She was incredulous. Had she just gotten two yeses? But then she groaned—no, only one yes. That “only long enough” wasn’t going to get her a dowry or enough money for her brothers to live comfortably.
Upset, she said, “Or you could make it a real partnership with them and a fifty-fifty split. They are both strong men, and with both of them digging, they can mine double what you do.”
“You’re offering me more’n I just said I was willing to accept? Why?”
“Because it’s a viable mine that can produce more silver than is required to pay you back. It can secure my brothers’ future.”
“And get you a dowry.” He suddenly sounded annoyed, which she didn’t want until after he agreed to this business arrangement! But then he added, “You don’t need to dangle a carrot in front of a man to get married. A man is going to want you just for yourself.”
She blushed at his flattering opinion of her, but pointed out, “It’s different among the English aristocracy. A dowry is expected, it is a tradition. A lord can’t marry a pauper, it would be scandalous.”
“But you’re an American.”
“And I was an heiress, which made all the difference over there.”
“So if they don’t see money when they look at you, they look at someone else? You really want a man like that?”
He was poking holes in her plans for her future. Why would he do that when it didn’t concern him? But in a way, it did. Her plans were dependent on his agreeing to her full proposal, which he hadn’t done yet.
She quickly got back to that. “I was just saying that everyone wins if you maintain a partnership with the Mitchell family even after we repay the money I hope you will loan us. And consider this: it would allow you to leave, to go home and still earn fifty percent from the partnership, without any work crews coming up here. I swear we’ll continue to take all the precautions that you do to keep this location a secret.”
“Let me think about it.”
That wasn’t a no! She nodded, delighted. But her delight soon waned as another hour passed without him saying anything more about it. The next fish she caught was too small to count, but they returned to camp after she landed another big one.
Waiting for his answer was agonizing. She couldn’t push him about it, he didn’t like that. She couldn’t nag either—he definitely didn’t like that. She had to be patient when it wasn’t in her nature to be. But too much depended on her not disturbing the peace.
He didn’t take the extra fish up to Texas when they got back to camp, but she knew his friend slept during the afternoons and that he would usually just lower a basket down the cliff whenever Morgan called up that he had something for him. After all, it was a long ride around that cliff.
“Stay off the south slope if you do any more searching today,” he reminded her as he lifted her down from Caesar. “Or you can give the animals a brushing if you want to wait until tomorrow—that’s if the wolf is gone. I’ll check before dinner.”
While that thirteen hundred dollars would still be helpful, the urgency to find it would be alleviated if he’d just give her his answer. He didn’t. Instead, he went mining for the rest of the day.
Chapter Twenty-Five
VIOLET TRIED TO KEEP in mind how nice that little fishing trip had been. And she kept reminding herself that Morgan hadn’t said no to her partnership proposal. But how bloody long did he need to think about it? Any way he examined it, he had to conclude that the arrangement she was offering would be highly lucrative for him.
She didn’t bring it up that night at dinner as they ate the fish she’d caught. Morgan told her the little wolf had moved on so she carried on as usual the next day, searching the south slope for her father’s money, counseling herself to be patient. Morgan didn’t seem to be in a good enough mood at dinner for her to ask him if he’d made a decision, so she’d suggested another game of poker. Aside from criticizing her bluffing again, he didn’t say much and went straight to bed afterward.
The next morning while she was drinking her coffee on the porch as usual, she decided to make a greater effort to put Morgan in a good mood, including showing him how helpful she could be as a partner. So when he came out of the cabin to head to work, she told him she was taking the day off from her search.
“You’ll get bored,” was all he said.
“No, I’ll brush the animals and perhaps even make dinner tonight.”
“So you can cook?”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Well, how hard can it be?”
“You can look in my ma’s cookbook for a recipe if you’re determined to burn down the cabin, or you can just peel a few carrots and potatoes and I’ll do the rest.”
He was half teasing, at least about the destruction of his cabin, but that was a good sign. So she smiled. “Perhaps you’re right. You are an excellent cook, after all.”
Did he blush a little at the compliment? She smiled to herself and watched him enter the mine. A few minutes later, he brought Caesar out into the yard as he did every morning, and once he was in the mine again she got busy.
She fetched a bucket and the horse brush and tackled the grooming of the animals first, coaxing each one to the stream for a dousing and then a thorough brushing. The mares cooperated, but Caesar didn’t. She ended up going to find the carrots; seeing that there were plenty left in the crate, she chopped one up. She put the pieces in her pocket and gave the large horse a piece every time he tried to move away from her. It worked. She briefly thought about braiding their tails, but grooming seven animals properly took up the entire morning, which was verified when Morgan returned to prepare lunch. Well, she did want the rest of her plan to be a surprise, and now it would be, since it would have to wait until he was back in the mine again.
When he went back to work, she tried to get Texas’s attention without being too loud about it, hoping he wasn’t already sleeping. When he poked his head over the cliff edge, she called up, “Join us for dinner? And bring your harmonica. I would love to hear some music tonight.”
“I’ll bring the rabbits,” he replied.
Oh no, Bo’s playmates! But he added, “Just caught a pair north of here.”
Pleased that Texas would be joining them for dinner, Violet returned to the cabin to do what she’d never done before: clean the house. Fortunately, it was a small house. She swept the cabin and the porch, and aired out the bedding. She even gathered some of Morgan’s pretty flowers and, finding an empty jar, set them at the center of his table. She then peeled the vegetables and left them in a bowl. Finally she made up both beds neatly, then went for her bath, hoping she still had enough time to make an extra effort with her appearance. She couldn’t manage her usual coiffure, but she dug out her hairpins and twisted her braid to form a bun, then pinned it at her nape. The last touch was tying a pink ribbon about her neck to match her pretty pink blouse.
Morgan arrived first to get his bath towel. He stopped in the doorway, looking surprised. “You cleaned?”
“You said that I would get bored,” she reminded him. “So I made sure I wouldn’t. And I invited Texas to join us for dinner. He’s bringing the meat.”
“But you actually cleaned?”
She didn’t blush, she threw his towel at him instead and pointed in the direction of the bathing pool. He laughed as he left, confirming he’d been teasing again by exaggerating his surprise. Texas arrived next with the two skinned rabbits.
“Place looks nice for a change,” he remarked. “So do you—not that you don’t always, but—”
He was blushing so much she cut in, “Thank you, I understand. I didn’t leave camp today and needed to keep myself busy.”
“I’ll just get these started,” he offered, and moved over to light the fire.
“Can I help?”