Rush of Love

by Jennifer Conner

  Rush of Love

  Jennifer Conner

  Rush of Love

  Copyright 2011- Books to Go Now

  For information on the cover illustration and design, contact bookstogonow@gmail.com

  First eBook Edition –June 2011

  Printed in the United States of America

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without momentary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

  If you are interested in purchasing more works of this nature, please stop by; www.bookstogonow.com

  Acknowledgement

  Special thanks to the Klondike Gold Rush Park Museum of Seattle

  and the rangers who happily answered all of my crazy writer questions with a smile!

  Chapter One

  Seattle 1898-

  “Gold does not make the man,” Opal argued, as she watched the banker weigh the next nugget on the double pan scale.

  The banker shot a disapproving glare at Samuel Cooper.

  Samuel ignored him and leaned across the counter to reply, “You’re wrong, Miss. Gold is the only thing that a man can rely on in these times of financial recession and bank failures which have swept our fine nation.”

  “But what happens when the gold runs out. What will you have then? Do you have a profession other than mining?”

  “This money is only the beginning.” A sparkle lit his eyes.

  Oh yes. She remembered this devilish man when he blew through town four months ago. But, Opal also knew better than to be sweet talked by a handsome stranger who’d be gone to Alaska in a week’s time. “When I return in six-months, maybe I’ll be a millionaire,” he exclaimed.

  She wanted to roll her eyes to the ceiling. Opal heard this story too many times from countless men of all ages. Young, old, it didn’t matter. Since the Klondike Gold Rush hit Alaska, Seattle was a pipeline to the Northern Territory for men like Samuel to seek their fame and fortune. The difference was, from the size of the nuggets on the scale, he found his fortune.

  “When I come back, I’ll have more gold. I’ll buy a big house overlooking the water, and court a pretty young woman, like yourself, Miss Grey, to be my wife.”

  Opal cheeks heated. She was pleased he’d remembered her name from their chance meeting months back at Conner’s mercantile, but she wouldn’t set her hopes on this young man who may never return. She saw too many men leave for Alaska and never come back. The gold rush was instrumental in leaving her without family. Her job was more than important, it was a matter of survival. She’d been fortunate to find work at the National Bank. Knowing she was alone, a friend of her family pitied her, otherwise who knew where she would be working.

  There weren’t many choices for women’s jobs in 1898.

  Thank God, she wasn’t forced into prostitution to keep food in her mouth and a roof over her head. She would be a terrible prostitute. Opal didn’t know the first thing about love or men.

  Her friend, Bertha, explained love didn’t have much to do with that profession. Opal was around men all day, but when Samuel flirted with her, she stood like the stone corners of her bank.

  The nuggets Samuel found were large. Her guess was over twenty-thousand dollars. The light in his eyes said it all. He knew he’d hit it big.

  The other miners behind him held a myriad of emotions on their faces.

  Some awe, but mostly jealousy.

  This was the dream for all these men. Since the Seattle Post Intelligencer headlines screamed, ‘GOLD! GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!’ the year before, thousands streamed into the city on their way to Alaska. They wanted to be what Samuel Cooper was.

  A rich man.

  Opal drew her long brown curls off her shoulder and tried to pay attention to what Millard, the head of National Banks gold reserves said. Millard was a mean little man with a sharp nose and an even sharper tongue. He’d warned her, he didn’t approve of women working in men’s jobs. Which meant anything… other than prostitution. Though Opal would never dare point it out, she prided herself on the fact that she could count money faster than Millard. Millard read off the amount of Samuel’s payout, and she quickly began to count the stack of bills. When she ran out, she looked up at the banker. “I need more money.”

  “Oh, for goodness sake.” He stalked off towards the back room’s vault.

  “Needs bigger bills, huh?” Samuel pushed his black brimmed Stetson to the back of his head and grinned. It was rare to still see cowboy hats around Seattle, which proved he must be from out of town. Samuel leaned over the counter again, and dropped his voice, “Ahhh… finally alone.”

  Opal wished he’d stop doing that, because she had the urge to meet him half way. He smiled revealing a dimple in his left cheek. His clothes were worn from hard work, but he was still cleaner than ninety-percent of the miners who traipsed through the bank. And, he had all his teeth.

  “Would you accompany me to dinner?”

  “Wh..what?” she stammered. Opal looked over her shoulder to see if Millard was behind her. Samuel wasn’t the first man to ask her out. There weren’t enough women in Alaska, and when men returned to Seattle, they wanted to find the first woman they could. Samuel was the first man she’d had even the slightest urge to accept an offer from.

