Page 16 of Echoes of Twilight (Dawn of Alaska #4)
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B ryony woke to the quiet dimness of dawn, her body curled into her bedroll. Mikhail had insisted she sleep tucked against the wall of the rocky overhang so she’d be close to the fire and stay dry, and she had.
Something hard pressed against her side, reminding her that she’d slept with her journal. She hadn’t trusted Richard not to take it in the night, and once he had it, she’d never get it back.
The notion that she had to guard her belongings from the man who claimed to be her fiancé caused a sour sensation to form in her stomach.
God gave you talents and skill in the fields of science and cartography, and he doesn’t want you to bury them simply because you’re a woman. Mikhail’s words from last night echoed in her head, and the sour sensation disappeared.
He made it sound as though she could pursue whatever she wanted, even being a scientist.
As though God himself wanted her to pursue being a scientist.
Could such a thing be possible? Did God want her to spend her life assisting men like her father?
Would she be able to get a job in a lab if her father was against the idea? He had deep connections in the scientific world, and if he allowed her to be a research assistant in his own lab, her work just might be accepted. But he’d told her countless times that she had no place in his lab as a woman, so what were the chances she’d be able to get another scientist to hire her?
Even if she moved to Boston or New York City, two other cities where important research was being done, she didn’t think she’d get hired as a lab assistant—or be able to earn a science degree from a university—without a letter of recommendation from her father.
Or get a science degree from a university.
So where did that leave her? Going to school to become a scientist instead of a teacher meant a longer period of study—something she didn’t have money to pay for. And even if she came up with the money, she might not be able to get a job after she earned a degree.
Mikhail Amos might make it sound as though she could make her own choices, but she couldn’t. Not as a woman in the world of science.
Was this how each of his sisters felt when they’d decided to enter male professions in law and medicine? Had they decided they didn’t care what the men in their professions had to say about it, that they were going to school anyway?
Where had they gotten the money? Who had paid for them to live while attending law school and medical school?
What male doctor and lawyer had been willing to hire them after they graduated?
The quiet sound of rustling fabric filtered through the camp, and Bryony looked over to find Mikhail climbing from his bedroll. He stood to his full height, which wasn’t overly tall, but he had a way of moving that made him look sleek and strong. His hair fell in honey-brown waves to his shoulders, and the faint growth of stubble along his jaw made him look rugged, almost as though he’d been carved from the mountains themselves.
She watched as he stirred the fire from last night, kicking away the wet pieces of wood he’d laid atop it to slowly burn and preserve the flame. The wood underneath the first layer was dry, and he poked it and blew until flames licked at the fresh wood; then he laid some moss atop it to get the blaze burning hotter.
She should probably get up and offer to make coffee or warm some of the biscuits and rabbit from last night. But she didn’t want to move just yet. If anything, she wanted to reach for her pencil and sketch him quietly moving about, with the misty mountains rising behind him.
So she watched as he started the coffee, then set a pan containing leftovers from the night before beside the fire to warm. She tried to commit every last detail to memory, hoping she’d be able to sketch him before bed that night.
When the others slowly stirred, he headed back to his bedroll to pack up. Bryony slipped out of her bedroll as well, the cold air pricking her skin during the few seconds it took to slide into her parka. She went to where she’d left her boots by the fire, hoping to find them dry. She did, just like she found her wet skirt and trousers had dried in the night too.
Heath was moving toward where he’d left a pair of his trousers beside her skirt when Mikhail’s voice cut through the campsite.
“Who went through my pack?”
She turned to face him, but gone was the sleek, beautiful man from a few minutes earlier. A tense person had replaced him, looking ready to start swinging his fists.
He narrowed his eyes and scanned the lot of them. “I know someone was in my pack. Which one of you was it?”
“Not me.” She raised her hands in a gesture of innocence.
His eyes landed on her for a fraction of a second, but he drew them away when Heath started talking. “I didn’t touch it. I have to admit, I’m curious about half the things you carry in there, but I didn’t go through any of it.”
“What’s that you say?” Her father approached, scratching his head. The action left a tuft of snowy white hair sticking up from his scalp. “You think someone was in your pack?”
“I don’t think someone was in my pack. I know it.” Mikhail crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes once again sweeping through the camp before coming to rest on Richard. “My journal is out of place.”
