California Woman (Daughters of the Whirlwind Book 1) (23 page)

"Just wait one moment," Esther
said, fishing the pouches out of her bag. She placed them on the edge of
Kelsey's desk. "
Now
will you listen?" She took one of the
pouches, opened its drawstrings, and spilled the gold dust out onto the desk
under Kelsey's lamp.

"So yah have four or five bags of
gold. So what? Do yah know how much…?"

"This is simply a token of good
faith. There is more, much more, where this came from."

"I don't know," Kelsey said,
shaking his head.

"What don't you know?"

"A woman. I…"

"Because I'm a woman, are you going
to turn down this offer and watch helplessly while your company goes
bankrupt?"

"That wouldn't make any sense, would
it?" Kelsey said, scratching behind his ear. "It's just…"

"It's just that women don't do this
sort of thing. Is that it?"

"I didn't say that."

Esther stood up and began placing the
pouches back in her bag.

"Now wait a minute," Kelsey
said, trying to set his thoughts in order. "It's just unusual. Highly
unusual and unexpected. Give me a chance to think about this for a
minute."

Esther sat back down. "No one has to
know about any of it except you and your partner. In fact, I would prefer it
that way."

"And yah don't want anything to do
with running the business?"

"I would be a fool to get in your
way. I said I want to make a profit."

Kelsey stared at the spilled gold and
whistled. "This could run into some money, yah understand. Are yah
certain—?"

"Are
you
certain I would make
a profit from the investment?"

Kelsey sat down and thought for a moment.
"All I can tell yah is that if I had the money, I'd do the same thing
myself."

"Then I am certain. Do you deal with
a bank?"

Kelsey nodded, trying to keep up with
her.

"I will be shipping pouches and larger
bags directly to you. At the moment there is perhaps ten or eleven times this
amount accumulated. As it is delivered to you, keep a third and use it. The
rest, put in the bank under my name. E. Cable."

Kelsey
simply
stared at her, his mouth agape.

"I will expect a strict accounting
of every ounce you receive."

"Of course."

"Now, will you help me to come to
some fair arrangement about what I shall receive in return for the
investment?"

Kelsey reached for a pad and pencil and
started to devise something. He looked up at her again for a moment, shook his
head, then crossed out his initial set of figures. "Fairest is
simplest," he said. "You own one-third of the firm. We'll have papers
drawn up. You receive… we'll bank in your name one-third of the profits. Once
we're under way, writing in blue ink, whatever amount you've invested that
exceeds one-third of Blue Star's capitalization and assets—why, we'll pay back
to yah fifty cents on the dollah out of our two-thirds of the profits."

"It all sounds perfectly fair to me.
As little as
I
know of such
things."

"Yah have the instincts. That's all
yah need. If you're dealin' with honest men."

"Your partner will not object?"

"Warren? He'll probably jump into
the cove with his clothes on out of sheer joy."

"There is just one condition."

"Yes?" Kelsey felt his stomach
begin to tighten.

"That you invite me to your home for
dinner tonight. It has been so long since I have eaten at a proper dining
table." She smiled. "And I would like to meet the wife of… such an
open-minded man."

The following morning Esther rode the
raft ferry across the strait and bought a horse on the north shore. Riding
northeast toward Sonoma, she found Sausalito practically deserted. Passing
empty farmhouses, she saw fields untended, horses and cattle wandering and
trampling crops. If all these people had left for the gold fields, she thought,
her decision the night before to hew to her original plan of selling supplies
through Brannan or someone else seemed wise. However uncomplicated and
rewarding her primary arrangement with William Kelsey and Warren Barnett turned
out to be, it would not hurt to have something else to fall back on.

As she rode on, she smiled, recalling the
pleasant evening she had spent with Billy Kelsey and his wife. Simple and
down-to-earth while revealing hints of refined taste and intelligence, Connie
Kelsey was a slender, handsome woman, and far too modest about her considerable
talent as an artist. She hoped to have Connie as a friend if she ever lived in San
Francisco.

She was grateful to the Kelseys for never
asking why she did not remove her hat and scoop veil during dinner. They had
made her feel completely at home. Neither took obvious note of the odd way she
held a fork, left palm tilted upward, clenching her fist, concealing her
missing fingers from them as she sliced through a piece of roast lamb. Later,
in the lobby of the hotel, she had covered another potential embarrassment. As
she was saying good-bye to Kelsey, she realized it was not unlikely that he
would mention her to Alex Todd—unless she headed him off. Obliquely, but
allowing no room for misinterpretation, she made it plain that it would be
several years before she would even begin to entertain thoughts of remarriage.

