CHARITY'S GOLD RUSH (A Strike It Rich in Montana novel) (14 page)

             
“Gabriel’s Bible verses.”

             
“Ah.” Mabel grabbed a
dish
towel. “You don’t agree.”

             
“Nope.
A bunch of foolishness.
” Charity scrubbed a pot hard enough to
splash water and
soak the front of her dress. Maybe a wet front would cool her down.

             
“As soon as I saw the Bible in his hand, I wondered how you were going to respond.” Mabel dried the pan Charity had washed. “Gabe is a God-fearing man, Charity. Whether you share his beliefs or not might be the deciding factor as to what happens come springtime.”

             
She was well aware of that fact, but she couldn’t accept a loving God for no
one
.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe, but rather she didn’t believe God cared for her. Some people were not good enough for God.
No matter how hard she tried, Charity would not be considered one of the good ones. She was too hot-tempered and unsubmissive.

             
“People are allowed to believe what they want. What I want to know is what the two men were conversing about.”

             
“Hiram
still
won’t say.” Mabel reached for another plate. “I’m thinking Gabe won’t say either?”

             
“Not a word. Told me it wasn’t something women needed to worry about.”

             
“And that sat with you like a tick, didn’t it?” Mabel chuckled. “As life goes on, you’ll learn to let
some
things slide.
Pick your battles, I always say.
You’ll figure out your man’s secrets soon enough.”

             
“Gabriel isn’t my man.” Charity washed the last plate and handed it over. She
would like him to be her husband as a man should, but
didn’t think there was a man out there for her.

She glanced out the window. Hiram and Gabriel stood in close conversation again, studying something in Gabriel’s hand. “You’re one of the lucky ones, Mabel. Not every man can be like your Hiram.
You can tell he loves you more than the air he breathes. It’s in his eyes.
”

             
Mabel clapped her on the shoulder. “That is the tru
th
, my dear. But God made a man for every woman. Give it time.” She bustled outside, leaving Charity to ponder her words.

11

             
Amos grinned as
he
knocked the rail from the posts. After mounting his horse, he cracked his whip over the cattle’s heads and urged them out of the valley and into the next. He wasn’t stealing them. Amos knew the penalty for thievery. He just wanted to set Gabe back a bit on achieving his goal.
Lay claim to this lush land Maggie once slaved over.
Land that should have been Amos’s after she died. Prime land with hills and valleys and a creek that never ran dry.

             
One of the cows balked, and Amos flicked the whip across its back. If Gabe took advantage of the free r
ange
, he might not know for a day or two that his cattle was missing. Ever since Amos destroyed part of the fence a year ago, Gabe had kept them penned.
Now, Amos had to sneak a little closer. If Gabe ever got a dog, he’d have to find another way to antagonize and slow the man down.

             
Once his marriage of convenience was over,
Amos would
rub salt in the wound by courting the newest Mrs. Williams. Then, he’d find a way to lay claim to Maggie’s children, and his family would be complete. Gabe Williams would be where Amos is now. Alone
and bitter
.

             
He had thought the fire would take care of things. With the loss of his tobacco tin, it didn’t take an overly smart man to figure out who had set the blaze.
Proving it, though. That was another thing.
Let Gabe come confront him. He’d welcome the challenge.

             
Maybe revenge would heal the ache in Amos’s heart over losing Maggie.

###

“Cattle’s gone.” Gabriel grabbed his rifle from the over the fireplace. “I’ll be gone most of the day. Keep the young’uns close to home.”

             
Charity glanced up from her mending
, her heart skittering
. “Do you need help?”

             
“Can you ride?” He paused by the door
, glancing over his shoulder
, eyebrows raised
.

             
She shook her head.

             
“Then you’re best suited
to stay
here
minding Meg and Sam
.” He slapped his hat on his head and stormed out.

             
Charity needed
to add learning to ride to her never
-
ending list of things she needed to
accomplish
. She
poked
the needle through the knee of Sam’s britches hard
and
jab
bed
her finger. She hissed and stuck the injured appendage in her mouth, then paused. With Gabriel gone, she could take the children panning for gold!

             
“Come on children, we’re going for a walk.” Charity
glanced
outside
to make sure they heard her
, then moved to gather the makings of a simple lunch. What else would she need? Water, a pan, a sifter. She gathered everything in a blanket and hoisted the pack over her shoulder before heading outside.

             
“Where we going?” Sam
sat
Patches in the house and closed the door.

             
“To find some gold.”

             
“Yippee!” Meg clapped her hands.

             
“Pa said there ain’t any.” Sam cocked his head. “He’s going to be mad at you.”

