When Scribe opened his mouth, Kathryn cut him off. “We will not discuss this further while in a café for all to hear.” She glared at her young friend. She addressed Amos. “We can meet tomorrow morning at Cole’s Livery Stable. I’ll see about renting a buggy.”

  19

  REMEMBERING HER FIRST VISIT TO THE MINE, Kathryn dressed in a simple brown skirt, peplum jacket, cream shirtwaist, and boots. A straw hat with ribbon ties covered her hair. She had a cloth tucked into a side pocket. Amos and Scribe had already arrived at the livery stable, both in denim pants and plaid flannel shirts, Amos holding a tool belt with rock pick, hammer, small shovel, crevice tool, and compass. Scribe was peppering the man with questions, and Kit Cole listened to every word while harnessing the horse.

  Rolling her eyes, Kathryn joined them. “Blowing a bugle, Scribe? Letting the whole town know where we’re going and why?”

  Contrite, he blushed and said he’d meet them at the mine. “City showed me a shortcut.”

  “A shortcut?” Kathryn called after him, but he was already out the door and out of sight. She gave Amos a shrug. “There’s still a lot I don’t know about this town.”

  She insisted upon driving the carriage and noted how tense Amos was on the ride. She wasn’t going that fast, but then men always liked to have the reins. At the end of the road, she hopped down before Amos could come around the carriage to assist her and tied the reins to a thick pine branch.

  “You’ll need a road,” Amos puffed a few minutes later, his breath a mist in the cold air. The uphill walk and thin mountain air had them both breathless.

  Kathryn wondered where the money would come from to build one.

  Scribe stood at the mine entrance. “Took you long enough!” He lit the lantern, grabbed a shovel, and went inside. “Watch out for snakes! The last time City and I came up here, we found a whole den of six. It’s warming up, so they’ll be on the move.”

  Snakes? How could she have forgotten Wiley Baer’s warning when he brought her up here last fall? She hadn’t come prepared for snakes. Hanging her hat on the lantern hook, Kathryn covered her hair with the cloth. At least she’d have no spiders crawling into her hair.

  “Are you coming?” Scribe yelled back.

  “Hold your horses, Scribe!” She entered and hadn’t gone six feet before she felt sticky silken strands touch her face. She waved, slapped, and wiped them away.

  Amos glanced back. “Why don’t you wait at the entrance, Miss Walsh? Might be safer.”

  She gave a nervous laugh. “And miss all the excitement?” She proceeded, eyes darting up, down, and all around. She heard an eerie sound fill the tunnel ahead. “What is that?”

  “Rattler!” Scribe thrust the lantern to Amos. “Stay back! I’ll take care of him.” Raising the shovel, Scribe lunged forward and brought it down with a bang. The sound continued. He swore. Bang, bang, bang. “Got him! Don’t go near the head. They can still sink their fangs into you after they’re dead.”

  She saw the snake writhing on the floor. “It looks alive to me.”

  “Just the throes of death.” Bang, bang, bang. “He’s a goner.”

  Amos pointed. “There’s another one over there.”

  Kathryn wanted to turn and run out of the tunnel, but stayed planted where she was as Scribe dispatched the second. Insides churning and quaking, Kathryn stuck close to the two men as they went farther in, the walls feeling closer, the air dank. “I can tell you right now, Amos, I’m not going to make a good miner.”

  He laughed. “Men will do the digging.”

  Scribe snorted. “But she’ll be giving all the orders.”

  She giggled. “I rather like that arrangement.” Her voice sounded strange in the confined space.

  Amos paused, held up the lantern, and ran his hand along the wall. He took his time, studying the tunnel. When they reached the chamber where City had stopped digging and stacked up rocks, he set the lantern in the center. Using a rock pick, he took more samples. Hunkering down by the light, he turned them over in his hands. “You’ve got high-grade silver in here. And look at this! A small vein of gold.” He straightened and went back to work. “Your uncle put a lot of work into this tunnel and chamber.”

