California Woman (Daughters of the Whirlwind Book 1) (24 page)

"They got the suppliers all tied up.
They fix it so I get enough to stay open, but no more."

"You will be receiving as much as
you can handle from now on."

Kellerman scratched his head and smiled.
"I wish you were right."

"I am right. I have been selling
goods through Brannan, but I will no longer be associated with him. From now on
you will be selling my goods, if you are interested."

"I'm interested, young lady, I'm
interested!"

"These are the terms. I will pay the
wholesale price and arrange delivery. You will sell them at the going rate and
share in the profits with me. Forty percent to you, the remainder to me. There
will be no storage costs, and you will provide me with an accounting each
month."

"What kind of goods can you ship to
me?"

"Just about everything you
carry." She looked around, taking note of several items she would have to
add to her next order. She wrote out her address on a slip of paper and handed
it to him.

"Young lady, you got yourself a
deal," Kellerman said happily.

She started to turn, then thought for a
moment. "You will need more space, a more secure building, right
away."

"That'll be a problem until—"

"Here." Esther handed him a
pouch filled with gold. "Use this to build a store. Make it big enough for
about five times as much inventory. Pay me back with 10 percent of your share
of the profits until the debt is liquidated."

She left Kellerman talking to himself in
amazement and headed back to Brannan's. As she walked in, he was sitting behind
the ramshackle counter, sipping whiskey and beaming.

"Well, it's all signed, sealed, and
delivered," he said. "Your friend Sutter's son has just arranged with
me to sell the lots that will soon be known as Sacramento City."

She wondered if there was any way she
could warn Sutter about Brannan, but it was too complicated to think about now.
To control her rage, to do what she was about to do, she needed to concentrate.
She would have to wait until she saw Sutter the next day at his sawmill on the
South Fork.

"Congratulations," she said.
"I forgot something. I wanted to pick up a kerosene lamp. Do you have
one?"

"All out."

Esther glanced over at the barrels of
kerosene that lined one wall.

"Plenty of fuel, as you can see. But
I sold my last lamp yesterday." He saw her frown. "But for a business
associate," he added, "I suppose I could let go one of mine. Wait
here. I'll get one from the back room."

"Could you sell me a gallon cask of
kerosene as well?" she asked when he placed the lamp on the table.

Brannan went to one of the barrels and
drew out what she had requested. He placed it on the counter next to the lamp.

"Is the lamp full?"

"To the brim. Here, let me adjust
the wick and show you." He ignited a rolled piece of paper and lit the
lamp.

"I am not familiar with that new
damping device."

Brannan turned the flame down, then up
full. "Easy," he said. "Better'n the old one."

"Let me try." She conjured up
her best smile, reached for the lamp and as she pulled it back toward her,
knocked the cask of kerosene off the counter with her elbow. When it hit the
floor, the wooden bung flew out of its hole, the oil poured out and began spreading
under the work clothes hanging to her left and toward the kerosene barrels
beyond them. "Oh, mercy," she said. "Now look what I've
done."

Brannan came out from behind the counter
again and surveyed the spill. "No harm done." He let out a breath of
unconcealed exasperation, then forced a smile. "Won't even charge you for
it. Hell, once it dries…"

"Once it dries, there won't be any
danger of fire," Esther said, lifting the lamp off the counter and holding
it out over the spreading pool of kerosene.

Brannan's mouth dropped open.

"Mr. Brannan, you will now pay me
the money you owe me."

"What are you talking about?"
Brannan stammered.

"You know very well what I'm talking
about. You have been selling my goods at five—rather than two—times what I paid
for them. You owe me an additional 150 percent on my investment."

"This is an outrage!"

"Not nearly as much of an outrage as
what you have tried to do to me. Now, if you will kindly pay me my due, I will
not drop this lamp on the floor, where it will shatter, light the spilled
kerosene, and burn its way to the barrels against the wall."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I will count to ten, Mr. Brannan.
After which, I believe you will probably lose your entire store." For
emphasis, she jerked her wrist. The lamp swung under her hand.

