Page 71 of A New World for the Irish Daughter

As Maggie tightened her embrace, Sheetka burrowed against her shoulder. And then, miraculously, Maggie heard her whisper something against her cheek. “Ma…”

“Maggie?” she guessed, leaning back to look into the girl’s face. Tears shone in her dark eyes, turning them luminous. “Sheetka, darling…”

“Mama,” Sheetka whispered, and hugged her again, burrowing her head once more against Maggie’s shoulder while she blinked back tears of both joy and sorrow.

Mama. How could she leave her little girl? And yet she had to, for the sake of her family. The rest of her family, so one day they could all be together again.

An hour later, Maggie and Brendan were boardingSS Queen, the same steamer that had taken them to Juneau from Port Townsend nearly two years ago. The deck was crowded with miners heading for Mooresville and Dyea, hardened, rough-looking fellows in mackinaws and mukluks, seeming like they were well prepared for whatever was ahead.

But werethey? Maggie stood at the deck with Brendan as the steamer left Auke Bay, heading for the Inside Passage and the Lynn Canal, two thousand feet deep and twelve miles wide, narrowing to only three miles at its northern end.

Spruce-covered mountains rose up as the steamer left Juneau, the Indian village huddled at the side of the bay, the great Treadwell mine clanking and clattering on Douglas Island in the harbor.

Soon they’d left it all completely behind, and then there was nothing to see but mountains and trees, sea and sky. The air was cool, the sun warm, the fog lifting in ghostly shreds of mist from the tops of the trees, as Maggie and Brendan remained by the railing, watching the land slide by. It was only ninety miles to Mooresville, no more than a few hours on board, and then the hard work would begin.

“What do you think Mooresville will be like?” Maggie asked curiously. She felt Brendan was far more knowledgeable in these matters than she was, having traveled up and down the northwest coast to buy his own stock.

“Small but growing fast, I’m thinking,” he replied with a wry smile. “Word hasn’t gotten out widely about the rush yet, but it will.” He glanced at the crowded deck. “These fellows were already hanging around Fort Wrangell or Victoria, which is how they heard about it so quickly, but once you get the men from Seattle and San Francisco and beyond…” He shook his head. “How many of them will die on the trail because they don’t know better? At least these miners have a better idea of what they’re getting into. I hope so, anyway.”

“And doweknow what we’re going into?” Maggie asked, trying to sound light and failing. Worry gnawed at her stomach as she thought of what was ahead, and how little she knew aboutit. Beyond Juneau, all of Alaska and the Yukon seemed like a vast and empty expanse of mountain and snow. She could not imagine entering it, never mind crossing five hundred miles of it—in a boat they would build themselves, no less.

Brendan smiled down at her, his expression tender yet also bleak. “We can’t know,” he told her bluntly. “We might think we can, but neither of us has ever braved the wilderness the way we’ll have to now. And Juneau is so much milder in climate than the Yukon?—”

“But it’s only May,” Maggie protested. “We’ll be back before the cold weather starts.”

“We might not, Maggie,” Brendan told her gently. “If at any point we get stuck somehow, we might end up wintering somewhere along the trail.”

Maggie swallowed hard at that most unwelcome thought, thinking of Sheetka being without her for so long. “But we don’t have the supplies for that,” she protested.

“I’ve brought enough to last a few months,” Brendan told her as he gazed out at the canal, his eyes narrowed against the glare of sunlight. “Just in case, but you’re right, we don’t have enough.”

“Brendan…” Maggie laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you,” she told him with quiet, heartfelt sincerity. She needed him to know that she wasn’t taking him for granted, as she sometimes had before. “I’m so grateful to you, and I can’t even imagine what kind of sacrifice it is for you to come all this way, and I’m so glad you’re willing to make it.” She paused before continuing haltingly, “I can pay for things too, if needed. I’m not saying that out of pride or independence or what have you,” she continued hurriedly. “I just don’t want you to shoulder the burden alone?—”

“Maggie,” Brendan cut her off gently, “Danny and your da feel like my family, too. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” He put his hand over hers. “I want to be here, I promise. As forpaying, let’s see how much it all costs. We might empty out both our bank accounts on this venture!”

Her hand tensed under his as she looked up at him anxiously. “Do you think it’s foolhardy?” she asked quietly. “They might… they might already be dead. I know that.”

“They might be,” Brendan agreed evenly, and she was glad he didn’t try to pretend that it wasn’t a possibility, even a distinct one. “But, like you said, we have to try.” He smiled down at her, although his eyes drooped with sadness and worry. “And you’re a trained nurse with plenty of experience setting bones. If anyone can rescue them, it’s you.”

“Not without you.” She gazed up at him, wanting so much to say something of what was in her heart, what had always been in her heart, but Brendan knew what that was already. It was his turn to say something, if there was indeed anything to say. The other night, before they’d been interrupted, Maggie had thought he might say it. Now she wasn’t sure.

But in any case, she told herself as Brendan removed his hand from her arm, they had more important things to worry about now.

Five hours later, theSS Queensailed into Mooresville, no more than a huddle of tents by a wharf, with the original cabin and a few hastily constructed shanties and shacks in the distance. Originally, it had been the homestead of Captain William Moore, a Canadian surveyor who had claimed one hundred and sixty acres and named it Mooresville.

They’d learned on board that it was in the process of being renamed Skagway, a variation of a Tlingit word for ‘Home of the North Wind’. Maggie wondered how Captain Moore and his family felt about being overrun by so many miners. His land hadbecome a sea of churned-up mud and canvas tents, their sides flapping in the stiff breeze off the harbor.

“Let’s find a place to pitch our tent and I’ll see to the horses,” Brendan told her. He’d bought two packhorses back in Juneau, and he led them off the steamer himself, while Maggie kept watch over the pile of sacks and crates that held their supplies. The air smelled of smoke and brine, and she felt a sudden, surprising lift in her spirits as she looked around the shantytown, with miners striding and swaggering about, piles of supplies and packhorses lining the wharf. They were finally here. They were really doing this.

Then she lifted her gaze to the mountain that towered over the little settlement, rising right to the sky, the pass they were meant to ascend no more than a dip of dark shadow between the spruce-covered ridges, and her excitement drained away completely, replaced only by a deep and uneasy dread.

CHAPTER 36

SKAGWAY, ALASKA

May 1897

“It’s about four miles to the ascent, and then another forty or so to the shores of Lake Bennett.”