Braden nodded. "Yep, that"s okay then.
Ian can have it." Ian didn"t want it.
"So, Rooster"s brother came and got him?" Ian studied the handwritten note Carlton Clemment had scribbled Braden"s name on.
Meredith straightened from the table, where she snipped at green wool for Ian"s shirt. She folded the cloth with sharp, tidy snaps. "That"s good. He needed to go home."
"How"d you get up on that roof so fast?" Braden asked Amy, who set the little bag she"d kept at her side all the way from Seattle in the corner of the kitchen.
"Flew up just like Rooster does?" Ian offered the deed back to Braden.
Amy smiled, shook her head, and said nothing.
"I"m not taking it." Braden tucked his hands in his pockets. "You and Merry"ve been caring for him. You"ll be the ones takin" his claim, and that"s that."
Amy crouched on the floor by the wall, her bag beside her. Braden watched her digging around in what looked like twigs and crushed leaves. What had she gathered that for? Kindling?
"Stubborn big brother." Ian narrowed his eyes, then shoved the paper into the breast pocket of Braden"s brown broadcloth shirt. "I don"t need another claim. This isn"t like Oregon where we want to add to our acreage to grow more crops. I"m getting a living out of the rock I"m hacking at now. A few ounces of gold a month trickle out of there. We don"t need much cash money. And I"m as busy as I want to be."
"But what if there"s a big gold strike on Rooster"s land? It should be yours."
Ian looked at Meredith. "He"s right. I could be handin" away a fortune."
Meredith"s eyes twinkled. "Why do I doubt that?"
Ian laughed, and Meredith joined in. "Keep the claim, Braden. The house is the real gold mine."
Braden thought about the mess inside Rooster"s house. Why do I doubt that?
"We"re too crowded here." Meredith tucked the fabric into one of the wooden boxes Braden had brought that nearly filled the little cabin. "And if G.o.d wants Ian to strike it rich, he will. He won"t have to go around grabbing up every claim that comes his way."
Ian nodded. "I"d rather hunt than dig any day. We can"t eat gold."
Amy smiled. "That sounds very Alaskan of you."
Tucker came in carrying a platter of raw steaks. Braden noticed Meredith turn from her brother and move to the open window. She stood casually looking out and breathing slowly. But her stance struck Braden as deliberate.
Braden pulled the deed out. "I can live in the house without owning it."
Tucker gave his sister a close look that made Braden wonder if the two of them were up to something. "I saw Wily going downriver with Rooster and another man. What"s going on?"
"Rooster"s brother came to get him." Braden quickly told Tucker what had happened that morning.
"Wasn"t Wily just here last night?" Tucker looked away from his sister then began to skewer the steaks with a pointed metal spit and hang them over the gently crackling flames in the fireplace.
"He told me he"d sleep in Skaguay," Braden remembered. "Downstream"s faster than up, and he expected to get home before it got too late."
Ian nodded. "True enough. Rooster"s brother must have pushed him hard."
Amy rose from digging around in her bag, and Braden noticed her favoring her ribs. His thoughts went back to Rooster"s house. "Why"d you go up on the roof anyway? You could have fallen off and gotten yourself killed."
Amy turned and sank into one of Ian"s roughhewn chairs. "I"ve seen people driven half mad by the long winter before. I hoped I could talk some sense into him-talk him into going back down south. He let me pray with him. Then just when we were praying, his brother came as if G.o.d Himself had sent help."
Tucker added sticks to the fire.
"Here"s how it"s gonna be, big brother." Ian laughed and slapped Braden on the shoulder hard enough that Braden nearly staggered. "You"re taking the claim."
Braden felt his jaw tighten. "I might be robbing my own brother of a fortune. I won"t do it."
"Braden." Ian shook his head, grinning. "There"s no great wealth to be chiseled outta those rocks."
Braden didn"t want to take the chance of striking it rich and alienating his brother forever. "I"ll take the claim, but anything I find, we share."
Ian shrugged. "Sounds fair enough if you"ll agree to the same thing on my claim. I don"t want you digging on Rooster"s claim anyway. I want you digging on mine."
"I"m not taking half your gold!"
Tucker straightened. "We always work together without much mind to which claim we"re on. It"s safer to stay together, and the isolation of working a claim gets to a man after a while."
"Like it did Rooster." Ian"s gaze hardened. "So, I"ll take your deal of sharing, Braden. A three-way split between you, me, and Tucker. And offer you the same deal back on my own claim."
