by Ali Olson
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
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Dreams of Gold
About the Author
Heart of Gold
A Gold Rush Romance
by
Ali Olson
Copyright © 2015 by Ali Olson. All rights reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
The afternoon was bright and mild in the town of Shasta, though the chill of spring hung in the air. Wildflowers bloomed, opening to the promise of warm days to come. The students had left the schoolhouse for the day, eager to enjoy the afternoon before the sun ducked behind the mountains to the west as it sank toward the expansive Pacific Ocean. The children spread across Shasta, a small wave of laughter and joy, content in their freedom as they shouted to one another.
Inside the school, however, it was quiet and tense with emotions far different from joy. Alice Crenshaw sat behind her large oak desk and watched one nine-year-old boy, Joe, as he sat and waited, his shock of blond hair falling across his forehead. He was the only student left in the small building—the room was silent, all the other desks empty, tablets erased, a moment that normally brought Alice peace at the end of the school day. But not this time.
Joe fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable with what was about to happen. And to be fair, so was she, she just hid it better. The boy’s new guardian would be arriving soon, and she was dreading it. Her normal calm was disturbed, and she had to focus her attention on keeping her heartbeat normal, her hands unclenched.
She did not dislike the boy’s guardian. On the contrary, she feared she liked him too well. He had been in town for more than a month, this striking, mysterious man. She had only seen him at church, or on the rare occasion she was invited to supper or the town held group meetings. They had spoken no more than a few words to one another. Still, that was enough to pique her interest, and she had quickly found herself attracted to this handsome stranger in a way that disconcerted her.
At least when he had been no more than the visiting uncle of a student, she could curb her infatuation by reminding herself he would leave after a short time and she would simply need to wait patiently, hiding her feelings until the temptation was gone. She had been confident in her ability to do so—as a teacher, she was wonderful at being patient and calm in the face of duress. It had been difficult to hide the way she melted when she saw him, so she had avoided him as much as possible and attempted to wait out his visit.
Now, however, there was no end of her torture in sight. He was likely to settle in Shasta as Joe’s guardian. To make matters worse, she would be unable to avoid him as she once had. In all likelihood, she would even need to regularly have personal meetings like this one because he would be raising Joe, the boy seated in the first row of desks who was waiting so restlessly.
In fact, Joe was being far more restless than was usual for him.
Alice’s brows contracted as she truly considered Joe’s behavior for the first time that afternoon. She knew very well why she was anxious, but had no idea why he would have the same reaction to this meeting. Discovering the hidden dilemmas of the children in her charge was an important aspect of her position as the schoolteacher, and not one she took lightly.
She would need to dig in order to find out the reasons for his behavior, but it would need to be a subtle inquiry—she knew Joe, and was aware of how quickly his defenses would rise if someone implied something was wrong. There had been several instances where just that had taken place, and she was smart enough to not make the same mistakes another time. It was time to put aside her own difficulties and give Joe the attention he seemed to need.
She smiled at the boy and in her cheeriest teacher voice, she said, “It was very nice of your guardian to ask to meet with me, Joe. You must be quite important to him, for him to be concerned with your schooling.”
Joe only shrugged and looked even less happy. Alice’s lips pinched together slightly, but the rest of her face stayed unchanged. Joe and his uncle were not thriving together, that seemed clear. It seemed reasonable to her—she could understand a young child being less than keen on making friends with the man replacing his parents right after they died, even if he was family. Still, she hoped to discover exactly how difficult the transition was for the boy and what she could do to help. The silence in the room grew, as did the tension, but Alice kept the smile on her face as she waited. She had been a teacher long enough to know that pushing the topic further would be much worse than a little tension.
She only had to wait a short time before the clomping of a horse’s hooves came from outside, and Joe turned his attention to the door. Alice stood and took a deep breath, attempting to calm her nerves. She tried to convince herself that she was prepared to greet Joe’s uncle with nothing more than friendly concern. It was not the momentous occasion her mind and body seemed to consider it. A quick discussion about Joe, and that would be the end of it.
No matter what she told herself, however, she could not untie the knot that had formed in her stomach. She ignored it and girded herself for his presence.
When he walked through the door, all her preparation fell to pieces. She was still astonished at how her body reacted whenever she was near him. Her heart sped up until it was nearly painful as she gazed at the man who seemed to have just walked out of a Greek myth. He was tall and powerful, with wide shoulders and heavily muscled arms. He was silhouetted against the rectangle of bright sunlight from the door he had just passed through, making him appear even more unreal. The room seemed small and inconsequential in comparison.
