Gold Dust (40 page)

The more Katy watched him, the more the old longing stirred—that foolish coil of admiration, liking, and desire that had been
fueled by the long days and nights together on the trail. She couldn’t help but wonder if he still wanted to marry her. Now
that they were together again, she’d expected him to renew his pursuit. She’d expected him to tease her, reason with her,
persuade her, seduce her. Andy’s presence made things a bit awkward, but Jonah had managed to woo her—or had she wooed him?—on
a trail in company with a thousand Klondikers.

Give in,
a voice in her head urged.
Marry the man and discover if happily ever after really exists.

Happily ever after in Chicago? she scoffed silently. Not likely. Besides, Jonah seemed very content to leave things as they
were. Now he pursued gold rather than her. Where before he’d been content to write about gold, now he blistered his hands
and dripped with sweat in search of it.

“Do you want something to eat?” she asked him.

He threw a shovelful of sand and gravel onto the pile. “What has Hunter brought us for supper?”

“Hunter’s been lying by the stove all morning, staying warm.”

Jonah chuckled and dug his shovel into the floor of the trench. “Smart wolf. Smarter than us.”

“There’s beans, smoked trout, and biscuits from breakfast—”

“The ones I made?”

“Yes. There’s strawberry preserves I got in Dawson, and some cans of beef.”

“Feast fit for a gold king.” He tossed his shovel out of the trench. Katy reached down to help him up the steep ramp. He gripped
her forearm, his hand closing all the way around it. “Pull,” he urged. “I’m a cripple, you know. Some crazy woman shot me.”

“Your legs aren’t what I shot.” She pulled. He surged forward, and Katy landed on her back on the damp gravel with him on
top. Clear blue eyes twinkled down at her, and a sudden blaze of desire left her breathless. His chest flattened her parka-covered
breasts, and against her thigh rose the evidence of his state of male attention.

Her eyes narrowed, shooting daggers up at him. “A bit a revenge for your sore ass?”

“Me?” His smile was innocent as a child’s. “You underestimate me, Katydid. When I take revenge, there won’t be any question
or subtlety about it.”

“Oh my!” It was Camilla’s voice. Jonah and Katy had been so absorbed in each other that they’d missed the clatter of her cart
descending into the gulch. “Katy! Jonah!” She sounded mortally embarrassed.

Jonah laughed and got to his feet, pulling Katy up beside him. “It’s all right, Camilla. Katy was just helping me out of the
trench and I was a bit too much for her.”

“Too much for me?” Katy whispered out of the side of her mouth. “That’ll be the day.”

Jonah merely smiled. “You’re just in time for supper,” he said to Camilla. “Light and rest a while.”

“Jonah! I thought you went back to the States!”

“And let Katy and Andy have all my gold?” he said with a laugh.

“You found gold?”

“Not a trace,” Katy told her. “Yet.”

“Well,” Camilla said. “If anyone can find it, you can, Katy. I brought a few things for Alexandra—and you too, Katy. I know
you lost everything in the Sheep Camp flood, then again at Whitehorse.” She could refer to that tragedy now without flinching.
Katy was reminded again of how much she admired Camilla’s courage. Making one’s own way in the world by choice was all very
well and good, but to be alone because your loved ones were lost—that was something entirely different.

Camilla tugged a bundle from the back of the cart. “Alexandra needs some feminine things, and there were a couple of dresses
someone ordered from me and never picked up.”

“Dresses?” Andy asked suspiciously.

“Yes, Alexandra,” Camilla answered firmly. “Dresses. How old are you?”

“Dunno. Maybe twelve or thirteen. I don’t keep track.”

“From the looks of you, you’re plenty old enough to wear proper clothes.”

“I got proper clothes! These are nice and warm.”

“You won’t be digging for gold forever. Soon you’ll be a rich young lady. Do you want to look like a scarecrow, and a poorly
dressed scarecrow at that?”

“Yes’m.”

Katy wanted to laugh. Too well she remembered the day that Olivia had first decked her out in female fripperies in the cabin
above Elkhorn, Montana. She’d been so embarrassed that she’d had to be dragged down to greet her father when he came in from
working the mine. She must have looked very much like Andy, she thought. A glance downward showed her that she didn’t look
much different even now, eight years later.

