A Home for His Family

Nate handed over the coins in his hand.

Hung Cho bowed as he slipped the money into some folds in his robe. “Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.”

They left the store and then turned right, toward the center of the mining camp. As they crossed an alley and stepped back up on the boardwalk in front of a row of businesses, Charley tilted his head up to look at him. “Where are we going to eat, Uncle Nate?”

They were passing an empty space between two canvas tents. A couple barrels stood close to the boardwalk. “How about right here?”

They settled themselves on the barrels and divided the food between them. Charley shoved the crackers into his mouth two at a time.

“Whoa there, boy. Those crackers won’t disappear. Take your time.”

Charley grinned at him and Nate took a bite of his apple as he settled in to watch the traffic on Main Street.

Two doors down was a saloon, and beyond that were signs for several more. Across the street, a large building had a sign, The Mystic Theater, but from the look of the young women leaning over the rail of the balcony, much more than theatrical entertainment was available there. James MacFarland had been right about the saloon girls—they seemed to be everywhere. This must be the Badlands of Deadwood he had heard the bullwhackers mention.

Nate took another bite of his apple and looked closely at the women on the balcony. The youngest seemed to be no more than sixteen, while a couple of them wore the bored look of years of experience in their business. The apple turned sour in his mouth. He swallowed that bite and then offered the rest to Charley.

Mattie, if she was still alive, would be the age of those older women. Did her face bear that same expression? She would be thirty-two years old by now, and it had been almost fourteen years since she had disappeared.

He watched the two women, their mouths red slashes against their pale, white faces. The dresses they wore had been brightly colored at one time, but now looked sadly faded next to the younger girls, like roses that clung to a few blown and sun-bleached petals.

He hoped that Mattie had found her way out of that life.

He sighed and took a cracker. Turned it in his hands. The last time he had searched for his sister and come home again with no news, Andrew had told him to give it up. If she wanted to come home, she’d find her way.

But Andrew didn’t live with the memory of her face the night he told her he was running away to join the army. The hard, crystalline planes that shut him out.

“You’ll kill Ma and Pa,” she had whispered as she tried to wrest his bundle of clothes from him. “And then what will I do?”

He had turned from her, bent on following Andrew, but she had been right. By the time he had come home after the war was over, Ma and Pa were dead, and Mattie was gone.

He looked back up at the balcony of the Mystic. He’d never give up looking, hoping that someday he’d find her before... The cracker snapped between his fingers. He refused to listen to that voice inside that kept telling him it was too late.

When Charley finished his lunch, Nate wrapped up the rest of the crackers and cheese.

“Let’s go see what the town looks like.”

The street was crowded with men all going nowhere in particular and Nate pulled Charley closer to his side. Between the coarse language and the open bottles of liquor, he knew this wasn’t a place Andrew and Jenny would want their son to be. But this was where they were.

The businesses crowded together between the hills rising behind them and the narrow mudhole that passed for a street. Nate slowed his pace as the storefronts turned from the saloons to a printing office. Next came a general store and a clothing store, with a tobacconist wedged in between. Across the street was Star and Bullock, a large hardware store that filled almost an entire block.

And in the middle of it all, just where the street took a steep slope up to a higher level on the hill, men worked a mining claim. Nate shook his head. In all his travels through the West, he had never seen anything quite like Deadwood.

“Look, Uncle Nate. There’s Miss Sarah!”

Charley ran ahead to where the MacFarlands stood at the end of the block. Nate halted, watching Sarah’s face as she greeted the boy. She looked truly happy to see him. From what he had seen, busybodies from schools and orphanages never seemed to like the children they claimed to care so much about.

She didn’t fit the mold. She didn’t fit any mold.

Charley pointed his way and she looked for him. Another smile. The crowded streets seemed to fall silent, and Nate saw several of the men on the boardwalk look in her direction. He hurried to catch up with Charley.

“Miss MacFarland.” He found himself smiling, and he turned to the elder MacFarlands. “Mrs. MacFarland. James.” Lucy reached for him and he lifted her into his arms.

Sarah’s wide skirts swung as she turned toward him. “Was your errand a success?”

