Page 35 of I Do, I Do, I Do
She glared back at him over her shoulder.
“You used to smile a lot. What happened in your life that you don’t smile much anymore?”
The chip flew off her shoulder, and her chin quivered. “Oh, Tom,” she said softly. Then she rushed away from him, almost running toward the tent city.
Puzzled, he watched her go. He was wrong to think she was the same girl he’d known when they were younger. She was a woman now, and she’d changed. Secrets and pain lay at the back of her gaze. He wished he knew why she was going to Dawson City.
“Why are you staring at me? What have I done now?” Both Zoe and Clara had returned to the tent in bad moods. Well, Juliette wasn’t in a good mood either.
TheAnnasetthad sailed this morning without her, and no one knew when another steamship might arrive. But she couldn’t wait for another ship in any case, since she and Clara and Zoe owned the tent jointly. Clara and Zoe would take the tent on the trek to Dawson City, and then Juliette would have no place to live and sleep if she remained behind in Dyea. Fate was pushing her toward Dawson City, which was acceptable, she supposed, but getting there scared her to death.
Low temperatures had intrigued her at first. She’d told herself the chill on her cheeks was invigorating. But she’d had enough of the cold now. It was no longer interesting to lie shivering in her camp cot. Even without the cold, it was hard to sleep on the narrow cot. But the worst was living in a tent. Two days of coping with the inconveniences of camping out had obliterated any allure roughing it might have originally held. If it everhadheld any allure.
These discomforts would only worsen as the journey progressed. It seemed that everyone in Dyea had told her a half dozen horror stories about incidents along the trail. It was enough to make a grown woman whimper.
Clara ladled out three bowls of the thin soup Juliette had prepared, and she stared hard at the burned crust on Juliette’s bread before she tore it into chunks.
“I told you I don’t know how to cook!” Tears of frustration floated near the surface. She hated the stove. First she had to build a fire on the ground, then place the camp oven over the fire, then fit the cooktop over the oven. But of course it wasn’t that simple. The fire kept going out. Neither the oven nor the cooktop heated evenly. Consequently, the bread got scorched but the vegetables in the soup were crunchy and half-cooked and the soup hadn’t thickened.
“Tomorrow I’ll cook,” Clara announced.
“I have some news to share.” Zoe sat on one of the folding camp stools, balancing the soup bowl on her knees. “I spoke to Tom Price today. And you’ll never guess.Someoneis paying almost half of our packing fees. Tom’s company will pack our goods over Chilkoot Pass for thirty cents a pound. And that includes packing us all the way to Dawson.” She stared at Juliette while she spoke.
“Glory be!” Clara blinked hard. “I was getting a bit depressed thinking about how many times we were going to have to climb the pass to get our goods to the top. But I can afford thirty cents. And all the way to Dawson!”
Zoe glared. “It’s charity, Clara.Someonepities us.Someonewho feels superior has condescended to make our journey easier.”
“I’d already decided to hire a packer,” Juliette said. After the experience with the wheelbarrow on the beach, she’d decided it was simply impossible for her to transport her goods herself. “I think it’s very nice that someone already made the arrangements and saved us a lot of money.”
“Really. And who do you suppose that nice someone might be?” Zoe asked in a furious tone.
“I have no idea.” Juliette didn’t understand Zoe’s tight expression and snippy attitude.
“I think you do have an idea.”
Clara frowned. “Wait a minute. It almost sounds like you think Juliette is paying the extra.”
“Oh, my. Now why would you imagine that?” Zoe asked, arching an eyebrow. “Could it be because Juliette has more money than anyone we know and can afford to give the little people a handout? Or is it because we don’t really know anyone in Alaska except each other, so it must be one of us?”
“Well?” Clara asked. “Are you paying Tom Price to pack us in for a ridiculously low price?”
Dumbfounded, Juliette looked from one face to the other. “It isn’t me. Admitting this makes me sound selfish and thoughtless, but it never entered my mind to pay a packing company to pack you two all the way to Dawson.”
They were traveling to the same destination at the same time, but they weren’t companions and they weren’t friends. The best that could be said was that they were related by marriage. And they loathed each other for that relationship.
“If you didn’t make the arrangements, then who did?” Zoe demanded.
“Your friend, Mr. Price?” Juliette had no idea who would do such a generous thing.
“I haven’t seen Tom in years. And he wasn’t my friend, he was my brother’s friend. Tom’s doing well up here, but I don’t think he’s rich enough or foolish enough to squander his money helping three greenhorn women.”
“The only other people we know are Bear Barrett and Ben Dare,” Clara pointed out. “Is Mr. Dare rich?”
“I doubt it.” Juliette seriously considered the question. “Mr. Dare is going to the Yukon to prospect for gold. I don’t think a rich man would do that.”
“And I don’t think Bear Barrett would subsidize two women he doesn’t know and one who humiliated him in public,” Clara added. A frown pulled at her brows. “He’s angry that I bested him in the arm-wrestling tournament. I ran into him today, and he didn’t even say hello. He just leaned down and growled at me. He said, ‘There will be a rematch. And the next time you aren’t going to win.’”
“So who does that leave us with?” Zoe asked in a hard voice, scowling at Juliette.
