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“Just you and your brother?” Sam feigned astonishment. He knew there were several older Chilkoots, but he was hoping for more details for his chart.
“I got some brothers and cousins helping out. Young ones, too. Chilkoots start working as soon as they can handle a hammer.”
“That’s the way,” Sam said easily. “The next generation needs to learn how things are done.”
“They do. Listen and learn, that’s what they oughta do.”
Sam picked up on a hidden hint of irritation. “If you figure out the secret to making them listen, fill me in. Every time I hire a young person to help me out, they make a mess I have to clean up.”
“I only work with family. Can’t trust anyone else.”
Luke pushed open the front door and led them through a long arctic entry lined with coat pegs and racks for boots of all varieties. Snow boots, mud boots, fishing boots, work boots. None of them looked like Molly’s boots, however. Not a speck of elegance to be found.
The entry opened into a cavernous main room, with stairs that led up to a second story. A long dining table filled one end of it, and various small seating areas the rest. And yet the entire space was empty. So empty their footsteps echoed as they traversed the room.
“Everyone else already ate,” Luke explained as he led them into the kitchen, which was large enough to be an entire studio apartment. Several wood-fired stoves shared space with expansive countertops and two supersized refrigerators. “The youngest are going to bed upstairs, the older ones are busy with chores and so forth.”
“You run a tight ship,” said Sam.
“Decision-making is shared around here.”
Really? That was a surprise to Sam, since he’d picked up more of a patriarchal vibe from his few encounters with them. Wasn’t that why Soraya had to smuggle in her own birth control pills? He made a note to ask her about that the next time he saw her.
A woman in her late fifties stood up next to a kitchen table set for four people.
“This is my wife, Naomi.” Luke performed the introductions, while Sam itched to take a photo for his records. He’d never seen Naomi in town, and she was not at all what he’d expected. For one thing, she was stunning, with that bone structure, and lush red hair in two braids. A vibrant earth-mother kind of energy radiated from her, and her lips curved in a warm smile. Like the other Chilkoot women he’d seen, she wore a long skirt and a wool sweater, although hers was a deep jade color.
“When I heard there was another redhead in town, Luke knew I’d want to meet her,” she said warmly as she gestured them toward the table. “I don’t like to leave the property, so he kindly invited you to come to me.”
Sam watching Molly’s eyebrows climb as she allowed herself to be kissed on the cheek by Naomi. He wondered if she’d ever been invited to dinner because of her red hair before. “While I am a natural redhead, I have to admit to some chemical assistance these days.”
“But this is your real color?” Naomi touched it lightly. “I’d call it a mulberry red.”
“Yes, this it it. It’s pretty close to yours, it seems.”
“That it is. Does red hair run in your family?”
“It does.” Molly clearly didn’t want to talk about her family to these strangers. “You seem to have quite a few little redheads running around here as well.”
Next to him, Sam felt Luke go tense. He wondered if perhaps contact with the kids hadn’t been part of the plan.
Naomi was still gushing over Molly’s hair. He really owed Molly his thanks; if not for that red hair, he never would have been invited out here. Go figure.
Now he had to make the most of it.
“I’d like to take my dog some water. Can I…” He gestured at the cast-iron double sink.
Luke gave him a stainless steel bowl to use. As he headed out the kitchen door, he caught a warning glance from Molly. Don’t leave me here too long with these weirdos.
While Buttercup slurped water from the bowl, making a mess in the backseat, Luke surreptitiously took photos of everything he could see from this vantage point. Cabins, a shop, multiple outbuildings, and a well-worn four-wheeler trail that disappeared into the woods.
He still hadn’t spotted a single other adult. What if he took a quick detour down that road before he went back to the kitchen?
Just in time, he noticed the telltale glint of a camera mounted in the trees at the entrance to the trail. He’d have to disable that camera first, or else figure out a legitimate reason he might head that way.
Movement in the trees along the four-wheeler trail caught his attention. Was someone watching him from the woods? He stilled, alert to any shadow or bit of movement. Maybe it was Soraya trying to get a message to him. A gray jay swooped onto a branch. Another quick dart of a nearly invisible brown silhouette, then nothing.
But it had been something. A Chilkoot, judging by the brown clothing.