"All right, all right! You've made
your point!"

He counted out the exact amount in bills,
stacked them, and pushed the money to her side of the counter. "You're
crazy, you know that? You haven't heard the last of this." He eyed a rifle
standing in a corner to his right.

"And now, Mr. Brannan, as a last
consideration for my not dropping this lamp, I would like you to walk at least
thirty yards from this store. In the direction I can see through that window.
When you are that distance away, I will leave the lantern outside the doorway
and make my way inside the fort—where there will be witnesses to any
retaliation a huge man like you might take on a smaller creature like me."

A pair of miners came into the store.
They were both as large as Brannan.

"Never mind my last request,"
Esther whispered. "I see there are two strong witnesses at my disposal
right here." She scooped up the money, set the lantern down before Brannan
had a chance to react, and moved quickly toward the door. Both miners took off
their hats, held them to their chests, and moved out of the way courteously as
she passed. Brannan watched dumbfounded as she smiled sweetly at the miners and
called back, "Good day, Sam. Thank you for treating me so fairly."

Esther found August Sutter at the door to
a room in Kyburz's Hotel. Ironically, it was the same room, unchanged for the
most part since the German had leased the building from John Sutter, where she
had first awakened after the Indians brought her to the fort. Sutter's son had
converted it into an office. Two well-dressed men were talking sharply with him
as she reached the second-floor landing and turned into the hallway. They
lowered their voices as she approached. Nervously, the pale, well-mannered
young man glanced at Esther and unsuccessfully tried to conclude the
conversation he was having without her hearing anything.

"It is just a question of a little
more time," he said quietly.

"There's been too much time
already," one of the men said.

"I assure you, the matter will be
attended to as soon as I have returned from Monterey."

"It had better be, Mr. Sutter,"
the second man said. "Thirty days and no more."

Esther stopped and waited a few feet away
from them. "Am I interrupting anything?" she asked.

"No, ma'am," the first man
said, tipping his hat. "We were just leaving."

Inside young Sutter's room, Esther sat
down and waited while he composed himself. His desk was strewn with papers.
More spilled out onto the floor from his father's old trunk. An image of Sutter
reaching into the trunk for her diary crossed Esther's mind. Memories of those
first days after the ordeal in the mountains followed in quick succession. She
thought of Mosby and felt herself grinding her teeth so hard her jaw ached.

"It is almost too much for any one
man to deal with," August finally said, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"You know I am one of your father's
closest friends. You can speak freely to me. Who were those men?"

"Creditors." He took out a
handkerchief and wiped his forehead.

"But surely with all your father's
holdings, there is no need to become rattled by one outstanding bill. Or even a
half dozen."

August Sutter reached for a ledger book,
his hand shaking visibly, stood up, and walked to the bed he had pushed over
against one wall. He placed the ledger in one of several packed bags that lay
open on top of the quilt. "It is not a matter of one bill or even a
dozen." He gestured to the desk and the trunk. "There are
scores." He walked back to the desk and sat down, slowly massaging his
temples.

"Scores?" Esther was
incredulous.

"Perhaps two hundred or more. My
father owes tens of thousands of dollars to businessmen and bankers in Monterey
and San Francisco."

"But I don't understand."

"He has built an empire on credit.
He started modestly, but it has been going on for almost a decade."

"But the fort, the mills, the
shops…?"

"As soon as one enterprise was
completed, he would begin another. Then two more. Three. Four more. All begun
before the funds he borrowed to begin the first were paid off. Material, seed,
equipment, blankets, everything. First a snowball, then a rolling boulder of
ice, and now an avalanche of debt. The interest
alone
is staggering. My God, he still owes
someone money for the cannons at the entrance to this place."

"But he bought them years ago from
the Russians, when they abandoned Fort Ross."

"Almost
ten
years ago. On
credit."

"And it is all like this, the
tannery, the sawmill, the flour mill…?"

