Page 49 of The Prospector's Only Prospect
All the men looked at her as if they’d forgotten she was here.
Virgil took off his hat to scratch the back of his head. “Well. Every man with a claim he’s working. That’s how it went at our first meeting.”
“I see,” she said frostily. “I’ll just go down to the stream and start panning, then. Oh, wait. I’ll have to grow a beard first, won’t I? And something else.”
“We need law and order however we can get it, Marigold,” Virgil said testily.
“Don’t take that tone as though I’m too idealistic to understand how this works. I’ve been dismissed at more of these meetings than you will ever attend.” She knew better than to let her temper flare so hot and fast, but this was so damnedtypical.
She grew more incensed when she saw Owen’s shoulders come up in suppressed laughter while he sent a look to Ira that said,Get a load of her.
“In fact,” she continued with snapped temper, “I can tell you right now that you’re asking for something you won’t get. The South controls Congress. Write whatever constitution you like. If they admit a free state, their balance of power will shift. They would rather ignore your request—which is exactly what happened in January when your Mr. Graham attempted to have your territory recognized, isn’t that right? Now you’ve discovered gold. Do you really think anyone wants to give uneducated prospectors control over it?Youare the ones who are the joke. But, by all means, deny me the right to vote, since my head is completely empty of what is truly at stake.”
“You think they’ll take us seriously if we come in with a demand they givewomenthe right to vote?” Virgil scoffed.Scoffed.
“Governments are formed by the consent of the governed. How can I consent to this government if I have no voice in forming it?” she shot back.
“For God’s sake, Marigold.” Virgil stood with a clap of his feet onto the hard ground. “You’re talking in circles like the men in those meetings. It’s exhausting. All I want is a goddamned sheriff to keep outlaws from taking over my valley.”
“You think I don’t want to keep men out ofmyvalley?” That pun was very much intended. She left the bowl in Harley’s lap and stood to confront Virgil. “I should not need a man to stake a claim tomein order to have a voice in my own future.”
The profound silence that followed made her realize she was shouting. And that she and Virgil weren’t arguing by the fire next to his cabin, but in the middle of the camp. They had an audience of his partners, Harley’s tender ears, and whatever men had stopped working in nearby ditches to stare in astonishment.
“Are you finished?” Virgil asked in a growl of warning.
For one second, she had spoken exactly what was on her mind, and it had felt fantastic, but no. She wasn’t even supposed to do that.
Chapter Thirteen
Marigold stormed away, and Virgil grappled to regain control of his temper.Damn that woman.
“Papa?” Nettie was suddenly at his side, mouth quivering. “Is Marigold leaving?”
“What? No.”
“Sure about that?” Stoney asked under his breath.
“Haveyoustaked—” Owen began.
“Shut up.No.” Virgil sent Owen his hardest look ever, then a warning glare toward Stoney and the rest. “She just needs a minute to cool off,” he assured Nettie.
“You should go talk to her,” Emmett said.
All the men nodded.
“Make sure she knows we’re all looking out for her,” Ira said. “That we appreciate what she’s doing for you.”
“I’mpayingher,” Virgil reminded them. “She’s not doing me a favor.”
“We’re all paid to be here, but the company would fall apart if one of us dropped out, including you. She minds the children, and that makes you available to us. That’s important and necessary,” Emmett said with the calm, annoying logic that had made Virgil want him as a partner in the first place.
“We can watch the children while you make up with her,” Bing Sun said, doing something with his hands as he reached from the shade out to the sunshine and cast a shadow of a bird onto the dusty, packed ground.
Nettie gave a soft giggle and moved closer. “Can you show me?”
“Why amImaking up with her? Do any of you seriously think we’ll get anywhere in a population of men if we start asking for women’s rights?”
“Well…” Emmett shrugged. “If there are only a few women here, they’d get outvoted anyway, so where’s the harm?”
