The Ladies of Sutter's Fort

by Jane Toombs

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “I was hungry, Barry. I haven’t had a morsel of food since morning. This is cold oatmeal. I love cold oatmeal.” She raised a spoonful to her mouth. “Would you like a dish?”

  “Don’t you want to know if that was Pamela coming back?”

  “I can see it wasn’t. It must have been the Marrows next door. Would you like something else if you don’t want any oatmeal? Tea? Perhaps a brandy?”

  He shook his head as he watched her eat another spoonful of the oatmeal. “It’s very good,” she said. “Maria made it this morning.” He came around the table and his stare made her look down at her French robe, which had gaped open. She pulled the thin silk together at her throat.

  When she had eaten the last of the oatmeal, Selena walked to the larder in the pantry. “I’m still hungry,” she said.

  Barry came up behind her and before she realized what he intended scooped her into his arms. “So am I,” he said. “But not for food.” He carried her through the house and up the stairs.

  “Your rig,” she said.

  “I put the rig where no one will see it.”

  He kicked open the door to her bedroom.

  “Pamela’s late now. She’ll be home any moment.”

  “We’ll lock your door. She’ll never know I’m here.”

  “You think of everything, don’t you?” she purred, smiling to herself. Not quite everything, Captain Fitzpatrick, she thought.

  He dropped her on the bed, tugging at the sash around her waist, freeing it, parting the negligee and exposing her breasts. Peeling the silk robe from her arms, he yanked it away. He gathered her naked body into his arms and she felt his clothing on her body, tantalizingly harsh. She writhed against him, pulling him close while she fumbled at his clothes.

  When at last he was naked, he knelt above her, poised, waiting. She raised her mouth to his, only their lips meeting. Then his arms drew her upwards to him.

  She felt him against her, his seeking hands, hot against her legs. She moaned, the trembling beginning deep inside her, gathering force. Gently he lowered her back to the bed and, kissing her with ever increasing hunger, got onto the bed with her. She cried out. He groaned with the pleasure of it. And then . . .

  One side of the bed collapsed, tumbling them in a heap against the wall.

  Selena giggled. The giggle grew, turned into a laugh and she laughed until tears ran down her face.

  Barry scrambled out of the bed, went to the dresser and lit a candle. When he returned, Selena, quiet now, was lying in the crevice between bed and wall with her fingers laced behind her head.

  “Oh, Barry,” she said.

  “I’ll see if I can repair the damage.” He put the candle holder on the floor and peered under the bed.

  Selena sat up. “No, Barry, you don’t have to.” Alarm crept into her voice.

  “What in God’s name is this under here?” he demanded.

  * * *

  Danny heard the crackle of flames, a series of loud pops, and then a thunderous roar. He watched a rocket streak into the sky to burst in a star-like explosion over the bay.

  My God, he thought, we’ll have the whole city here. I didn’t know there would be rockets.

  “What’s that?” The voice came from the deck above him. “Fire,” he called back. He put as much alarm into his voice as he could. “Fire! Down along the docks!”

  He heard more questioning voices from the Argonaut. This was a critical moment, he knew, the first of many. Would the five guards leave their posts on board the ship? He had assumed they had been ordered not to. There was no way he could be sure.

  “It’s the Chinaman’s warehouse,” one of the guards said. “He must have fireworks stored in there.”

  Another explosion rocked the dock area. Good old Charlie Sung, Danny thought. And Pamela, since the money, after all, was hers. He saw that the curiosity seekers on the street had left to hurry to the fire. When Danny glanced covertly up at the ship, all five guards were ranged along the rail.

  All right, Mac, he thought, it’s up to you.

  At the sound of the first explosion three men had slipped out of the shadows of a warehouse adjacent to the ship’s starboard side. Abe Greene led the way, a spade over his shoulder. McSweeney came next, a sledgehammer gripped in both hands. Jed followed. All three carried coils of rope looped to their belts.

