At the Rainbow's End

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  Placing cups of steaming coffee on the table, she put a slab of ice she had cut from the wall into a pot onto the stove. They would need more water for breakfast. She hoped this would melt and stay liquid all night on the stove. She could not remember any night, even in the coldest weeks of January, when it had been this frigid.

  The evening passed slowly. Although Kevin had said he would forgive Joel, his attitude made it clear he could not do it easily. Every attempt Samantha made to lighten the conversation sounded hollow and failed dismally.

  When Kevin stood and said he was going to sleep, she cried, “You can’t sleep upstairs tonight! It’s so cold here, I fear freezing. It’ll be worse up there.”

  Joel paused, remembering the task it had been to take the bedstead up into the loft. He glanced at Kevin and saw the same recollection in his eyes. He said, “Perhaps, if we just brought the tick down?”

  “Nonsense,” she argued. “This is your bed down here. You sleep in it tonight. I can spend the night on the benches.”

  “No!” They said at the same time.

  “Nonsense! You two are too tall to sleep on the benches. Push the two of them together, and they’ll be wide enough for me. I can sleep near the stove, too, that way. It’ll work fine.”

  “It’s a waste of time to try to change her mind,” said Joel with a laugh. “I guess we’re sleeping down here, Kev.”

  For the first time all evening, Kevin smiled. “I guess we are. Let me get the dogs in the stable, and we’ll get to sleep.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  “I’d appreciate that, Joel.”

  Samantha sighed, her muscles relaxing. Perhaps soon they could tell him the secret sure to test their friendship. Not tonight. Not when her teeth chattered each time she unclenched them. All she wanted tonight was to sleep until it was springtime-warm again. Going to the pegs on the ice-coated wall, she drew down a sweater and two shawls. From beneath the bed, she found three more pairs of wool socks and pulled all of them on.

  In the darkest hours of the night, Samantha realized how foolish such hopes had been. Her body ached from battling the ravages of the cold. It seemed to be grinding into her, squeezing out every ounce of warmth. Her shivers had become so powerful, she was sure she would not have felt an earth tremor beneath her.

  Rising, she moved closer to the stove. Even its glow was muted by the cold. She reached for the pan of melting ice and gasped. After hours on the warming shelf on top of the stove, it still was not totally liquid. She placed it directly on the stovetop, in hopes they could have a warm drink in the morning. When it clattered on the cast iron, she held her breath. She did not want to wake the men, who had found respite from the discomfort by sleeping.

  Roused by the sound of softly padding footsteps, Joel tiptoed across the floor to where she stood, close as she could get to the stove without risking her blanket catching on fire. When she started to speak, he put his finger over her lips.

  “Honey,” he whispered, “you can’t stand here all night.”

  “I’m so cold,” she answered through her chattering teeth. “The wind seems to blow right through the walls to settle on me when I’m lying on the bench.”

  He held out his hand. “Come to bed, then.”

  “To bed? With you and Kevin?”

  Without being able to see her face in the dim light, he knew shock was emblazoned across it, as it had been when she arrived here and thought the two of them intended to share her. It might have been simpler if that had happened, but he knew now he did not want to share her with Kevin. He wanted her entirely for his own.

  “You’ll be warm sleeping between us.”

  “I can imagine,” she retorted tartly. “No, thank you.”

  “Would you rather freeze?”

  She shook her head and stepped closer to him. Her numb fingers rose to his face as she tried to defuse his quick anger. “I would rather be sleeping with you.”

  “Oh, Sam,” he murmured as he swept her against him. Even with the layers of clothes between them, he could sense the sweet body he had been able to love so briefly a dream ago. His mouth heated her cold lips until they thawed, softening in a warm invitation to ecstasy. His arms slipped beneath her blanket and under the sweater she had placed over her dress.

  She could feel the fiery touch of his fingers gently smoothing the wrinkled fabric. Clutching him tighter, she savored the sensation of his hard body against her. Caressing his skin, she touched the pulse at the base of his neck, felt it leap with a yearning to match the desire in her heart as his tongue delved the secrets of her mouth.