  “He’s not back yet.” Samuel grinned again. “So, you still have time to say yes.”

  “I can’t go out with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “I just… can’t”

  “Your pa wouldn’t allow it?”

  “I don’t have family.” Why had she told him that?

  His face darkened. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t need to be sorry.”

  “The decision is up to you. Make the right one. I always do.”

  Opal laughed. “You’re full of yourself.”

  “Yes, I am. On top of the world right now, and I need a pretty woman to share it with.”

  She hesitated.

  She wanted to say yes, but shook her head just as Millard moved alongside her again.

  Was this a lost chance at love? What was she thinking? She reminded herself he’d be gone in a week.

  Chapter 2

  Opal’s back ached and the buttons on her shoes rubbed her ankles through her wool stocking. She’d been on her feet for the last ten hours. They hadn’t even been given time for lunch, much less privy breaks, and now worked two hours over without pay. At the end of the day, the totals were off by twenty cents. Millard demanded they recount all the gold sale receipts. Goodness! She was ready to take the change from her hand bag to make up the difference. She didn’t have money to throw around, but it would be worth twenty cents to get back two hours of her life. Shuffling along the cobblestone street that lead back to her boarding house, she grumbled under her breath.

  “Miss Grey?” a deep voice asked.

  She spun so quickly, she nearly tripped over her own feet.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you.” Samuel moved out of the shadows.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you, I want you to accompany me to dinner?”

  “I said no.”

  “I would have remembered if you’d said ‘no’. Before that snake of a man came back f
rom the vault and interrupted our conversation, all you did was shake your head. A shake of the head means maybe. It’s definitely not a ‘no’.”

  “You’re an exhausting man.”

  “So, I’ve been told.” Samuel said, as he leaned his tall, lean body against the bricks of the building’s wall. “I brought a peace offering to persuade you.” He held out flowers. Opal had never seen a larger bouquet. The newspaper they were wrapped crinkled as she accepted them. She inhaled the scent and ran her hand over the whisper soft buds. The early fall roses smelled sweet and pungent.

  Samuel had gotten a shave and probably a bath somewhere in town. His blue eyes shined with all the grime off his strong face, and his black hair was combed back. The grubby clothes and Stetson were replaced with a tailored wool coat, matching waistcoat, and a floppy bow tie. His first purchase with his new wealth was clean clothes … and flowers for her.

  Opal was flattered. She was beyond flattered. She was smitten. But what would people say about an unmarried woman walking the city streets, alone, this time of night, with a dapper young man? Her subconscious cared, the rest of her didn’t. There was no father to shake a finger at her when she got home.

  Her father left her and her mother to seek additional wealth in the ‘fields of gold’ of the Klondike. All he found was snow that swept him down a mountainside to his death. Her mother died a short time later, of what Opal guessed was a broken heart. She’d never love anyone that completely. After twenty years of what she’d though was a marriage of love, the lure from the North won out. Her father left on an Inland Passage liner in the middle of the night without a note. She wouldn’t take a chance; her heart would stay right where it needed to be, in her ribcage.

  “I’ll have dinner with you, but nothing more.”

  “Why Miss Grey, I am a complete gentleman. That is all I ask of you.” He took her hand. “Good God. Your fingers are like ice.”

  “I forgot my gloves at the bank. I’m not going to go back there for all the tea in China… at least until Monday.”

  He laughed and took the bouquet, laying it on a corner block. He clasped her hands, raised them to his mouth, and blew warm air against her knuckles. The warmth of Samuel’s hands seeped through her cold fingers all the way to the bone. Opal had to restrain herself not to sigh in pleasure.

  He looked up through dark lashes. Samuel made her weak in the knees, and he knew it. She could smell the lye from the soap he’d scrummed his body with, along with an underlying smell of lime? She couldn’t pinpoint the citrus smell… her nose just told her it was good.

  Samuel dropped her hands and offered his arm. She took it, but stopped. “My flowers.”

  He grinned. “Leave them. I’ll buy you a new bunch after dinner.”

  Opal picked them up. Samuel smiled as she clutched the flowers and his arm.

  Opal was embarrassed to offer her choice of restaurants, but Samuel was the one who said ‘money was no object’. They’d dined at a new place in town, the Merchant Café. She’d had succulent salmon and Samuel ate a steak that nearly covered his plate. Now, they laughed and strolled arm in arm along a nearly vacant street, after he’d insisted he walk her home.

  She found Samuel intelligent and well-spoken. A pleasant surprise compared to most miners who crossed her path. The two of them spoke of politics, and current events. He also had a wide knowledge of literature, her favorite subject.