  When Abe came to the first of the pine supports propping up the ship on the bay side, he dug furiously in the loose earth next to it. Each of the four-by-fours, he discovered, was buried a foot or more in the soggy ground and toed against a stake. After a few minutes Abe had bared the base of the timber and moved on to the next.

  Positioning himself, McSweeney swung the sledgehammer and struck the first post near its base. The timber shifted an inch at the most. He swung again. Another few inches. McSweeney raised the hammer a third time, swung in a great arc, the sledge thudding against the wood and sending the timber bursting from the ground. Mud spattered him. He ignored it.

  As McSweeney moved on, Jed grasped the loosened post in both of his huge hands. He shifted from side to side. The timber was still spiked to the ship’s side. Grunting, he swung it back and forth like a pendulum, twisting it in his hands. The timber came free. Jed let it fall to the ground.

  Before he went on, Jed glanced up at the dark deck of the ship. He saw no one. Through the rigging the sky glowed a dull orange and from a distance came the pop-pop-pop of fireworks. A rocket rose in a red arc and erupted over the city.

  Abe and Mac worked their way along until they had dislodged all eight of the timbers. Jed wrenched each from the side of the ship save the two in the center. These he purposely left spiked on.

  “Get back,” McSweeney warned. The three men trotted away from the ship. When they reached the warehouse, McSweeney took a pistol and fired three times into the air. They waited. Would the guards hear the shots above the sound of exploding fireworks?

  A light appeared on deck. Good, McSweeney thought. When he fired again, they heard shouts and saw men rushing to the railing on their side. The three men held their breath.

  “She’s not going to topple,” Abe muttered.

  “Jed,” Mcsweeney said, thrusting the pistol back into his belt, “it’s up to us.” The two men ran toward the ship, grasped the ends of the two middle timbers and lifted them to their shoulders.

  A shot came from the deck of the Argonaut.

  “Now!” McSweeney shouted. The two men strained forward. They felt a give. Were the spikes pulling free? No. With a shuddering wrench the ship slowly began to fall toward them.

  “Here she comes!” McSweeney shouted.

  They dropped the timbers and, amid cries and curses from the ship, ran. The dark form of the Argonaut plunged at them as they scrambled back against the side of the warehouse. With a great crash the ship hit the ground.

  “Now remember,” McSweeney said, “there’s five of them.”

  They charged ahead, guided by the curses and shouts of the guards. They found four of them at once, either stunned or lying injured so that they gave no more than token resistance. With their ropes, they tied and gagged all four. But the fifth man was nowhere to be found.

  By the time they were done, Danny was beside them dragging a ladder. They propped it against the side of the ship. Danny, carrying a lantern, climbed up to the deck, McSweeney right behind him. Abe and Jed stayed on the ground.

  “We only found four men,” McSweeney said as they moved swiftly towards a hatch near the stern. “Are you sure there were five?”

  “Yes, I saw five.”

  “He could have been thrown under the ship. He might have gotten away. I wish I knew.”

  Reaching the hatch, Danny unbolted and lifted its cover. Lowering the lantern into the dark hold, he saw a face peering up at him.

  “Danny O’Lee himself,” a surprised Rhynne said. “Well, I’ll be damned. Give me a hand, boy, and I’ll be right with you.”

  Dan
ny reached down, took Rhynne’s hand, and helped him up the narrow hatchway. Rhynne winced as he tried to stand. “It’s nothing,” he said. “I bruised my leg when the ship keeled over. No bones broken, thank God.”

  “Are there any others down there?” Danny asked.

  “I’m the one and only prisoner. And all of the guards were on deck.”

  “Let’s go,” Danny said to McSweeney.

  They ran back to the ladder and climbed down toward Jed and Abe. As they neared the ground, a mud-bespattered man stepped out of the shadow of the warehouse brandishing a pistol. Jed swung around to face him.

  “Go no farther,” the guard said to him. He waved his gun at the three men still on the ladder. “You there,” he said, “put your hands up as high as they’ll go and grab a rung. Right-o. The first man that moves is dead.”

  Jed advanced slowly on the guard with his hands outreaching, like a giant cat about to pounce. The guard edged back, shaking his head.