"The flour mill is not even
completed, and already it has cost—I am not sure of the figure—upwards of fifty
thousand dollars!"

"And he does not have it?"

"No. If that was the only thing he
was being pressed to pay, it would be a simple matter. But everyone he owes
money assumes he has become rich overnight because of the gold. They have
descended on him like a flock of vultures. And he has not mined enough to pay
off even a fraction of his debt."

Esther sighed. "Why is he not here?
There must be some way he can arrange to…? At the very least, he should be here
attending to these matters."

"He wants no part of it. They have
all come at once, demanding immediate payment. It is too much for him. Shortly
after I arrived from Switzerland, he asked me to take over his affairs here in
New Helvetia."

"But you, forgive me, you are a stranger
to these parts. You cannot possibly be equipped to—"

"I can only do my best. I have a
personal debt to my father. Indirectly, just by being born, I caused him much
pain and grief, and this is a way to make up for that."

"That's foolish nonsense! Your
father and mother were the only ones responsible. And you had no part in what
your grandmother did to him. But we can talk about that some other time. Put it
out of your mind. What's important now is that you understand that Brannan is a
dishonest, despicable man."

"Mr. Brannan? I cannot believe that.
Why, he has been…"

"He tried to cheat me, a woman. Why
should he treat you any differently?"

"But is it all not legal? We have
signed contracts."

"He has copies of them?"

"Of course. I go to Monterey this very
afternoon to record them."

Esther shook her head. "And you are
selling off your father's land to pay off the debts?"

"Yes. It is the only way I can see
out of this."

"Well, I suppose what is done is
done. But do not mention anything I have said to Brannan. Be armed with the
knowledge, and watch him carefully. But do not say anything. Do you
understand?"

"Yes, of course. But—"

"I will be seeing your father this
afternoon, tomorrow at the latest. I will try to persuade him to come back to
the fort to work with you on these matters. I mean you no insult, but you are
simply not up to dealing with a man like Brannan."

August reached for a glass of water on
the desk and spilled a quarter of it on his shirtfront before bringing it to
his lips. "Do you think, should I…should I go to Monterey?"

"Yes, I suppose so. But do not enter
into any transactions until your father is here. Two heads are better than
one."

"I hope you can persuade him to
come."

Esther
sighed, stood up, and shook the young man's trembling hand. "I will do my
best. Your father has been like an… uncle, no, like a father to me, as
well."

On a signal from Manaiki that Brannan was
occupied with customers in his store, Esther rode out of a side entrance to the
fort the following morning and headed for Coloma. It was late afternoon when
she arrived at the abandoned mill. The sight of it shocked Esther. Canvas
tenting had been set up by Sutter's Kanakas. While they were out panning,
passing miners had dismantled most of the sawmill for lumber and carried it
off. The Indians Sutter had hired were gone. The Kanakas were demoralized, at a
loss over what to do next. Sutter no longer led them out on panning
expeditions. He spent his days in his tent drowning himself in liquor, the
procurement of which was the only task left for the remaining half-dozen loyal
Kanakas to perform.

Esther found him lying on his cot,
caressing a nearly empty whiskey bottle and talking to himself. He sat up when
she entered and tried to assume a posture and expression of sobriety.

"I have been too selfish," he
blubbered. "You are my beloved niece, and if you wish for me to become a
partner with you in a business venture …"

Esther sat down beside Sutter and kept
him from topping over. "Do not trouble with that now. There are other things
you must deal with."

"Auwgoost is attending to
everything," he said, his accent more pronounced than she could remember.

She took the bottle out of his hands and
laid it on the floor. "Brannan will tie him in knots. You must pull
yourself together…"

"He is a fine boy, a fine boy,"
Sutter said, not really listening. "You know when he first come here this
summer, I say to myself, oh,
Gott
, a bad sign, a
bad
sign. But it
is not that way at all. I sign all my property over to him and he takes care of
the whole business. He is a smart boy. Smarter than his father."