“The broken axle is being repaired as we speak.”

“We were just on our way to see the new storefront Uncle James rented. Would you and Charley like to come along?”

“Say yes, Uncle Nate. Please?” Charley clung to his free hand, while Olivia hopped up and down. He couldn’t say no to them.

“We’ll be pleased to accompany you.”

They all followed James as he turned down a side street and led the way toward a boarded-up saloon. Nate let Sarah go ahead of him, Charley and Olivia each holding on to one of her hands, while he followed with Lucy. Anyone watching would think they were a family.

Nate let that idea sift through until it soured his stomach. A family? He hugged Lucy close as he carried her. These children were all the family he needed, and he didn’t deserve even this.

* * *

When they reached the building on Lee Street, a few doors from the corner at Main, Sarah took Lucy’s and Olivia’s hands while Nate and Uncle James pulled the slats from the boarded-up door. Once there was an opening, Uncle James led them in.

“This is a church?” Olivia let go of Sarah’s hand and stepped farther into the room. “It looks like a saloon.”

Uncle James cleared his throat as Margaret followed Olivia to the bar that extended from one end of the room to the other. “The latest tenants ran a drinking establishment, and it needs work.”

Aunt Margaret stared at him. “You said you had found a storefront.”

Lucy tightened her grasp on Sarah’s other hand at the ice in Margaret’s voice. Sarah gave her small hand a reassuring squeeze. “It does need a lot of work, but I can see the possibilities.” She led Lucy to the center of the room to get a feeling for the size of the space. “If that bar is removed...”

“And that hideous mirror behind it.” Aunt Margaret waved her hand in the direction of the gold-flecked monstrosity on the wall. A narrow hole in the center radiated spiderweb cracks in all directions.

“There will be room enough for whoever comes to worship.” Sarah glanced around the room again. A piano listed to the side in one corner. Perhaps there would be someone in town who knew how to repair it.

She glanced back at Nate, standing in the doorway. He was removing nails from the wood slats, one by one. He didn’t seem to want to come any farther into the dusty building.

Margaret sniffed as she ran one finger along the top of the bar and inspected her glove.

“You need to see this place as I do, dear.” Uncle James crossed the room to his wife and pulled both of her hands into his own. “With some effort, we can redeem this place for the Lord’s work.” He turned to look around the room. Sarah had to smile at the grin on his face. Uncle James was a hopeless optimist.

No, not hopeless. He had confidence in the Lord’s leading.

“What I see is a den of iniquity.” Margaret’s voice softened. “But if anyone can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, it’s you, James MacFarland.”

“When we started the church in China, we didn’t even have a building. Only a stone slab and rubble.” James sighed, the smile still on his face. “Here we have a good roof, a good floor and two large rooms. The Lord has blessed us, indeed.”

“Two rooms?” Sarah had planned to teach in this room, but if there was another...

“Right through that door.” James nodded toward the far end of the bar.

Sarah picked up Lucy and started across the dirty floor, skirting a broken chair on the way. Olivia and Charley came behind them. When she opened the door, Charley crowding past, she nearly dropped Lucy. A man stood in the center of the room, a white felt hat and cane in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. He looked up when she gasped.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought this room was vacant.” Sarah stepped back, pulling Charley with her.

The man smiled as he took a step toward her. “There’s no need to go. I am to meet my client here. A Mr. MacFarland?”

Uncle James was at her side. “Mr. Montgomery.” The two men shook hands. “You’re early. I was just showing the building to my wife and niece.”

“Wilson Montgomery, at your service, Mrs. MacFarland. Miss MacFarland.” He bowed his head in Margaret’s direction and then in Sarah’s. His voice was cultured and his manners impeccable, except that his gaze lingered on Sarah a little too long before he turned back to Uncle James.

“Mr. Montgomery is from the bank. He’s handling the lease on this building.”

“Why don’t we ladies inspect this room while you and Mr. Montgomery attend to your business?” Aunt Margaret shooed Sarah and the children into the back room and closed the door behind them.

“Well, what do you think?”

Sarah looked around the room. It had its own entrance from the alley on the side of the building, and with a window next to the outer door, the room was light and airy.