  “Not another step,” he warned.

  “Jed,” Rhynne called down to him. “For Christ’s sake, don’t.”

  Jed moved on toward the guard as though he hadn’t heard. The guard pulled the trigger.

  * * *

  Barry held up a handful of yellow dust and pebbles.

  Selena peered over the edge of the mattress. “It looks like gold” she said solemnly.

  He weighed the ore in his hand. “You’re damned right it’s gold.” He looked under the bed again. “I’m surprised your floor didn’t give way long before this,” he said. “There must be hundreds of pounds of ore here.”

  He looked up at her. “How did this gold come to be here, Selena? And don’t tell me you don’t know.”

  “I put it there. Leland says the banks are safe but I don’t trust them. Not after what I’ve read about the Panic of ‘37.”

  Barry stood up. Seeing the suspicion in his eyes, she pulled the sheet up to her chin.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said. “How did you get this gold, Selena? What did you have to do for it?”

  “I sang for it,” she said defiantly.

  “You sang?”

  “Yes, you must have heard about my singing in Hangtown at the start of the gold rush. I sang at the Empire and afterwards the miners would throw gold on the stage. Nuggets of gold, pouches of gold dust, hundreds of dollars’ worth of gold. God knows, they had plenty of it. Abe Greene used to go around with a broom and sweep it up for me. I never spent any. I told you how afraid I am of being alone when I’m old. To be alone and poor at the same time would be too much to bear.”

  “Selena, are you telling me the truth? All this gold came from your singing at Hangtown?”

  “Barry, have I ever lied to you?”

  She watched a variety of expressions cross his face. Doubt, incredulity, a desire to believe her. What was he thinking?

  “Barry,” she said, “I’m truly sorry if you can’t bring yourself to believe me. Tell me, how do you think I came to have all this gold?”

  He hesitated.

  “Tell me, Barry. Tell me the truth.”

  “I think you earned the gold by your singing, Selena.”

  “You truly believe me then?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Barry, do you know something?”

  “What?”

  “You make a strange and wonderful picture kneeling on the floor looking under my bed. And you with not a stitch of clothing on.”

  He looked down at himself. “I’d forgotten,” he said.

  “Come here, Barry. Come to me.”

  He approached the bed. “Snuff out the candle, Barry,” she told him.

  He leaned down and pinched the flame between his fingers.

  “Do you want me to pull the mattress down onto the floor?” he asked.

  “Not yet. Come closer.” She put her hands on his thighs. “Closer, Barry, closer.” She felt his hands on the top of her head. “Barry,” she whispered and then she didn’t speak for a long while.

  The pistol misfired, the hammer clicking but the charge failing to ignite, Jed swatted the gun from the guard’s hand and pinioned the man’s arms to his sides. McSweeney leaped from the ladder. Quickly, they overpowered, tied and gagged him.

  Danny led Rhynne and the others through the mud away from the Argonaut along the bay side of the warehouses. They heard the water lapping on the shore below them.

  “Where are we bound?” Rhynne asked.

  “To the Golden Arrow. She leaves for the Islands on the morning tide.”

  “The Sandwich Islands? Hawaii? That’s going to take a bit of getting used to.”

  “There’s no alternative. This city will be an armed camp in the morning. The Committee’s likely to shoot you first and question you later. I doubt you’ll be safe anywhere in California for a time.”

  “I fear you’re right.”

  “Here’s the rowboat,” Danny said.

  Jed shoved the boat into the water and stood holding its prow. “Jed and I will row you out to the ship,” Danny told Rhynne.

  Rhynne extended his hand to McSweeney. They shook hands, then Rhynne clasped the big man to him. He did the same with Abe. “I’m leaving Mr. O’Lee in charge at the Empire,” he told them. “Though I’ll be back, never fear.”

  He clambered into the boat. Danny and Jed followed, Jed taking his place at the oars.

  “The Golden Arrow has signed Jed on as a seaman,” Danny said once they were underway.

  Rhynne nodded. “He’s a free man with Sutton dead and no one to claim him.”