  They heard quick footsteps as two men came up behind them. One moved to her left, one to Samuel’s right. They stopped and blocked their path. Samuel clenched her arm tighter.

  “What we got here? Just the man we’re looking for.” When the first man smiled, she saw half his front teeth were stubs. The stench of his breath carried the distance. Beer and rotten teeth.

  “Let us pass. We have no issues with you,” Samuel’s voice sounded dark and dangerous.

  “Maybe we have an ‘issue’ with you.” The second man stepped closer. Samuel dropped his hold on Opal’s arm and moved her protectively behind him.

  The man lunged, and Samuel took a swing. His fist connected, but he was outnumbered and outweighed by the thugs. They grabbed his arms and twisted them behind him. The larger man punched Samuel once in the face, and once in his stomach. A groan of pain escaped his lips.

  Samuel attempted to yell through a mouth of blood, “Run, Opal! Get out of here.” Another blow connected.

  If she ran, they would kill him. They probably would anyway, possibly her too, but she had to do something. She leapt on the back of the largest man and began to pound the sides of his head.

  “Whore! Get off me!” the man bellowed, as he threw her. Opal hit the brick wall with a crack. Seconds passed before she realized the ‘crack’ came from her head. In an out of body experience, she reached up to feel the back of her neck. Her hand came away in blood.

  Blackness edged her vision, as she slid down the wall. Her flowers were trampled in mud.

  The last thing she heard was fists pummeling Samuel, as he cried her name.

  Chapter 3

  Sam fought to open his eyes. The high-pitched shrill of a police whistle pierced his throbbing brain like shards of glass. The metallic smells of blood blended with the odd sweetness of vanilla. When his mother made his favorite oatmeal cookies, she’d used vanilla.

  “Samuel! Can you hear me? Help me sit him up,” he heard Opal’s frantic cry.

  His arms were tugged. The pain was sharp and unrelenting.

  “We need to get him to my boarding house. It’s just over there, and then get the doctor.”

  Sam drifted in and out of consciousness. He had been on his feet, stumbling, pulled along. Hadn’t he? Now he was on a bed. Voices. One? Two men? One must be a doctor. The man spoke like one as he prodded his bruised body. Sam gulped down nausea from the pain.

  “Nothing’s broken. He may have internal injuries and a possible concussion. Someone will need to keep a close eye on him. If there are any changes or if he’s taken by fever, you need to come fetch me. Do you understand?” The doctor’s tone was rude and demeaning.

  Just because she was a woman, she understood. Opal was one of the smartest women Sam ever came across. He wanted to tell the doctor not to speak to her that way, but his lip was swollen. Even his teeth hurt.

  “Here’s Laudanum for the pain. It will probably put him out for a few days, but that’s good. Do you have money to pay me?”

  When she didn’t answer, there was the click of the door and then it was quiet. He faded once again into oblivion.

  This time when Sam woke, he rolled to one side and propped his hand behind his neck. Opal sat slumped in the only chair in the room. He looked around. Of course she was in the chair, he was in her bed. The room was stark and bare with faded, peeling wallpaper. The smell of bacon wafted up from the kitchen below making his sore mouth water. Tattered drapes blew inward from a split pane on the window.

  He reached out and touched her arm. She awoke with a start, her eyes wide. She seemed like she wasn’t sure where she was for a moment. Disoriented.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  There was a tired sag in her shoulders. The movement in her hand was slow as she brushed a hair from her face. “I’m so glad you are awake. How do you feel?”

  “Like I was run out of town on a rail…under the train.”

  “If you hadn’t offered to walk me back here, you may not have been hurt.”

  “And leave you alone? They would have attacked you.” He remembered her jumping the man. This woman had fire deep within.

  Opal bit her lip. “I’ve been thinking of what one of the men said, ‘Just the man we’re looking for’. Do you have…” she paused, “enemies in town?”

  “I don’t know anyone other than you. Wait. No.” Sam struggled to sit up. “Where’s my coat?”

  It was hanging over the chair, the lapel still stained with blood. She handed it to him and he parted the wool, stuffing his hand in the inner breast pocket. “Hell-fire! They m
ust have followed me figuring I had the money.” He sank back on the pillow.

  “They took all twenty thousand dollars?”

  Sam stared at the empty pocket. “Not all of it, but a good bit. A small amount is back at the hotel in the safe. Why did I have so much on me? That was plain stupid.” His stomach lurched. “I’m going to be sick.” Opal jumped up with a pan as he leaned over the side of the bed. A dry heave shook his body.