That evening after Juliet helped Carl into the bed, he said, “I hope I never have to go through another day like this for the rest of my life.”
Offering him a sympathetic smile, she asked, “Was it really that bad?”
“I think it would have been less painful if I had been allowed to freeze to death by the stream.”
“Oh Carl, you can’t mean that.” She sat beside him. “I would be terribly grieved if that happened.”
He settled back onto the pillow and gestured for her to lie next to him. She did, but she was careful not to irritate his injured leg that remained immobile by the splints. She slipped her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. He, in turn, wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“I never thought I’d hear anyone say they would miss me if I was gone,” he admitted, his tone soft. “Besides my mother, no one cared for me.”
“It sounds like she was a good woman.”
“She was. This place was too harsh for her. She was brought up in a wealthy home, and my father married her to get his hands on the money. Needless to say, he squandered it in some bad business ventures. When he heard there was gold in this part of the country, he brought me and my mother here. I was four at the time, so I barely remember Boston.”
“That must have been difficult for your mother to go through.”
“It was. She used to tell me about the large house she grew up in and all the fine foods she used to eat. She took it all for granted, she’d say, and then she’d hold me and cry.” He paused. “She made a few attempts to leave. My father didn’t know about the jewelry she’d kept hidden, but she used to tell me the plans she had to go to her sister’s in Canada. Then, she said, we could finally be happy.”
He swallowed and took a deep breath. “She wouldn’t say anything to my father, and she’d wait when he was occupied with Abe’s mother to take me to town. He always found us and brought us back, though. He wouldn’t let her leave. She was his wife, and he wasn’t going to be disgraced by having her leave him. One time we made it a hundred miles out on the stagecoach before he found us. It was at this point he realized she had the jewelry. As you probably suspect, he ended up taking it.”
“Did he beat her?”
“No. He didn’t lay a hand on her. He didn’t have to. All her will to live left after that. She gave up on trying to get us out of this town. A couple of months went by, and then one day when I was helping my father pan for gold, she drank poison. When we came back, she was already dead, and there was nothing I could do to bring her back.”
Noting the way his voice wavered, she lifted her head and brushed his tears away. “You couldn’t have known she was going to do that.”
His gaze went to her. “People around here think she died of natural causes. They think the harsh living conditions were too much for her. I was so angry at my father that I tried to hurt him, but I was only fourteen. I was no match for him.”
“I’m sorry, Carl,” she whispered.
He took her hand in his and pressed it against his heart. “It happened so long ago that sometimes it seems like a dream, but talking to Abe today just brought it all back. I don’t like thinking about our father.”
“No one can blame you for that.”
“I just want to be happy.” He squeezed her hand. “I didn’t think it was possible to be happy until you came into my life.” He cleared his throat. “I was never happy with Lydia. My father arranged for that marriage. He didn’t want me marrying a woman from town. Not that I was interested in anyone. But my father would never have allowed such a union even if I was.
“He considered the women here uneducated and lacking in social graces. ‘My son won’t be tied to someone who isn’t worthy of the Richie name,’ he said. ‘My son is going to be wealthy one day, and when he is, he’s going to need a wife who can entertain the right people.’ So he sent for Lydia. She was the daughter of one of his old friends in Boston. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn the gold my father told his friend about hadn’t been dug out of the stream yet.”
He let out a long sigh and continued, “Like I said, so much of it seems like it was one very long and very bad dream. The only thing that feels real is you.” He reached up and cupped the side of her face with his hand. “All I want is for us to be together. Now that I know what I’ve been missing all these years, I don’t want to be without you.”
This time, tears filled her eyes, and she had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could speak. “I don’t want to be without you, either. As soon as the weather warms up, we’ll go back to panning for gold.”
“We’re close, Juliet. I’ve never found as much gold as we’ve panned the last couple of days. I think that’s the spot that’ll help us get out of here. Then we can finally leave this town and make a new life in Canada.”
She smiled. “I’m looking forward to it.”
He brought her face closer to his and kissed her. Afterwards, she settled her head back on his shoulder, and they drifted off to sleep.
