The Claim (16 page)

Just then, Father Joseph strolled by, Mr. Biddle at his side.

“
Bonjour, mademoiselle!
”

William looked around casually, then turned back to me and continued in a lower voice. “I would advise you to let me resolve this quietly. I am not unaware of your”—and here he paused to choose the correct word—“
popularity
with the locals, and I am prepared to sweeten the pot.”

“Really.”

He smiled magnanimously. “In return for your cooperation, you may keep two acres of land, as well as your house.”

“Two acres? But there’s one hundred and twenty acres in the claim!”

William stiffened. “Do not test my generosity, Jane, or you will find yourself with no home and no land.”

The future wavered before me, slippery as a muddy road.

“I should like to think about it,” I said with deliberate vagueness.

“I’m a patient man, but my patience will not last forever. I am the justice of the peace now, Jane.” William gave a small, thin smile. “You would be wise to remember that.”

  In spite of the warmth of the day, my insides felt cold as ice. William’s words roiled in my stomach. My worst fears had come to pass.

Keer-ukso was in the kitchen with Spaark, and when I opened the door she blushed brightly, pulling away from him.

“Have you seen Jehu?” I asked Keer-ukso.

He pretended not to know. “Now, where would Jehu be?”

“Keer-ukso! It’s important!” I said.

Keer-ukso rolled his eyes. “He is at your house, Boston Jane. Where else would he be?”

I wasted no time and walked quickly toward my claim. As I rounded the bend my mouth dropped open.

My house. It was finished!

The front door opened and Jehu stepped out, looking dirty and tired.

“How do you like it?” he asked. “Finished it early this morning. I wanted to surprise you.”

“It’s perfect,” I whispered. “It’s the most perfect house ever.”

And it was. It was a small log cabin with a chimney and a cedar shake roof.

He gave a satisfied nod and wiped a hand across his sweaty brow. “I was kinda hoping you’d say that. I still have a few things to do. Follow me.”

As we walked around the house to the side that faced the bay, I gasped.

“A window!”

He had installed a beautiful glass window facing the water. Windows were very costly, and I could only imagine how much he’d had to save up to afford this one.

“So you can watch your sunsets,” he said.

I was no longer listening to him. I was staring at my house. On my claim. But not mine for much longer. It was all about to disappear.

“You can move in anytime,” Jehu was saving. “Want me and Keer-ukso to bring your things over later today?”

I was frozen, staring back at the porch. Had I come so far only to lose everything?

“What?” Jehu asked, alarmed. “You don’t like the porch? I’m gonna put up a rail, I just haven’t had time to—”

“It’s not that. It’s William. He’s the new justice of the peace.”

“I heard.” Jehu shook his head. “And I heard about Swan and the cake.”

I twisted my hands together. “Jehu, William’s going to make good on his threat. He wants my claim.”

“Just put him off and try not to roil him up until my deal with Biddle’s done. Then I’ll take care of him.”

“But don’t you understand?” I cried. “Mr. Biddle is never going to give you any money! You haven’t even met with him yet!”

“Sally said that the time isn’t right now to bring it up with her father,” Jehu said.

“The time is never going to be right! She has no intention of introducing you to her father.”

“You don’t know that,” Jehu said in a stubborn voice.

I took his hand and looked into his eves desperately. “Jehu, I know these people. I grew up with them. Even if Mr. Biddle did agree to meet with you, he would never partner with someone like you. He—”

“Someone like
me
?”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I said quickly.

“Why? ’Cause you don’t think I’m smart enough to start a business?” he asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

“No, of course not! You’re very clever and talented. It’s just that …,” and my voice trailed off.

We stood there outside the empty house, staring at each other in silence.

“It’s just what, Jane?” Jehu said, and I flinched at the iciness in his tone.

I swallowed hard. “You have no connections and no references. Men like Biddle stick to their own. I’m sorry.”

Jehu’s face hardened, and a look I had never seen before entered his eye. “If that’s how little you think of me, then I best be going.” He turned and started to walk away.

“Jehu,” I said, and now I was getting a little angry with him. “I’m not saying this to hurt you! Don’t you understand?”

His stride didn’t break.

“You’ll never—”

He froze and looked back at me.

“Watch me,” he said coldly.