He stepped forward, away from the door, and more of him came into focus, which only furthered her difficulties. She had only seen him in formal clothing before and swooned over him then, but his faded and worn denim pants, his scuffed boots, only added to the rugged aura that always seemed to surround him. She was unable to decide which she liked better, and had to force her mind to stop trying. He was so darn distracting.
He took off his wide-brimmed hat, dismissing the shade that had hidden his face. His mussed hair was rich and brown with streaks of sun-kissed yellow, his eyes so shockingly blue that she always felt as if she had stared at them longer than was proper and needed to look away, only to have her gaze pulled back to them. And then there was the worst thing, the thing that took her breath away more than everything else; his face was kind, and those beautiful eyes held a spark of intelligence that pulled at her. How could all those qualities be found in one human being? It should never have been allowed, but here he was, sent to torment her with his perfection.
Alice placed one hand on the desk she stood, taking strength from the solid symbol of her profession, using it to help her regain some steadiness. She
was glad there was this large piece of furniture as a barrier between her and this man that affected her so strongly. She had known it would be difficult to meet with him in such a private context, but this was outrageous.
After a few moments, she realized that she was standing there, staring silently at him like some besotted youth. Not exactly the impression she wanted to make on her pupil’s guardian, even if it was close to the truth.
After one final push to exert control over herself, Alice finally turned her attention to the young boy, whose eyes were focused completely on the floor. Joe was diligently ignoring the man who had entered.
Even though she had met the man before, she found another opportunity to gauge Joe’s feelings for him. “Joe, would you please introduce me to your guardian?” she asked.
Joe stood, looking miserable. Eyes still downcast, he mumbled, “Miss Crenshaw, this is my uncle, Thomas Lancaster.”
Alice paused a moment to see if he would volunteer any other information as he had been taught to do, but that was apparently all he wanted to say. She turned back to the man, trying to stop her heart from pounding—she could hear it thumping in her ears, and worried for a moment that he could hear it as well before realizing how absurd that was. With the steadiest and most formal voice she could muster, she said, “I am pleased to meet you again, Mr. Lancaster.”
Alice stepped away from the comfort of her desk and held out her hand to him. She regretted the necessity of the move away from her sanctuary, but knew it was expected and proper. Mr. Lancaster stepped forward and grasped her hand in greeting, bowing slightly toward her. The moment he touched her, she felt a jolt slide down her spine, causing her to blush. Having never shaken hands with him before, never actually touched him in any way, there had been no opportunity to prepare herself for that. A slight tremor of disappointment followed as she noticed that he seemed not to be affected by it as she was.
When Mr. Lancaster spoke, it only made things worse, and she seemed to forget everything of importance as she lost herself in it. His voice was deep and mellow and wrapped around her like a warm blanket. He said, “I apologize for my attire. I was checking on some properties and it took longer than I had expected. Please forgive me.”
She wanted to do quite a bit more than forgive him. He looked so appealingly rugged that she was glad she was still standing. Alice managed to nod and gesture to a seat, astonished at how miserably she was failing at staying professional. It would not do, but God help her, she had never had this type of uncontrollable reaction to any man—not even Ben.
And here she was swooning over her student’s caretaker. She could not even count all the problems with this situation, with her. What was she thinking, agreeing to this meeting? She looked over at Joe to remind her of her purpose. She would need to focus on him, and not on this storybook hero that was his guardian.
Fortunately or unfortunately, she didn’t know which, the man spoke again. “It is lovely to see you as well, Miss Crenshaw. I thank you for taking the time to meet with me.”
The clip at the edge of his words intrigued her. It gave some indication of intelligence and education. She wanted to hear it more.
Alice quickly retreated behind her desk once again, now that they had dispensed with the formalities. She sat down in her chair, mostly because her legs would no longer hold her. Thomas—Mr. Lancaster, she reminded herself immediately, as she had no reason to use anything but his formal name—took the cue and pulled a chair from one of the student worktables, dropping his body into it with such a lithe motion it made a small ball of fire light in her belly. She wished she was anywhere else but under his penetrating gaze.
At least when she had met him before there had been other people nearby, distractions and barriers. Now, with all that gone, she felt as if she was too close to the sun and bound to get burnt to a crisp if she wasn’t careful.
After taking another moment to ensure that her voice would not betray the strange wash of emotions flowing through her, she said in her kindest voice, “Joe, dear, will you step outside please?”
The last thing she wanted was to be completely alone with this intoxicating man, but she knew that the sooner they discussed whatever he had come here to discuss, he could leave and she would be able to catch her breath at last. Joe stood up immediately and said, “Yes, ma’am,” starting toward the door.
