Page 31 of I Do, I Do, I Do
“Carrie’s living in Seattle now, working at one of the hotels. She’s a Newcastle girl—she’ll make her way.” The comment seemed to remind him that Zoe was sitting on a crate in the midst of chaos when she ought to be doing something. “Am I keeping you from—?”
“I felt a bit under the weather aboard ship,” Zoe said lightly. “So my companions were kind enough to offer to move our outfits to our site. As soon as I find us one.”
A fleeting frown shadowed his brow, and he moved his boot to the ground. “I heard you got married,” he said slowly.
Zoe had known Tom Price most of her life. As recollections flooded her mind, she could picture him sitting at the Wilder supper table shouting as loudly as her pa and brothers, and coming by the house to join her brothers on the trek to the mine. She remembered that he’d lent her a book once, and once he had given her a handful of summer wildflowers.
Her instinct was to pour out her heart and tell him about Jean Jacques, her rotten husband. Tom would understand how a Newcastle girl could be dazzled by a Frenchman who glittered like the end of the rainbow.
But he would also wonder why a hardheaded Newcastle girl hadn’t opened her eyes and asked more questions. He might not say it outright, but he’d know she had been foolish and stupid.
Worse, the next time he wrote home, he’d tell his ma that he’d run into Zoe Wilder, and the poor thing was married to a bigamist and she was traveling with the bigamist’s other wives and wasn’tthatsomething. The gossip would be too titillating for Mrs. Price to keep to herself, so she’d head straight to the company store to ask if anyone else had heard the news, thereby spreading it around. In the end Zoe’s ma would hear a smeared version of the gossipy details and be humiliated that she had to learn the truth from a neighbor instead of from Zoe.
Zoe drew a deep breath and tilted her head to look at the mountain peaks rimming the valley. “I was going to marry, but it didn’t work out.” God forgave lies that protected mothers.
Something moved in his eyes. “So you don’t have a husband.”
“No.” That much was certainly true.
“Damn it, Zoe! You’re still sitting right where we left you!” Clara rolled a wheelbarrow up beside them and gave Zoe a scowl and Tom a nod. “Excuse me for swearing, mister, I don’t usually, but what’s happening down there on the beach would try the patience of a wooden saint.” She wiped her forehead. “No one knows what they’re doing, they don’t understand the concept of organization, and the outfits are getting mixed together.”
“Where’s Juliette?” Zoe didn’t see her anywhere.
“You’d think pushing a wheelbarrow would be a simple thing, wouldn’t you? It should be. I don’t know what in heaven’s name she’s doing, but the wheelbarrow keeps tipping over and dumping out her load. After the third time of helping her repack, I left her to pick up the mess and repack it herself.” Clara flopped down on the crate beside Zoe and fanned her face. “I’m Clara Klaus,” she said to Tom, “the only healthy, sensible person among the three of us.”
Laughing, Tom inclined his head. “I’m Tom Price, a friend of Miss Wilder’s family.”
“Where did you get the wheelbarrows?” Originally Zoe had wondered what had drawn her husband to Clara. Despite Clara’s glowing skin and impressive curves, Clara just didn’t seem the type of woman to attract a man of the world. But Zoe was beginning to see Clara as a fount of resourcefulness. It occurred to her that she could have done far worse in choosing a companion for a journey into a hard land.
“It was easy.” Clara laughed. “I arm-wrestled one of the men off the ship. He wanted a rematch.” Her eyes sparkled. “He got whupped again, and I got his wheelbarrows.”
Zoe stared. “What did you wager?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“You’re the arm-wrestling Amazon that I’ve been hearing about?” Tom asked, grinning.
Zoe groaned, picturing the indecent bodice and Clara’s breasts burgeoning like peachy mountains. The story was going to follow them the entire time they were in Alaska.
Tom smiled with admiration. “Congratulations. I’ve met some men who became legends up here, but you’ve managed to do it before you got off the ship. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Help! Help me!”
Through the crisscrossing of hurrying men, Zoe spotted Juliette. As she watched, the stacked wheelbarrow began to lean and would have tipped over except that Juliette dropped the handles and darted to the side, catching the load on her back. For a moment Zoe thought Juliette would go down under the weight of the load now balanced on her small shoulders. But she clamped her teeth and dug her heels into the churned-up ground.
She wasn’t strong enough to push the load upright. And she couldn’t jump out from under fast enough to avoid the heavy load falling on her. She was stuck in place.
Tom strode forward, catching the toppling load as the weight began to push Juliette to her knees. She went down anyway. Her skirts pushed into the wet ground, and she covered her face with her hands as Tom shoved the load and the wheelbarrow upright.
“I can’t do this! Women aren’t supposed to do this!”
“Well, you did do it, ma’am.” Tom helped her up, then clasped the handles of the wheelbarrow. “You brought this load where you wanted to bring it.”
“Well, my heavens.” She stared up at him. “It took me a while and a few mishaps, but I did get it here, didn’t I?” A thunderstruck expression dazed her eyes.
Grudgingly, Zoe granted her a thimble’s worth of credit. But she also took an inordinate amount of pleasure in Juliette’s disheveled appearance. Her Ladyship’s hat hung over one ear, she’d lost a glove, muddy knee prints soiled the front of her skirt. She didn’t look like the trim, crisp Juliette that Zoe had come to know and wanted to kill.
Adding to Zoe’s guilty pleasure was the surprised look Ben Dare fixed on Juliette as he wheeled a handcart up next to them. And Zoe found it interesting that Juliette blushed bright and instantly set about fixing her hat and slapping at the mud drying on her skirts. So, Clara was correct, and Miss Propriety had spent rather a lot of time with Mr. Dare on board ship. But the confirmation wasn’t too interesting.