Three days later, just before noon,
Esther crossed a shallow stretch of the South Fork. Riding her own horse and
leading by the reins the one she had bought, she worked her way along the bank
of a small stream near her cabin. She was astonished, then strangely thrilled
to see Murietta lazing against the rail fence surrounding her garden, waiting
for her. But then she sensed something was wrong. Miwokan, her pistol slung
from his shoulder, stood guard at the shed. His brother, crouched and watching
Murietta carefully from a strategic distance, had the Californio's gunbelt
lying across his thighs. As Esther reined up and dismounted, she became aware
of a party of prospectors in red flannel shirts heading south through the woods
beyond the cabin.

She saw Miwokan frown as Murietta stepped
forward and greeted her with an exaggerated, hat-sweeping bow. They were both
laughing nervously when Miwokan strode over to them.

"He came yesterday and helped us.
And again this morning, just before you returned."

"
De nada
,"
Murietta
said. "It was nothing,
señora."

"But why have you…?"

"Many redshirts have come,"
Miwokan said, interrupting her. "Just before sunset one party of six would
not leave this place."

"They were not unreasonable,"
Murietta said. "They simply needed a firm word about your ownership of
this property. They only wanted to know why they had no right to prospect
here."

"He sent another five of them away
before you came," Miwokan added.

Esther glanced at Miwokan's brother, who
walked toward them carrying Murietta's weapon. "Is that why you are
guarding the shed?" she asked Miwokan. "Is that why your brother has
my friend's gun?"

"I could not be sure of him, any
more than of the others," Miwokan replied.

"But he helped you! And you seem to
be treating him like a prisoner."

Murietta smiled. His tooth had been
repaired, crudely, but it looked much better than when she had last seen him.
"They only watch over your gold. They meant no insult to me, I am
sure."

"This man is my friend," Esther
said. "You knew that."

"I know that yesterday's friend is
sometimes today's enemy when there is gold."

"I want none of your gold!"
Murietta said, anger rising in him involuntarily. He lowered his voice.
"Or any other's." He turned to Esther. "I came only to see you
again. And to thank you personally."

Esther fought off an urge to jerk her
gunbelt out of Miwokan's hand. She saw that he was plainly embarrassed now.
"Please give him back his gun."

Miwokan beckoned to his brother to hand
it to her instead. "Perhaps there were other things in my mind."
Miwokan looked at Esther and then away, and she sensed that a touch of jealousy
had colored his behavior.

"It was just a mistake," Esther
said, touching Miwokan's arm compassionately.

He turned to Murietta. "I am
sorry," he said, offering his hand. "Will you forgive me?"

Murietta grinned and clasped Miwokan's
forearm. "I would have done the same thing. You were only showing how much
you are the
señora's
friend.
Consider it forgotten."

"Then the matter is settled?"
Esther asked. "There will be no hard feelings?"

"If he is your friend, he is
mine," Miwokan said evenly.

She spent the afternoon with the two of
them, quickly dropping her curiosity about where Murietta had been all these
months after it became obvious that he was concealing something. Nor did she
pursue whatever it was he had not wanted to tell her when he had resorted to
speaking only Spanish while recuperating at her cabin. Instead she addressed
herself to planning and arranging the first shipment to San Francisco. Murietta,
she saw, could help her. He was full of ideas and knew the territory well. She
guessed also that he could handle the gun he was wearing again. Beyond that,
she found herself attracted to him, no matter how hard she tried to dismiss the
feeling. She watched Miwokan carefully and became convinced that Murietta's
arrival had stirred his old feelings for her.
In time
, she thought,
Miwokan
will see that there is nothing to  be jealous about
. And, of
course, he was right. Although instinct told her Murietta would not steal from
anyone, let alone her, she had no reason to be certain.

As they talked, party after party of
prospectors crossed the river, took note of the armed men with Esther, then
veered up and downstream or continued on south beyond the clearing. She
detected a brief hardening in Miwokan's expression when she persuaded Murietta
to stay and work the claim with them. It passed when Murietta refused to be
paid any more than Miwokan was receiving. They worked out a plan for the
shipment. Miwokan's brother would take a band of men and, avoiding all mining
camps, travel by way of Sutter's Fort and the north shore of the bay to Blue
Star.

Later, when Miwokan's men had quit work
and started back for their village, she took the chief aside, then walked
slowly with him to the river.

"You did the right thing," she
said.
"I
am grateful to you.
It was an awkward situation for me, that is why
…
"

"I understand that it was
difficult," he said. "It was like being a peacemaker between two
tribes you do not want to make war."

"Exactly."

"And also you feel deep things for
this man."

"That is not true. He is simply my
friend."

"You do not have love for him?"
Miwokan asked, measuring his voice.