***
Carl’s leg took longer to heal than he wanted, but by February, he could walk on it without the constant need to take a crutch with him wherever he went. The winter months were always slow. There was so little to do during that time. On some days, he would stare out the window of the cabin in the direction of the stream.
Surely, Juliet was safe. The snow and freezing temperatures would keep anyone who might be looking for her away from town. The time to worry would be when the weather warmed back up. And by then, he would renew his efforts to find gold.
Now that he had found a promising spot in the stream, it might be a matter of one or two months before they got enough money to leave. If that was the case, they were very close to finally being free from anything that might come between them.
One day at the beginning of March while he was looking out the window, Juliet put down the last dish she was cleaning and went over to him. “Why do you spend so much time looking outside? Are you afraid you’re going to miss the first flower of spring popping out of the ground?”
Amused at her joke, he turned from where he was sitting and smiled. “No. I’m just anxious to get back to the stream.”
She jutted out her lower lip in a pretty pout. “Am I really so boring that you’d rather be outside panning for gold than in here with me?”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her onto his lap. She let out a startled laugh, and he hugged her to him. “No. I could never get bored with you.” Then, feeling playful, he pulled her closer to him and left a trail of kisses from the back of her ear to her shoulder.
Giggling, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “That’s not fair, Carl. You know I’m ticklish there.”
“It’s nice to hear you laugh.” In fact, it was nice to have any kind of laughter in this cabin after all the years he’d lived here. “The place seems like a home with you in it.”
Her smile widened. “I kind of like it. I know it’s small, but it’s cozy. When we get to Canada, can we have a place like this one?”
“You can have whatever you want.”
“In that case, may I have a kiss?”
“You most certainly may.”
His lips brushed hers, and she melted against him. The short kiss soon turned into a longer one, and before long, their tongues were interlacing in earnest. By the way she pressed up against him, he could tell she was getting aroused. Lydia had never given him any indication that she enjoyed anything he did with her. Which was because she hadn’t.
Juliet, however, wasn’t one to hold back when she wanted to make love to him. More than that, she was uninhibited in her actions. From the evening she came to him to initiate lovemaking, she hadn’t once done anything to make him second-guess her desire to be with him.
The initial hesitation he used to experience whenever things became more intimate had slowly ebbed over the past couple of months. But there were times when he had to press through the uncertainty of his past in order to enjoy the moments he had with her. If Juliet ever picked up on it, she didn’t let him know, something he secretly appreciated since he’d rather not dwell on it.
Instead, he’d rather think of how wonderful it was to be made love to by a woman who sincerely cared for him. Focusing on her, he slid his hand up her dress. Now that she was staying inside most of the time, she wore her dress more than the pants, and one thing he noticed was her reluctance to wear any undergarments like bloomers or petticoats.
He had once asked her why she did this, and she had shot him a sly smile before saying it made it easier to share an afternoon dalliance with him whenever the mood took hold of her. In this case, it was working to his advantage since it allowed him to run his hand up her bare legs and then find the patch of curls between them.
She let out a low moan and parted her legs so he could better explore her. From time to time, he ventured to touch her like this, but he’d been afraid his technique wouldn’t work well, which was why he hadn’t lingered here for too long. This time, however, he decided to try to bring her pleasure by touching her.
He traced the patch of curls until he felt the warm folds of her flesh. When he slid a finger into her, she moaned again and shifted so that he went deeper inside her. He had no idea such a simple action on her part could excite him so much, but he inserted another finger into her and began to stroke her core.
She ended their kiss and wiggled so that the palm of his hand was resting right against her sensitive nub. She then began to move her hips so that she was rubbing intimately against him. Intrigued by the aroused expression on her face, he watched her, his own arousal getting thicker as she encouraged him to keep stroking her.
He didn’t know how it was possible, but each time they were together, it seemed that she was more vocal in her enjoyment of everything he did to her. Whether she was aware of it or not, it made him that much more eager to do everything he could to please her.
Though he hadn’t stroked her with the intent of bringing her to climax up to now, he continued with that goal, and he was rewarded when she let out the familiar cry and stilled as her flesh clenched and unclenched around him. The expression on her face was just wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. He focused on it, doing everything he could to memorize the look of a woman when she received the full pleasure due to her during the act of lovemaking.
