Jeannie shook her head at him, and reached out to smooth his curls. “You know I cain’t stay here, Angus." Her voice was sad and gentle, and she smiled at Daisy. "Thank you fer the offer, but I gotta go meet my husband soon as he’s done at the smithy. We gotta get back home afore it’s dark."
"Will you be coming into the hospital to have your baby?" Hannah remembered what Angus had said about Jeannie living out of town in a tent, and she was suddenly anxious for her. "Our friend Elvira is a nurse. She’s just started working at the hospital today. She’ll take great care of you."
The girl shook her head again. "Oh, no. We cain’t afford no hospital. Oscar says he’ll help when my time comes.”
Hannah tried not to let the dismay she felt show on her face. "If there’s anything we can do, we’d be delighted to help." Her heart went out to this girl. She wished there was a way to tell Jeannie that she was offering help with more than just her confinement.
"I thank you." With touching dignity, Jeannie got to her feet.
They all stood up, and Jeannie wrapped her arms around her brother, kissing his cheek and hugging him hard.
“Angus, you be a good boy now, hear? You work hard fer Mr. McGraw, so’s we can pay him back. I'll come see ya soon as I can manage it.”
"I work hard. I like it here.” Angus’s chin trembled. "But I shore wish you could stay here with me. I'm awful lonesome fer ya, Jeannie."
The door from the dining area opened and Logan walked in.
Hannah’s heart thumped in her chest, and she was glad the others were present to provide a distraction.
“Evening, everyone." His blue eyes slid across Hannah's face like a caress and then did a quick survey of her long skirt and shirtwaist, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he turned to Angus’s sister with a welcoming smile.
"How are you, Jeannie? It’s good to see you." He strode over and took her hand in both of his. Jeannie gave him a worshipful look.
“Fine, thank you, Mr. McGraw."
"Is Oscar with you, or did you come in alone?"
"He’s over at the blacksmith’s, the horse threw a shoe. He'll be done soon, so I gotta go."
Logan nodded. "How’s the new claim working out?"
“Pretty good.” Tension flickered across her face. "We bin workin’ it real hard. We hit a couple good veins.” She edged her way toward the door. "Bye, all. Thanks fer the coffee, Miss Daisy.”
There was tense silence after she left, and then Angus abruptly burst into a storm of tears, weeping like a small child, his mouth wide.
“I want Jeannie,” he wailed.
Logan started towards him, but Daisy was there first, taking the boy in her arms and patting his back, impervious to the fact that he was almost a foot taller than she.
"There, there, don’t cry like that. Look, you’re getting Klaus in a state."
It was true; the little dog whined and barked at their feet.
"I bet he has to go out, Angus," Daisy said. "Let’s you and I take him for a little stroll in the yard."
With Angus clinging to her hand like an overgrown two-year-old, Daisy led the boy and the dog out the door.
Her heart aching with pity for both Angus and his sister, Hannah watched them go. Then she turned to Logan. Her concern for Jeannie overcame her self-consciousness.
“That poor girl, she’s hardly more than a child. And did you see that bruise on her cheek? And her hands, migod, she must have to work hard to get calluses like that. Do you know her husband, Logan?"
Logan swore, fierce and low. "Damned right I know him. Everybody in town knows Chalmers. He’s a miser and a bully, too damn cheap to hire a man to work his claim with him, so he's using Jeannie, working her like a slave just like he worked Angus.”
“How did you come to know Angus?" Hannah knew the boy needed almost constant supervision, and she'd already seen enough of 1868 to know that social attitudes weren’t progressive. She realized that Logan could easily have hired someone much more capable to do the chores Angus did.
“Doc Carroll brought him here early last month because he’d run away from Chalmers and refused to go back. The boy was a mass of bruises. Chalmers said he’d fallen down a mine shaft, but Angus said Chalmers beat him, and I believe him. Angus is scared to death of him. Chalmers was in a rage when he found out Angus was gone.” Logan’s smile was savage. “He thought he could come and just take the boy back, but it didn’t turn out that way.”
