by Zina Abbott
Beth smiled her thanks to Hank and then turned back to study the maps. In the quiet that followed, Beth wasn’t thinking about which option was best for her. She had already made a decision. Instead, she worried about having a place ready to live in by the time she needed to travel back east to get her little sister.
Then she had her commitment to Louisa to consider. She couldn’t leave her by herself. Mrs. Ford would not approve and would probably demand that the two of them, Louisa and the baby at least, move.
Gus wouldn’t like it, either. Now was Gus’s busiest season. He depended on her to be available to cook for him.
Could she afford to leave for a few days to file her claim?
Can’t afford not to.
Beth pointed to the plot with the most trees. “How close you reckon that is to your ranch?”
“A few miles. It’s the next plot over from this one that’s mostly flat. Do you want to go down and take a look at it?”
Beth took a deep breath while she considered her options. As much as Beth wanted to manage her own affairs all by herself, she realized that she needed to accept even more help from Val. “I ain’t got no time to go lookin’ at no land. If you reckon this one here…” Beth pointed to the plot with the trees, “is a good piece …considerin’ it ain’t no row crop land…I’ll get to the land office in Bodie and file my claim.”
“I’ll be happy to take you, Beth.”
“Don’t want to discomfit you none. Reckon I can take the stage.”
“You won’t be a bother, Bethie Rose, you know that. We’ll swing by the property and spend the night at the Caldwell ranch house before we go to Bodie. And, knowing how you insist on paying your own way, all it will cost you is a couple of pies and some bread for me to take home. I’ll even buy the ingredients.”
“You’re planning on sharing, ain’t you, boss?” Hank grinned.
Val rolled his eyes. “Don’t I always?”
“As long as you’re bringing her to the house, Brother, maybe she’d be willing to cook up a good meal for us and the boys while she’s there.”
“Reckon I can oblige that.”
“We’ll have everything you need there,” Val promised. “The boys get plenty of steak and stew, but they’d love a good pot roast with all the fixings. How about we plan it for when we make our next trip up to Lundy in two weeks? Will that be soon enough for you to get your finances in order?”
“Reckon so. I’m fixin’ to buy an abandoned house up this way. Reckon I can find me some carpenters to take it apart. I figured on payin’ you to haul it for me. I’d druther start movin’ it on down when I go to file my claim so it ain’t piled up here too long loose for the takin’. Once it’s down yonder, I can hire me some men to put it back together…”
Val interrupted her with a shake of his head. “No, Beth, that’s not how it works. You want to get along with your new neighbors, don’t you?”
Beth eyed him suspiciously, but nodded.
“If you buy a house up here, we’ll help you take it apart and haul it down. Then we’ll set up a day to invite everyone from the Bridgeport area over for a house-raising. You’ll probably have to wait until after Independence Day and we’ll have to work around the hay harvest. The men will build your house, and the women will bring and serve the food. You can use the kitchen at our place for your baking.”
“We’ll even come over and help if we can get in on a feed like that,” offered Frankie.
Beth would have thrown her arms around Val and kissed him if she weren’t sitting in a saloon full of men. Instead, she settled for a wide smile. She could accept that kind of help. She’d cooked for more than one barn-raising back home, and felt pleased they did the same kind of thing in California.
Two weeks would give her enough time to see about selling enough of her mining stock to finance her land fees. She would check the assay offices both here in Lundy and down in Bodie to see which would give her the most for her old wedding ring from her late husband. That, along with her wages and other money she had tucked away would get her land with a house and tickets for her and her sister. In the meantime, all she had to do was figure out how she could keep Louisa and Sophie Ann properly chaperoned while she made her trip to see her homestead and file a claim at the land office.
CHAPTER 9
Mary Ford minced no words about her disapproval of Beth’s plan for Louisa and Sophie Ann to walk to Gus’s place each morning and be walked home by Gus and Josh each night.
