Ana Seymour by A Family For Carter Jones

Author:A Family For Carter Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Twenty dollars? Twenty dollars a week?” Jennie stared at the three miners as if they had indeed suddenly sprouted feet of silver.

“They don’t care about money, Miss Jennie. Those mine owners have more than they know what to do with. You should see some of the mansions they’ve built over in Virginia City.”

“But I can hardly believe they would pay someone twenty dollars a week just to cook dinner once a day.”

“Dinner for forty hungry men,” Brad clarified.

“Who eat like a pack of wolves after a long winter,” Smitty added.

“And don’t smell much better,” Dennis concluded.

Jennie laughed. “Whose idea was this? How did you know I was going to town today to look for work.” They were sitting around the supper table, drinking coffee while Barnaby cleared the dishes and brought out huge servings of crusty peach pie that lopped over the sides of Francis Sheridan’s dainty china plates. Jennie already knew how miners ate.

“We didn’t,” Dennis explained. “But we knew that you’d been worried about finding another boarder, and when the Greaser up and quit after his brother struck it rich down by Elko, we thought, maybe Miss Jennie could come out here every noon and do this.”

“You’re a sight better cook than the Greaser,” Brad said.

Smitty added, “Amen to that.”

Jennie could hardly believe it. Twenty dollars a week. It would solve all her problems, or at least all the ones that had to do with money. “The Greaser?” she asked.

“Our cook,” Dennis explained. “Greaser Johnson. He left yesterday before the noon meal, and the foreman nearly had a mutiny on his hands. They need to get a replacement quick.”

“But I imagine they expect to hire a man,” Jennie said, not wanting to get too hopeful, but already making calculations as to exactly how many of her bills she could pay with twenty dollars a week.

“I imagine they do,” Dennis agreed with a shrug and a grin. “But once we three tell the others about the kind of fare you’ve been giving us these past few weeks, they won’t settle for another Greaser. They’ll want you.”

“We could just pack up some of this pie to hand around tomorrow morning,” Brad said, shoveling a bite into his mouth. “That’ll do the trick.”

Jennie’s pie was untouched. “You don’t think the owners would be upset about a woman being there…I mean, there aren’t any other women up at the mines, are there?”

“No, ma’am,” Dennis answered. “But you wouldn’t be alone. You’d have the three of us for kind of guards—what’s that French word?”

“Chaperons?”

“Yeah. We’d be your chap-erons.”

“We’d take care of you, Miss Jennie,” Smitty added.

Jennie looked around at their three eager faces. They made quite a trio, big, jovial Dennis, then medium-sized Brad and finally the tiny Smitty, who didn’t seem brawny enough to be a miner. She felt a wave of affection for each of them.

“Well, how can I refuse the offer of such gallant gentlemen?” she asked, smiling back at each in turn. “I’ll go up with you tomorrow morning after breakfast and apply for the job.

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