“How the heck did Jeannie end up with him?”
"She was a mail-order bride. From what Angus tells me, their mother was a seamstress in Toronto, and they barely got by. The mother died, and Jeannie got a job in a cotton mill, but the dust made her sick so she couldn't work. She answered an ad for women who were willing to come out here and marry miners. Oscar sent the fare for her and Angus, likely thinking he'd get his money’s worth out of the boy. I suspect Jeannie didn't tell him that her brother was simple."
"I'm surprised Chalmers didn't want his money back for Angus’s ticket."
"He did."
Understanding came. “You gave Chalmers the money."
Logan shrugged. “It was the only way he’d let the boy go."
"Jeannie ought to leave him, too."
Logan snorted. “She has no money of her own, and she has a baby in her belly. She married Chalmers of her own free will. Under the law, she’s his property. If anyone encourages her to leave him, they can be charged under the law for interfering between a man and his possession. Doc’s tried to talk to her, but she’s scared.”
Hannah nodded and her shoulders slumped. “I keep forgetting. In my time, we have women’s shelters and there’s welfare, and still sometimes women are afraid to leave the men who mistreat them."
"So maybe things in your world are not all that different after all." There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone, and Hannah didn’t blame him for it.
She’d probably presented the future in the best possible light, and it hadn’t been an honest depiction at all.
“No. I guess they’re not.” She shot him a rueful glance and tried for a smile. "But I get just as furious here as I did there when I meet someone like Jeannie."
His smile was warm and she remembered how his lips had felt on hers, bold, insistent.
Her breath came faster, and she felt a flush starting at her collarbone. She knew now exactly how his body felt against hers, hot and hard and needy, and more than anything, she longed to be in his arms again.
His eyes flickered over her and he raised an eyebrow. "I see you’re wearing more modern garments today. How was your first day at work?"
She crossed her eyes at his assessment of her clothing, and he laughed.
It dispelled the tension.
“Work was very, very long, and very, very hot, but I got a raise. Something needs to be done about the labor laws in this century, that’s for certain, and I wish I'd paid more attention to exactly how air-conditioning worked." She swiped the back of her hand across her forehead. "Between these heavy clothes, the cookstoves, and no deodorant, it's no wonder most people stink of sweat. I certainly do.”
He raised his eyebrows. "You do? I hadn’t noticed." His eyes twinkled and he raised his arm and sniffed. "Do I stink, Hannah?"
"No, you smell good. You must bathe more than most," she blurted out, and then blushed crimson.
He laughed. “Ahhh, baths again. I talked to Ming Wo today. He’ll rent you the bathhouse either early morning or late evening if you give him advance warning, two dollars a head, fifty cents extra for doing your laundry. He’s doubled his fee, the wily fellow.”
"I don't care. That’s great, that’s wonderful.”
The thought of submerging her body in a tub of water was intoxicating. "It’ll be easier to work all day if I can look forward to a bath in the evening."
“I hear that Pandola’s business is much enhanced by your presence, Hannah."
"Who told you that?"
"The best place to hear everything that’s happening is in a
saloon. Men gossip just as eagerly as women."
"Yeah, well, if the gossips are right, I’m going to wait a day or so and then hit Mr. Pandola up for another hefty raise. If I have to dress this way and suffer the heat in that store, I’ll get enough out of him to pay for our baths and laundry. Besides, he has all the makings of a petty tyrant, and I’m not going to let him get away with it.”
"Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Logan laughed again, and just then Daisy came in without Angus or Klaus.
"The boy’s exhausted,” she said. "I told him to go lie down for a while. I hope that's okay?" She looked at Logan, and he nodded.
"Of course."
"He asked if he could have Klaus with him for a while. A dog's good company when you’re feeling bad. Angus promised he'd bring him in a little later. I've let the stove out, Hannah, but there's sandwiches and the soup’s good cold. How about you, Logan? Will you join us?"
"Thank you, I ate earlier, and I have to get back to the saloon. I came to tell you that if it's convenient, you can move into the other bedroom tonight. The men have moved out and Angus went up and cleaned it for you.”