“Nay, ye’ll not be walking the streets alone each morning and ye’ll not taking this sweet babe home at night in the company of two men with no woman beside ye, not even for only the two or three days Mrs. Dodd’s planning to leave ye. Ye’ll be asking for trouble, sure, ye will.”
Louisa clamped her lips shut and let Beth do the talking for her. She knew that the reason their landlady chose to be so strict was because of Louisa’s history. She suspected that Mrs. Ford worried Louisa would fall back to her prior ways and arrange to meet with a man for the purpose of “entertaining” him. Louisa knew nothing could be further from the truth, but there was no point in her trying to persuade Mrs. Ford otherwise.
Mrs. Ford finally agreed to allow Louisa to join her in her kitchen once the male boarders departed for work each morning. There, Louisa would bake enough biscuits and loaves of bread to get Gus by for the day. It was up to Gus to provide the raw ingredients and firewood. Then, early in the afternoon, Mrs. Ford agreed she would escort Louisa to and from the eatery herself. She’d stay long enough for Louisa to get a pot of beans or beans and rice started and seasoned for Gus to offer as a side dish for his steaks. But she insisted she and Louisa had to be back at the boarding house well before the men got off work and returned for their supper.
Gus grumbled about the arrangement, but realized there was no stopping Beth from pursuing her goal of buying land for a farm. He grudgingly agreed Beth could go for no more than three days, as long as Louisa could cook for him, and Beth promised to be back before the busy weekend.
****
Louisa entered Mrs. Ford’s kitchen with trepidation the first day Beth was gone. Her landlady spoke in monosyllables as she showed Louisa where to find bowls and pans. Mrs. Ford frowned as she opened her kitchen door the first time Josh showed up with a load of firewood. However, once it was time to take the breadstuffs Louisa had baked over to the chop shop, without complaint she helped Louisa load everything into sacks so the two of them could carry everything in one trip. While Louisa carried Sophie Ann, Mrs. Ford carried the bowl of biscuit dough Louisa had mixed up for Gus to bake closer to suppertime once her baked biscuits started to run low.
At first, Mrs. Ford held the baby while Louisa drained the water off of the beans and refilled the pot with fresh water to boil for that night. However, as soon as Sophie Ann dozed off for a nap, she washed her hands and pitched in to help. She ignored Gus who watched the women, a frown on his face. Later, he left to visit Fritz who was tending the bar that afternoon. Mrs. Ford helped Louisa chop onions, parsley and tomatoes to go in the beans, then she helped Louisa lift the heavy pot back onto the stove.
Sophie Ann’s squawk of protest when she was picked up so they could leave brought Gus back into his kitchen. Not wanting to embarrass Gus in front of her landlady, Louisa stepped outside the back door and motioned Gus to follow her. She wanted to tell him about the biscuit dough.
“Now, Gus, don’t add anymore flour to the biscuit dough. Only use barely enough flour on the board to roll them out before you cut them. Even if you don’t run out of the biscuits I already made for you, you probably better bake them up tonight rather than try to save the dough for breakfast.”
“Ya, ya!” Gus impatiently waved her away.
When Louisa stepped back inside, she could see from the smile Mary Ford struggled to suppress that she had overheard. On the way home, she carried enough flour and supplies for the next day while Mrs. Ford carried Sophie Ann. Josh trailed behind carrying another load
of firewood. Louisa explained to Mrs. Ford, “We have to keep an eye on Gus when it comes to making biscuits. Beth says he puts too much flour in them. Once his are baked, they’re as heavy as the granite boulders in these mountains.”
Mrs. Ford responded with a full-throated laugh.
By the time Beth returned, Louisa felt grateful for the time spent with Mrs. Ford. For one thing, Sophie Ann, being the delightful baby that she was, completely won over Mary Ford’s heart. By the third day, the woman would hardly put the baby down in either her own kitchen or Gus’s. Impressed by Josh’s agreeable and helpful manner, by the second day, she slipped him a slice of bread or a dessert treat each time he showed up at her back door with firewood or a pail of water.
