May I be excused?” Ruby Mae asked at dinner that evening.
“I suppose,” Christy said. “But you barely touched your chicken.”
“Just ain’t hungry, I reckon. It was fine chicken, though, Miss Ida.”
“I’ll second that,” Mr. Halliday said heartily.
“As a matter of fact,” the preacher said, “I’ll eat that last piece on your plate, Ruby Mae. Unless you’d like it, Mr. Halliday.”
“All yours, Reverend. Eat any more, and I’ll burst.”
Ruby Mae pushed back her chair and carried her dishes to the sink in the kitchen. She slipped upstairs without a sound.
At the top of the stairs, she paused in front of Miz Christy’s room. Her heart was hammering inside her chest.
All afternoon, she’d known she was going to end up in this spot. But now that she was really here, she wasn’t sure if she should go through with her plan.
Downstairs, the grownups were laughing and talking. Mr. Halliday had spent the whole dinner talking about his trips to faraway places. He’d even told them how he’d had dinner at the White House after he took the President’s photograph. A fine meal, he’d said, but not as fine as Miss Ida’s fried chicken.
The more he had talked, the more Ruby Mae had realized he didn’t need the gold, even if it was really his. He was a man with a camera and a fancy catalog and lots of white handkerchiefs and a gold pocket watch. What did a little gold matter to him? If he needed more money, he could always take more pictures of fancy people.
With trembling fingers, Ruby Mae eased open Miz Christy’s door and slipped into her bedroom. The setting sun had turned everything golden. The room smelled of lilac talcum powder, the way Miz Christy always did. Unlike Ruby Mae’s room, everything was in its place, neat as a pin.
On the dresser was a picture of Miz Christy’s family, smiling at the camera. Ruby Mae looked at it. Even though she’d seen it a hundred times before, tears suddenly spilled down her cheeks.
Miz Christy had a happy family. So did Bessie and Clara.
They could talk all they wanted about silver flutes and such, but the gold meant far more to Ruby Mae. She didn’t have anyone she could really depend on. She didn’t have the kind of family they did.
Sure, she’d talked about horses and mansions and dozens of kids. But what she truly wanted was a way to feel safe. What if Miss Alice and the preacher decided they couldn’t let her stay at the mission any longer? What if her pa and ma wouldn’t take her back in? Her pa had kicked her out once already. Where would she go then?
Ruby Mae wanted this gold. She wanted it just the way Mountie wanted that silly doll. Only worse.
She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. She hated all this thinking. How did Clara stand it?
Taking a deep breath, Ruby Mae ran over to Miz Christy’s bed, slipped her hand under the mattress, and found the trunk key. It took two tries to get it open, but finally the lock clicked.
Carefully, Ruby Mae opened the wooden jewelry box. There it was. Hope.
She scooped up all the nuggets and put them in her pocket. Her hands were shaking like leaves in the wind. Just as she started to lock the trunk, she heard voices on the stairway.
Her heart leapt into her throat. Leaving the key in the lock, Ruby Mae slid under Miz Christy’s bed just as the door opened.
Miz Christy took another step, and another. Ruby Mae could see her teacher’s shoes. They were close enough to touch. She feared she would scream from the awful waiting.
“That’s funny,” Miz Christy murmured. “I could have sworn I heard something.”
“Coming?” the preacher called from downstairs.
“Just a minute, David. I’m getting my shawl. It’s cool tonight.”
Step. Step. Ruby Mae heard a drawer slide open. Step. Step. Step.
The door closed.
For the first time in what seemed like hours, Ruby Mae took a calming breath. She waited under the bed a long time, until, through the window, she heard the sound of Miz Christy and the preacher talking outside in the yard.
Ruby Mae eased her way out from under the bed. Her pocket bulged. There was something she needed to do, but what? Her head was still buzzing with fear.
Find a place to hide her gold, maybe that was it. Somewhere in her room where no one, not even nosy Miss Ida, would ever find it. Stuffed deep in her feather pillow, maybe.
Ruby Mae went to the door and peeked outside. It was safe.
She headed for her room, whistling softly.
A tune as pretty, she thought, as anything you might hear on a silver flute.
That night, Christy couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was the full moon, lighting up the room. Or maybe it was the fact that David had thought he’d heard noises that evening around the mission house. He and Mr. Halliday had done a thorough search and hadn’t found a thing, but still, it was hard to relax with the gold right here in her room.
It was a relief to know that Mr. Halliday was staying here. And David was in his bunkhouse, close enough to come if help were needed.
She went to the window and listened. Crickets thrummed noisily. A branch cracked. An owl hooted, soft and low: HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOOO.
Nothing. She was just jumpy. She closed her window and returned to bed. But as she pulled the sheets over her, something glimmering in the moonlight caught her eye.
Her key. The key to her trunk.
For a brief moment, she thought maybe she’d left it in the trunk latch by accident. But no, she distinctly remembered putting it under the mattress.
Christy rushed over to the trunk and opened it. The jewelry box was in its usual place. But when she opened it, just as she’d feared, the gold was gone. Not a nugget was left.
With a sigh, Christy sat on her bed, clutching the key. Who knew about the key? Miss Alice, David, Neil, Miss Ida.
And Ruby Mae.
No. She couldn’t let herself think that way. Ruby Mae wouldn’t, she couldn’t . . .
Perhaps someone else had found out about the trunk. Rummaged through her room. Found the key.
But Miss Ida was almost always here. It didn’t seem very likely.
Still, the alternative was more than Christy could bear to think about.
With a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, Christy tiptoed to Ruby Mae’s room. Gently she knocked on the door. When there was no answer, Christy eased it open a few inches.
Ruby Mae lay there asleep, snoring lightly. Asleep like this, she had the face of an angel.
Christy closed the door. She was going to try to remember that angelic face. And she was going to try very hard to think of some other way the gold might have disappeared.