Duchess of Ophir Creek

B Glad Judith

Description

Silas Dewitt, newly arrived in an Idaho gold camp, saves two Chinese boys from a mob of drunken miners. But one of them turns out to an independent, stubborn, lovely woman who decides her role is to protect him. Soomey, shaped by poverty and sexual slavery, sees Silas as her means to freedom and independence-until she falls in love with him. Knowing that she is assisting in her own heartbreak, she guards his back as he searches for a cache of gold nuggets. A vicious killer stalks them both, hating Soomey for her race, Silas for his wealth. Silas faces him in a desperate knife battle, but is too late to save Soomey from painful torture. Scarred in body and soul, Soomey tries to leave him. Can Silas holds her with passion, tenderness, and a promise of eternal love?

Sujets

• Westerns
• Historical romance
• Western (genre)
• Western

Informations

• Publié par: Uncial Press
• Date de parution: 13 octobre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781601740113
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE DUCHESS OF OPHIR CREEK
Behind the Ranges, Book III
 
By
Judith B. Glad

Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges-- Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go.
Rudyard Kipling: The Explorer
 
 
Uncial Press       Aloha, Oregon 2006
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein areproducts of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirelycoincidental.
The Duchess of Ophir Creek Copyright © 2001, 2006 Judith B.Glad
Previously published by Awe-Struck E-Books
ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-011-3 ISBN 10: 1-60174-011-5
Cover design by Judith B. Glad
All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this workin whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known orhereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.
Published by Uncial Press, an imprint of GCT, Inc.
Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com
This book is dedicated to the memory of so many young Chinesewomen who, in the 19th Century, came to America unwillingly and found little butslavery when they got here.
And to Neil, of course.
 