"He cannot—"

"You know," Sutter went on,
"it is, how do you say?—poetic chustice. He was, you know, illegitimate.
The mother-in-law, very rich, makes us get married. I would have, anyway. I
would have. But she makes us gets married, und then she never forgives me for
spoiling her daughter. She lends me money to start a business, not so good, and
then when I am threaten with debtor's prison, she throws us out of her house.
How do you like that? That is why I left Europe, my beloved Switzerland."

"You have told me this story…"

"So, when Auwgoost comes here, I say
to myself, John, the past is catching up with you. But it is not that way. It
is fate balancing the scales. He tells me, Auwgoost, that he knows the whole
story. And sees the piggle I am in and says he will get me out of it. He wants
to make it up to me the things his
grossmutter
did to me. And it is
going to work. He is going to straighten this mess out, you wait and see. Fate
is on my side this time."

"He can't possibly handle it all.
He's too young and too inexperienced."

"You wait and see. He's a smart boy,
Auwgoost. And strong-minded, like you." He reached out and stroked
Esther's long hair. "My beautiful niece."

"If you will pull yourself together
and go back to the fort, I will lend you what I have to help you through
this."

"No. No. I couldn't do that. You
don't have enough to even start. I appreciate it, what you are saying. But
don't worry. Auwgoost will get it all straightened out. He sells some property,
pays the debts, then we build a city. Sutterville. You know the one
I
show you with the maps?"

Frustrated, she reached out and grasped
his shoulders, shaking him. "John!
Listen to me!
Your site is too
far upriver! Can't you see? Brannan's parcels are closer. Nothing at
Sutterville will match them. No one will set up business there when he can be
closer to the docks."

Sutter waved his hand. "We build a
new
embarcadero.
We
build a
better
city…"

"
It won't work
! Why would
anyone…?"

"We beat Brannan at his own game.
You think
I
don't know him? You
think
I
am a child?"

"John,
please
!'

Sutter picked up the bottle and drained
it. "Go now. Take care of your business. You are doing well?"

Thwarted, she began to cry. "Yes.
But I'm worried about you!"

He put his arms around her. "There,
there, little beautiful niece. What are those tears for? Your Uncle John can
take care of himself."

"Will you
please
promise me
you will go back to the fort?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes. I promise. Now go,
and don't worry so much about me. Everything… will… be…"

She
felt his head loll over on her shoulder, turned, and saw that he had passed
out.

That fall and winter Esther's worst fears
for Sutter were realized. She rode to Coloma several times, but Sutter was
always too drunk to reason with. The last time she went, the mill was deserted.
She sent word to the fort, but no one had seen him for weeks. Esther sent
Murietta with a letter to Sutter's son, but she received no reply. She was soon
to learn the reason. The poor young man had collapsed from physical and mental
exhaustion.

Finally she heard that Sutter was back at
the fort. He had taken over what August was handling before he fell ill. But it
was too late. While small towns sprang up everywhere in the mountains, as far
north as the Yuba River and south to the Tuolumne, Sutter's empire was torn
from him. To satisfy all the claims, some of them fraudulent, August had sold
off almost all of his father's property. What was left, Brannan wheedled and
swindled away, enriching himself as Sacramento City, engorging and enlarging
itself on the gold spent in its tent-hotels, restaurants, gambling dens, and
shops, sprang to full size overnight.

When it was all over, even the fort had
been sold—for approximately $39,000. In a month even that was gone. All Sutter
had left now was the Hock Farm, a piece of property up the Sacramento River he
had bought after his arrival in the valley almost a decade earlier. He came to
see Esther at the cabin before he packed up the last of his personal belongings
and headed north to his homestead.

It was a brief, sentimental visit.
Finally Sutter rose to go; when he took her hands in his, there were tears in
his eyes.

"I thought they would come sooner,
the settlers," he said. "Two years ago, these people coming in now
would have saved me. I would have sold them land reasonably and watched over
them. Now… Now… they pay through, how do you say it? Through the nose."

"And you?" Esther said sadly.
"What of you?"