She finished her dinner quickly and retreated behind the screen so she wouldn’t have to look at Morgan for another minute. The new arrangement really did afford her some privacy. Much better. But they were still in the same room, even if she couldn’t see him now, so she couldn’t quite bring herself to undress and put on her nightgown. Sometimes she wished proper behavior wasn’t so bloody uncomfortable.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“WHAT IS IT, BO?”Violet yelled as the dog started barking up ahead.
She ran toward him, hoping he’d finally figured out that she wanted him to find her father’s scent. She’d continued to let him sniff her father’s jacket before she began her search each day. But when she reached him, she saw that he’d just found a family of rabbits and couldn’t figure out which one to chase.
Assuring herself that the dog just wanted to play with his find rather than eat it, she continued walking. She was becoming frustrated after four days of searching up and down these hills and finding nothing. She’d gone west down the hill yesterday, all the way down, and was utterly disappointed by the view beyond the trees, just another open vista of endless golden and green grassland. She’d walked around every pine tree on the way down, annoyed that none had any exposed roots or hidey-holes to speak of, so she considered that a wasted day.
And the queasiness she’d been feeling wouldn’t go away. She was so dreading asking Morgan for that loan to save her family home. But how else would her brothers be able to come west to work their father’s mine? Even if she found the money and sent it to them so they could make the next loan payment, Mr. Perry would surely seize the house when he found out both of her brothers had left town without paying back the entire loan.
Violet had to make a deal with Morgan on their behalf without being able to consult them first. What if her brothers balked at the idea of working in the mine? After all, it would be very hard labor. They might want to find some other way to pay Morgan back once the house was safe, and then he might get mad and have them jailed if they didn’t pay up or start working toward that end right away.
So many negative possibilities kept filling her head that she’d accomplished nothing over the last three days other than not getting mad at Morgan or arguing with him. But being afraid to broach such an important subject just increased her nervousness. A flat-out no from him would wreck all her hopes and dreams for the future.
And although she’d been maintaining peace with Morgan, she hadn’t gotten the sense that he would be receptive to her loan proposal. In fact, his movements and actions such as banging plates on the table and stomping out to go work suggested he was still brooding. His mood seemed to have worsened since their dinner three nights ago when he’d asked her who Elliott was. Perhaps she’d gone on too long singing Elliott’s praises and complained too much about missing all the lovely parties during the London Season. She’d broken one of Aunt Elizabeth’s rules about charming a man: she’d talked too much about herself. And last night she’d annoyed him so much that he’d stomped out of the cabin and slept on the porch.
But that hadn’t been her fault! She’d been unable to sleep because her legs hurt from so much walking and her calf muscles had cramped. She’d lifted her nightgown to rub her leg, having given in to sleeping more comfortably in the gown the previous night.
He must have heard her groan and asked, “What’s wrong?”
When she told him, the next thing she knew the bare-chested bear had swiped aside her screen and tossed a bottle of liniment on her bed. She’d gasped because her nightgown was still hiked up, giving him a clear view of her aching legs. But all he did was scowl, drop her blanket-screen back down, and go back to his bed.
The cooking fire was still burning low, throwing off some light in the cabin, but it was too dark in her enclosure to read the label on the bottle. “What is this for?”
“All sorts of things, one of them sore muscles.”
Her eyes flared. “You had this and didn’t offer it to me when we arrived and I could barely walk?”
“My friends from Nashart left a few things behind when they went home. I forgot about it. Just found it yesterday when I was looking for the fresh salt.”
Appeased, she’d immediately started rubbing the liniment on her calves and sighed in relief, mumbling, “This works rather quickly. I’ll try it on my thighs, too.” A few moments later she was sighing in relief and pleasure again, then was startled when she heard Morgan stomp out of the cabin.
Violet didn’t like remembering any of that, when all it did was assure her that Morgan still wasn’t ready for The Talk. How frustrating! Her father had found exactly what he’d come west for, a new fortune, but it was up to her to secure it for her family.
Returning to camp later than usual, around six in the evening, she found Texas in the cabin instead of Morgan. He’d just made himself a cup of coffee and remarked, “Morgan’s mining late again. He’s been working like a demon these last few days.”
She wouldn’t know, because she’d been out searching like a demon herself. “I’ve had no luck finding my father’s money, and I still seem to be annoying Morgan.”
“Sounds like you could both use a break. You’d surely be less of a thorn in his side if you played poker with him. He loves that game.” And then he laughed. “He’s not as good at it as he claims to be. You might end up winning some money from him!”
She thanked Texas for the advice before he left, thrilled that she had a new way to continue her charm offensive against the bear. So that night, her fifth in Morgan’s camp, she waited until they’d finished dinner before suggesting, “Teach me to play poker? Or are you too tired?”
In answer, he took a small box off one of the shelves and set it on the table in front of her, saying, “Divide the nuggets while I clean up.”
Violet opened the lid and lifted out a deck of cards, then stared in amazement at the layer of gold at the bottom of the box. Carefully dumping the nuggets on the table, she divided them into two piles of thirty each, putting the odd one back in the box.
When he came back inside with the clean dishes, she guessed, “This is the gold you found in the creeks when you first got to this range, isn’t it?”
“What’s left of it, yeah.”
“What is it worth?”
He shrugged as he sat down across from her. “Maybe twelve hundred or so.”
She gasped. “But why haven’t you sold them?”
“Because I told my family I was coming here to find gold, and I’ll take home whatever’s left of those nuggets to prove I did. In the meantime, when Tex and I feel like playing poker, I give him a couple nuggets in exchange for forty bucks since I don’t keep cash up here, while he does. ’Sides, he loves playing with nuggets in town games. It never fails to cause a ruckus and get him a pretty gal for the night—were you named for the color of your eyes?”
