Native Gold by Glynnis Campbell

Author:Glynnis Campbell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9781938114113
Publisher: Glynnis Campbell
Published: 2014-10-09T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

It was the following Friday when the miners decided something had to be done.

Swede ran a hand over the back of his neck and murmured, "Are you sure she’s tucked in for the night?" He didn’t like meeting this way, in secret, in the shadows. It was like they were a bunch of Paradise Bar vigilantes getting ready to string someone up.

"Her candles were all blowed out," Jeremy reported.

Swede gave one final glance in the direction of Mattie’s cabin before he began. "Fellas, you know I don’t cotton much to this kind of sneakin’ around. Miss Mattie’s a decent woman. She wouldn’t think too kindly on us spreadin’ tales."

"Well now," Tom Cooligan said, perching his hat toward the back of his head, "that’s all well and good, but it’s for the lady’s sake we’re meetin’."

Swede might not approve of their methods, but he agreed they had to take action. For five days now, Mattie had moped around her cabin like a kicked hound. Jasper and Red never saw her come to work her claim. Nobody got their picture drawn. Her gentlemen callers, and there’d been at least a dozen, had all been served a portion of the same polite disinterest. Something was troubling Mattie, and since she was the camp’s resident darling, he supposed maybe the men’s cloak-and-dagger goings-on could be forgiven.

"Maybe the lass is feelin’ poorly," Tom volunteered.

"I tell you," Frenchy insisted, wagging his finger under Tom’s nose, "her heart is broken."

Tom crossed his arms over his chest. "And what makes ye so sure o’ that?"

Frenchy shrugged. "I am French. I know these things."

The rest of the miners nodded sagely.

"All right then," Swede said, looking real hard at the faces of the men gathered around the fire. "Which one of you did it? Which one of you broke her heart?"

They all looked about as comfortable as nuns in a whorehouse. Finally, Dash Campbell spoke up. "Mighta been me."

His brother Ben promptly smacked him with a hat, which couldn’t have felt too good on that yellow bruise Dash still had from last Saturday’s brawl.

"Aw, she never even looked twice at you," Ben said. "I was the one she had eyes for."

"You’re both idjits," Bobby Cooper told him. "Me and my brother, why, we been up to her place three times now."

"Yeah," Harley jeered, "like pesky ‘skeeters she can’t get rid of."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

The boys looked raring to start another round of the fight they never finished on Saturday. Swede sighed. He never thought having a lady in camp could cause so much grief. He stepped between them, clamping a hand on each boy’s shoulder before they could inflict damage.

"Hold on now. Don’t get your feathers all fluffed up."

Granny raised a hand.

"What is it, Gran?" Swede asked.

"It’s prob’ly Zeke who broke her heart," she mumbled, spitting on the ground.

Zeke glanced around quickly, like he’d just woken up. "Me?" he squeaked.

"Yeah, well..." Granny kicked the dust around with the toe of her boot. "What lady wouldn’t be sweet on him?"

Swede could have knocked Zeke over with a feather after that.

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