“Your journal?” Richard cocked an eyebrow. “Here I thought you were going to say someone stole your money or something important had gone missing. You probably packed your journal somewhere different yesterday, seeing how you gave Bryony your extra parka. What use would any of us have for your journal?”
“What an interesting question...” Mikhail let his words linger, keeping his eyes pinned to Richard. “Seems like journals and records are rather valued commodities on this expedition.”
“My business arrangement with Bryony isn’t any of your concern.” Richard sneered.
“Ah, I think the food is ready,” Dr. Ottingford said from the campfire. “Perhaps we should finish packing after we eat.”
A muscle pulsed at the side of Mikhail’s jaw, but when he spoke, his voice was even and controlled. “Yes, go ahead and eat. I want to leave in about a half hour. It’s still snowing at the top of the mountain, so we’re going to try forging a path around it.”
“Forge a path around the mountain?” Her father scratched his head again. “The base of the mountain looks huge. Won’t going around it mean extra days?”
“It will mean at least one extra day, possibly two. But given your lack of winter attire and what happened to Heath at the top of the last mountain, it’s the best choice we have.” Mikhail turned his back on them and began returning items to his pack in a way that didn’t invite further questions or arguments.
* * *
Mikhail stared at the river in the growing darkness. It should have been beautiful, with mist rising into the cold air from the water and the shadow of the mountain they were trying to circumnavigate towering to the south.
But all it proved was that he was a fool for trying to go around the mountain rather than over it.
He shoved his hand through his hair, his eyes taking in the way the deep water ebbed and swirled, gushing down the mountain.
Their hike that day had been plagued with rain that started and stopped more times than he could count. They’d stumbled through muddy undergrowth and thick patches of brush, and when they’d come across sections where moss coated the ground, they’d had to slow down more to transport the trunk. Dropping it even one time on the slick ground would subject the dozens of glass vials inside to breaking.
What should have been a simple hike had grown increasingly difficult as the day wore on. Every time the rain started up again, it only seemed to sap more of their energy.
Any other time, he would have been thanking God for leading him to a nice camp spot beside a river with clean water to drink, an abundance of fish, and a grand mountain rising behind it.
If only he had a way to cross the dratted river. It was too deep here, and higher up the mountain, the water would only be moving faster. Everything he knew about rivers and mountains and geography told him that if there was a place the river grew shallow, it would be to their north in the valley between this mountain and the next.
But there was little point in taking the entire team to survey the river, not when everyone was already wet and tired and hungry. So rather than continue on for another two hours like he’d wanted, they’d set up camp along the riverbank. Then he’d gone hunting while Heath and Richard volunteered to scout the river for a potential place to cross.
But that had been three hours ago. He’d returned to camp with two more rabbits, which Bryony had already cooked and they’d all eaten, and Richard and Heath still weren’t back from their scouting trip.
“Staring at the river isn’t going to help us.”
At the sound of the voice behind him, Mikhail looked over his shoulder to find Bryony approaching. “I’m trying to figure out the best way across it.”
“And is staring at it helping?” She came to a stop beside him.
“No. It’s making me more anxious.” Or at least, it had been, but now that she was standing beside him, he felt a bit calmer, as though maybe it wasn’t important they found a way across the river first thing in the morning. Maybe there was no harm in heading two miles downstream and looking for a shallower place to cross, as long as they eventually meandered their way back to where the canoes had been left.
“You should head to your bedroll.” He yawned, then scrubbed a hand over his face. “I want to get an early start tomorrow.”
“I won’t be able to sleep.” She twisted her fingers together in front of her. “Do you think something happened to Heath and Richard? Shouldn’t they have been back by now?”
He sighed. He had a fairly good idea what happened to them. Gold fever. He should have realized that’s why they wanted to look for a place to ford. They were probably in the river at that very moment, panning to see if they might find some gold.
The notion made him despise Richard even more. The man had already put Bryony and the rest of the party in enough danger when he and Heath left them in that alpine valley for weeks on end while they prospected.
Did they realize what they’d done by delaying the trip out for so long?
Or if they realized it, did they care?
What if Heath had slid off the edge of the mountain two days ago? A mountain they could have easily traversed a month earlier, before winter set in? Would Richard have realized that his actions had led to his friend’s death? Would it have bothered him?