  Kathryn looked at Scribe and he shrugged. “City never really worked it. Not as long as I’ve known him. Came up every couple of weeks, but usually only for a day or two. Mostly to get out of town.”

  “Well, someone did.”

  Kathryn had a suspicion who.

  “I didn’t see this place until two years ago.” Scribe looked around, frowning. “City said we were going prospecting. Told me to bring canteens and food and showed me the shortcut. The shelter, picks, and shovel were already here, and a case of whiskey. He worked like he was mad at somebody. Just threw rock in those piles. Seemed a waste of time to me. Next time we came up, most of the rocks were gone and we started building the pile again.”

  “Wiley Baer.” Kathryn intended to talk to that man the next time she saw him in town. So much for her ability to judge a man’s character.

  Amos looked at her. “Who’s Wiley Baer?”

  Picking up a rock, she looked at the shine in the lantern light. “An old miner who bragged about his secret mine. I think this is it.” Hurt and disillusioned, she tossed the rock back. She’d liked Wiley. “I suppose he’s been stealing.”

  “I doubt that.” Scribe shook his head. “More than likely he’s been keeping this place secret because City wanted it that way.”

  “If Wiley was a partner, why was there only one name on the claim?”

  “I don’t know.” Scribe shrugged. “They were friends from way back. City said they came west on the same wagon train. Wiley saved him from drowning at a river crossing.”

  She frowned. “Really? That must have been when my father died.” So Uncle Casey had almost drowned, but Wiley managed to save him. If only someone had been able to save her father as well. “You’re saying Wiley came to Calvada with my uncle?”

  “I think he just comes and goes. I’ve been in Calvada since I was five, and I never saw Wiley around until City took me in.” He scratched his head. “It was Wiley told Herr that City had family back East. He didn’t know who or where, but thought Fiona Hawthorne would know. That’s how Herr found your mother.”

  Amos slid his rock pick back into his tool belt. “Whatever your uncle’s reasons for not developing this mine, he should have. Looks like a bonanza. Let’s get back to town. Nothing more we can do right now, but we have a lot to talk about. Scribe, if anyone asks what we found, tell them a lot of rock and dirt. The less you talk, the better.”

  Scribe’s eyes shone like twin points of light.

  “And try not to look like we’ve found the pot at the end of the rainbow.”

  On the way out, Amos whispered to Kathryn, “If this was my claim, I’d have guards posted.”

  “Now?”

  “The sooner, the better. Word will spread fast, and there are men who will do just about anything to take this from you.”

  Matthias was standing in the street, talking with the road crew, when Kathryn and Amos Stearns returned the buggy to the livery stable. He’d seen Scribe a few minutes before, flushed from a run, eyes bright. He went straight into the newspaper office. Kathryn and Amos came down the boardwalk. Kathryn was dusty and somewhat ruffled. The man was doing all the talking. Something serious, judging by the intensity of the young assayer. He must have felt Matthias’s interest, for he looked his direction and lifted his chin in greeting as he opened the door for Kathryn. She glanced back over her shoulder. Matthias raised his brows in question. She seemed disturbed, as though whatever Amos had to say unsettled her. Would she talk to him about it? Doubtful. Matthias returned his attention to the road crew shoveling gravel from the defunct Jackrabbit Mine into the street.

  “Two more loads today,” the foreman told him. “Sanders will raise the price.” Matthias figured as much when he heard Sanders had bought the property. If there was a way to make money, Sanders would be at the front of the line. But then, he couldn’t fault the man on that when he was doing the same thing.

  Kathryn turned the Open sign to Closed.

  She might look as though her hopes had been dashed, but Scribe’s demeanor and Amos Stearns’s watchful eye told another story.

  Overwhelmed with Amos’s talk of underground mining methods, engineering, machinery, ventilation, explosives, and rock mechanics, Kathryn raised her hand in surrender. “I need time to think, Amos.”

  “Unfortunately, time isn’t on our side. Word is probably already spreading, thanks to our young friend. I came up to Calvada hoping to find exactly what we did. My partners are waiting for word from me, ready to give you the capital you need to start operations.”