After supper, Hannah helped her mother move their few belongings to the new bedroom. Although the new room was smaller than Logan’s, it had two single beds, and to Hannah, the thought of sleeping in a bed again instead of the lumpy pallet on the floor was heavenly.
She felt sweaty, and she longed for a bath tonight, but it would have to wait another day. She told Daisy about the bathhouse as they took turns having sponge baths at the nightstand.
The cool water felt wonderful, but the bedroom was still sweltering, and despite the open window, there wasn't a breath of cool air. It was going to be hard to sleep.
By the time they were ready to go to bed, Klaus was still missing, and Daisy grew agitated.
“I know Angus loves him, but I need him here with me for the night," she moaned. "We’ve never spent a single night apart. I couldn’t sleep without him curled up at my feet.”
Hannah figured she could nicely do without Klaus wheezing and snorting all night, but she didn't say so.
“You finish getting ready for bed, Mom. I'll go get him." Hannah had brushed her hair, and she was wearing only her cotton sleep shirt. She pulled on her jeans and hurried out.
The moon was bright and she hadn’t bothered with the flashlight. She walked slowly across the yard in the direction of the toolshed. It was marginally cooler out here than it was upstairs.
"Hannah." Logan’s voice startled her, coming out of the darkness behind her. He was sitting on a chair in the shadow of the Nugget, and she could see the tip of a cigar glowing in the darkness.
He got to his feet and strolled over to her, and her heart began to gallop in her chest.
“I'm looking for Klaus. Mom figures she can’t live without him."
“I came out to rouse Angus, but he and the dog were sleeping so peacefully I decided not to disturb them. Sam can manage by himself in the saloon for tonight. It’s not too busy.”
His voice was pitched low, and he was standing very close to her. The moonlight cast mys- terious shadows on his rugged face, and she was very aware that they were alone in the darkness.
‘It’s hot upstairs, too hot to sleep."
It was the first thing that came into her head.
There was a long silence, and then he said, "Would you like to come for a ride?"
"A ride? Where to?"
"William's Creek runs into a small lake just west of here. I sometimes go there after the saloon closes, to get away for an hour.”
"Could we swim?” The thought of plunging into cool water was irresistible.
"If you like. I often do." There was a seductive huskiness to his tone. "I'll go see if I can rescue Klaus without getting bitten, and then I’ll get the buggy from the livery stable."
He was back in a moment with the grumpy little dog.
Hannah flew up the stairs and plopped Klaus on Daisy’s bed. Then she rummaged in her bag for the swimming suit she’d packed in Victoria so long ago. A half-hour ago, she’d wanted nothing but sleep, and now she was wide awake and brimming with anticipation.
Daisy was creaming her face at the washstand, and she gave Hannah a questioning look.
"I’m going swimming with Logan, Mom." She braced herself for a barrage of questions and cautions and reminders about having to get up for work early in the morning, but Daisy just smiled at her from beneath the coating of face cream.
"What a good idea. Have fun, dear.”
Hannah waited for the but that inevitably would follow, and it didn’t come.
What was it with her mother these days? Going back in time had changed her. Hannah liked Daisy much better in 1868 than she had in 2014.
Feeling free and young, she raced down the steps and out the door. The buggy was hitched to the patient horse, and Logan was waiting to help her up into the seat.
The drive out to the lake was like something out of a romantic movie, and Hannah did her best to describe movies to Logan. The moon was full, and it hung above them in the sky like a golden melon.
The horse plodded through town and then turned, along some invisible path at Logan’s urging. Foliage and tree branches brushed the buggy's sides, and the wheels tilted this way and that on the uneven ground. Hannah had the feeling those same wheels were turning inside of her, tipping her first one way and then the other, slowly but inexorably leading to some unknown destination.
Yesterday’s Gold: Chapter Seventeen
This buggy was even smaller than the one Logan had taken when they went to look for the bridge. This one had room only for the two of them on its single leather seat.
