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“Gotta forgive my brother, Mrs. DuMont,” Abe, the shorter one, who proclaimed to be the eldest of the brothers, told her in a rather normal tone while shaking her hand. “He lost most of his hearing when he fired off one of Pa’s shotguns years ago and doesn’t realize how loud he is.”
Maddie nodded, while pulling her hand back. Her heart had fluttered oddly at being called Mrs. DuMont. Others had called her that, but after kissing Lucky, the name seemed to carry more weight.
“It looked as if the lady found something,” Abe said to Lucky. “We thought we’d come see what it was.”
Shouting as if they all stood a mile away, Tim declared, “We’re hoping it was a nugget the size of a horseshoe. We ain’t seen nothing on our side yet.”
“It wasn’t a nugget,” Lucky said, “but some good dust and a few flakes.”
“Promising stuff if I ever saw it,” Jack added to the conversation.
The air in Maddie’s lungs was growing stale, and when Homer had to stick in his bird squawk, “Gold,” she huffed out a good amount.
Lucky hooked her hip with one hand, tugging her closer to his side.
“I’d say that calls for a celebration,” Albert, the middle brother—in age—said. “I shot us a deer just this morning. I’ll cook up enough for everyone.”
Maddie glanced up at Lucky, expecting him to decline, yet the glimmer in his eyes said he wasn’t opposed to a celebration.
Catching her gaze, he said somewhat unenthusiastically, “We need to get a sluice built.”
“We’ll help,” Abe answered. “The faster you get it built, the faster you can get that gold out. We’ve been wanting to build one ourselves, but haven’t taken the time yet.”
“You help us build this one, and if it works, we’ll help you build one of your own,” Jack said.
Frustration was building inside Maddie, more so as the men continued talking about sluice boxes, and when Lucky agreed, saying it sounded like a good plan to him, she had to pinch her lips together to keep from proclaiming that it did not sound like a good plan. The Fenstermacher brothers rowing back across the river sounded good to her.
“While you’re building, I’ll be cooking,” Albert said.
“I’ll row you across the river,” Tim shouted. “And bring back another saw and hammer.”
“We have plenty of food,” Maddie whispered to Lucky. “Tell them they don’t need to cook for us, and we don’t need their help.”
“They’re just being neighborly,” Lucky whispered.
“Well, we don’t need to be neighborly in return,” she insisted.
“Yes, we do,” he replied.
“Don’t you worry about cooking today, Mrs. DuMont,” Albert yelled while stepping into the boat. “I’ll do it. Lots of food for everyone.”
Abe, conversing with Jack a few feet away, turned toward her and Lucky. “Albert had rheumatic fever when he was little and Ma wouldn’t let him out of the house afterward. He grew up cooking right alongside our sisters.”
“That’s why they brought me to Alaska,” Albert shouted as the boat started across the river. “To cook while they mine gold.”
Maddie didn’t respond. As much as she didn’t want company, she would admit—to herself—she wasn’t overly fond of cooking, or very good at. Truth was, she really didn’t know what to do with the things Lucky had insisted they pack in their bags before leaving Dabbler, or with what he’d hauled back from Bittersweet.
She’d never had much practice using store-bought things. Smitty had taught her how to snare rabbits and shoot grouse to roast over a fire. She’d shot a few deer, too, in the fall, and had made jerky to last them through the winter. Boiling that into a stew was simple enough. Beans, too, she knew how to boil, and she doubted there was a person alive who couldn’t fry a fish.
She and Smitty had normally just eaten one meal a day, Lucky, though, even while on the trail had insisted on eating three times a day.
They’d already had breakfast, and not having to cook two more times today would give her more time to pan gold. Hiding it from the Fenstermacher brothers no longer mattered.
While the two brothers, Albert and Tim, rowed the little boat across the river, Abe, the third one, helped Jack carry more boards from the side of the cabin, and Maddie turned back to Lucky.
“I’m going to finish panning the dirt in my shovel,” she said.