  This quiet man certainly had a streak of determination. “I appreciate that, but—”

  “I can act as mine superintendent and get things rolling. You’re going to need an underground foreman, mine engineer, maintenance supervisor, and crew . . .”

  He wasn’t listening to her at all. “Stop! Now!”

  She knew Amos Stearns was knowledgeable and eager, but did he have experience enough to superintend a mine? He wanted to be in charge. That was clear enough. Despite the way Matthias’s comment raised her hackles, Kathryn couldn’t agree more that mining was not a woman’s business. One minute inside the dark, dank, spiderwebbed snake den had told her that much. She never wanted to set foot inside that tunnel again. Nevertheless, the mine belonged to her. She couldn’t shirk responsibility and dump all management decisions on someone else.

  Not a woman’s business, she thought again, annoyed. Well, neither was the newspaper business, and the Voice was now making enough money to support her. It wasn’t much, but it paid her bills and kept a roof over her head.

  With the Jackrabbit Mine shut down, men needed work. Some had already left for other towns. More would follow if another mine didn’t open.

  A bonanza.

  Morgan Sanders would probably have heard by now of her meeting with Amos at Ronya’s and their venture out of town this morning.

  “Kathryn . . .”

  Her hand shot up again. “Please.”

  Amos wanted to offer his help. Help? No, he had come to run a mine, undoubtedly thinking a woman incapable of managing. He hadn’t even thought her capable of driving the buggy!

  When word got out, she knew she could expect offers for the mine. She stood. “We’ll talk again in the morning.”

  Amos didn’t look pleased, but he rose. “May I have your permission to contact my associates and tell them what I’ve seen?”

  “Yes, but let them know I’m not ready to enter into any contract with them just yet.”

  His brows rose slightly. “I understand, but you’re already in the thick of it. If you decide to sell, they could advise what price to put on the mine. If you decide to keep it, I’m sure they’d invest. As I told you, they have interests in Virginia City. They also hold shares in mines in Sutter Creek, Jackson, and Placerville. They’ve been at this longer and have more financial resources than I. Frankly, the only thing I have to offer is the experience I gained working with my father. He was a foreman. The truth is, I miss it. I’ve got a fire in my belly right now to do something more than work in an assayer’s office.”

  Kathryn liked him. “I can tell how excited you are, Amos, but you’re going to have to be patient and wait for me to catch up.”

  “Then I’ll say no more and leave you to it, Kathryn.” He picked up his hat. “You could find yourself a very wealthy young woman in the next few months.”

  They agreed to meet again at Ronya’s for dinner. Kathryn made one stipulation: no more talk of mines. She saw him out the door.

  Matthias didn’t like seeing Kathryn with another man, especially two nights in a row, and one who had her full attention. The assayer from Sacramento had made the trip all the way up to Calvada just to deliver a report and see a mine? Stearns might well see a business opportunity, but anyone watching the two of them, heads together, could see the man was charmed by the woman holding the claim. Ina Bea stopped at their table and talked with the couple. The two women laughed and chatted while Stearns, silent, had his eyes fixed on Kathryn. Well-dressed, lean, dark-blond hair, trimmed beard, he looked more like a clerk than a miner. When Ina Bea walked away, Kathryn spoke to Stearns again, warmly, like two friends. She seemed perfectly at ease with him. Anytime Matthias came near her, she clothed herself in formality and caution. Not that he hadn’t provided cause.

  He’d behaved like a gentleman the last few times they’d met. He’d shown her everything he’d been doing since the election, pleased to see how pleased she was. Not for herself, she made clear, but for the benefits to all Calvadans. He was done standing back.

  Axel Borgeson joined Matthias. Thankfully, the town had quieted considerably since he’d put on the badge. Borgeson had no tolerance for tomfoolery. Two who had tested his mettle found themselves bruised and bloody and locked up until dawn, when they were herded out to shovel lye into public outhouses and clear Chump Street of horse manure.

  Borgeson gave Ina Bea his order, his gaze fixed on the sway of her hips as she walked away. “Broke up a brawl down at the Red Lantern. Drunk jackrabbits. No damage done except to each other. Told them they could behave or get out of town.”