"I"ll take it." Braden couldn"t imagine what he"d need gold for. But if he got any, he"d spend it on his brother and Meredith somehow or send it home to Da and Ma. "I need a house, and you need the s.p.a.ce."
"Merry and I will do what straightening we can to your new house today," Amy said quietly. "I looked inside a window as I climbed up. It needs...quite a bit of work.
An understatement if Braden had ever heard one. He remembered Rooster"s man-sized chicken coop. Braden wondered if he"d be the one on the roof next.
Chapter 8.
Have you been inside Rooster"s cabin, Merry?" Amy and Meredith started down the path toward Braden"s new cabin as soon as they"d cleaned up after lunch. Amy thought of the work ahead of them to turn a nest into a home.
The men were long gone exploring Rooster"s claim.
"Oh my, yes. The contents of Rooster"s house will make a year"s worth of kindling. All we have to do is carry it outside."
"That"s all, huh?" Amy and Meredith exchanged a dry look; then Merry started laughing. The urge to laugh surprised Amy. She"d always been very reserved with people, and she"d spent little time around women her age. There were some in the school, of course, but Amy went home only to the McGraws, who were wonderful to her but were more given to quiet smiles than to giggles.
The two of them set to work. Amy ignored her aching ribs. The pain was no longer sharp and frightening. Amy noticed that Meredith had turned pale and worked more slowly as the hours pa.s.sed.
"Why don"t you go back to the cabin and start supper? I can finish here."
The pale color of Meredith"s cheeks took on a faintly greenish tinge, and her shoulders slumped. "There"ll be mutton again tonight." She said the words like she was reading a death notice and then walked away.
Exhausted by the time the light faded from the sky, Amy swept the cabin free of the last bits of twigs and leaves and then hurried back to help Meredith. Amy"s strength waned far too quickly. To make the meal more interesting, she gathered a few greens on her way. Noting a berry bush, Amy planned the dessert she would make when they were ripe.
She spotted a moss her mother had brewed into a tea that helped reduce fever and another useful in a poultice to prevent wounds from turning septic. She needed to lay in a supply of medicines, so she made a note of the location.
She stepped in the cabin just as Meredith set the steaks on to cook in a large iron kettle full of water. Meredith straightened from hanging the kettle and staggered backward.
Amy rushed forward and caught Meredith before she fell.
"Are you all right?" Amy turned Meredith to face her. Meredith"s cheeks were ashen, and her eyes weren"t focused.
"AAmy?" Meredith groped for Amy"s arm as if she couldn"t see where to hang on.
"Sit down." Amy urged Meredith to the table, settling her on a chair.
Meredith folded her arms on the table and laid her head down. "I must have straightened up too suddenly."
"Are you feeling ill?" Amy ran a hand over Meredith"s disheveled hair. Meredith"s forehead glowed with sweat.
"No, don"t worry about me. I"m fine." Meredith lifted her head then looked toward the fireplace, clamped her mouth shut tight, and laid her head down again.
"Is the smell of the steak making you dizzy?" Amy couldn"t imagine why that would be. Influenza had gone through the school in Seattle, but that kind of illness was rare in remote areas of Alaska. Other people had to bring the disease. If Amy had gotten sick on the boat and brought some sickness with her, that would make sense. But neither Amy nor Braden had experienced so much as a sniffle.
Meredith, her voice m.u.f.fled by her arms and the table, said, "I think I need some fresh air."
Amy watched as Meredith raised her head and shoved herself to her feet. Amy didn"t trust her not to fall again, so she took a firm grip on Meredith"s arm and steadied her until they got outside.
The stump Braden had used to chop kindling stood only a few feet from the house. Amy helped Meredith reach it then eased her down.
"I think I know what"s wrong." Meredith lifted her head and managed a true smile, even though her skin carried the chalky white of a long blizzard.
"What?"
"It"s better outside. I hadn"t realized how much the smell of cooking meat bothered me."
"What is better? What is wrong?" Amy sorted through the illnesses her mother had taught her and the treatments. Did Meredith have a wound that had festered? Had she fallen and sustained some internal injury? Amy crouched down in front of Meredith to quiz her.
A secret smile on Meredith"s lips stopped Amy"s questions. A blush crept up Meredith"s cheeks, erasing the frightening pallor as Meredith"s hand slid to her stomach.
"I think I"m carrying Ian"s child." A soft laugh escaped Meredith"s lips, and she quickly moved one hand to catch the sound.
Amy dropped the rest of the way to the ground. "Really?" A smile spread across her face as she looked at Meredith"s joyful expression.