  “I love you so much,” she breathed as his lips traveled along her skin.

  “Then come to bed with me.” His eyes twinkled wickedly. “With us.” Abruptly he was serious again. “Honey, I don’t want something to happen to you.”

  “All right … but this won’t be easy.”

  He laughed derisively. “That may be the understatement of all time. To lie next to you and not touch you is worse than any punishment waiting in Hell.”

  When he held out his hand to her, she slowly placed hers in it. How eager she would be if what she wanted waited for her in the lumpy bed! She moved closer to him, grateful for his arm as they walked the few, frozen steps around the bed.

  Kevin cracked open one eye and wondered if he could be dreaming. Samantha stood by the bed, gently smoothing her blanket over him and lifting a corner of the covers to slip beneath them. In shock, he sat up to regard her silhouette. Then he saw another form, and scowled into the darkness.

  “I invited Samantha to sleep here,” said Joel as he reached past her to place the third pillow in the center of the already crowded bed.

  “Sleep here? The three of us?”

  She shivered as the cold ate through her moccasins and five pairs of socks. “Kevin, I’m afraid I’ll freeze to death tonight. Please, don’t make me sleep alone.”

  Holding out his hand to her, he helped her onto the thin mattress. He wondered if she could guess how often he had imagined doing exactly this. His smile disappeared as he felt the bed move when Joel sat on the other side of her.

  Samantha sensed the antipathy on either side of her. She did not want to let her fear of the cold further alienate them. The secret that she held in her heart bothered her enough.

  “Thank you, Kevin.” She turned to the dark-haired man. “Thank you, Joel.” With a laugh, she slipped beneath the covers. “This way, we’ll all be alive in the morning.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Joel was grateful for being first to awaken the next morning. He knew exactly how Kevin would have reacted if he had discovered Samantha cuddled close to him. Although he did not remember falling asleep, Joel did recall slipping his arms around her. She had been asleep and curled against him, the same as she had on their one night together.

  Carefully he eased out of her sleep-limp arms. Bending, he placed a swift kiss on her parted lips. She smiled in sleep and wrapped her arms around his pillow. He walked to the stove and refilled it with fresh logs waiting by the door.

  Taking the axe from beneath the stove, where they kept it so its metal would not shatter on impact with frozen logs, he pulled on his coat. It was stiff from hanging near the door. The frigid air of the midnight dark morning stung him, chasing the last residues of sleep. Although he guessed it to be past seven, no hint of sun colored the eastern sky.

  He went first to the meat locker. The axe cut readily through the elk carcass. Chopping the meat into fist-sized pieces, he carried them to where the dogs were hitched. They yelped in eagerness as he released them from the stable, falling on the meat, as if they had not eaten in a century. Later he would bring them water warmed on the stove.

  By the time he fed the horse and collected a new supply of wood, his mustache had frozen solid. Each step seemed nearly too much effort. His body was stiff, muscles clenched against the cold, dreadful power of the Yukon winter.

  At the cabin door, he paused. Even the dish of
Perry Davis’s Pain-Killer had frozen solid. Without a breath of wind, it was colder than minus 75 degrees.

  He eased the cabin door open just enough to enter and quickly closed it. As cold as the interior was, he did not want more icy air to worsen things. As he closed the door, his smile became a scowl.

  Through the bars of the iron footboard of the bed, he could see furtive motions. Kevin reached for the slumbering woman. Rage like he had never known took control of Joel as Kevin’s face lowered toward hers. He started to shout in fury.

  A soft murmur from the bed interrupted both of them. Kevin froze, unmoving as the river, when he heard her words.

  Samantha’s eyes opened slowly while she murmured, “Good morning, Joel darling. I—” Then she came instantly awake, realizing where she was. This was not the luscious morning after the magic night she had slept in Joel’s arms. “I mean, Kevin. Forgive me,” she said, laughing with forced amusement. “I’m still half asleep. Brrr! Isn’t the cold over yet. Did you sleep well?”