             
What else was new? “We’ll be home before he is.” It wasn’t like they were being devious
, exactly
. Gabriel had never come right out and said Charity couldn’t look for gold. He
’d
told her to watch the children. She could do both.

             
“Now, we’ll follow the creek aways upstream and start there. We’ll have fun.”

             
“Why do you want to do this, anyway?” Sam took the blanket pack from her. “Pa buys everything we need.”

             
Charity bit her tongue to keep from blurting out the fact she wouldn’t be with them by this time next year and needed to
provide
a living for herself. She really did not want to do laundry anymore
and fend off
the
unwanted advances from dirty men
. “More money always helps.”

             
They trudged through the ash and burned grass until they left the area around the house. Slowly, black became brown as evidence from the fire faded from view to be replaced by signs of the drought.
The dry grass rasped against the hem of Charity’s dress and poked at her legs. T
he aspens upstream drooped from lack of water.

             
Clouds overhead promised rain in the
near
future, leaving the air heavy with humidity. Charity picked up the pace
and
sloshed
across a creek that almost reached Meg’s waist
.
It must have already been raining in the mountains for the creek to be so high.

The clouds had been there since yesterday and still hadn’t dropped their load
in the valley
. Who
was to say it would happen on that particular day
?
Other than her ill luck. From their weight and the grey curtain in the distance, the rain poured higher in the mountains, refreshing the thirsty land.
They would need to be careful crossing the creeks.

             
Charity and the children
walked for an hour before Charity
’s leg throbbed
,
and she
figured they had gone far enough. The creek
they stopped at
bubbled clear and strong from a fissure
under
some rocks. Underground brooks were known to hold gold
—s
he thought she had heard that somewhere
, maybe from miners talking around the table at the diner.

After Sam dropped the pack, she dug out the simple sandwiches. They would need to eat so they
w
ould have the strength to pan. “I’ll work here with this tin plate. You two work at stirring up the bottom.”

             
“How are we supposed to do that?” Sam wanted to know.

             
“Take off your shoes and splash around.”

             
“We’ll get wet.”

             
Charity sighed. “It’s hot enough
that
you’ll be all right
.” The boy was just like his father, having no idea how to have fun.
Life had to be more than hard work, surely
, even on the prairie
.

             
Leaving her shoes on the bank, Charity tucked her skirt up into the waist of her apron and waded into the frigid water. Pinpricks of ice shot through her feet and calves
and numbed the burn on her leg
. Panning was going to be hard work.

             
She scooped the fine silt
from
the bottom of the creek into her pan and swirled
it
, losing everything in the current. The next time, she slowed down and repeated the process
, letting the water slop out gradually over the rim of the pan. The silt washed away with the water, but heavier bits settled in the bottom, and at last
fine particles of yellow showed. She knew there was gold! “Look, you two.”

             
Sam and Meg clustered around her. “Wow,” Sam said. “We’re rich.”

             
Charity giggled. “Not yet, but it’s promising.”

             
Thunder rumbled.
No! It couldn’t rain. Not today. They needed to hurry.

             
She glanced to where Sam and Meg laughed and splashed each other with cupped hands
. They kicked
, sending water flying into the air.
She should have brought them here
days ago.

             
As more flakes appeared in her plate, Charity’s spirits rose
, even as her back ached from the strain of bending
. Finally, life was letting her have the upper hand. Now that she knew
where
to find the shiny stuff, she would
head here at every opportunity
. When she could find no more gold in the creek
, she’d search for those caves Sam mentioned.

             
The thunder rumbled louder
, clearly closer
.

             
Less than an hour later, with very little gold wrapped in a cloth, Charity lifted her face to the first of the raindrops. Fat plops hit the creek water, splashing as if the rain came from below
as well as
from
above them. Lightning cut across the sky with a crack.

             
Meg screamed.

             
“Come on.” Charity rushed to the bank and slipped on her shoes. “We’d best hurry home.” She didn’t want them caught in a downpour. What if the creek rose
further
?
I
t
wouldn’t get deep enough to warrant swimming, would it? Charity couldn’t swim.

             
The children rushed to do her bidding. Despite hurrying, the three of them were
soon
drenched as the clouds
finally
released their burden of rain.
Charity’s shoulders slumped.
Gabriel was going to kill her.

             
The section of creek that had been deep enough on the way to the gold, had rose,
and now ran
swift. Charity and the children stopped at the bank. It couldn’t be over Meg’s waist. They should be all right. If they hurr
ied
.

             
Sam splashed across, holding the blanket pack over his head, and soon made his way up the opposite bank. Charity placed her hands on Meg’s shoulders and steered her into the water.