*    *    *

Just when it appeared things couldn’t possibly get any worse, the next morning I discovered that the sewing circle was meeting at Mrs. Hosmer’s cabin that afternoon, and I had not been invited.

Mrs. Frink paused by my desk to soften the blow.

“Perhaps by next week everything will have calmed down,” she suggested in a consoling voice, but I knew better. Now that Sally had her claws in the group, it would never be the same.

I tried to busy myself with drawing up a list of supplies I would need at my new house, although after a while, even that made me feel a little despondent. With William’s looming threat, would I ever even have a chance to live in it?

Finally, tired of my own company, I decided to go to Star’s to pick up a few things for supper. I would try out some new receipts, I decided. Baking always made me feel better. As usual, Red Charley was lolling on the barrel in front of the bowling alley when I walked past.

“See, now that I’m constable, I can put you in jail if you don’t pay me what you owe me,” he was telling some man.

When I entered Star’s, Keer-ukso was at the counter, arguing with Mr. Staroselsky. Several men were listening to the heated exchange, Mr. Russell and Mr. Hosmer among them. Mr. Hosmer, in particular, did not seem pleased to see me.

“It does not make sense. I always buy from you,” Keer-ukso said, exasperation plain in his voice.

“All I know is I’m not allowed to sell ammunition to, um, Indians anymore,” Mr. Staroselsky said, sounding embarrassed.

I walked up to the counter. “Who says you can’t?”

“Dr. Baldt. He says it’s not allowed.” He raised his shoulders awkwardly. “I can’t risk it. I have a wife and baby to support.”

Mr. Russell slapped Keer-ukso on the back in a consoling way. “Come on up to the cabin, Keer-ukso, and I’ll get ya fixed up. I don’t give a fig what the Baldt feller says. Maybe this’ll even get business going again.”

Keer-ukso glared at Mr. Staroselsky but went along with Mr. Russell.

“Well,” Mr. Staroselsky said, patting his forehead with a handkerchief.

The front door bounced open and Mrs. Dodd stood there, a frown carved into her face.

“I’m looking for the judge,” she announced to the room. “I need to speak to him about the half-breed girl.”

“Do you mean Katy?” I asked. “Has something happened?”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Not that it’s any business of yours, but something’s got to be done. She needs to be raised with her own kind, not with that Injun mother of hers.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Really, Mrs. Dodd. You go too far.”

Mrs. Dodd continued in a loud, righteous voice. “M’Carty was an honest man. He would’ve wanted his child raised as a white girl, not running around like some savage.”

To my utter shock, Mr. Hosmer said, “What exactly are you proposing?”

“I’m willing to take her in, and she’ll be a burden, but my husband and I think it’s the decent thing to do.”

Mr. Hosmer nodded in agreement. “Seems sensible enough to me. No point in raising the girl as a savage.”

“Mr. Hosmer!” I exclaimed. “How can you say such cruel things?”

He pulled the brim of his hat low over his eyes and said, his voice cool, “Same way you can, Miss Peck.”

I was sitting in
Cocumb’s cabin, where I had gone straight after hearing Mrs. Dodd’s scheme. I had half expected to meet William along the trail, but I reassured myself that Mrs. Dodd wasn’t planning on speaking to him until the morning. There was plenty of time for Cocumb to take Katy and disappear into the vast wilderness. Perhaps she could go and stay with some relatives.

But now, as we sat at the kitchen table, Cocumb seemed unconcerned.

“Mrs. Dodd,” Cocumb said in a scathing voice. “That woman cannot get anyone to work for her. No one likes her.”

“It’s William I’m worried about,” I explained. “He’s been waiting for an opportunity like this.”

Cocumb shook her head. “I know that William is judge, but he cannot take a child away from her mother. My father would never allow it.”

“But you don’t know William. He’ll take Katy away just to
make a point,” I said. “And he can get away with it now that, that …” And here my voice trailed off.

“My husband is dead,” she finished.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Boston Jane,” Cocumb said, and I sensed a hint of pity in her tone, “you are my friend, but sometimes you worry about William too much. He’s just a man.”

I sighed and looked away. Across the cozy cabin, M’Carty’s rocking chair sat empty in front of the fire, as if waiting for him. I couldn’t help but remember the last time I had been in this room. M’Carty had been sitting in that chair. The wood gleamed in the flickering light, as if Cocumb had polished it recently.