“I like it.” She walked from one wall to the other, mentally placing benches and a chalkboard.

“No, no. Not the room. Mr. Montgomery.” Aunt Margaret’s words hissed in a loud whisper.

“Mr. Montgomery?” Sarah eased Lucy down to the floor. Olivia took her sister to the window to join Charley.

“Don’t you think he’s perfect? James told me about him last night. He’s from Boston.”

Aunt Margaret ended her pronouncement with a smile. Sarah grasped her aunt’s meaning.

“You don’t mean you think that he...” Sarah shook her head. “Don’t start matchmaking, Aunt Margaret. You know I’m too old to marry, and no man will appreciate a spinster being thrown at him.”

“Oh, now,” Aunt Margaret sputtered, “I would never throw you at him. He attends the church and is a very eligible bachelor. He is the manager of the First National Bank of Deadwood, and his father is the owner.”

As she ended her sales pitch, Sarah sighed. “If he is that eligible, don’t you have to ask yourself why he isn’t already married? In my experience, once a man reaches a certain age without being married, there is usually a good reason for it.”

“In your experience? My dear, you haven’t had that much experience.”

Sarah watched the children at the window. Charley had found a spider and the three of them were engrossed in its meal of an insect caught in its web. She would rather not talk about men with Aunt Margaret. Her aunt had been thirty-five when she met Uncle James, fresh from the mission field in China. Since she had married late in life, she held that there was hope for every woman. But a man, at least a good man, was a rare bird.

Nate opened the door between the two rooms and stepped in.

“It’s time for Charley and me to head back to the wheelwright’s. The axle should be done by now.”

Sarah turned to greet him. His timing couldn’t have been better. Maybe he would take Aunt Margaret’s mind off Wilson Montgomery.

“I’m so glad we met in town so you could inspect the new church and school with us.” She crossed the room, slipped one hand into the crook of his elbow and swept the other across the room with a grand gesture. “This is our academy. What do you think?”

His gaze followed the sweep of her hand. “It’s a right fine room. But you’ll need desks, won’t you? And a chalkboard? And books?”

Margaret was watching them, so she leaned a little closer. “I brought books with me, and Uncle James will build benches for the students to use.” She looked up at him. “I’m not sure what to do about the chalkboard. Do you have any ideas?” She considered batting her eyes, but she had never done that to any man, and she wasn’t about to start now.

He lifted her hand off his arm and stepped away. “I’m sure you’ll think of something, Miss MacFarland.” When he grinned, a dimple appeared in his chin. She hadn’t noticed it yesterday. Shaving certainly made a difference in a man’s looks.

Nate walked over to the window. “Charley, it’s time to go.”

He ushered the boy toward the door leading to the alley and turned to Sarah. The shadow of his smile still lingered. “We’ll come for the girls as soon as we get the wagon fixed.”

“You’ll stay for supper tonight, of course.” Aunt Margaret’s voice denied any argument.

Nate turned his hat between his hands and looked at Charley. “I appreciate it, ma’am, I surely do. But the children and I need to set up our camp.”

Sarah’s throat tightened. Once he left with the children, would she ever see him again?

Her face heated with a sudden flush. Where had that thought come from? But still, something made her want to have more time with him. And the children.

“You must eat supper with us tonight.” His eyes met hers. “And I think I know where there is a perfect spot for you to camp, right near the cabin.”

He glanced at the children, watching him. They were waiting for his decision with bated breath, just like she was.

Finally he shoved his hat on his head. “I know when I’m outnumbered.” He turned to Aunt Margaret. “I’m certainly beholden to you for your hospitality, ma’am. I don’t know how I’ll be able to repay you.”

“Pishposh.” Aunt Margaret waved her hand in the air. “You don’t need to repay anything. We’re glad to have the company.”

Sarah followed him to the door and stepped outside. Charley wandered toward the front of the building, but Nate turned to her. Sunshine had chased all the morning clouds away, and it shone brightly into the alley. She shaded her eyes with her hand as she looked up at him.

“I’m glad you decided to have supper another night with us. I would hate to give up the children’s company so soon.”

“Is it their company, or are you still going to try to talk me into letting them come to your school?”