But Louisa appreciated the change in Mary Ford’s attitude toward her the most. Instead of treating her like a naughty child that needed constant oversight and discipline, Mrs. Ford’s attitude toward her softened by the end of the third day. They talked as equals—as friends. Louisa could tell she had somehow inspired a greater level of trust in her landlady. Excitedly, she shared these new developments with Beth once her roommate and benefactor returned.
****
Independence Day, one of the biggest holidays of the year, came and went in Lundy. Even the mines closed that Fourth of July Friday, and figuring that most of the miners would be too hung over from their celebrating, most mines stayed closed through the weekend. It gave some of the miners with families in Bodie time to go home for a visit. But most celebrated down at the Lake House on the other side of Lundy Lake on Friday and returned to Lundy on Saturday. Many stopped by Gus’s place for food, especially the bread and the cakes Beth and Louisa made for the occasion.
Both Beth and Louisa spent the long weekend cooking and baking. Except for the sound of explosions set off near the openings of the various mines the evening of the Fourth, the holiday was like every other day.
Beth had told Louisa she didn’t mind not celebrating. Both Val and his brother stayed down in Bridgeport, celebrating with their hands. She knew the next year after she and Val married, she would join him. For now, she considered it more important to earn money toward building her new house on her land. She still found it thrilling to realize she owned a homestead claim in her own name. Neither her father nor her future husband could sell it out from underneath her. At least, it would be hers once she improved the land, lived on it the six months out of the year for five years, and proved it, up at the land office. Lundy may be celebrating Independence Day, but her day of independence would come when she moved into her own house and raised her chickens and hogs on her own land.
Louisa smiled at Beth’s declaration of her independence. Especially with Gus wandering in and out of the room, she chose not to mention that it had been many years since the last time she had celebrated Independence Day. Her father had been so focused on his claim he had ignored going into town to celebrate. Once she started working in a brothel, first in Gold Hill and later in Lundy, Independence Days were nothing but long, busy work days entertaining men, most of them tending to drink more than usual on the holiday. It certainly had not been a day of celebration for her, no matter how much money she made.
As the talk about the holiday whirled around her, Louisa realized that, like Beth, she had declared her independence when she left the Blue Feather and chose to start a new life—hopefully a better life—for her and her baby. She happily spent it working to earn money toward setting up a new home for herself and Sophie Ann far from the mining communities of the West.
It was only when she glanced up and caught sight of Gus that she felt pangs of regret.
I hope my next employer is as kind as Gus is.
Then again, Gus treated her with almost too much kindness. He often impatiently barked orders at Beth and Josh when frustrated, but not at her. He hardly spoke to her at all. Maybe he barely tolerated her and his day of independence would come when she boarded the stage on her way to the train depot in Reno.
Regardless of how Gus felt about her, Louisa knew she would miss him once she left Lundy. Beyond that, she refused to think about the reasons why she would miss him.
Once the heat of the short summer typical of Lundy made cooking inside the building miserably uncomfortable, much to Louisa’s relief, Gus and Josh built a lean-to outside the back door for a summer kitchen. They moved the stove outside. With both Louisa and Beth making bread, turnover pies and side dishes, the extra room inside the indoor kitchen made food preparation easier.
Josh added guarding the stove at nights to his other tasks of guarding the firewood and helping to care for Beth’s chickens. Now that the chicks were feathered out, Josh and Beth kept them outside in a fenced-in area during the day.
Louisa still disappeared behind the curtain to Gus’s sleeping nook to feed Sophie Ann. Once the blanket curtain was pulled shut, the air grew stagnant. As she sat on the stool in the corner, Louisa often fought to stay awake in the darkness and heat of the enclosed space.
One incident that touched her heart happened on a miserably warm summer day. No breeze offered relief through the open kitchen door. Louisa offered the baby a few sips of water from a cup, dreading the time when she would need to go behind the curtain to nurse her.