Author's Note: There were towns in the Boise Basin upon which the places in this book are based andthere was a gold rush there in the 1860s, but all people and events came solely from myimagination. Please forgive me for taking some liberties with topography, too. Sometimes thosedarned creeks and gulches just don't occur in the right places.
Chapter One
Idaho Territory, 1862
The trail split where the canyon opened up into the Boise Basin. Silas Dewitt pulled hishorse to a halt, wondering if he'd somehow lost his way.
My God. It's all gone...all changed . How will I ever find it? Dimlyremembered landmarks weren't going to help him now. The hills were the same, but everythingelse was different.
Fifteen years ago tall pines had marched down the steep hillsides and into the valley,taller than anything he'd ever seen. One step off the narrow game trails and he'd been snarled inhuckleberry and mock orange that grew higher than his head. The forest had given way to densewillow thickets along the several branches of a creek that tumbled down out of the narrow valleyto the northwest, braiding and weaving its way across the meadow, until it plunged down thecanyon whence he'd come.
Now the lower hillsides were raw with skid roads and freckled with fresh stumps. Thecreek banks were bare, scarred with trenches, littered with broken sluice boxes and discardedtools.
He'd heard there were already more than two thousand men in this valley alone. Andmore were arriving every day.
"Well, hell," he muttered, nudging his horse into a walk. "This looks like it's going totake more time than I'd planned."
Just on the edge of town was a half-finished barn bearing a freshly painted sign. Livry Stabel . He arranged to board his two horses and to leave his gear in anempty stall until he found a place to stay.
"Not likely you'll find one, though," the hostler said past the wad of snoose in his cheek."This here town's growin' like a jimson weed in a manure heap."
"Any notion where a letter might be left? There ought to be one waiting for me."
"Tilly's is the most likely place. Most folks stop in there sooner or later."
Silas listened to the hum of a town in the making as he strode up the rutted, not-quite-straight street. Hammers pounded and saws screeched through green wood, all to the rhythm ofrockers thumping along the creek. Tents and shanties and raw, rough-cut pine structures sproutedon every side, slapped together and hurriedly roofed against the coming winter. Of all the placesSilas had seen, Bannock City was the newest, the crudest, the ugliest. Here was a town of menwith only one thing on their minds.
Gold.
Past the third saloon, he saw miners clustered like iron filings around a magnet. Afight, I reckon. He'd guess that not many days went by here without one. Not wanting to getembroiled in the melee, he angled across to the other side of the street. The less notice folks tookof him hereabouts, the better he'd like it.
Silas dodged among the oncoming miners, staying on the edge of the crowd. Then ahigh-pitched shriek made him pause.
A woman? Or a child?
As he hesitated, a rough voice cut across the laughter.
"Git a torch!"
"Yeah, scorch the little varmits!"
For a moment there was taut silence.
"Damn right," a miner yelled. "Filthy slant-eyed heathen."
"Comin' in and takin' work from white men," another cried.
Just then a small, black-clad figure scooted between two men. Before he could escape, abig-bellied miner caught him by his queue. The child screamed as he was snatched off his feet todangle, kicking wildly.
"Lookee here what I cotched!" the miner crowed, holding him high.
"Hand him here," another shouted. The Chinese boy was passed from hand to hand, untilSilas lost sight of him. His shrieks were drowned in the hullabaloo.
"This ain't fitten," a man beside him muttered. "Somebody ought to put a stop to it."
Silas agreed. From their expressions, a few others were of the same mind, but no onelooked overly eager to interfere. Well, neither was he.
Another terror-filled shriek from the center of the mob triggered old, unwelcomememories. He shouldered through the circle.
So much for playing least in sight.
* * * *
Once again Soomey was helpless in the hands of men who were bigger and strongerthan she.
She knew the miners were merely amusing themselves. Their laughter was teasing, notthreatening. Knowing did nothing to lessen her rage.
Her fear.
Kicking and clawing, she fought as she was shoved back against Tao Ni. A sharp jerk onher queue shot tingles down her neck, across her shoulders.
"You reckon them pigtails is strong as rope?" her captor said.
More laughter.
"Tie 'em good, Eli," someone called.
She leaned into the pull on her scalp. As long as some were still laughing, perhaps sheand Tao Ni would escape serious harm.
"There ye go. Give your'n a poke," the crooked man who held her said. "See which'npulls the hardest."
Tao Ni yelped. Soomey was jerked off her feet. The men had tied their queuestogether!
The shouts grew louder, the voices more excited. "Half an ounce on the leetle one!"
"I'll take that. He ain't got a chance."
"Be still, Tao Ni," Soomey cried. "They want us to struggle. Stop pulling!"
Her words were lost in the raucous laughter.
Someone slapped her across the bottom and she sprawled on her face. Moisture seepedthrough her cotton trousers, icy cold against her belly. Lunging, she tried to catch Tao Ni by theankle, but as she grabbed, he was pulled out of her reach.
I will not weep she vowed, lifting herself out of thepuddle. Her soaked clothing clung to her body like a layer of ice.
Tao Ni was doing his best to escape. Each time he lunged toward an opening in thebarrier of booted feet, he jerked her off balance. She threw herself on top of him, gasping whenone flailing hand caught her across the nose. Hot blood trickled down her upper lip as she heldthe child. "Be still, small one," she murmured, over and over. "Be calm"
Fear made him strong. She almost lost her grip.
"Be still. I will not let them harm you," she promised, wondering if she lied.
The circle around her and Tao Ni narrowed as the miners pressed closer, their facesfilled with menace. Then the crowd broke apart as a wide-shouldered, yellow-bearded manshoved his way inside. He paused and turned in a circle, as if daring anyone to challengehim.
"Hold on there!" His voice was commanding. The miners seemed to shrink back.
Soomey caught Tao Ni by the wrist and tensed, ready to run the instant she saw anopening. Too late. With a hand at the back of her coat, Yellow-beard lifted her to her feet.
"You, boy," he said, "what you do here? Why you not work? You think I pay you formakee play in street?" Tao Ni dangled from his other hand.
"Them Chinee yours?" one of the men said before Soomey could answer.
"What does it look like?" the stranger snapped. He set Tao Ni down, releasedSoomey.
Her legs gave way under her.
"Thought they worked for Harding," another miner commented.
Soomey reached for Tao Ni, wrapping her arms around him, forcing him to be still. Thebuckets she had been carrying lay empty, rice strewn like pellets of snow on the mud. One stoodupside down in a still-steaming puddle of cooling tea.
Li Ching's work gang would not receive their noonday meal. And she and Tao Ni wouldgo hungry today.
"Damn theivin' Chinks," one of their tormentors said. "I saw 'em down there inCaliforny, gettin' rich whilst us honest men worked our arses off."
There was a wave of agreement. She held Tao Ni against her, felt the shivers thatwracked him. For now she was content to let the big man be their defender. But as soon as heturned his back..."Untie our queues, little one," she whispered.
Tao Ni nodded. His shaking fingers began picking clumsily at the tight knot.
"Did the boys take gold from you?" Yellow-beard said to the miners. "From yourclaim?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Pick your pocket?"
"Well, no..."
"Steal your dog?"
A few reluctant chuckles sounded.
"Shit!" A miner spat, narrowly missing the big man's foot. "You want to trust themslanty-eyed devils, you go right ahead, mister! Just be careful they don't slit your throat whilstyou sleep, y'hear?"
A deep, ringing voice came from the back of the mob. "I have seen their graven imagesand they are an abomination!"
Soomey saw suspicion flare again in a few faces, saw once more a slow shift away fromhumor.
Yellow-beard laughed.
"Graven images?" he said, his face showing complete disbelief. "Paper dragons made ofscraps of foil and bamboo sticks!"
Tao Ni, not understanding one word in fifty, clutched at her wrist. "What does the onesa