“You know already that I would love for them to attend and that I think it is the best thing for them.” Nate started to turn away, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “But I will respect your wishes concerning them.”

He looked at her, his chin tilted just enough for her to see she hadn’t convinced him, but his teasing grin lingered.

“You won’t mention the school, to me or to the children?”

Could she just give up on making sure those children had an education? On the other hand, Nate was their uncle. Maybe she could convince him that they both had the children’s best interests in mind.

Without mentioning the school.

“I promise. As long as you promise we can be friends.”

One corner of his mouth turned up. “Friends? All right, friend.” He stepped backward. “I’ll see you at suppertime.” He caught up with Charley at the corner of the building and disappeared.

Yes, he certainly was a rare bird.

Chapter Four

Replacing the axle was easier now that Nate had figured out how to work with Charley. The boy’s nimble fingers slipped the ironings into place as Nate held the axle against the bolster. Even so, it was late afternoon before he had the horses hitched up and they were ready to drive to the MacFarlands’ cabin.

Instead of the shorter route up the steep hill on the north end of Williams Street, James had recommended the more gradual ascent up Main Street to Shine, and then to Williams. Nate and Charley had led the team down that route before picking up the new axle, and it was still going to be a hard pull for the horses with the loaded wagon.

Charley climbed up onto the seat next to him and Nate chirruped to the horses. Before too long they reached the outskirts of the mining camp, where tents crowded along the road. Miners of all description watched them pass. Groups of young men, old sourdoughs, even a couple families. Soon they’d be heading to their claims, now that the snow in the hills was melting. Men who had secured claims along Whitewood Creek were already at work, standing knee-deep in the rushing water with their pans, or shoveling dirt and gravel into rockers.

Nate glanced at Charley, who watched the miners with wide eyes.

“They’re sure working hard, aren’t they?”

The boy nodded. “I thought gold miners just picked nuggets up off the ground, but what they’re doing doesn’t look like much fun.”

“Mining is dirty, backbreaking work. And not too many find success.”

“Then why do they do it?”

Nate watched two men shovel gravel into a sluice. “They’re looking for an easy way to get rich, but they’re learning the only way to success is hard work. The ones who keep at it will do okay, but others will give up before the month is over.”

“That’s why we’re going to be cowboys, right?”

Nate nudged Charley’s knee with his own. “That’s right. We’ll be working hard, too, but at the end, we know we’ll have something to show for it.”

They passed the wheelwright’s shop and Chinatown. The street was crowded as they approached the Badlands and Nate slowed the horses to a walk, threading their way between freight wagons unloading their goods and the crowds spilling off the board sidewalks into the mud.

Once they moved past the Badlands, the crowds grew thinner and the going was a bit easier. A flash of color on the board sidewalk caught Nate’s eye. Three girls dressed in red, yellow and purple silk dresses jostled each other as they paraded down the walk. High-pitched laughter rose above the general noise of the street. With their attention all on themselves, they pretended not to notice the stares they were garnishing from the crowds of men around them.

Nate’s stomach roiled, but out of habit he studied each face, looking for the familiar features. He looked again at the girl in red. She was too young to be Mattie, but she looked so much like his sister that he stared. She wasn’t laughing along with her friends, but glanced this way and that, a frightened rabbit surrounded by hounds.

Just as the wagon drew close to the girls, the team halted, unable to move past a freight wagon stopped in front of them. At the same time, a large, balding man approached the three women. When they saw him, their laughter died. The girl in red stepped behind her friends.

“Good afternoon, girls,” the man said in a loud voice, commanding the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

The girl in purple giggled as the one in yellow, the older one, sidled up to the man, caressing his arm. “Hello, Tom.”

The man shrugged her away. “That’s Mr. Harris to you, Irene. What are you girls doing out here on the street this time of the afternoon?”

Irene pushed away from him as the purple girl giggled again and dangled a package in front of him. “We’ve been shopping, Mr. Harris. But we’re on our way back to the Mystic right now.” She waved at the crowd of men around them. “And maybe we’ll bring some customers with us.”

