nodded, knowing he was just trying to lighten her mood. Nothing could really do that, though, not with how deep it became when she caught the man who’d knocked on their door earlier glaring her way.
“Don’t worry about him,” Tim said in what he must have thought was a whisper. “Cole told me to keep an eye on him. And I will.”
* * *
Lucky was home before dark. Maddie met him at the water’s edge and told him of the large cleanouts the day had provided. “I’ll need a bigger magnet,” she said as he hugged her.
Her whisper made him laugh, and he appreciated that. Not caring that all the miners could see them, Cole kissed her thoroughly. It had only been a few nights since he’d held her, loved her, but it felt like years. He’d known it would be like this. That the camp would be overrun with others and time alone would be nonexistent, but he hadn’t expected it to be this agonizing. The fear he’d seen in her eyes this morning still gouged at him, too. No matter what she said, she was afraid of something.
There was no fear in her eyes when they separated—just the opposite, in fact. A part of him wished they hadn’t found an ounce of gold. Then the camp would be empty except the two of them. As it was, not even their tent held enough privacy for what he wanted.
Disappointment flowed all the way to his toes. Cole kissed her forehead and then turned her toward the tent. “Let’s go eat supper.”
“Tim shot a moose behind their old camp today,” she said. “It took most of the day to haul it all over here.”
A shiver rippled up his spine. He’d told Tim to stay at her side all day, and he damn well expected the man to do just that. “What was he doing across the river?”
“We went over there to dig up the last of Albert’s garden,” she said. “I was done with the cleanouts and asked Al
bert if there was anything I could help him do. When he suggested the garden, Tim insisted on going along with me.”
Cole shook off the last of his frustration. That of thinking Tim hadn’t followed orders, at least. Another thought occurred to him then. “A moose?”
She nodded. “It was huge.”
“They are,” he said. If moose were moving already, it meant winter was on its way, too. Possibly sooner rather than later. Men had gathered around the campfire, those who would soon take over the night shift, and Cole’s thoughts once again shifted.
For the most part, he was satisfied with the men he’d hired to help them. The better part of them he’d already considered friends or acquaintances. In all, there were only two he hadn’t met before. They’d approached the camp two days ago, saying they’d heard he was looking for men. Upon questioning them more scrupulously, he’d learned Truman had sent them up this way when they’d arrived in Bittersweet, after the creek they’d set claims on had proved void of any color. He confirmed the shopkeeper had given Elwood Reins and Butch Grimes directions to the mine while in town today.
The day’s cleanout dominated the conversation while they ate. Cole kept a smile on his face and portrayed all the enthusiasm a mine owner should, even though he didn’t feel it in his heart. He’d never been in such a place before. Normally when an investment paid off he was overly zealous and often started contemplating how he could repeat the action. This time, he couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Night had completely fallen by the time the meal ended. The second crew had lit torches before taking over from the day crew, and all of them had moseyed over and eaten their fill of moose meat. Anticipation was high. The men were being paid percentages of each cleanout. Cole knew that would give them more of an incentive to mine the maximum amount than a daily wage would. It also meant he and Maddie wouldn’t make as much, but he figured they’d already mined enough to be very rich when they sailed south.
That, too, was on his mind. Not going south, but what would happen once they got to Seattle. They’d have to wait for Trig’s arrival—the port city was a frequent stop for the Mary Jane—and that was where his mind kept venturing. To what would happen after Trig arrived. Maddie would want to start building her big house, and Cole still couldn’t accept living in one place for the rest of his life.
A Fortune for the Outlaw's Daughter Page 16