  Above her, Kevin smiled. Not daring to move, she saw how close he was to her. He leaned on one elbow, with his other hand on the far side of her head.

  She swallowed hard. She did not have to guess what he had planned. She had wakened the first morning of their trip to Fifteen Above with him looking at her in exactly the same way. That sunrise she had been eager to have him kiss her, for she had believed him to be the man she loved.

  Her brow furrowed. She recalled a kiss from the depths of sleep. Which man had placed it on her lips?

  “Good morning,” called a cheerful voice, slightly too loudly.

  Kevin moved hastily from her, allowing her to sit. She kept the covers around her, although she wore almost everything she owned, because the cold had become even more excruciating.

  She leaned forward to cross her arms on her knees. Her smile welcomed Joel as he came to sit on the side of the bed, suddenly sure that he had held her through the night and given her the tender kiss. Glittering happiness shone in his eyes.

  “Good morning, Joel.” She could not keep the lilt from her voice. “Thank you.” Turning, she smiled at Kevin, as well. “Thanks to both of you for letting me share your bed last night.”

  Joel chuckled. “Not exactly how we thought it would be when we invited you north, eh, Kevin?”

  With such a direct question, the blond had no choice but to enter the conversation. “Perhaps the cold has advantages we hadn’t considered then,” he said emotionlessly. He rose and found his glasses. The cold metal bit into his nose as he adjusted them so they were comfortable. He moved toward the door.

  “No need for you to go out,” called Joel. “I did the chores, except for giving the animals water. If you want to heat some while breakfast is cooking, we can give them something to drink after we get some warm food in us.”

  “You did all the chores?”

  Joel smiled at his partner’s grateful expression. “You two were asleep, so I thought I’d get those things done before my stamping around the cabin woke you.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Samantha’s face when he made that announcement. She could not hide her shock when she discovered he had left her to sleep alone with Kevin. He tried not to laugh. His partner was the last man he could imagine forcing himself on an unwilling woman. Sam was safe with Kevin. On that one thing he would gamble his life.

  Fortune and the whims of the wind swept the coldest weather away from the river valley. Although they clung close to the stove during the day, the men returned to their loft bedroom. None of them spoke of the one night they had shared a bed. The subject remained so sensitive, that Joel did not even joke about it with Samantha.

  As soon as the daylight hours were warm enough, the two men returned to work, scraping pay dirt from a section of riverbank opposite where they worked last year. They could reach it easily by walking across the frozen Bonanza.

  Late one afternoon while they were recovering from the day of hard labor, Samantha went to answer a knock on the door. Amazed, she cried, “Liberty! Liberty Burroughs. How are you?”

  His booming voice filled the cabin. “Well, look at you. I told the boys you’d last out the winter without hightailing it back to Dawson like a green cheechaco.”

  “Come in, come in,” she urged, delighted to see their boisterous neighbor. “No need to freeze us all.”

  Joel rose and offered his seat by the fire, and Samantha placed a cup of tea and a piece of cake in front of him. Liberty grinned and winked at the other men before turning to her.

  “You certainly have made this cabin warmer than it was last winter.”

  Accustomed to the candid words of prospectors, she teased, “I wanted to keep these two healthy, so they could work it off sluicing the pay dirt in the spring. I’m going to take my share of the gold and build myself a castle right here on Fifteen Above, so I can enjoy this lovely weather for the rest of my life.”

  Liberty slapped his knee and rumbled with good humor. “I can offer you a bit of that gold.” He laughed again and turned to her partners. “Tomorrow we’re having a sled race up the Bonanza. We just heard you bought Tex’s team before he left for Dawson. You want to run it?”

  “What is it?” asked Joel. His eyes glittered with excitement at the thought of doing something other than tedious labor by the river and spending his evenings wishing he was holding Sam.

  “Just a few miles out and back. Speed. Quickest one wins. It starts by Sixteen Above and finishes back there as well. Just a big loop. Interested?”