"I"ve been wondering for a couple of weeks, but I wasn"t sure. That must be it, don"t you think?"
Amy knew something about babies and how they were born because her mother had occasionally been called in to do some doctoring for her people. Amy asked questions about Meredith"s condition, and they decided together that a baby was definitely on the way.
"Have you told Ian yet?" Amy clutched Meredith"s hands, excited about the new baby.
The smiled faded from Meredith"s face, and her pallor returned. "I"m afraid to even suggest it."
Amy got on her knees and leaned close to her friend. "But why?"
Meredith"s lips curled down, and her eyes filmed over with tears. "Ian worries, and now that he"s heard about Maggie"s death..." Meredith shuddered. "Braden, Ian, and Maggie practically grew up together. I"m afraid to tell Ian I"m expecting. I know it will frighten him. He"s already overprotective of me. This will make it worse."
"You are going to have to tell him, Merry. This is not the kind of thing a woman can hide for long."
"Oh, I know. I"ll tell him soon. But now that I know I may have trouble cooking, he"ll worry all the more. He"s already so busy with the mine that he comes home exhausted every night. Now he"ll think he needs to cook and do any lifting around the house. He"ll take even more on himself. I understand that this stomach upset and the dizziness don"t last. If I could just wait to tell him until I"m feeling stronger, I think he"d handle it better."
Amy nodded. "And Braden is going to be even worse than Ian."
Meredith took Amy"s hand. "He seems so sad, and he has yet to even speak Maggie"s name except when Ian asked him a direct question. Has he talked to you about her?"
"No, the first I knew his wife and child had died was when you told me about it this morning."
Meredith straightened and looked over her shoulder toward the woods. "Tucker will take his cue from Ian and Braden. I"ll be lucky if the three of them don"t order me to bed for the whole time. And I wouldn"t mind them being so protective if it didn"t land a burden on all of them."
Amy nodded. "Then here is what we will do. We will wait as long as possible to tell the men. In the meantime, I will help you with the things that upset your stomach-like the cooking. We will get you outside in the fresh air every chance. Since I have newly arrived, maybe they will not realize you are doing a bit less and I am doing more."
"But you"re still exhausted from your trip."
"So, we will work together. Surely the two of us together, even in the shape we are in, equal one fully functioning woman."
Meredith"s eyes got wide; then she erupted into laughter. The two of them hugged.
"Congratulations." Amy pulled away to arm"s length. "This baby is going to be such a precious blessing to this home."
Meredith"s eyes filled with tears of joy. "I can"t wait." She hugged her stomach again.
Amy hopped to her feet. Despite her long day and lingering injuries, she felt renewed strength. "I am going in to finish the dinner. You rest a bit. If you are able, you can stack the branches Braden and I brought in today. I think the fresh air is all you need. When the meat is done cooking and the room airs out, I will call you in. Can you eat? Sometimes new mothers are nauseated."
Meredith shrugged. "I"ve had a good appet.i.te so far. I think it"s just the smell of it cooking that got to me. I"ve had several episodes like the one tonight, but no one caught me with my head on the table." Meredith stood and threw her arms around Amy. "Thank G.o.d for you, Amy." Meredith burst into tears.
Amy shook her head and patted Meredith on the shoulder until the tears eased. "I remember my mother saying crying at odd times was a symptom of a baby on the way."
Meredith dried her eyes on her ap.r.o.n. "Well, I"ve definitely got that."
"Sit back down for a while. Make sure your head is clear before you start bending and stacking the branches. And do not let me catch you lifting any heavy ones, or I am telling Ian about the baby tonight."
Meredith nodded, then sat and folded her hands in her lap like a prim and proper schoolgirl. "I"ll behave, Mama. I promise."
Meredith dissolved into laughter, and Amy joined in.
Amy finally went to the house and set about preparing dinner for the Rafferty clan.
Swirling the pan, letting the crystal clear water overflow the edges, and watching for bits of gold, Braden hadn"t seen a fleck of gold yet. He wished he"d catch gold fever because, unless he did, panning for gold was never going to be any fun. He didn"t see much sign of the gold madness resting on Ian or Tucker, either. The only time they got interested as they worked about twenty feet apart on the icy murmuring stream was when they talked about hunting.
"I saw polar bear tracks a stone"s throw from my house." Tucker worked the rocker with the steady swish of water against a sieve. Occasionally, he straightened and flicked at the bottom of his pan with a negligent finger and then tossed the contents away.