His uncle added, “You can check on Hamlet. He’ll be carrying both of us on the way back, so make sure the saddle is cinched tight.”
Joe didn’t respond or even slow his gait and was nearly out the door before his uncle finished speaking. It was strange enough to take Alice’s mind off the slight beard growing along the man’s jawline, which had absorbed her attention. She turned her thoughts again to the boy as he exited into the sunshine.
There were two things that she felt the need to comment on, but she stuck to the most pertinent one for the time being. “Is he often like this around you?”
Mr. Lancaster sighed and rubbed his hand along the jaw she had been studying a few moments ago. “Before the accident, we seemed to get by just fine together. He was happy to have me around, excited even, and we had a pleasant understanding, I thought. Since his parents passed, though, it’s always like that. He refuses to speak to me, and I have no idea why. He must be frightfully sad, but there seems to be more to it than that. I am trying my best to be friendly and understanding of the difficulty of his loss, but he ignores me. How has he been with you?”
Alice felt uncomfortable telling him the truth. He appeared so demoralized that it hurt her to make him feel worse about his relationship with his nephew. But she knew it was necessary to be honest, if they were going to solve the puzzle of Joe’s behavior. “He was quiet and downtrodden after his parents died, but he seems to have nearly recovered from the shock over the past two weeks. Not happy, precisely, but obedient and focused on his schooling. I have been quite surprised at how well he handled the situation, actually, but Joe has always been mature for his age.”
Joe’s ability to bounce back from such a traumatic situation was nothing short of astonishing. The loss had been so sudden—a stagecoach accident on their way to visit friends—and then Joe was an orphaned child living with his mother’s brother, who had luckily been staying with them at the time. It broke her heart to think what the boy had been through.
And it seemed like his uncle had been through a great deal as well. Why wouldn’t Joe speak to him? She needed to help this man if she could. “Do you think he is worried you are trying to replace his parents? That could be troubling for a young child.”
He considered the idea, rubbing his jaw, which nearly distracted her again. He spoke before she lost herself too deeply in her reverie. “I am sure that could be part of the problem, but it doesn’t seem like that is the only issue. It’s more as if he is… angry with me, for some reason.”
Alice thought about this conundrum. It sounded like an unfortunate circumstance, and she felt for the poor man. She needed to help if she could, and she would need to be as professional as possible. Never mind that half of her mind was demanding she throw herself at him and the other half was shouting to run for the hills and get as far away from this man as she could.
To assist the boy and his guardian, however, she needed to learn more, for she could not yet see the reason Joe would behave this way. There needed to be a clear explanation, if only she knew all the facts. “I will certainly try to help as much as I can. Will you describe some of the situations that have occurred since the accident and his behaviors toward you?”
He looked at her and his lips curved into a slight smile. “Perhaps it would be better if you came over to our house for supper. That way, you will be able to see how we act around each other instead of just hearing my interpretation. Once you have seen us together, I can give any other details that might help. Moreover, we have yet to have a guest for the evening since the incident, and it might be good for both of us. Who better to grace our home with her pre
sence than the schoolteacher?”
She could see exactly what he was doing—it was not subtle, after all—and it sent arcs of excitement and panic flashing through her. He wanted to see her again, and it only made things more difficult. She tried to convince herself that he possibly did just want her to study his relationship with the boy, but his smile told a different story, one that sent her heart to racing again.
She had visited Joe’s home before while Mr. Lancaster was visiting, but had managed to avoid him most of the evening. Joe’s parents had been friendly folk, and had so many acquaintances that there were more than enough people present to keep the situation morally acceptable. But a small intimate dinner, even with Joe there, would be out of the question.
Not that anyone would find it strange he had invited her, of course. She often dined at the homes of her students, just as any teacher would. But this was not the same—not to her and, it seemed, not to him either. She needed to find some way out without appearing rude or dismissive of the problem they were attempting to solve. Finally, she lighted on a possibility. “I would love to accept the invitation, but I must check with the family with whom I lodge, Mr. and Mrs. Leach, to see if they will be available to escort me, if that is acceptable.”
His smile dropped a little, but returned quickly, if more polite than the one before. He nodded. “Of course. I shall expect you tonight, but if you cannot come, we can simply arrange something through Joe. If he ever deigns to speak to me, that is. Otherwise I may be required to come see you again myself.”
She was unsure she could survive many more encounters like this one, particularly if it was unexpected. The thought of him walking in on her alone at the end of the school day was enough to send her mind spiraling out of control. Before she could completely gather her bearings, he stood and took her hand from where it lay on the desk for a last squeeze. “Thank you again, Miss Crenshaw, for your help in this matter.”