  Samantha interrupted before anyone could answer. “No, they aren’t!” All three men regarded her with astonishment. They had not anticipated her sharp response. Her face softened as she realized how she had sounded. “Kevin, you shouldn’t go. Cold air blowing in your face would be forced down into your lungs. If you’re ill when the ice breaks …”

  “She’s right,” the blond said with a resigned sigh. He wanted to join in the fun, but could not risk his health. It was too close to the time when the river water would be running again. “Sorry, Burroughs.”

  Liberty nodded. “All right. How about you, Gilchrist?”

  “Don’t I need a partner?”

  He hooked his thumb toward Samantha. “How about her?”

  “Me?” she squeaked.

  Joel smiled with the eagerness. She knew he was not thinking about the race, but the hours they would have alone. They could talk easily without guarding every word, and open their hearts to one another. Standing, he took her hands and brought her to the table. When he seated her next to him, he did not release her fingers. The gentle stroke of his thumb against her palm sent quivers along her. She wanted him to touch far more of her.

  “Let’s do this,” he said, conveying another message with his eyes. “It’ll be fun, and we might win.”

  “You might,” added Liberty. “With a light load like Samantha, you should be able to skim that sled across the ice without trouble.” He regarded her eagerly. “What do you say? Yes? We have two sleds. We need a third.”

  Holding up her hands, she laughed. “All right, I’ll do it, but only if you lend me your thick scarf, Kevin. I don’t intend to freeze my nose off to win a race. What’s the prize?”

  “We’ve donated a shovel that Tex left behind. It’s a damned good one, too. Shouldn’t break like the ones they sell in Grand Forks.” He grinned. “That’ll be second prize. Will you do us the honor of donating first prize, Samantha?”

  “Donate? What?”

  His bright eyes twinkled in his full face. “Make a cake like this one, honey, and every man on the Bonanza’ll want to enter the contest. Will you bring one for the first prize?”

  Despite her best efforts to control it, she blushed. Although she loved to bake, she knew her talents were more utilitarian than expert. She had learned much about the Yukon men and their dreams, but always forgot how they missed the niceties of home.

  “Of course, Liberty. I’ll be glad to make a cake for the winner
s. Just be sure your partners don’t eat it before the end of the race.”

  “Bargain.” He clambered to his feet. Lifting his cup, he drained it easily. “See you tomorrow at sunrise. That’ll give everyone time to do their chores. We’ve charted a short course everyone should be able to complete in the eight hours of sunlight.”

  Not waiting for the door to close, they made plans for the race. Jesting about coming in second, so they could win the valuable shovel. Remembering her promise, Samantha left them to complete a list of essentials to be packed. Then she moved to the stove. Soon her dark skirt was spattered with a layer of flour dust as she mixed the cake which would urge the other teams to compete for first place.

  The day was crisp and cool, but not the icy cold they had suffered during the past month. As she tied her scarf around her chin, Samantha’s eyes glowed with excitement. She did not doubt their team could beat the ones from Sixteen Above and Twenty Above. Since Christmas, she had seen the skill and joy their dogs showed when doing what they had been trained to do.

  By the time they arrived, the other teams were finishing cups of coffee laced liberally with brandy. While Joel and the other drivers checked their sleds and bragged about their dogs, Samantha went with Kevin to a cabin sitting at a cockeyed angle on the slope overlooking the riverbank claimed by Sixteen Above.

  Voices buffeted her ears as Kevin steered her through the excited miners in the crowded room. More than one hand barely missed her nose as the men discussed the upcoming season of work in the cold waters of the Bonanza. Hearing snatches of conversation, she wondered how often they had talked about the same things at Fifteen Above. A spasm of sorrow went through her. Many of these men would be here a year from now, still clutching their dreams and praying that each tomorrow would be the day when they came true.

  When someone pressed a cup into her gloved hands, she grimaced at the horrid smell of the thick liquid in it. This was the swill the prospectors at Sixteen Above drank regularly.