  “A free man,” Jed’s voice boomed out. They both looked at him in surprise. “A free man,” the black said again.

  “The Arrow goes on to the islands of the far Pacific,” Danny said. “Jed expects to settle there.”

  Rhynne said wryly, “Maybe I should too. Except that I’ve come to think of San Francisco as my home. The next time I see her she’ll be bigger and noisier and more crowded than ever, I expect.”

  “With the gold and all, no doubt you’re right.”

  “No, Danny, not because of the gold. There’ll be a time soon when the miners will wonder why they’re going through all the toil and trouble. They’ll pack up and go home.”

  “Just leaving the gold in the ground?” Danny was dubious.

  “There’ll be less and less gold to be found and it will be more and more difficult and expensive to get it out. Gold has already made California a state, a free state; she’ll grow and prosper. And change. I see her as a beautiful and wealthy woman with San Francisco the glittering diadem on her brow.”

  “You sound like a poet yourself sometimes,” Danny told him. “I’ll look after things until it’s right for you here again. But I don’t know if I want to stay here all the rest of my life.”

  “Yes, the lure of the unknown calls to youth. And speaking of the unknown, about Pamela . . .”

  “It was her money paid Charlie Sung for the fireworks display. And for your passage.”

  “I thought as much. When you speak to her, tell her that when last you saw W.W. Rhynne he was a man of ‘cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows.”

  “That I will.”

  The bow of the Golden Arrow loomed over them. To the east they saw the first light of dawn streaking the sky the color of gold.

  “One additional message for Pamela, Danny. Tell her I’ll always love her.”

  The morning light woke Barry Fitzpatrick. He blinked, raised himself on one elbow and looked down at the still sleeping Selena. Her golden hair spilled across the blanket; she smiled in her sleep. Barry shook his head. He just couldn’t seem to get his fill of looking at her.

  Slowly Selena opened her eyes. She sat up with a sheet around her breasts and stretched.

  “You’re beautiful, Selena,” Barry said.

  “Even now? Even with my hair like this?”

  He pushed stray strands away from her face. “More than ever,” he said.

  She smiled at him,
almost shyly.

  “A strange thing,” Barry said. “When we were together last night, you and I, I thought I saw rockets shooting across the sky and bombs exploding in the air.” He watched her. “You know,” he added drily, “it’s never been that way for me before? What do you make of it?”

  “Oh, my God, I forgot.” She knelt on the mattress so she could look from the window.

  “What do you see?”

  “The Golden Arrow”, Selena said, “sailing out of the bay.”

  “I’m surprised you’re well enough acquainted with ships to be able to tell one from another.”

  “I know the lines of the Golden Arrow.”

  “Because she’s taking your friend Mr. Rhynne to the Islands?”

  She swung around and stared at him. He was grinning. “You knew?”

  “Let’s say I suspected,” Barry said. “I heard the bell tolling this morning, early. The Vigilantes’ bell. I imagine that means Rhynne made good his escape.”

  “And you did nothing to stop him?”

  Barry shrugged. “I think he killed Sutton. I’m not sure. To me, a surmise isn’t enough to justify hanging a man.”

  “Then all last night you were toying with me.”

  Barry laughed. “You have it backwards. I wanted you, Selena, still do. You were the one toying with me. What will I mean to you now that you know Rhynne’s safe? Nothing.”

  “That’s not true, Barry, not true at all.” She reached out her arms. “Come to me. I’ll prove it.”

  He did. And she did.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Dan O’Lee nodded casually to the maître d’ as the man bowed him out of the dining room. Who’d ever thought it? A respected businessman and him not yet twenty-five.

  “Oh, Dan.” The girl on his arm, a dark-haired beauty named Arabella, smiled up at him. “It’s been a lovely evening.”

  “That it has, and no end in sight.”

  He’d bed her tonight in his private suite at the Golden Empire. There was no doubt of it in his mind. He could tell by the way she swayed against him, by the look in her eyes. And she wouldn’t expect marriage either. He’d learned to avoid the ones who did.