Lucinda and George awoke to the sounds and smells of fresh eggs and biscuits cooking over an outside fire. The smell of brewed coffee wafted in and out of the bacon scent.
"What the devil?" George leaped out of bed, wrapping a sheet around him, and threw open the shutters. Whoops and hollers rose from the small crowd of miners around a cooking fire. Lucinda peered over his shoulder, wrapped in the quilt from the bed.
"We thought you two young lovers might need a wake up breakfast after your long night," a miner waved a spatula in the direction of the cabin as he said this.
Another gave him a gap-toothed smile and asked, "When's the baby coming? You did your work last night, right?"
"They're still drunk," Lucinda whispered. "What are they doing here?"
"I don't think they ever went to bed," George pulled the shutters closed and bolted them against the sounds of laughter.
"They should pass out soon," Lucinda muttered. "Once they do, we'll have some quiet again, and we can sneak out of here."
"I'm not sneaking out of here," George told her. "This is my land and my cabin, and if I want to bring my bride here, they can leave us to our privacy."
"Then tell them to leave."
George shook his head. "I can't."
"What?" Lucinda allowed her mouth to hang open for a split second. "Why not?"
George pulled her back to the bed, and enfolded her in his arms again. "They're the men I hired to help me get the mine started."
Lucinda raised one eyebrow. "So that gives them the permission to ruin our intimacy?"
George kissed her. "No, it doesn't. However, I did tell them they could stay on the land until they build their own cabins."
"Ah. You certainly didn't waste any time getting your new claim started, Mr. Arnold."
"I don't have time to waste, Mrs. Arnold. I only have a short time to build my wife a mansion of her own."
"Say that again."
"What? The part about the mansion?"
"No, the part before that."
"I don't have time to waste, Mrs. Arnold?"
"That's right. You don't have a minute to waste. Kiss me while you can."
George obliged his new wife, enjoying every minute they didn't waste.
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Gold Rush Wedding Page 6