More Than Gold

by Nerys Leigh

  Sure enough, as soon as he was done she said, “Are you finished?”

  Her voice startled him, it having been a good fifteen minutes since she’d last spoken, or even moved.

  “I reckon.”

  “So you’ll talk to me now?”

  Did he have to? “’Bout what?”

  Suddenly stirring into action, she grasped his arm and marched him towards the house. Instinctively knowing pulling away would only make things worse, he offered no resistance.

  Once inside, she released him and shoved the door shut with a bang. Then she opened it again, waited for Brutus to amble inside, and closed it once more.

  “Why do we have to be in here to talk?” Gabriel said, shifting his feet.

  “Because I don’t want anyone to overhear us.”

  He looked out the window. “There’s no one around.”

  “I might get very loud.”

  That was it. He wasn’t a disobedient child for her to scold. It was time to lay down the law.

  He drew himself up to his full height. “Look here, Grace, you just listen to me. You’re my wife and I respect you as the weaker sex and all, but a man has a right to his opinions and to decide for himself what he does without being questioned about it. I’m the head of this house and, as such, I don’t have to explain everything I do. So you’ll just have to get used to the fact that sometimes I know what’s best and I don’t need your approval.”

  She stared at him impassively. “Are you done?”

  He swallowed. “I reckon.”

  “Good. Now you can listen to me.” She prodded his chest with her finger. “You may be used to women who allow their men to dictate their lives and make all the decisions without consulting them or even telling them why, but if that’s the kind of woman you want, I’m not her. I will not sit quietly by while you decide everything without so much as an explanation. And if I agree with you, I will stand with you and give you all my support. But if I disagree, we are going to at least talk about it like civilized human beings. My opinion matters to me and it should matter to you. If it doesn’t, you need to tell me right now because we are going to have a lot of problems.”

  Evidently, the law he’d laid down hadn’t stayed down. Not that he was entirely surprised. She was the most frustrating, infuriating, opinionated woman he’d ever met. She was also the most extraordinary woman he’d ever met, and she was right, her opinion did matter to him.

  But admitting his reasons for not accepting Fowler’s offer meant revealing things about himself he wasn’t comfortable discussing. It meant talking about how he felt, something he’d never been good at.

  He walked to the table and sat, resting his arms on the wooden surface and staring at his hands. “It’s because that claim is mine.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve moved around a lot since I left home, and worked for other people all the time. I didn’t mind at first, but then the war started and I got conscripted and when it was over I didn’t want to have other people forcing me to do what I didn’t want to anymore, whether it was killing or working at a job I hated. So I saved up all the money I made after that and finally got enough to buy this mined out claim that probably didn’t have a speck of gold left in it. I didn’t even have to pay for the house, they just threw it in for free. But I worked real hard on it and I finally found gold. Not a lot, but enough to live on and have a bit extra. Enough to get me a wife and finally settle down. It’s the first thing I’ve ever had that’s all mine and I’m not going to let anyone take it away from me. Not for all the money in the world.”

  It was so quiet when he finished speaking that he could hear his heart beating in his ears. At some point during his little speech his hands had clenched into fists on the table, but he couldn’t seem to get them to relax. He didn’t dare look up at Grace.

  And then the chair opposite him scraped on the floor, he heard the rustle of a dress, and two soft hands wrapped around his. He raised his gaze to find her sitting across from him, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. As he watched, a single drop of moisture broke free and inched its way down her cheek, leaving a shining trail behind it.

  “You don’t have to cry for me.”

  “I can’t help it.” Another tear followed the first and she sniffed and smiled. “Thank you for telling me. I understand now why you don’t want to sell it, and Mr. Fowler can offer all the money he wants until he’s blue in the face. We’re staying right here.”

  During his life he’d been wrong about so many things that he’d lost count, but he couldn’t remember ever being so wrong as when she first arrived and he’d thought she wasn’t the woman for him. She was the best wife he could have asked for, in every way.

  Unfurling his hands, he turned them over and wrapped them around hers. For just about the first time since he’d left home at seventeen, he didn’t feel alone. It was better than he could have ever imagined. With Grace by his side, he felt as if he could do just about anything.

  He wanted to lift her hands to his lips to kiss them. He almost did, but then something occurred to him. “Hold on, how did you know he offered me two thousand dollars?”

  “He turned up here earlier today and tried to convince me to persuade you to take his offer.”

  “He came here when he knew I wouldn’t be around?” That wasn’t just socially inappropriate, it felt like a veiled threat, a message that Gabriel couldn’t be with Grace all the time and that Fowler could get to her whenever he wanted.

  Although surely he wouldn’t harm her, would he? But something about Fowler had bothered Gabriel right from the start, so he wasn’t at all sure that was the case.

  “I suppose he wanted to talk to me alone,” she said, “when you wouldn’t overhear.”

  He looked down at their hands intertwined on the table top. Maybe it wasn’t his place to take every decision for them, but it was his place to protect her. If something ever happened to Grace...