Perhaps not, if he’d found gold.
But Mikhail was guessing they hadn’t found any. Why else would Richard be interested in looking at every last rock and creek bed he and Heath had passed on their way to meet the rest of the expedition?
He had a suspicion that the reason things had been moved around in his pack that morning was because Richard had stolen a peek at his journal to see if he’d written down anything that might lead them to gold.
Not that Richard would have found much of anything written in his journal. Writing was difficult for him, but not quite as hard as reading. It was a slower process, one where he could focus on a single word at a time, rather than get overwhelmed by an endless amount of swimming words and letters.
He couldn’t spell to save his life, but he could draw crude maps when needed and jot down a few things from time to time. He’d carried a journal with him for years, slowly recording some of the more important things he’d found.
The discovery of gold had never been one of them.
“I expect both Richard and Heath are fine, and that they’ll be back anytime,” he muttered. Besides, the light was so dim now that they wouldn’t be able to see well enough to tell whether there was gold in anything they sifted. “I don’t think they went very far.”
Bryony nodded, but her eyes still held worry. “Perhaps I fret too much.”
He reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder. Some of the stiffness seemed to leave her body in response. And for a moment, he almost wished that he wasn’t wearing a glove and she wasn’t wearing a parka, that it was summer and they were sitting on the beach in Sitka, staring out over the calm waters of the sound—just so he could feel the warmth from her shoulder soaking into the skin of his hand.
She looked up at him, their gazes tangling, and he suddenly wanted to say something to match the moment, to tell her that he understood, even though he didn’t know what, exactly, he understood.
Or maybe he didn’t want to say anything at all. Maybe he wanted to lean forward and press his lips to hers, just to see how they would taste. Warm like her parka, or cold like the air surrounding them?
Just what would she do if he turned her to face him and brought his lips to hers?
“Do you think something happened to Heath and Richard?” Dr. Wetherby said from behind him.
He jerked his hand away from Bryony’s shoulder and turned toward the scientist. “No, but I expect?—”
Rustling sounded from the woods to his south, and Mikhail narrowed his eyes at the sound, carefully surveying the trees along the riverbank through the growing shadows.
“Were you asking about us?” Richard’s voice rang through the twilight. A moment later, he stepped beneath the tree where they were standing, his meticulously combed hair gleaming in the dim light from the fire. “We’re fine. Just took us longer than expected to find a spot to cross the river.”
“Did you find one?” Bryony looked between Richard and Heath, who had stepped into the clearing behind Richard.
“Maybe.” Heath used his gloved hand to brush a bit of rain from his beard. “We found a spot where the river is wider but shallower, though we couldn’t tell how deep it was.”
“Figured we’d send the frontiersman here across first and let him figure out how safe it is to cross.” Richard slapped Mikhail on the back, but there was nothing friendly about the action.
“What took so long?” Dr. Wetherby scowled at Heath. “I assumed you would have been back a couple hours ago. Dinner is all cleaned up.”
“Yes, Heath. How far down is the place you found to ford?” Bryony asked her brother.
Heath gestured downstream. “Not too far. The river widens and shallows just a couple of bends down.”
“Does it now.” Mikhail crossed his arms over his chest. “How interesting.”
“Wait. If we can ford just a couple of bends down the river, why were you gone so long?” Dr. Wetherby blinked at Heath.
Heath exchanged a glance with Richard, then clamped his mouth shut.
Mikhail wasn’t surprised. They’d shared little about their true intent for the expedition with Bryony’s family, so why would they start now?
“Did something happen at the river?” Bryony’s hand crept up to press against her chest. “We were worried.”
“We just, ah...” Heath shifted from one foot to the other. “Did a bit of extra exploring is all.”
“Where?” This from Dr. Ottingford, who had set the book he’d been reading on a log by the fire and was coming toward them.
“What did you find?” Dr. Wetherby asked. “Some new vegetation I should catalog?”
“Why would you want to do more exploring after walking all day in the rain?” Bryony’s brow furrowed.
“Yes.” Mikhail pinned his gaze to Richard’s. “Why don’t you explain what, exactly, you found while you were scouting the river.”
