Authors: Cynthia Wright
Wildblossom (60 page)
Jack watched Katie cross the saloon and stride out into the sunshine, idly noting her slim back, narrow waist, and gently curving hips. When he turned back, he discovered that Brian was contemplating him thoughtfully.
"I don't know what to do with that lass," MacKenzie said, sighing. "Twenty years old today she is, and acting like there's no hurry to marry. I don't think it even crosses her mind! Not that any of the men around here are worthy of her. Many of the best are off fighting in the war between the North and South." He shook his head. "It's a difficult bride who's not only beautiful, but also smarter than most men. She's hardworking and has a mind of her own, but she's quick to laugh, too, and—"
"MacKenzie," Jack put in softly, his expression knowing yet amused, "why are you telling me this?"
He looked down the bar at the bouquet of lilies and larkspur. "Well, I—I've no idea!"
"Neither do
I."
Jack patted the older man's shoulder, then stood up and brushed the dust from his smooth buckskin pants. "I'm off to have a bath and a shave, get my clothes laundered, and take a room above the
U.S.
Bakery and Coffee Saloon." He put some coins on the bar. "Thanks for the water and conversation, MacKenzie. Buy Missouri Dan a drink for me when he comes in, will you?"
"Be glad to." Brian picked up the coins and looked at them for a moment. "If you want a clean bed and home cooking, you're welcome to stay with us. I like you."
Jack stopped at the door and glanced back, his wide shoulders and lean hips outlined against the sunlight. "That's a kind offer. I'll consider it."
* * *
Katie made her way down Columbia's dusty Main Street which was shaded by trees of heaven, their spreading boughs abuzz with bees. She waved to the blacksmith and greeted an elderly couple coming out of the Cheap Cash Store, but otherwise the main street was quiet. Constructed since the fires of 1854 and 1857, the handsome brick buildings had sturdy doors and windows with tall, green shutters made of fire-resistant iron. Many of the facades boasted fancy ironwork balconies cast in Troy, New York, and brought by ship around Cape Horn.
"Hello, Katie!"
She looked over to see her friend Lim Sung emerging from his father's Chinese laundry. Lim was a thin, wiry boy of eighteen whose cheery smile never failed to brighten her spirits. "Hello, Lim! Can you come to the
Gazette
with me? I have to write a story."
He fell in beside her, his smile fading. "You know they don't like me there."
"That's ridiculous," Katie said, dismissing her friend's comment with a wave of her hand. "Besides, I doubt anyone will be there now. You just have to stop acting uneasy when you're around other people. It makes them all the more suspicious!"
Lim Sung and his parents were among the handful of Chinese who had been allowed, grudgingly, to remain in Columbia after the fire of 1857. Prejudice against the race was rampant throughout the gold country. People insisted that the Chinese were sneaky and untrustworthy, blaming them for thefts, fires, and other crimes. The customs and beliefs they had brought from China made the miners all the more mistrustful, but Katie knew that their prejudice was rooted in ignorance and jealousy. The Chinese people she knew were hardworking, industrious, and patient. Indeed, it was their infinite patience that maddened the other settlers. Many a miner had given up on a claim only to have it taken over and worked painstakingly by a Chinese family with successful results. Now that the gold was playing out, a great deal of general frustration was increasingly being taken out on the Chinese population.
As they passed the D. O. Mills Bank Building, Katie glanced over at Lim Sung. In a fresh white shirt and loose black silk trousers, he looked alien and out of place. His hair was drawn back into a long queue, which accentuated his high cheekbones; his eyes were dark and fathomless, uptilted and veiled with heavy lids. To others he was a foreigner, an outcast to be feared and rejected. But to Katie he was just Lim—her childhood companion, her trusted friend.
Lim met her gaze and smiled. He couldn't imagine life without Katie. She was his bridge to the white world, his friend, teacher, and counselor. When they were little children, they had sat under the trellis of morning glory next to the MacKenzie house while she shared her lessons with him, teaching him not only to read and write in English, but to speak the white man's language without a trace of his parents' accent. He would never forget the debt he owed her.
"Look what my father gave me for my birthday," Katie said now, holding up her book. "
Jane Eyre.
It's a wonderful, haunting romance set in Yorkshire, England."
Lim grinned as they turned up Washington Street toward the
Gazette
office. "How can a romance be both wonderful and haunting?"
"This one is! Charlotte Bronte is a very talented author."
"A lady wrote this book?" he exclaimed in surprise.
Opening the door to the
Gazette's
cramped offices, she was about to reply when Gideon Henderson called to her from his desk. "Kathleen! I'm glad you're here. I need you to take over Owly Shaw's duties. He's ridden over to Murphys to talk to the stage driver."
"The stage driver?"
"Haven't you heard?" Gideon's glasses slid down his nose as he sorted through the papers littering his desk, perpetually in search of the one that wasn't there. "The Griffin robbed the Sonora stage this morning! Took a thousand dollars in gold off one of the passengers, but left the others in peace. He's the confoundedest stagecoach robber I've ever heard of!" As an afterthought, Henderson picked up a piece of white linen from among the papers and tossed it to Katie. "Care for a souvenir?"
She stared down at the snowy handkerchief, its corner embroidered with the figure of an animal that appeared to be half eagle, half lion. Katie swallowed hard and whispered, "It's a
griffin...."
"Romance the way it was meant to be," raves Kathe Robin of Romantic Times Magazine about Cynthia Wright's 13 "classic" historical romances.
A reader says: "Her warm, adventurous, loving stories match Kathleen Woodiwiss in sensuality, but have a wholesome sweetness and zest all their own."
Cynthia Wright launched her career as a bestselling novelist with the publication of CAROLINE, when she was twenty-three. She went on to write 12 more beloved and acclaimed historical romances set in Colonial America, Regency England & America, Medieval England & France, and the American West. Seven of these, the intertwined Raveneau Novels and Beauvisage Novels, have special places on the keeper shelves of readers around the world.
Cynthia's novels have won many awards from Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur, but her favorites are messages from readers like this one: "Your books show love the way you want your own relationship to be: real AND romantic!" After taking a break from writing for several years, Cynthia is excited to be back as an "indie" author, bringing all 13 of her novels back as eBooks (newly edited, with gorgeous new covers!). She will also release a new Raveneau novel, TEMPEST, in 2012, with more on the horizon.
Today, Cynthia lives in northern California with her husband, Alvaro, in a 1930's Spanish cottage. When they aren't riding their tandem road bike or traveling in their 1959 vintage airstream, she loves spending time with her family, especially her two young grandsons. Cynthia is also a college student who says, "It's never too late to re-write the story of your own life!"
Cynthia invites readers to join her at her website and blog:
www.cynthia-wright.com
And on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/cynthiawrightauthor
Table of Contents
Excerpt from FIREBLOSSOM by Cynthia Wright
Excerpt from OF ONE HEART by Cynthia Wright