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“Maddie?”
Blinking, she pulled her gaze off the moon and turned toward Lucky.
“I asked when Smitty died.”
She nodded, having possibly heard his question while deep in thought. “Last fall.”
“You’ve been alone since then? On your own?”
A lump filled her throat. “Being alone and on your own are two different things,” she whispered. Smitty wouldn’t want her focusing on the past instead of the future, so she tossed her head slightly, shattering dark and gloomy thoughts aside. “But now I’m on my way to Alaska.”
“Trig might have something to say about that,” Lucky said. “He laid out good money—”
“I know,” she interrupted, holding up a hand. “Mrs. Smother informed me the captain paid for my stay at her place, my training, even the dress I’m wearing, and I’ll repay him every cent. I promise.” Taking a step back, she lifted her chin and pulled forth all the grit and determination Smitty insisted filled her. “I don’t want to be a servant. I want to have servants, and I will someday. I swear it.”
He shook his head as if he didn’t believe her, and that made her stomach burn. Before he could speak, she declared, “I know how to find gold. I know what to look for, how to pan. I’ve built sluices and rockers, and I—”
“But are you prepared to live in a tent, in the wilderness, with—”
“I’ve lived in tents, and caves, and dugouts. In the wilderness and on the plains.”
“You have?”
Nothing would stop her. Not her past, and not a man. “Yes, I have. Matter of fact, I’ve never lived in a house. Not for any length of time. Never had a real bed I could call my own, either.” Standing taller, she added, “There’s nothing about Alaska that scares me.”
He cocked his head to one side and tiny sparks of light returned to his eyes as he grinned. “I believe that, Maddie, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that you should be scared. It’s a wild, untamed country.”
“There are a lot of wild and untamed places,” she said. “I know. I’ve lived in some.”
Lucky was rubbing his chin, and Maddie was sure he was about to say something else, but a shout sounded first.
“There she is!”
Chapter Three
Cole, in his uncle’s cabin, along with Trig and Robbie, plopped onto the chair next to the captain’s built-in desk. “What are you talking about?”
“Why’d you tell them that?” Robbie repeated.
“Tell who what? I just went below to see what all the cackling was about.”
“Somehow those women got the understanding you and that stowaway are married,” Robbie said.
A chill wrapped around Cole’s spine like seaweed on a fishing line. “I didn’t— I’d never say anything like that,” he insisted. “All I said was that I’d kick you out of our cabin so...” The chill increased. “Shit,” he muttered. Women always misunderstood things. Our cabin. As in his and hers, not his and Robbie’s. “I was thinking about waking you up so you could take care of them. Those women were ready to throw Maddie overboard.”
Uncle Trig scratched his head with both hands. “Well, they assumed by what you said that she’s your wife and that’s why she’s on this ship. Robbie promised them there weren’t any other passengers.”
Cole’s stomach clenched. He hadn’t escaped one marriage just to be shanghaied into another.
“There weren’t supposed to be any other passengers,” Robbie said from where he sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Where’d she come from?”
“Hester,” Trig said.
“Why didn’t you deliver her to Mrs. Smother’s?” Robbie asked.
“I did.”
“How’d she get on board?”
Cole blew out a long breath. Trig wouldn’t force marriage upon him, especially not to a stowaway. “In a barrel.” He withheld the grin trying to form and asked his uncle, “What are you going to do with her?”
Uncle Trig let out a raspy guffaw. “We aren’t turning around, I’ll tell you that. We’re set to be one of the first boats to arrive in Alaska this spring.” He crossed the small cabin and shrugged out of his coat. While hooking it on the nail on the wall, he said, “The women have settled down, believing she is your wife, and that’s how we’re going to leave it.”