  Borgeson looked across the room, then back at Matthias, eyes crinkling with amusement. “Your mind seems to be elsewhere. And I can understand why. You don’t see many women like Kathryn in a town like this, do you?”

  “No. You don’t.”

  Ina Bea set two mugs on the table and poured coffee. She came back with two plates piled high with corned beef, potatoes, carrots, and steamed cabbage glistening with butter. She asked Axel if all was going well on his rounds. He said the town was quiet, and he heard there was a dance at Rocker Box Hall Friday night and was she interested. Blushing, she said yes, that would be lovely. Matthias gave him a wry look as Ina Bea headed back to the kitchen.

  Axel picked up his knife and fork. “How’s Kathryn’s list coming along?” Grinning, he took a bite of corned beef.

  Kathryn and Amos had long since finished their dinner and now got up to leave. They both gave him a smile and nod as they went out the door together.

  “Another conquest,” Axel remarked. “Seems emotions run high where Miss Walsh is concerned. Some men have nothing good to say about her while others admire her spunk.”

  “She’s taken a lot of guff since she came to town, most of it from me.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Axel laughed. “Did you really throw that girl over your shoulder and carry her into your hotel?”

  “No! She came willingly. Although . . .” Heat surged into Matthias’s face. “I did carry her across the street. It seemed the only way to keep her out of trouble at the time.”

  Later that night, Matthias decided to check in on Kathryn and was surprised when she invited him in. She said she’d been wanting to discuss something with him. “I have to decide what to do with City’s mine.” She seemed to be waiting for him to say something. “No opinion?”

  “It’s not my mine.” Was she leaning toward him or was he just hoping?

  Drawing a sudden breath, Kathryn got up and moved away from him. “Now that word is out, thanks to Scribe’s big mouth, I’ll have to do something.”

  Matthias watched her move restlessly around the room. “What does Amos Stearns have to say about it?” He didn’t like bringing the assayer into their conversation, but needed to know what was going on between them.

  Kathryn sat at her desk and shuffled notes. “He thinks his partners will want to invest, and he’d like to run it.”

  “And how do you feel about that?” He tried to keep the edge out of his voice.

  “I don’t know anything about mining. He has training, expertise, and is confident he could do the job.”

  Matthias didn’t know anything about mining either, but he knew about business. “Do you trust him?”

  “I like him, and he seems trustworthy.”

  “But?”

  She gave a slight shrug. “I think he’s very interested in the mine, but I think he is also interested in . . . other things.”

  “You.” Matthias and everyone else who’d seen them at Ronya’s recognized a man infatuated with a woman.

  “It could make for a difficult working relationship. And I’m not sure I want someone taking over and running things the way I’ve seen mines run around here.”

  “The Madera.” He felt some relief she wasn’t as naive about Morgan Sanders as some thought.

  “How does your partnership with Henry work?” She pulled over some paper and picked up a pencil. “Would you mind telling me?”

  He laughed. “Interviewing me now?” She’d like to keep things all business. He stood and turned a straight-backed chair around and set it beside her desk. “What do you want to know, your ladyship?”

  “Everything.”

  “Thinking of going into a partnership with Amos Stearns?” If she said yes, he wasn’t sure he wanted to help.

  “I might consider it, but I’ll still have to think about other options.”

  Matthias wished he had the money to invest, but he’d already put money into Walker’s General Store and Beck and Call Drayage. He told her his partnership with Henry was simple. A solid plan, prospective customers, equal capital invested in building wagons, buying horses, setting up the office in a hub city.

  “Sacramento,” Kathryn said flatly. “You’ll be leaving Calvada, won’t you?” She didn’t try to hide her disappointment. “After your time as mayor ends.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” He wasn’t leaving without her. “I’ll go to Sacramento every three months and Henry and I will go over all the accounts. He’s a friend and I trust him, but I still need to know what’s going on.”

  Kathryn wrote rapidly. Leaning back, she wove the pencil between her fingers.