"I feel for him as I feel for you.
As a sister." She saw Miwokan look at her quickly, then away. "Of
course," she added hastily, "I do not know him as well as you. He has
not done the things for me that you have. He is not my sunbrother."

Miwokan nodded, reassured. "Do you
trust him?"

"You have left one of your men to
guard the shed."

"But do you trust him?"

"I think so. But I will test him. I
will give him two thousand dollars in gold to take to Kelsey tomorrow. And a
small amount more—to purchase weapons. At the fort. If he can buy them there, I
will have him leave them at Brannan's store, in a package, for your brother to
pick up. If he cannot, I will have him secure them in San Francisco, double
back along the trail your brother and the men will follow, then accompany them
in case they need him."

"That is what you will tell him. But
more of it will be to see if he runs with the gold?"

"Yes. It is not much compared to
what is in the shed."

"That is wise, Sunsister. You are
very wise for one with so few winters." Miwokan looked off, thinking.
"You will watch him until he is asleep in the cabin tonight?" he
asked almost casually.

Esther smiled. She had been right. He
was
jealous. "He will not sleep in the cabin again. Tonight or any other
night."

For a moment, as he studied her face, the
beginnings of a smile turned the corners of his mouth upward. It passed, and
she heard him control the sound of a sigh. "Do all white women understand
as much as you do? Are they all so wise?"

She
touched his cheek with the back of her hand, then drew it back.
"Wiser," she said. "Much wiser."

Late that summer, gold was discovered in
several creeks to the south of the cabin. Within a week hordes of men moved
into the area. Not a day passed without news of a strike. Enthused as well as
slightly alarmed by the number of miners passing her place in September, Esther
journeyed to Sutter's Fort to check on the possible arrival of goods from Blue
Star.

A small quantity had been delivered, and
Brannan beamed as he paid Esther off. "Got twice the price you paid for
them," he said, handing her an accounting he had drawn up. "Don't see
any need to keep the pouch you gave me," he added, fishing it out of a
drawer and putting it on the counter beside Esther's half of the profits.
"When do you think your people at Blue Star will be sending more goods?"

"I don't know," Esther said,
studying the figures and suddenly aware that they didn't wash. "Soon, I
would guess. The more normal things get in San Francisco, the more they'll
send."

"Good. Good. Well, if you'll excuse
me, I've business to conclude with this young fellow." He gestured to a
table beside which a slender man scarcely in his twenties stood waiting. He was
dressed in a suit tailored in an unmistakably European style. "Perhaps
you'd like to meet him," Brannan said as an afterthought. "He's
Captain Sutter's son, just arrived from Europe."

After she'd been introduced to August
Sutter, she took note of the legal-looking papers and the newly drawn maps that
depicted a sizable town between the fort and the
embarcadero.
Troubled, Esther left Brannan's store and
made her way inside the walls  of the fort. As she waited while a dealer in
picks and pans served a half-dozen customers, she weighed what Brannan had said
when he saw her looking at the maps.

"You're looking at a new city, young
lady. A city of the future. One that this young man and his father are going to
make possible."

Considering what she already suspected
about Brannan, she did not like the sound of it.

When the dealer finally got around to
her, she pretended she wanted to buy a half-dozen items he was selling, and
asked the prices. They were five times the amount she had paid wholesale for
similar goods, two and a half times what Brannan said he had sold them for.
Brazen,
unprincipled devil
, Esther thought.
He is keeping me happy by splitting
a 100 percent profit with me, while keeping an additional 300 percent return—on
my
investment—for himself
.

"How long have they been selling at
such outrageous prices?" she asked, controlling her fury.

The dealer shrugged. "A month, maybe
two. Leastwise since Brannan got his last shipment in. Better buy now. They'll
be costin' more next week."

"Everyone is charging the same
prices?"

"Well, there's only Brannan, and me,
and the Jew, Kellerman, who has that shack down by the
embarcadero.
Me and Brannan, we talk, see. When one of
us ups his price, the other follows suit before the sun rises. And the Jew goes
along,
or else
. You know what I mean?"

"Indeed I do. Thank you very
much."

"Well, you gonna buy or
ain'tcha?"

Esther turned without answering the
question. She went straight to the
embarcadero,
where she found Kellerman, a frail,
kindly man in his late fifties, fighting an impossible battle with a broom and
a dustpan. Each time he swept up a corner of the open-sided shack, the wind
coming off the river undid his labor.

"You need a proper store, with four
walls instead of two," Esther said.

"Would be nice. But I can't afford
it." Kellerman laid the broom aside. "What can I do for such a nice
lady?"

"How would you like to have the
money to build a
real
store?"

"It'll never happen. There's a nice
profit in these goods, but I can't lay my hands on enough of them to make that
kind of money."

"Brannan and the men in the fort
seem to be well stocked."