The Snowflake (15 page)

But the man was so close. He could feel it. And wasn’t that the reason he’d risked his life to come to this forsaken place in the middle of frozen tundra?

“Ahhhh!” He yelled with a fist toward the sky. “I just can’t do it.”

Chapter Thirteen

We want Jewel! We want Jewel!”

The crowd chanted the phrase from the floor of the smoky dance hall. I stood on the stage, cowering behind the black curtain. Was I really going to do this? It wasn’t too late to back out, and the good Lord must know of other ways to help the hospital than my being a wife to a miner for a day. The fact that I’d dreamed of being a bride for so long and ended up with this caused sparks of anger to flare through me.

Lord, I want my own story. Is that so wrong?

I peeked out of the crack between the curtains and scanned the large room. Kate had done a good job advertising the event as the dance hall was packed with rows of bearded, whooping miners. Additional lanterns had been brought in, and spruce boughs tied with red ribbon decorated the walls adding to the Christmas feel. I bit down on my lower lip. All of the other girls had already gone; it was my turn, or my last chance to back out.

“We want Jewel! We want Jewel!” The cheering grew louder.

One thing was clear, I couldn’t stall any longer. Taking a deep breath, I parted the silky drape that served as a curtain and stepped into the bright lantern light.

The whooping miners greeted me with applause and foot stomping. There were even some Northwest Mounted Police in the back, standing out in their glossy red coats and wide, round hats that made them identifiable as the law in this place. My gaze darted from one end of the room to the other. How I wanted to turn around and run back behind that curtain! Or at least use it to cover the new green dress Kate had insisted upon, but I forced myself to stay rooted to the wooden planks of the stage.

Kate hitched up her sapphire gown and ascended the steps to stand next to me on the stage. She held up her hands and shouted above the roar. “Gentlemen, quiet, please, let us start the bidding.” She motioned for me to stroll around by circling her finger. I just stared back into her excited eyes, rooted to the floor by shaking knees and a quivering stomach.

“Gentlemen! I give you the Monte Carlo’s very own! The lovely Jewel of Dawson! Those of you who have danced with her know of her goodness. Gracious, half of you have proposed to her. So imagine getting your wish for a single day!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her wink at the crowd.

“A wife for Christmas. Now who will start the bidding? Do I hear five hundred dollars?”

I wished for a hole to crawl in. The stomping and cheering made my heart thud too hard. I shuddered when a huge man in grimy clothes at the back of the room lifted an arm. “Five hundred,” he shouted and then spit a line of tobacco juice on the shoes of his neighbor. I could make out his leering grin underneath all the beard and the glitter of lust in his eyes.

This was a terrible mistake. I couldn’t go through with it.
Lord, get me out of here!

The bidding and revelry continued to roar in my ears as the lights grew strangely dim.
Oh no, don’t faint!

“Six hundred dollars!” A stocky man with hard eyes and a mean twist to his lips yelled out.

“A thousand dollars!” Countered a newly rich, white-haired sourdough. I imagined him trying to press a kiss on me, and the urge to retch rose to the back of my throat.

“One thousand dollars. Do I hear two thousand?” Kate’s eyes were truly fever pitched now.

“Five thousand.” A stocky man I’d never seen before countered.
Oh no, please, God, not him.

“Five thousand dollars!” Kate said into the quieting crowd. The other girls had brought in five to eight hundred. Five thousand dollars for a dancing girl for one day was unheard of.

I cringed at the man with the leading bid. He stared back at me and licked his lips like a cat waiting for his daily bowl of cream.

I began to pant in fear and shook my head back and forth. I looked over at Kate, pleading in my eyes.

Kate nodded her agreement that he was unacceptable and faced the crowd. “Come on, gents! I know many of you have spent more than that on an evening’s worth of champagne. Jewel will make you a nice Christmas dinner and keep you company on the loneliest day of the year. Come on now. Do I hear ten thousand?”

“Twenty thousand dollars!” The man who had made the first bid raised his hand and flashed me a victorious smile. Everyone gasped at the sum, and darkness threatened the corners of my vision. Just as it was about to swallow me up, I heard a smooth male voice say into the shuffling and murmuring of the room.

“Her weight in gold.”

The clamor of the room died away into turned heads and slack jaws. Kate glanced at me with her hands clasped together under her chin. “Gentlemen, did you hear that? Her weight in gold!” Everyone’s attention riveted on the tall man in black at the back of the room who had said it.

I blinked, trying to see beyond the shadows, but he wasn’t even looking at me. He was busy scribbling something on a piece of paper. All I could see was the top of his smooth, black hat.

Kate cleared her throat, “Ah, sir? You do know that at sixteen dollars an ounce, your bid will come to over thirty thousand dollars?”

“Yes, I’m aware of that.” He paused and finally looked up. “Have you a better offer?”

“No, no.” Kate’s gaze swept over the silent crowd. “Gentlemen, does anyone have a better offer?” The crowd remained silent. It was as if all the air had been belly-punched right out of them.