Jonah relieved Camilla of the bundle as they walked toward the cabin. Andy and Katy fell in behind.

“Don’t want no dresses!” Andy hissed quietly into Katy’s ear.

“Just try them on,” Katy advised. “Make her happy. Camilla has a good heart, and she’s being very kind to both of us.”

Andy expressed her doubt in a soft growl as they walked through the door of the cabin.

They warmed themselves with coffee while Camilla told them the latest from Dawson. A couple of prospectors had brought in
a big strike on Hunker Creek. George Digby at the North American Trading and Transportation Company had come down with the
influenza and died. Rumor had it that a steamer on the Yukon had gotten itself wedged between some ice floes halfway between
Dawson and the coast. Camilla had heard that there was some rich foreign lady on the boat with a monster dog. The woman had
offered a reward to anyone who could get the steamer free, and a party of men had left Dawson to help dig the boat out. If
the steamer made it to Dawson, it would doubtless be the last one that made the trip until spring.

Camilla accepted a second cup of steaming coffee. “Andy,” she said, “you are going to adore the way you look in these dresses.
I think the fit will be good, but if it’s not, I’ll simply alter them to your size.” She unwrapped the bundle and held up
a long-sleeved blue polka-dotted gingham trimmed with lace around the collar and the cuffs.

“This is too good to wear every day, but for special occasions like church, or… well, going out, this is perfect.”

She tossed the first dress to Andy and shook out another, a brown wool serge with a vee waist and sleeves that were full and
puffed from shoulder to elbow and tightly fitted from elbow to wrist. “This looks a bit old and sedate for you, but I could
add a flounce and do something with the sleeves. Hm?”

She threw it on Andy’s lap with the other.

“And here is the best.” She took out a green, ruffly garment
that was exactly designed for a little girl blossoming into young womanhood. “Isn’t this sweet?”

Andy made a choking sound before a lethal look from Katy silenced her.

“And now we ladies will retire behind the screen over there and transform Alexandra into a proper lass.”

“Why don’t you ladies use the whole cabin?” Jonah offered. “I hear a shovel calling me back to work.”

Andy looked longingly at the door as Jonah escaped, but before she could protest Camilla took her by the hand and started
measuring with her eyes. “Let’s see what we have here.”

By the time an hour had passed, poor Andy had been tucked, pinned, flounced, hemmed, and trimmed. Her hair had been dampened,
wound into short red curls around Camilla’s fingers, and set next to the stove to dry, along with the rest of her. Her face
had been washed and her fingernails scrubbed. All the garments expect the green dress and two petticoats needed altering,
and now she stood in the ruffly and very feminine little green gown and looked embarrassed as a dog in cat clothing.

“I can’t work in this,” she protested.

“You can do women’s work, dear, but of course a dress wasn’t made for shoveling and such.”

“Got to shovel to find gold,” Andy growled.

“Of course you do. These clothes are for coming into town and celebrating once you’ve found it.”

Somewhat mollified, Andy looked down at herself suspiciously.

“You’re a very pretty girl,” Camilla told her. “In a few years, the boys are going to be on you like flies on honey.”

“Yeah, I bet.” Andy didn’t sound happy about that idea, and Katy sympathized, considering the girl had narrowly escaped being
trapped in her mother’s sordid profession.

“Men do have their uses, Andy,” Katy reminded her. She thought of her father and how tender he was with Olivia. She
thought of Jonah. “Not all men are like those who came to your mother.”

“Oh? Andy? Your mother is still alive?” Camilla asked.

“My mother’s a whore,” Andy answered belligerently. “I got raised in a whorehouse, with all the men flockin’ around me. They
was like flies, all right.”

“Oh my! Then my remark was certainly ill considered. I meant no harm.”

Camilla looked truly stricken. Andy took her hand. “I know you didn’t mean no harm. I like the dresses. Really. I’ll wear
‘em next time we come to town.”

Camilla had her eyes cast downward and couldn’t see the grimace on Andy’s face, but Katy could. She was surprised at the girl’s
concession.

“You really do look beautiful in that green,” Camilla said softly. “Let’s call Jonah and see what he thinks.”

Andy rolled her eyes as Camilla went to the door and called out.

Jonah and Camilla spent the waning afternoon making such a fuss over Andy’s new duds that by suppertime, Andy herself began
to preen. Her face took on a warm glow and her manner became almost shy.