Cocumb saw where I was looking and gave me a sad smile. “I miss him so. I keep waiting for him to walk in the door and smile at me.” She closed her eyes, breathed in the air. “I feel closest to him here, where we had our life together. I couldn’t bear to leave this cabin. It’s all I have left of him.”

The door flew open, and we both started.

Katy stood there, flushed from play. Her expression grew puzzled as she took in our serious faces.

“Is something wrong, Mama?” Katy asked. “You look sad.”

Cocumb hugged her daughter tightly to her bosom and smiled at me, her eyes watery. Then she looked down at Katy and smoothed the hair out of her face.

“No,
nika tenas klootchman
,” Cocumb soothed, her eyes meeting mine over her daughter’s head. “Everything’s just fine.”

*    *    *

It happened in the blink of an eye.

The next afternoon William appeared on Cocumb’s doorstep with his new constable, Red Charley, at his side, demanding that she turn over Katy immediately. Luckily Mr. Swan was visiting at the time and managed to put him off.

“I told him that at the very least he should hold a public hearing,” Mr. Swan said as he sat in the kitchen at the hotel, relaying the events. “The man knows nothing about the law.”

“You’ll represent her, won’t you?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “Although whether or not anyone will listen to me is another matter entirely.”

Poor Mr. Swan was still taking his defeat in the election hard.

I grabbed him by the hand. “It doesn’t matter,” I assured him. “Don’t you know that you were the best judge we’ll ever have?”

He seemed to brighten a little. “I wasn’t terrible,” he mused.

“You’re brilliant, Mr. Swan. I know we won’t let William take Katy away!”

He leaped up with his old vigor, pacing back and forth in the kitchen. He slapped his hand against the table. “The rightful place for a child is with her mother!”

“Yes!” I shouted, and clapped. “More!”

“Are the Chinooks any less deserving of their own children?” he boomed, as if he were already in the courtroom.

“Bravo!”

He nodded to himself, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. “It shouldn’t be too hard, I should think. Just have to get my thoughts in order.”

“Wonderful, Mr. Swan. Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked eagerly.

“Actually, might I have a piece of pie? A man can’t think on an empty stomach.”

  The day of the hearing arrived, and it seemed as if every pioneer in the territory had packed into Star’s Dry Goods to watch the spectacle. Our esteemed new constable, Red Charley, was covertly taking bets on the outcome on the porch outside.

I managed to find a seat on a bench near Cocumb, Katy, Mr. Swan, and Mr. Russell.

Mr. Swan did his best to calm Cocumb’s fears. “This is all quite preposterous, my dear lady,” he told her. “And I can assure you that I shall not allow your lovely daughter to be taken from you.”

Cocumb sat numbly clutching Katy, who was entirely confused by the situation.

“I don’t want to live with Mrs. Dodd,” Katy said in a clear voice. “Willard says she’s mean.”

Mr. Swan smiled kindly. “And you shan’t have to, my girl.” He turned to Cocumb. “I shall be calling both you and Mr. Russell to the stand to testify as to M’Carty’s wishes regarding Katy’s upbringing.”

“Can they win?” Cocumb asked in a nervous voice.

He patted her on the hand. “You have nothing to fear.”

I scanned the room of eager spectators. Mrs. Dodd and her husband had taken prominent seats up front. Behind us, Father Joseph, Auntie Lilly, Spaark, Keer-ukso, and Chief Toke sat.
On the other side of the room were the Hosmers, and Mr. and Mrs. Frink, and even Mr. Biddle. Jehu was sitting next to Sally, and he did not meet my eyes.

The doors to the back room of Star’s swung open. William strode through and took a seat at the very same table where Mr. Swan had once presided. He didn’t need to bang on the table with his pipe for order, the way Mr. Swan once had. He simply looked out at the room, and it quieted down of its own accord. I looked over to gauge Mr. Swan’s reaction. He had gone a little pale.

“We are here today,” William began, hands crossed, “to discuss a concern raised by Mr. and Mrs. Dodd. It is their contention that Katy, the child of M’Carty, should be removed from her mother and raised by someone in town. Mrs. Dodd, would you care to state your case?”