When she could put it off no longer, Louisa pulled the curtain shut and settled on her stool with Sophie Ann in her arms. As she fed the child, the side of her shirtwaist still covering her chest clung to her skin damp with perspiration. The exposed side beaded with moisture. Also uncomfortable due to the heat, Sophie Ann sought comfort by suckling even harder than usual. Louisa brushed away the drops of sweat on the baby’s forehead before she leaned her head into the corner of the wall to rest while the baby finished nursing.
Louisa realized she had fallen asleep when she jerked awake to discover Gus, standing mere feet from her, holding back the curtain. Frozen in place, he stared at her and Sophie Ann. She hardly noticed the breeze of fresh air that drifted in through the gap in the curtain as, in a state of panic, she grappled for the edge of the lightweight flannel sheet she had placed beneath Sophie Ann and tugged it up to cover her and the baby. She knew that the baby’s head covered much of her breast, exposing no more than what used to be displayed when she wore her working gowns at the Blue Feather. Still, embarrassment engulfed her. Gus, a single man not her husband, had caught her in a state of undress while feeding her child.
At that moment, Beth walked up behind Gus and immediately sized up the situation. She touched his harm to draw his attention. “Tell me what you need, Gus.”
Gus averted his eyes and shook his head. “Nein, nein. I go.” Jerking away, he reached his hand behind him and pointed in the general direction of Louisa’s stool. “No blanket on baby, ya? Too hot for baby blanket is.” With that he hurried out the back door.
While Louisa pulled her shirt together and burped Sophie Ann, she heard Beth follow Gus outside to ask him what he needed from his nook. Whatever had brought him back there evidently hadn’t been urgent, because Beth didn’t return.
Once Sophie Ann fell asleep, Louisa put her clothes to rights. Now that the baby had grown too big to sleep in the basket first used as a bassinette, Louisa spread the quilt Beth had made on top of Gus’s blankets before she gently laid the baby down to continue her nap. As quickly as possible, she returned and busied herself with making biscuits, careful to avoid eye contact with Gus. The afternoon and evening passed quietly as both she and Gus barely spoke to anyone, including Beth and Josh, and certainly not to each other.
It was only later that Louisa recalled that when Gus had found her feeding Sophie Ann, the look on his face was not the leering, lustful expression she had been accustomed to seeing on the customers at the Blue Feather. It had been one of surprise, surely, but also one of wonder as if he felt privileged to witness her feeding Sophie Ann.
Yet, Louisa found it strange that he would have any interest in babies. Beth had warned her he never intended to marry and have a family.
&nbs
p; Why not, Gus? Why not marry and watch your wife nurse your babies?
A realization began to niggle at Louisa, one that caused her to squirm with discomfort. She had started to care for him deeply. She would miss him terribly when it came time to leave.
As those thoughts flitted through her mind and attempted to take root in her heart she argued them away. A few months from now she would go far away where she could leave behind the life she had lived in the Blue Feather. She planned to start over in a place where she could fade into the fabric of working class society, and pass herself off as a respectable widow working an acceptable job while she raised her child. She could not afford to allow her feelings to become entangled with any man in the mining region, let alone one here in Lundy—a man who would never love her.
The following morning, Louisa and Beth arrived at the kitchen before Gus. Beth rolled biscuit dough. Louisa juggled Sophie Ann on her arm while she scrubbed potatoes to boil for that day’s side dish. They both turned and stepped back when the back door banged open. The first thing to enter the kitchen was the bottom of a wooden rocker. Gus wrangled the chair in the door, around the ladder to the loft and set in down on a bare section of floor next to the wall separating the kitchen from the saloon. It was one of the few places that could not be easily seen by patrons of either the saloon or the eating area.
Louisa recognized the rocker. When she and Beth had gone to Barnes’s furniture store to pick out her stool, Louisa had seen the very same chair with its wooden arms and its high back that formed a headrest. She had gazed at it with longing, but decided against buying it. Since she intended to stay in Lundy only a matter of months and knew she couldn’t take it with her, she felt she couldn’t justify the cost.