He waited until her flesh stopped clenching around him before he picked her up and carried her to the bed. Under ordinary circumstances, he would take the time to remove her dress so that he could see her breasts, but he was too anxious to be inside her to take the time to do that.
In one quick motion, he had his pants off and settled on top of her. He paused long enough to lift her dress to her waist, which afforded him a glimpse of her parted legs that offered him an invitation to make love to her. With a groan, he accepted her invitation and entered her.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him into her embrace. He gave her a kiss to thank her then proceeded to slide in and out of her, taking his time to get the most enjoyment out of the moment. Then, when he reached his peak, he grew taut and released his seed. With a moan, he savored each wave of pleasure as it consumed him.
When he was spent, he collapsed in her arms, out of breath and lightheaded. Her legs still wrapped around his waist, she kissed his cheek and hugged him. He loved that most about her, though he couldn’t bring himself to tell her. She didn’t push him away from her, nor did she express her relief that it was finally over. She continued to hold him and kiss him.
As soon as his head cleared, he returned her kisses. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”
With a smile, he resumed kissing her, and before long, he was making love to her again.
***
In early April, it was finally warm enough for Carl and Juliet to return to the stream. She thought they could have waited for another week, but since he was anxious to get back to gold panning and the snow was gone, she decided not to argue with him. Instead, she bundled up for the chill that still lingered in the air and went with him as he gathered the supplies.
“We can get a fire going in the barn when we return,” he promised on their way to the stream.
She offered him a nod and followed him down to the stream.
“I marked the spot where I found all that gold with a bandana,” Carl told her as he set the wheelbarrow down. “It was red, and it’s tied to a tree branch. It should be somewhere in this area.”
Her gaze went up to the trees. Squinting at the sunlight filtering through the branches, she caught sight of a limp piece of cloth that hung in the gentle breeze. She nudged him in the side. “Is that it?”
He followed her gaze and nodded. “Yes, that’s it. The spot is a little further south than I remembered.” He lifted the handles of the wheelbarrow and proceeded over to the tree.
Once they were at the spot, she removed her boots and rolled up her pants, just as she had many times before. The routine had become so natural that she didn’t even think of what she needed to do.
Oddly enough, there was a sense of security in the mundane tasks. Everything about living here had become a quiet routine, from the chores she did throughout the day to settling down for the evening with Carl.
In some ways, she would miss this town, but when they got to Canada, they would be able to lead a quiet and peaceful life there as well.
Ignoring the icy chill in the water, she squatted beside Carl as he searched for a good spot to dig.
“You should probably stay out of the stream,” he told her. “It’s colder than I expected.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “It’s just my ankles and feet that are in it.”
Besides, his excitement was so infectious that she hardly noticed how cold the water was. He’d been so sure that this was the spot that would change everything for them, and she wanted to be right next to him when his suspicions were proven right.
He poured a spade’s worth of the sediment into the classifier which sat on top of the gold pan and started the process of swirling the water around to separate the pebbles from the pay dirt.
“I want to make sure I get the exact location right before we get too far,” he told her. “November was a long time ago.”
With a smile, she rubbed his back. “It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago to me. I enjoyed spending all that time in the cabin with you.”
She caught a smile on his face and knew he felt the same way. But there was no denying how much he was looking forward to finally getting out of this town, so she couldn’t blame him for being excited.
He lifted the classifier and dumped pebbles out of it. Then he dipped the side of the pan in the water and worked on sorting the next level of sediment that needed to be separated out.
He repeated the process a few more times but didn’t produce the amount of gold he’d been hoping for. He scooted over to another bend in the stream he said looked promising and worked on the sediment there.
Ten minutes later, he turned to her in excitement. “I got it!” He showed her the pan that was sparkling with gold flakes and small nuggets that lined the bottom portion of the pan he’d been working on. “This is it!” He pointed to the bend. “That’s where I was digging when I found all that gold in November. I knew there was more, and it’s right there!”
He let out a cheer and kissed her, almost dumping the gold in his pan back into the stream. He quickly leveled the pan so the flakes and nuggets were safe.
“Let’s get the pay dirt up to the barn,” he said, his smile wide.
Laughing, she hurried to grab the shovel and bucket.