Richard looked down and adjusted the cuffs of his coat, as though answering questions was nothing more than a nuisance. “We were just searching for a better place to ford, but we’re not sure if we found one. That’s all.”
“That’s all ?” Mikhail drew out the word. “I’m tired of this. Tell them why you volunteered to scout the river in the first place.”
“There’s no reason, Amos. It’s just a river crossing. You’re reading too much into it.” A faint sneer tugged at the corner of Richard’s mouth.
“We had no idea you’d be so worried.” Heath cleared his throat, a forced smile spreading across his face. “Like we said, we were just making sure we found a good spot to cross. We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks in the morning.”
“Risks?” Mikhail gritted. “You mean like the risk of not finding any gold?”
“Gold?” Dr. Wetherby squinted at him through his spectacles. “What are you talking about, Amos?”
“They’re lying to you.” Mikhail couldn’t take it anymore. He was done with the deception. Done with Richard pretending that he was too good for this conversation. Done with watching Bryony worry over two fools who thought gold was more important than keeping their party safe and together. “They weren’t scouting for a place to ford the river. They were looking for gold. Just like they were doing when they left you in that valley for weeks on end, even though they knew exactly how to get back to the Iskut River.”
Heath stiffened, and Richard’s polished smile dropped from his mouth.
Bryony’s face turned white, and she pressed her lips tightly together. Mikhail had overheard her conversation with Heath when he admitted to looking for gold. The idea wasn’t new to her, but she clearly hadn’t put together that they’d still want to look for gold now, while they were in a race to stay ahead of winter.
And it was certainly new to Dr. Wetherby and Dr. Ottingford. They both stared at Heath and Richard with surprised looks on their faces.
“I don’t understand,” Dr. Ottingford finally muttered. “Why would you be looking for gold?”
“Because the Department of the Interior wants to know where the gold is, and knowing Richard’s family, I’m sure they have a company already formed, just waiting to invest in a gold mine in Alaska.” Bryony’s voice filled the air, putting the ideas together that Mikhail hadn’t wanted to outright accuse Richard of. “The only thing that’s missing is the actual discovery of gold.”
“Don’t make it sound like we were doing something wrong,” Richard snapped.
Mikhail took a step toward Richard. “You not only left Dr. Ottingford, Dr. Wetherby, and Miss Wetherby stranded for weeks on the cusp of winter, but you delayed the return trip so long that we can’t take the easy trail back through the mountains. And you think there’s nothing wrong with that?”
“We didn’t intend to be gone so long while you were in that valley, Bry. I swear we didn’t.” Heath moved to Bryony and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We thought we could find a gold deposit quickly once we were on our own, but one thing led to another, and before we knew it, the weather was starting to turn. We came back as soon as we realized it. I promise.”
“You told me that we were lost.” Having her brother’s arm around her shoulder did little to loosen Bryony’s stiff stance. “And before you left, you said there was no way to get back to the river without our guide, even though I had my maps. I told you how we came in and how we could get back, but you and Richard said my maps were inaccurate and couldn’t be trusted.”
She slid out from underneath her brother’s arm and took a step toward Richard. “But my maps were accurate, weren’t they? My maps showed you exactly where the Stikine and Iskut Rivers were, right along with all the creek beds and caves we passed, all places that could be explored for gold. That’s why you took the maps out of my journal. And you lied about them being wrong so it would buy you time to search.”
“Stop being so dramatic.” Something hard flashed in Richard’s eyes. “If there’s gold here, it’ll benefit us all.”
“Benefit us?” Bryony took another step forward and jabbed a finger into Richard’s chest. “How does delaying our return to Sitka benefit us? How does making us sick with worry while you disappear for hours after we set up camp benefit us?”
“I keep trying to tell you. It wasn’t like that.” Heath’s face had turned red, and he rubbed the back of his equally red neck. “We thought we’d find a quick spot to cross the river tonight and then have a better look around, just to make sure there wasn’t any gold in the riverbed. We didn’t mean for it to take so long, and there wasn’t anything wrong with what we did.”
“How can you say that? You misled us all, making us think your main purpose was to report on the flora and fauna of Southeast Alaska.” Dr. Wetherby peered over the top of his spectacles and looked Heath straight in the eyes. “Not to risk lives over the hope of gold.”