Nate turned his head away. The girl was inebriated, or drugged. He had seen her kind too often in his search for Mattie. Past the watching crowd, crossing the intersection of Main and Lee, were the MacFarlands with Olivia and Lucy. As Sarah stopped to watch the altercation, Nate’s attention was pulled back.

“Fern, I want you and Irene to head back to the Mystic right now.” The girls did his bidding, pushing past him. Fern and Irene waved to the men as they made their way down the boardwalk toward the Badlands, but Harris reached out and grabbed the girl in red. “Not you, Dovey.” He pulled her closer than a man properly should. “I’ll escort you back. We wouldn’t want you to get lost now, would we?”

The look on Dovey’s face as she tried to pull away from Harris was more than Nate could stand. Girls like Fern and Irene were one thing—they seemed to be having a good time—but Dovey wanted no part of Harris’s plan for her.

He handed the reins to Charley. “Stay here.”

Nate jumped onto the boardwalk, facing Harris. “It looks to me like the young lady doesn’t want to go with you.”

Over Harris’s shoulder, Sarah’s face caught his eye. She urged him on with a nod.

Harris looked at Nate and then turned to the surrounding crowd. He laughed with the tone of a man who knew he had the upper hand. “I don’t know who you are, but this matter is none of your concern.”

Dovey looked at him with Mattie’s eyes, pleading. “It’s all right.” Her voice was almost a whisper. “Don’t...”

“Do you want to go with this man?”

Harris laughed again. “Of course she does, don’t you, my dear?” His right hand was in his pocket, where the outline of a derringer showed through the fabric. Harris’s face grew hard. “And truly, it’s none of your business.” He held Nate’s eyes with his own as he pushed past, pulling Dovey along with him.

The crowd closed around the pair and they disappeared. Nate pulled at the handkerchief knotted around his neck. If it had been Mattie, that confrontation might have been different. He liked to think he would have risked a shot from that derringer to get her away from Harris.

Sarah appeared at his side as the crowds of men dissipated, holding Lucy by one hand. “Do you know that girl?”

Nate picked up his niece and held her close. The little girl snuggled in on his right side, away from the scars. “No. She reminds me of someone, though.”

“I applaud you for stepping in like that. Those poor girls need a champion.” Sarah had a fire in her eyes he hadn’t seen before. She looked down the street where Harris and Dovey had disappeared.

James and Mrs. MacFarland caught up with Sarah, Margaret ushering Olivia in front of her. “Sarah, this just isn’t proper. Not at all.” Margaret hissed her words, reaching out for Sarah’s arm.

“But, Aunt Margaret, this is just the kind of situation Dr. Bennett told us we may run into in this wild town. Can’t you see? That poor girl obviously needs someone’s help.”

Margaret’s head switched this way and that, daring any of the men still watching the scene to say anything. “That may be true. But not here, and not now.”

Sarah bit her lower lip and Nate smiled. In any other woman, he’d take that to mean that she was unsure of herself. But Sarah MacFarland? She was holding back whatever words were dancing on the tip of her tongue.

James put his arms around both women and turned them toward the city stairs that led between Lee Street and Williams, where the cabin stood.

“We need to go home, ladies. We’ll meet you up above, Nate, and we’ll lead you to a fine camping place.”

Nate touched his fingers to the brim of his hat in answer and climbed back up onto the wagon seat, settling Lucy next to Charley. He’d hate to be on the receiving end of whatever comments were waiting to come out of Sarah’s mouth.

* * *

Sarah held Olivia’s hand as they climbed up the steps leading to Williams Street. Partway up, Olivia stopped to look behind them and clutched Sarah’s hand even tighter.

“We’re already as high as the roofs on Main Street.”

Sarah looked back. Even here the noise and dirt of the mining camp seemed far away. “We need to hurry if we’re going to get back to the cabin before your uncle Nate.”

Olivia started climbing again, taking one step at a time. “Will we get to stay with you again tonight?”

“I think your uncle will be setting up your camp, but you can eat supper with us.” Sarah paused for breath at the top of the steps. Uncle James and Aunt Margaret were far ahead, walking arm in arm past the cabins perched along the trail. Their cabin was farther on, around the bend of the hill.