  “If you’re worried about me being alone, don’t be,” she said, guessing his thoughts with uncanny accuracy. “Mr. Fowler didn’t even get off his horse. He tried, but Brutus growled at him. It was really quite funny how scared he was.”

  He glanced over at the dog sprawled on his rug by the warm stove. “Good boy, Brutus.”

  Brutus opened his eyes, thumped his tail on the floor once, and closed them again.

  “Truth is, I don’t know why Fowler is offering that much. There’s not nearly enough coming from the claim for it to be worth it.” Since he was being honest, he might as well go all the way. “I’ve heard that the people he works for have been buying up the claims around mine.”

  “He told me that. He said mining techniques have advanced enough that they could get more gold from the mines now.”

  “It’s possible, but that area’s pretty mined out. It’s the reason I got my claim so cheap. There’s still gold, but not enough to interest any of the big companies anymore. Reopening the mines wouldn’t be worth the money it would cost.”

  “So you think he’s lying?”

  He wasn’t inclined to believe anything Fowler said. “I think it’s a good bet he is.”

  “So then why would he offer all that money?”

  He shrugged. “Beats me.”

  “Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter, since we won’t be taking his money.” She looked down at their hands. Neither of them had pulled away. “I, um... I should check on supper. I don’t want it to burn.” To his disappointment, she slipped her hands from his and stood.

  “Grace?”

  “Yes?”

  He wanted to tell her how much she’d come to mean to him, but an unaccustomed shyness came over him. It wasn’t a feeling he was used to, and all he managed was, “Thank you.”

  She smiled, nodded, and turned to the stove.

  An invigorating lightness blossomed in his chest. Maybe being honest about his feelings wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

  ~ ~ ~

  Following supper, Gabr
iel brought a bench from the barn and set it on the porch.

  It had come with the house and he’d never had much use for it before, but he’d had an idea that Grace might like to have somewhere to sit and look at the view she liked so much, so he’d spent time over the previous couple of days fixing it up. In the future, he was hoping it would be perfect for snuggling. He’d never had the desire to snuggle with a woman before, but snuggling with Grace was something he most definitely wanted to do.

  He took a blanket and two pillows out to the bench and arranged them in a way that could be conducive to sitting close, if the opportunity arose. Then he called her out from the house.

  She appeared in the doorway. “Yes... oh!” Her eyes fell on the bench.

  “Figured you’d like somewhere to sit out here, if you had a mind to.”

  As he’d hoped, her face lit up. “It’s perfect!” She ran her hand over the newly sanded back before sitting and looking up at him with a smile. “Would you join me?”

  He sat down so fast he felt lightheaded for a moment. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Her laughter warmed the cooling evening air. He loved hearing her laugh. It made his insides tingle.

  “I think this might be my favorite view in the whole world,” she said, gazing out over the valley where shadows were gathering beneath the pink-tinged sky.

  His eyes remained firmly on her. “Mine too.”

  He eyed the gap between them. Would she notice if he moved closer? Would she mind?

  She suddenly gasped, tensing.

  He looked around quickly. “What is it?” Had Fowler returned?

  “Rat. I hate those things.”

  A brown furry shape scurried across the yard and disappeared under the porch.

  Gabriel took the opportunity to slide closer to her. He wasn’t proud of himself, but he wasn’t about to let the chance slip by. “It’s all right, I won’t let it hurt you.”

  “I’m not afraid it will hurt me.”

  Despite her words, when another one darted out and headed for the barn, she grabbed his hand. He wrapped his fingers around hers and moved even closer. He didn’t want her to be afraid, but at that moment he couldn’t help but be grateful to the rats.

  “Maybe if we watch them for a while you’ll get used to them.”

  “Maybe.” She didn’t sound at all convinced.

  “Do you want to go back inside?” It was the last thing he wanted to do. There were only two separate chairs inside. No chance for snuggling.

  He really needed to buy a settee big enough for two.

  She drew in a breath and released it slowly. “No. I want to stay here and look at my view. As long as they don’t come up here on the porch, I’ll be fine.”

  He had a brief vision of a rat running onto the porch and her leaping into his lap. Reluctantly, he raised his voice. “Brute!” Ten seconds later, Brutus sauntered from the house. “Stay out here and keep the rats away.”

  Brutus wagged his tail, wagged it even harder when Grace reached out to stroke his back, then flopped down at the top of the steps and lowered his head to his paws.

  To Gabriel’s delight, Grace didn’t let go of his hand. After a while, she even rested her head against his shoulder.

  The bench might have been the best idea he’d ever had.

  Chapter 11

  The following day was Sunday and they took the buggy into the town for the morning service.

  Grace enjoyed returning to the Green Hill Creek Emmanuel Church. Even though it had only been six days since she and Gabriel were married, it felt like an age since she’d last been there. So much had happened in that short time.

  Pastor Jones’ sermon was inspiring and thought-provoking and she took copious notes on what he said so she could study it later. Gabriel repeatedly darted glances at her as she wrote and she wondered if she could persuade him to study the Bible with her. She wasn’t sure where he stood with God, but he was at church with her, so that was a good sign. After her mother died, her father had stopped doing even that much.

