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Lucky frowned. “The Fenstermacher brothers?”
She nodded.
“Of course they’ll see us, girl,” Jack said, chuckling. “Most likely they’ll be green with envy, too.”
“Exactly,” she said. The Fenstermacher brothers were huge German men who were always yelling at each other. Though they’d been over a few times to talk with Lucky, she’d stayed away from them. “Maybe we could mine at night.”
Lucky turned her to face him by grasping both of her upper arms. “Maddie, honey, you need to learn to trust people.”
Trust was not something that came naturally to her. “Why should I trust them?”
“Because we’re all in this together, girl,” Jack said. “Mining gold. They may be green with envy, but they’ll protect your plot as much as they will their own.”
That made absolutely no sense and she turned her gaze back to Lucky. “They could steal it, our gold.”
He shook his head. “No, they won’t. They’ll be happy to know there’s gold in this part of the river. If it’s on our side, chances are it’s on their side, too.”
Her insides quivered so hard her stomach flipped. “But stealing ours would be easier than mining their own.”
“Now, listen here,” Jack started. “Miners—”
“There’s a stack of boards behind the tent,” Lucky told him. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Grumbling, Jack left, taking Homer with him.
Maddie attempted to take a step back, but Lucky’s hold tightened. He was frowning. Her past hadn’t been all that pleasurable, but it had never hurt quite like it was right now. Perhaps because she and Lucky were so different. His upbringing had been nothing like hers. He hadn’t told her about his family, Jack had, and about the mansion he lived in, how his grandparents had made the entire family wealthy beyond most. In her mind, it all came down to how Lucky didn’t understand people like she did. “Most every man tries to steal something or another.”
Lucky pulled her toward him gently, as if she might break if he tugged too hard. “No, they don’t, honey,” he said softly. “Besides, I’m here. I won’t let them steal your gold.”
Maddie wanted to believe him with all her heart, but it was hard. She was conscious, too, of the precarious position she was in. If she and Lucky were truly married, she might feel more secure, but as it was, he could cast her aside on a whim. She’d seen that, too.
“You trust me, don’t you?”
Though trust wasn’t something she was overly familiar with, and the little bit she had known was most likely rusty from not being used, she did trust Lucky. Had from the moment he’d raced down the alley and rescued her. “Yes,” she admitted. “But I don’t know that I can trust the Fenstermacher brothers.”
He grinned, and a moment later his lips met hers, unhurried and tender.
When the kiss ended, her insides were all warm and swirling again. Even her fears had diminished into little more than a mingling thought in the back of her mind. The fact Lucky could affect her so, just by kissing her, had a blush creeping over her face.
“We’ll find a safe place to hide your gold. A real safe place, where no one can find it. Will that help?”
Tongue-tied by her twisted thoughts, she nodded.
He kissed her again, just on the end of her nose. “All right, then. Let’s go get that sluice box built.”
They hadn’t been outside more than ten minutes when the Fenstermacher brothers arrived, having rowed across the river in a boat much too tiny to hold all three of them, yet to Maddie’s disappointment, it didn’t sink.
Lucky was a tall man with broad shoulders, but even he looked small next to the barrel-chested Germans. As the men climbed out of their boat, Maddie sidled up closer to Lucky and tried to keep from glancing at the tent, where she’d left the gold she’d found. Then avoided glances at her shovel, still half full of black sand and lying on the riverbank.
Smiling as he set down the saw he was using to cut a board in two, Lucky laid a hand on her arm. “Don’t worry, darling. They’re good men.”
“I’ll form my own opinion,” she stated.
Lucky grinned and then made introductions. Abe, Albert and Tim. All three had curly blond hair and whiskers that said they hadn’t shaved in years. Albert was the largest, but Tim, a few inches shorter, was the loudest. His booming voice rattled the insides of Maddie’s ears.
