“You haven’t liked it from the beginning. But if we don’t mine the vein, someone else will.” He understood why Mikhail wanted everything in the wilderness left pristine and untouched. But Alaska was over half a million square miles. He wasn’t convinced that mining ten or twenty acres of land would make that big of a difference. “This way we can have a say about how the mining is done, how the workers are treated, and how much of the mountainside gets destroyed in the mining process.”
Mikhail didn’t answer, just wiped the sweat from his hands, his movements slow and methodical.
“You can’t be mad that I filed the claim. We talked about this before you got married.”
Mikhail still said nothing. Yuri rolled his eyes, then turned his back on his brother and stalked down the stairs and outside into a rare bit of winter sunshine.
Was everyone in his family mad at him right now? It seemed that way. Alexei was upset because he’d saved them money and not bought a sinking pile of rusted metal. Mikhail was mad because he’d done something about the gold vein rather than just talk about it. And Sacha... well, Sacha wasn’t mad. He probably looked at all of this as some kind of merry adventure.
But still, two of his brothers were unhappy with him, and he hated that feeling.
He strode up the street toward the post office, his boots sinking in the mud from days upon days of winter rain that had preceded the afternoon’s small bit of milky sunshine. Theair carried the scent of salt and damp timber, mingling with the faint aroma of woodsmoke from the chimneys of shops and houses. Everyone seemed to be outside enjoying the break in the rain. Dockworkers were hauling crates from a newly arrived ship, a group of women stood beneath the porch of the mercantile chatting away, and a pair of fishermen stood near the docks mending their nets.
At least here, outside the office, no one was upset with him.
He turned, leaving the waterfront and making his way to where the post office sat a block inland. The bell above the door gave a hollow chime when he stepped inside, and Mr. Hooper looked up from where he stood behind the counter sorting a bundle of letters.
“Ah, Yuri.” He reached beneath the counter. “Got a fair bit of mail for you today.”
“Thank you.” Yuri took the stack and flipped through the letters. Most of them were for Alexei, but a couple were postmarked from San Francisco. Could they be from the mining foremen candidates?
The bell rang behind him. He tucked the envelopes into the pocket of his coat and turned toward the door, then stopped.
Rosalind Caldwell stood just inside, her hand resting lightly on the arm of a hulking dark-haired man with streaks of gray at his temples. There was something familiar about the giant, though Yuri couldn’t quite place where he’d seen him before.
“Mr. Amos.” Her voice was perfectly polite when she spoke, without any hint of the vulnerability from their conversation after the library committee meeting. “I don’t believe you’ve been introduced. This is Mr. Leeland Vandermeer, my fiancé.”
Fiancé?The breath rushed from his lungs, and for a moment, he could only stare at Rosalind and the man towering beside her.
Alexei would know how to keep his face neutral and his features schooled at a time like this. He would know how to look at the large man and not give away a single thought or emotion.
But he wasn’t Alexei, and he hated the man beside Rosalind instantly, if for no other reason than the fact that Rosalind was just as cold and proper around him as she was around her father.
And that wasn’t the true Rosalind. It wasn’t the woman who could dream up a library by the water so townsfolk could have a pleasant place to read, and a temporary library so that people could have access to books months sooner than they would otherwise.
He didn’t know what emotions flashed across his face as he looked between Rosalind and Vandermeer. All he knew was that her fiancé watched him with dark eyes that made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.
“Your name sounds familiar.” Yuri forced himself to extend his hand. “Have we met?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Mr. Vande— Leeland, this is Yuri Amos.” Rosalind nodded his direction. “His family owns both Sitka Trading Company and Amos Family Shipbuilders. Perhaps you’ve done business?”
“Sitka Trading Company?” The man gave his hand a stiff shake. “I believe we have a contract with your family’s company to handle goods delivered by ship and transport them inland on my railroad line out of Seattle.”
Something about the man’s tone set Yuri’s teeth on edge, but at least now he knew why he recognized him.
“How is it you know my fiancée?” Vandermeer looked between the two of them.
Fiancée. Right. Yuri should congratulate Rosalind. That was what a normal person would do.
But the words wouldn’t come. Instead, he found himself searching her face for something that might tell him that she wanted this marriage.
But her blue eyes were guarded and distant.
“We serve on the library committee together,” he finally answered. “Has Rosalind told you about that? She has some rather good ideas.”
A small smile crept across her lips. “Did you find out if we can use your empty building? Or do you need to wait until Alexei returns? I heard he is in California?”
“Yes, a quick trip to San Francisco,” Yuri answered. “But Mikhail and I already discussed it, and we’re happy to use the building as an interim library while an official one is being built. We can clean it out whenever we wish and start collecting books.”