Heath shifted from one foot to the other. “We didn’t risk anyone’s life. We’re all still here. We’re all still safe. The governor even sent Amos here to help us get back.”
“You almost died!” Bryony shoved a hand in her brother’s direction. “Crossing a mountain that would have been much safer to traverse without two feet of snow on it.”
“Yes, I quite agree with your sister.” Dr. Wetherby frowned, then turned to Richard, the grooves on his face deepening. “None of us here signed up for this ‘expedition’ of yours. We came for research. It pains me to say so, but I’ll have to report this to the Department of the Interior upon our return.”
Richard straightened to his full height, a sneer tilting the edges of his lips. “Go ahead, Wetherby. File all the reports you want. Do you think the Department of the Interior funded this expedition because they needed a catalog of the flora and fauna, or wanted a months’ worth of research about the lichen that grows near glaciers? The Department of the Interior wants to know where the gold is. Everyone does.”
“Was everything just a ruse? My father, his expedition, this study?” Bryony raised her hands to encompass the campsite. “Was it all a ploy so that no one would know the Department of the Interior was searching for gold?”
Silence fell over the camp, but Bryony’s words still hung in the air, cold and heavy.
Richard didn’t deny her accusations. He stood before them, the light from the fire casting eerie shadows over his face.
Mikhail expected him to mock Bryony next, to find yet another way to brush off her concerns.
But Bryony stormed back over to him, not stopping until their noses were only inches apart. “I’ll never marry you.” She gave his chest a shove, then turned and looked directly at her father. “Did you hear that? I’m not marrying him. I could never commit the rest of my life to such a man.”
She whirled on her heel and stalked off.
Or at least she tried to stalk off, but the moment her back was turned, Richard pulled something from his waistband.
Mikhail barely caught the flash of a short metal barrel in the flicker of firelight before he jumped in front of Bryony.
Only then, when Richard leveled the barrel of the revolver directly at his chest, did Mikhail understand the pistol had never been intended for Bryony. “Where’s the gold, Amos?”
Mikhail’s heart hammered against his chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t make a mockery of me. You’ve been all over Alaska. On the sea, up the Yukon River, on the tundra. You know where there’s gold. Now tell me.”
Voices exploded around him.
“Mr. Caldwell, what are you doing?”
“Put the gun down.”
“I won’t stand for you shooting a person on my expedition.”
“I want to find gold just as much as you do, but this is a step too far.” Heath was the last to speak. “I won’t allow you to murder someone over it.”
Mikhail didn’t look at anyone else, not even Bryony, who’d rushed back to the group. The only thing he could stare at was the gun. “I don’t know where any gold is, but even if I did, you’d be the last person I’d tell.”
Richard cocked the pistol, the metallic clang ringing through the night. “I don’t believe you.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me. But it doesn’t change the facts.” Blood rushed through his veins and pounded in his ears. Would Richard do it? Would he pull the trigger? The man didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable with the pistol in his hand. The gun didn’t shake, and no sweat broke out on his forehead. He stood there cool and controlled.
Almost as if it wasn’t the first time he’d pointed a pistol at another person.
A new round of rain started falling, pattering on his head and the leaves and the ground. And the gun.
Just how slick would the rain make that trigger?
“Richard, this is madness.” Heath’s voice shook. “Put the gun away.”
Richard’s grip just tightened around the gun, the barrel unwavering. “I’ll ask you one last time, Amos. Where’s the gold?”
“I don’t know,” Mikhail gritted, fighting to keep his voice even. He might know how to kill a bear or wolf with a gun, but he wasn’t used to staring into the barrel of one, and the longer Richard pointed it at him, the harder it became to stay calm. “I’ve never put any effort into looking for it.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because of the two of us, I’m not the one carrying secrets around or trying to hide them. Like searching for gold while pretending to be on a botany expedition. Or having an Athabaskan wife and son.”
At the mention of Sadzi and Deniki, the gun wavered. Just for a moment, but it was all Heath needed to lean in and yank it from Richard’s hand.
“I can’t believe you pulled a gun on our guide.” Heath uncocked the gun, then shoved it into his coat. “Would you have really killed a man, all because he can’t tell you where a giant deposit of gold is?”