Hannah tried to keep her thigh from pressing against Logan’s leg, but it was impossible. She was sitting so close to him that she was conscious of every breath he drew, and the rocking of the buggy tossed her against his shoulder.
“Do you like to swim, Hannah?"
"I love it. I used to go to the pool at the Rec Center at least a couple times a week."
"Wreck Center?” He turned and gave her a look. “I often feel when I'm with you that you speak what sounds like English, but is actually a foreign language. So many of the words you use are not familiar to me.” He shook the reins gently over the horse’s back and it increased its pace a little.
“That's how I know that as incredible as it sounds, the tale of how you came to be here in Barkerville is the truth. I don’t begin to understand how such a thing could happen, but I have no doubt any longer that it did, just the way you described."
So he believed her. She didn’t understand why it should mean so much to her, but it did. A rush of emotion washed over her, gratitude and affection and the most enormous sense of relief. It was so validating to know he believed her. She felt warm and incredibly happy and almost breathless.
“Thank you, Logan.” There was a tremor in her voice, and he turned and smiled at her.
“You’re not going to weep, are you?" he asked. “I’m not certain I have another fresh handkerchief.”
Bunching the reins in his left hand, he took hers in his right, gave it a comforting little squeeze, and then went on holding it, palm to palm, threading her fingers between his.
“I won’t start bawling,” she assured him. "It’s just that it’s been hard to know everyone thinks you’re nuts. I’ve got so much more empathy now for the patients on the Psych ward who believe they're Napoleon or Cleopatra. When I get back—”
She caught herself.
"If I ever get back, I'll be a lot more open to things that seem impossible."
“Is this sikeward the same as a lunatic asylum?”
"Sort of. Except that I think we treat the patients differently than they would now."
For the rest of the journey, she struggled to explain the differences in labeling and in attitudes between his time and her own. It led to a discussion about prejudice, which brought up the subject of the Civil War, and the South’s attitude
towards people of color.
That led to a discussion of the Chinese who lived in Barkerville, isolated from the rest of the community.
The words Logan used to describe minorities were different from the ones Hannah chose, and in her time his would have been considered insulting, but his convictions were exactly parallel to her own. The discussion was engrossing.
She was startled when Logan pulled the buggy to a standstill and released his clasp on her hand. "Here we are.”
Hannah caught her breath at the unspoiled scene that lay before her. They were on a grassy verge, and just below them was the lake, oblong, hardly bigger than a large pond. It lay as still as a mirror under the night sky, reflecting the moon on its pewter surface. Somewhere a loon laughed its crazy song, and as if in response, an owl hooted.
Logan stepped out of the buggy and came around to help her down. She shivered, aware of his hands on her waist, the tickling softness of the grass on her bare ankles. She was conscious as well of the isolation of the setting. For the first time, they were truly alone together.
The air felt like warm bathwater. Hannah gazed at the lake.
"Is the water cold?”
Logan's teeth flashed in the moonlight. "I'd say it’s refreshing."
“Like ice,” she guessed, and he laughed and nodded.
“I’m going in anyway. After the heat today, I'd welcome a shot of ice water.” She rescued the scrap of Lycra from the seat of the buggy and then hesitated, suddenly all too aware of the darkness of the surrounding woods.
"Logan, are there bears around here? Or cougars, or, ummm ...” She tried to think of other threatening wild animals.
"Moose, maybe?” she added weakly.
“Yes, all of those." His voice was amused. “And camels, we mustn't forget camels.”
“Don't tease. I’m a city woman. I don’t know much about the bush, but I do know there aren’t any camels.”
“Ahh, but there are. A packer named Frank Laumeister decided some years back that carrying supplies in by mules was too slow. He paid three hundred dollars each for twenty-three camels to be sent from Manchuria. At first, it seemed a good idea, but soon he found that the stony ground hurt the animals’ feet. Mules and horses couldn’t stand the smell of the camels and panicked when they came near. In the end he turned the camels loose to roam as they pleased."
Now and Forever: Time Travel Romance Superbundle Page 53