I felt as frozen as the outdoors. Paying that kind of money, what would he expect from me? I knew I should put a stop to this, but I couldn’t seem to move. I watched, dazed, as he walked forward into the light and directed his gaze toward me for the first time.

His eyes were dark and held a glimmer of laughter in a face that was nothing short of pure masculine beauty. I’d never seen him before, but I heard Kate’s sharp inhale and jerked my attention to her. “Do you know him?”

I looked back at the man as she whispered in an angry hiss, “You! I can’t believe it.”

He took off his hat, revealing sleek black hair, and with suppressed mirth in his eyes tipped it toward Kate. He turned back to me, locked his gaze to mine, and asked the question everyone in the room wanted answered. “How much do you weigh?”

I opened my mouth, shut it, and then opened it again.

“Ma’am, how much do you weigh?”

“I—I’m not sure, 120, I believe.”

He looked me up and down, as if to judge the validity of my words. My face grew hot under his gaze, but he didn’t seem to notice. He turned his attention back to his paper and scribbled some more.

Raising his head, he said to Kate, “At 120 pounds and gold at sixteen dollars an ounce, her bride’s price is $30,920.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a heavy bag of gold. He held it in his hand for a moment, looking at me. “There’s just one condition.”

My heart dropped, and the onlookers strained forward to hear this new development.

“She has to go with me now.”

“Why you no-good, black-hearted, dirty—”

“Now, Kate, you can call me names later.” His deep voice was rich with humor. “Let’s take care of business first, shall we? You know I won’t harm the girl.”

Eyes on fire, Kate motioned to the pianist to start up the clanking music and led the way to her table, pulling me along by a tight grip on my forearm.

It there ever was a time to pray, it was now.

Lord, help!

Chapter Fourteen

It was quiet and nearly empty as Kate dragged me over to her private table in the back of the barroom. She called for the scales to be brought over, her eyes slits of angry distrust toward the dark-haired man as he sat across from us.

I swallowed hard, watching them play out a scene I shouldn’t be witnessing much less participating in. I took a breath, then faced the man. “Who are you?”

He bowed his head toward me and reached for my hand. His voice was all husky charm as he leaned over my hand and planted a light kiss against the back of it. “Kate, would you like to do the introductions?”

Kate gave him the dagger eyes. “I’m sure you can manage on your own. You always could.”

“Very well.” He gave me a knowing, wicked smile that made my hand tremble in his. “The name is Lucky and you are Jewel, yes?”

I nodded, not knowing if he should know my real name or not but thinking that like many in the Paris of the North, as Dawson was called, Lucky was another nickname.

He flashed that devastating grin as I pulled my hand from his grasp.

“Charming as ever, I see.” Kate reached for the pouch of gold he’d laid on the table. “Looks like you’ve been lucky as usual too.” She weighed the heavy bag in her hand, lifting it up and down, and eyed him with glittering distrust, then began to pour the flakes and nuggets onto the scale. She repeated the process, scale after scale, until there were little but a few grains of sparkling dust left in the bag. She flung it across the table at him.

“Why her? Why spend all this money for a day with one of my girls? Are you trying to make some kind of point?”

I turned, wanting to slink away and disappear. These two had something to work out between them, and I knew better than to be in the middle of it.

“Kate. I realize you think you can’t trust me, but I had my reasons, and a deal is a deal.” He leaned across the table and touched her cheek.

A look flashed across her eyes I’d never seen before. Kate was always so dispassionate, so in control, but in that moment I saw hurt and longing and love.

Kate loved this man.

“I can’t do it.” The words I’d been holding in all night tumbled out.

Kate swung toward me with raised brows and compressed lips. “Of course you can. We made an agreement, and you will stick by it. The hospital, remember?”

I turned toward Lucky who shrugged at me in understanding.

“Now.” Kate clapped her hands together to gain both our attention. “Jewel will leave with you tonight, but you listen to me and listen good. She is to be treated like a lady the entire time.” She eyed Lucky and smacked her palm down on the table. “I’d ask for your word on that, but we both know how well you keep promises. Just know, if she comes back damaged goods, I’ll hunt you down myself, and what I have imagined doing to you this last year—”

The man’s jaw clenched, and I got the distinct impression Kate was getting through his glib exterior. “I’m flattered, Kate. I didn’t know you still cared so much.”

Kate reddened and sputtered as it finally dawned on me who this man was. Lucky was her long-lost fiancé. So, what in heaven’s name did he want with me?

“Go!” She pointed her finger toward the door. “Just go.”

Minutes later and garbed in my winter gear, I followed Lucky’s long stride through the front door. The cold reminded me of the stark realities of this place, how precarious life was, how I didn’t know what was to happen next. It was as if I was stepping into the great unknown, a frozen future that held the possibilities of a dream city.

Lucky stopped at the edge of the raised walkway and flung out an arm. “Your chariot awaits, ma’am.”