“I have to say, Richard, I’ll be reporting this event, too, after we return to Washington, DC,” Dr. Wetherby blustered. “You can’t go around pulling a gun on people you want information from.”
Richard didn’t look the least bit ruffled by the threat. “Blame me all you want, but I still think Amos here is hiding something, and we’d all be richer if he told us what it was. Just think about it. He’s wandered around Alaska for years, guiding expeditions and learning the secrets of the land. Don’t tell me he’s discovered nothing of significance, nothing that can’t be developed or processed and sold to the masses. Maybe he hasn’t discovered gold yet, but he’s probably found silver. Wouldn’t you all like to own a share in a silver mine? You could, provided you get him to tell us where the silver is.”
Mikhail’s jaw tensed. “I don’t know where any silver is either, now stop trying to distract everyone from the fact you have an Athabaskan family.”
“Yes.” Ice crusted Bryony’s voice. “I want to know more about that. Because from my perspective, it looks like you proposed to me while you have another wife.”
Richard scoffed. “I did no such thing.”
The words caused every muscle in Mikhail’s body to coil. “Really, that’s odd considering I was there when the tribe in Tanana performed your wedding ceremony.”
“It was a sham marriage. It never counted for anything. There was no church, and certainly not a marriage license.”
“So that’s how you justified walking away from Sadzi and your unborn child a year later?” Mikhail’s hands tightened into fists. “You think that if the marriage wasn’t performed in a church or you don’t have a piece of paper from the government saying it’s a marriage, it doesn’t count?”
Richard’s jaw tightened. “I don’t make the laws. I’m just following them.”
“The Athabaskans have been marrying people without licenses from the government for centuries. So have the Tlingit and Aleut and Inupiat.” Mikhail dropped his voice to a growl. “That marriage counted to Sadzi. It counted to her tribe. It counted to your son.”
Richard’s eyes flashed. “Alaska belongs to the United States. The government gets to determine who’s married and who isn’t, not an antiquated custom.”
“You acted as though you were married.” A sickening ball formed in his stomach. “You lived with Sadzi as though you intended to spend the rest of your life with her. You fathered her son.”
“When I left for Alaska, I went intending to learn everything I could about it. If that meant spending two years living in the most remote place in the world with a tribe of people who’ve never even seen the ocean, then so be it.”
How could this man be so callous? How could he so easily discount two full years of his life? Unless... “Did you marry her simply because you knew the tribe would accept you and make you one of their own? And tell you their secrets?” Had he been looking for gold even then, and hoping that if he married into the tribe, they would tell him where it was?
Richard offered a stiff shrug. “I don’t understand why any of this is your concern.”
“It’s my concern.” Bryony crossed her arms over her chest, her hair cascading about her shoulders in wild, tangled waves. “You proposed to me knowing you were already married.”
“I’m not married!” Richard threw up his hands. “What I did in Tanana over a decade ago has nothing to do with you.”
“But you lived with this woman like you were married.” Bryony swept toward him, her eyes flashing little sparks of hazel-colored fire.
Richard dragged a hand through his hair, his lips parting as if to respond, but no words came.
“Is it true about you having a son?” She shoved her finger into Richard’s chest. “Even if you can claim you weren’t actually married to this woman—Sudi, is it?”
“Sadzi,” Mikhail found himself saying. “It means ‘bright sun.’”
Bryony glanced at him for a moment, then whipped her head back around to face Richard. “Even if you can claim you weren’t actually married to Sadzi, you still had a son with her. What have you done to support them in the years you’ve been gone?”
A muscle pulsed on the side of Richard’s jaw, but he kept his lips clamped shut.
“Do you mean to tell me you take better care of that former mistress and the daughter you had with her than you do of the son you had with a woman you actually married? I knew you were ambitious. I knew you could be callous. But I never would have thought...” Tears filled her eyes, and she turned away. “Excuse me. It’s time I retire for the evening.”
Mikhail sighed as he watched her go. He couldn’t pretend to know all the things she was feeling as a woman right then. But if a man who’d already had a wife and child had ever tried proposing to one of his sisters...
His hands clenched into fists again, and he had to force himself to release them.
At least Bryony knew the truth now. Everyone did. And since they weren’t carrying any more secrets—and Richard no longer had his pistol—hopefully they could make faster time getting back to Sitka.