Page 40 of The Prospector's Only Prospect
Her lips felt as though they trembled, and she wasn’t sure if it was from leftover fear or anticipation of—
“Oh. S’cuse me.” Ira was three steps in and already turning to leave.
The bubble between her and Virgil burst. They stepped apart, leaving only a faint sting in her face and a scowl of annoyance on his.
“Stay,” Virgil barked at Ira.
“I only thought I’d put the gold away.” Ira wouldn’t look at them. His bottom lip was pulled wide in a grimace at having overstepped.
“You’re not interrupting anything,” Marigold insisted, feeling foolish because her voice went high enough to make it sound like a lie. “I’m off to steal hot water from Gristle for coffee. I won’t be long.”
She hurried out and came up against a wall of curious gazes on the half-dozen men lingering outside. They’d probably heard all of that.
She showed them the empty coffeepot and hurried across to the cookhouse.
Chapter Eleven
Marigold was still trying to find her nerves a few days later. She had just got the children fed and was washing Harley tip to toe with a damp rag when she noticed Virgil coming up the path, earlier than usual.
Everyone’s mood brightened, including hers.
“Evenin’, Pa.” Levi came up on his knees behind the checkerboard she’d had him measure out and scratch into a log round.
“Papa, look what Levi made us. It’s a game! Marigold showed us. I found the pebbles.”
“Look at that.” He gave an admiring nod. “I haven’t played checkers since my army days. Nice work with the straight edge, son. You have a double-jump there, Nettie.”
“Pa,” Levi complained.
“She’s younger. And you’re ahead.” His hand hovered, almost as if he might ruffle the boy’s hair, before he tucked it in his pocket.
Levi didn’t notice, but Marigold did, and she wanted to say,It’s okay. Touch him. He’s starving for your approval.
Virgil let out a weary sigh as he sank down on a log round. “You’re naked,” he noted as Harley escaped Marigold’s bathing efforts and scampered over to Virgil.
There was no holding Harley at arm’s length. The boy presumed he was loved by all, and that seemed to be his trick to ensuring it.
Virgil picked Harley up and stood him on his thighs, warning, “Don’t you dare tinkle on me.”
Harley leaned to poke his hand into Virgil’s shirt pocket. “Peas?”
“Still empty, son. Have to wait ’til I get back.”
“Emmett said you said he should go from now on.” Levi picked up his head and frowned with dismay. “He said he would take me to see the sawmill if you said I could go.”
“That’s all true. I will let you go, but there’s a meeting on Monday that I need to attend, so I’m taking this trip.”
“But Leyohna’s gone,” Nettie said anxiously.
“Marigold is here.”
Levi’s brows recreated his father’s most displeased glower. Nettie looked to Marigold with a fretfully crinkled chin.
Marigold’s stomach shrank and her blood stung her veins. What if Sureshot came back? Or someone like him?
This was her chance to say,This was all a horrible mistake, and go back to civilization. She could pick one of her contingency plans, which were all horrible, and try to make her way back to her sister. Beyond Pearl’s eternal optimism, however, Marigold had nothing to go backto.
At least here she had the freedom to walk wherever she needed to go without being accosted. She might not have much by way of possessions, but Gristle had been so thrilled with a pillow she’d made him from a flour sack, he had given her this handy basin she’d just used for Harley’s bath. The biscuits she’d made for Yeller had earned her a small wooden crate full of empty jars that she planned to fill with something—dried berries, rendered fat, nuts they would hopefully gather and roast in the fall.
