The California Gold Rush Romance Collection by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63409-911-0
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2016-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The front door rattled like someone testing the lock. A couple of light taps followed by louder knocks.

Jo picked up the bread and put it on the kitchen table. Her gun still in her hand, she walked to the front door. “Who is it?”

“Beatrice French. I’m the bank auditor from your father.”

Jo put her gun in her pocket and opened the door. “I’m Jo Bass. Please come in, Miss French.”

“Call me Bea. I hope this isn’t inconvenient. I don’t usually arrive on a Sunday, but your father thought it best I get here as soon as possible.”

That was fast. The telegram was sent five days ago. Why would Father send a woman when Mr. Young was his best auditor?

“I should have waited until tomorrow, but no one was at the boardinghouse.” She set her valise inside the door. “Everyone I saw was in some sort of a panic. I thought I’d try finding you or Mr. Bass.”

“Oh my goodness. Thad.” Jo wheeled and ran back to her brother.

He sat against the wall, legs straight out. His hands cradled the sides of his head. His groans filled the narrow space.

“I’m here, Thad. Who did this to you?”

“Don’t know. Heard back door.” He touched the corner of his mouth. “Saw no one.” He bent his knees to roll over and stand.

“Sit for a few more minutes. That cut on your head may make you dizzy.”

He didn’t argue. He rested against the wall.

Bea cleared her throat. “What happened? Who is this man on the floor?”

Jo guided Bea to the kitchen. “That’s my brother, Thaddeus. We were robbed less than an hour ago. I was at the mine cave-in and he was here.”

“Did they break into the safe? Are your funds and ledgers gone?”

“They took the safe. Pried it out of its framed shelf and dragged it out the back door.”

She tucked a stray strand from the braid she had looped and knotted on the back of her head. Her side curls were not as long, spiraled, or thick as Bea’s mahogany brown hair, but they were as stylish.

Bea sat down at the table. “I must admit you’re unusually calm about having been robbed.”

“I’m more concerned about Thad. The safe and its contents can be replaced.”

“A noble sentiment. But I doubt your depositors will be as understanding.”

Jo heard the springs squeak on Thad’s bed. “Excuse me a moment.” She found Thad stretched out on his bed fully clothed.

He motioned with a feeble hand toward the end of the bed. “Blanket. Head hurts. Can’t think.”

“You rest. I must take bread to the mine. It’s long overdue.” She went back to the kitchen, explained the bread to Bea, and together they hurried to the cave-in.

They found Reverend Noland in the surgery tent. He doused a chunk of bread in whiskey and laid it against a man’s leg. A woman Jo didn’t know tied a strip of cloth around the leg. He and the woman repeated the process on several of the injured.

“It’s like the loaves and fishes in the Bible.

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