  “Oh look, there’s Amy.” Grace pushed onto her toes to see her new friend through the crowd as she and Gabriel emerged from the church after the service.

  His head whipped round. “Amy? As in Amy Emerson?”

  “Yes. I met her on Wednesday when we came into town.”

  His gaze searched the crowd around them. “Did she, uh… what did you talk about?”

  “Lots of things.” She frowned at the nervousness on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.” He wound his arm around hers and tugged her towards the back of the church where they’d left Fred and the buggy. “We should go.”

  “But I wanted to talk to her.” She looked back at where she’d seen Amy with her husband. “What’s the rush?”

  “Hmm?” He glanced behind them. “Oh, I have to fetch something on the way home, from Mr. Ellery. I told him we’d be there soon.”

  She looked back but couldn’t see Amy anymore, but she supposed it didn’t matter. She was planning to come back into town within the next day or two anyway, to buy some more spruce gum for Gabriel. She’d pay her new friend a visit then.

  Mr. Ellery’s farm wasn’t far out of town. They drove through a mixture of arable fields and sheep pastures before arriving at a cluster of barns. Gabriel stopped the buggy outside the largest and set the brake.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He emerged a few minutes later carrying a lidded basket which he placed behind the seat before climbing back up.

  “What’s in the basket?” she said as they pulled away, twisting round to look.

  “It’s a surprise.”

  The last time someone told her they had a surprise, it was her father announcing he’d met Felicia and they were to be married. Grace wasn’t fond of surprises.

  “Is it for me?”

  “Might be.”

  Despite her dislike of surprises, the way in which he was obviously trying to not smile had her intrigued. “When do I get to see it?”

  His reply was interrupted by a noise.

  She looked round, searching for the source. When she saw nothing but the closed basket, she leaned down to check under the seat. Nothing there either.

  The sound came again, a kind of mewling squeak.

  “Your basket is making a noise.”

  “Is it?” He stared straight ahead, his face impassive. Although his lips did twitch slightly, just once.

  She looked back at the basket again. “What’s in it?”

  “Guess you’d better check.”

  He didn’t need to tell her twice. Now dying to know what his gift was, she set it on her lap and opened the lid a crack. A pair of blue eyes peered at her from the gloomy depths. Gasping in delight, she threw back the lid and was greeted with a squeaky meow.

  “Oh!” She reached inside and carefully lifted out a tabby kitten. “He’s adorable! Does he have a name? Or is he a she?”

  “He’s a he and he doesn’t have a name. Figured you’d like to name him, seeing as I got him for you.”

  She placed the basket back behind the seat and cradled the tiny ball of fluff on her lap, gently stroking his soft fur as he looked around with wide eyes.

  “What would you call him?”

  “I’m not the right person to ask. Only thing I ever named was Goat because I couldn’t think of anything else. When we have young ’uns, I’ll leave the naming to you.”

  The thought of having his children sent an unexpected thrill through her chest. Feeling her cheeks heating, she lowered her eyes to the kitten in her lap, hoping Gabriel wouldn’t notice.

  “John Ellery said his mother’s a good mouser,” he said. “Reckon once he’s grown a bit he’ll clear the rats right out.”

  Understanding dawned. “You got him for me because I’m scared of the rats?”

  “Yup.”

  A rush of affection swept over her, for this man who didn’t understand her and possibly though
t she was crazy, and yet cared for her anyway. “Thank you. This means so much to me.”

  He looked at her quizzically. “It’s only a kitten.”

  “But he’s my kitten. You got him for me to make me feel better. That means a lot.”

  “Never thought of it like that. I just don’t want you to be afraid anymore.”

  She smiled. “And that makes it even better.”

  He looked bemused. “I think you’re giving me too much credit.”

  “I don’t think so at all.” Her heart pattering, she wound her arm through his, the pattering turning to a leap when he smiled at her. Feeling awkward and thrilled at the same time, she dropped her gaze to the kitten. “I think I will name him... Ratbane.”

  He let out a bark of laughter. “Ratbane?”

  “Because he will be the bane of rats, once he gets bigger. It’s poetic.”

  There was half a minute of silence. Ratbane curled into a ball on her lap and began to purr.

  “I think,” Gabriel said slowly, “that I would like to help with naming our children after all. Could we maybe call him R.B.?”

  Laughing softly, she rested her head against her husband’s shoulder. “I think R.B. is perfect.”

  As they drove towards home, there was more movement in her Good Things About Being in California and Married to Gabriel list.

  1) She loved the animals, even Goat. And now she had a new kitten to love too.

  2) Gabriel.

  3) The scenery outside the house, with the mountains behind and the valley stretched out in front, was stunning.

  4) The town was nice, and she’d made some friends. And even though they lived so far away, she didn’t mind so much now.

  5) The house was cozy and warm and felt more like home every day.

  6) Even if Felicia had been there Grace wouldn’t have cared about any of her snide remarks, because Gabriel thought she was fine just as she was.

  At this rate, he would soon be at number one. And then what would she do?