Camilla agreed to spend the night. In fact, she seemed eager to. When Andy, dressed once again in warm woolen trousers and
a parka, left the cabin to fill the water buckets from the stream, Camilla broached an unexpected subject.

“A school is starting up in Dawson,” she told Katy and Jonah.

“Good!” Jonah approved. “Where there’s people, there’s kids.”

“Education is very important to a person these days,” Camilla said. “The world is changing, you know. Days when a person could
build a future with just hard work and a piece of land won’t be around much longer. You can’t get by in the world without
reading and writing and numbers—more even. Women are going to college, getting the vote, and becoming as educated as men.”

“My stepma’s a doctor,” Katy said.

“How admirable! Just my point exactly! I dream of the things I could do if I had more of an education.”

Camilla had come a long way from the obedient wife who had followed in blind devotion while her husband led the way to disaster,
Katy thought.

“That’s why I… well…” She glanced anxiously at the door, as if fearing Andy’s return. “… I was hoping you might let Andy stay
with me in town and start attending school. She’s such a wild little thing, but she has so much potential.”

An unexpected bolt of panic shot through Katy. “But I promised Andy a share of the claim.”

“She could help you on weekends and holidays,” Camilla countered. “Besides, surely you won’t be able to work once winter sets
in for real.”

“There are ways to work even when the ground is frozen solid,” Katy protested. “You light a fire and melt the gravel—”

“But now Jonah is here to help.”

Jonah was looking at Katy with an expectancy that reminded her of the looks her father used to give her when she was being
childish, which was frequent.

“Andy would want to stay on the claim,” Katy insisted, feeling selfish even as she said it. Almost without Katy being aware
of it, the kid had slipped into her heart. She was a companion and a little sister. The thought of losing her made her heart
sink.

“She’ll probably want to stay,” Jonah agreed, still looking at Katy. “But you could talk her into going with Camilla.”

Katy’s rebellious silence was broken as Andy banged the door open and stumped in carrying two brimming buckets. “Not enough
for baths,” she announced cheerfully. “Stream’s practically frozen over.”

Jonah’s stool scraped the floor as he got abruptly to his feet. “Andy, stay here and entertain Camilla for a while. Katy and
I have some chores to do outside.”

“What chores?” Andy asked. “It’s dark.”

“Chores,” Jonah replied tersely.

“It’s mighty cold,” Andy warned.

Jonah threw a parka at Katy. The steel determination in his eyes brooked no argument.

Once they were away from the cabin, Jonah stopped and propped his fists upon his hips. His voice had as much steel as his
eyes. “You’re going to convince Andy to go with Camilla,” he said confidently.

“She won’t listen to me.”

“You’re the only one she’ll listen to.”

“I promised I’d give her a job for as long as I’m in the Klondike.”

“This has gone way beyond a job, and you know it.”

Katy answered with silence. She scraped the toe of her boot across the gravel and refused to look up into Jonah’s moon-silvered
face. That he cared so much about Andy moved her. That he cared nothing for her own needs and feelings hurt, however.

“She’d hate it,” Katy finally protested. “She’d probably run away.”

“She wouldn’t run away from Camilla. Camilla’s got a knack with kids, and Andy likes her a lot. Andy will do it if you ask
her to.”

Katy gusted out a sigh.

Jonah laid a hand on her arm. Even through his glove and her parka the touch tingled on her skin. “Camilla can set her on
the right path,” he said. “Andy needs to learn to be a girl, and a child. And… Camilla needs to be someone’s mother.”

That was true, Katy acknowledged reluctantly to herself. She saw the glow in Camilla’s eyes whenever she looked at Andy. And
it was true that Andy showed a bit of softening when she spoke to Camilla.

“I could teach her,” Katy said in a small voice. “I’m a woman, too.”

Jonah’s smile made her heart jump. “I did notice that.”

“But I suppose Camilla’s better at being a real woman.”

“You’re as real a woman as anyone could ever want, Katydid. But I think Camilla needs Andy more than you do right now.”

Katy gave a disgusted snort.

Jonah smiled and touched her cheek with a gloved finger. “Everyone needs to grow up sometime, Katy.”

As he walked back toward the cabin, leaving her in cold solitude, Katy wondered if he was talking about Andy or her.