Gold Dust (5 page)

Her face started to grow red. “You thought I was a man?”

“You drink like a man—”

“I was drinking cold tea!”

“You fight like a man, you talk like a man—”

“I can talk like a lady. I’m talking like a lady now!”

“And you looked like a boy. I thought you were small, and young. How was I supposed to know you were a woman under those trousers
and dirt?”

“You’re a pretty sad case if you can’t tell girls from boys, mister!”

“I hired a
woman!”

“You make it sound like you hired a kangaroo!”

“You’re fired. I’m sorry, but I made a stupid mistake. It’s my fault. I’ll admit it. But you’re fired just the same.”

“Fired?”

“That’s what I said.” He stared out the window, unable to meet her eyes. “You’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me! We’re on a train to Seattle!”

“You can get off at the first stop. I’ll give you money to buy a ticket back to Willow Bend.”

“Like hell!”

“You can’t come with me.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a woman. Didn’t I make myself clear? A woman cannot make the trip to the Klondike. Especially as a trail guide. For
God’s sake! What kind of man do you think I am?”

“You’re a damned greenhorn who’s gonna get himself into trouble without my help! That’s the kind of man you are!”

He met the blaze of her eyes and saw the same impetuous fighting spirit that had saved him from a drubbing by the Hackett
brothers the day before. How could he have mistaken her for a boy, even dirty and dressed as she had been? There was nothing
even remotely masculine about that face and figure.

“Look, Miss O’Connell. I’m sorry to have caused you inconvenience, and I’m sure you can do everything you said you can, but
such a thing is entirely unsuitable—”

“Suitable hell! Don’t try to make excuses, greenhorn. You’re a damned welcher, and no one welches on Katy O’Connell!”

She might be able to pose as a lady, but when her temper was up, her true colors certainly shone through. “I can’t be responsible
for taking a female into such a harrowing and strenuous situation. Besides, you and I traveling together—a bachelor man and
single lady—would not be proper.”

She snorted inelegantly. “Proper, my ass! You’re just looking for a way to back out. A bargain is a bargain, I say. We shook
on it, and out here, a man’s hand is as good as a contract. A woman’s, too.”

“What kind of a woman would contemplate such an outrageous adventure?”

“A damned smart one, that’s who. One who can shoot and ride better than most men—”

“And cuss better,” Jonah added with a disapproving scowl.

“And has more guts and a better head on her shoulders!”

He pulled a wad of greenbacks from his pocket, separated several, and stuffed them into her hand. “This should get you back
to Willow Bend, madam, with enough left over for one day’s wages. This discussion is at an end!”

“Don’t bet on it!” she shot at him as he rose and brushed past her into the aisle. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily!”

All eyes followed Jonah down the aisle as he escaped into the next car. He deserved the amused looks. How could he have been
so stupid? He could only hope the little ruffian adventuress didn’t follow him and chase him the length of the train to continue
the fruitless argument. And to think he had mistaken her for a lady when she had first sat down! That was as wide of the mark
as mistaking her for a boy!

Katy returned the curious looks of the other passengers in the car with a glare that could have melted the snowcaps off the
Montana mountains, then stared sullenly out the window. To think she’d credited that sissified jackass greenhorn with enough
sense to see past the fact that she was a female! Why was it that men thought they were the only ones who could have fun in
this world, do interesting things and achieve accomplishments more challenging than batting eyelashes and simpering when some
man deigned to take an interest in them? She was beginning to appreciate the fight her stepmother had won in becoming a physician.
Even her pa, when he’d first known Olivia, had thought it far more important for her to dedicate herself to loving him than
to follow her chosen profession. That she could be both a woman and a doctor hadn’t occurred to him until Olivia had hit him
over the head with it.

If her pa, who was usually smart, could be such a nincompoop about such things, how much worse were the rest of the men in
the world, who didn’t have half her pa’s brains or good sense—especially a certain brown-haired, blue-eyed, citified, mulehead
skunk from Chicago. Unsuitable, indeed! He couldn’t take a puny little woman into such a harrowing and strenuous situation!
She’d show him harrowing and strenuous!
The damned welcher wouldn’t get rid of her so easily! She was more determined than ever to get to the Klondike, even if Armstrong
wouldn’t live up to their bargain. She would pass him on the trail and thumb her nose at him, and when he had to turn back
because he didn’t know what the hell he was doing, she would laugh in his face. If he made it as far as the goldfields—an
unlikely prospect—she would dangle her bags of gold nuggets in his face and remind him how he’d said a woman should never
even think of such an outrageous adventure. Let him write
that
story for his damned Chicago newspaper!

A portly gentleman in a suit and derby hat stopped beside the empty seat next to her. He tipped his hat.

“Afternoon, ma’am! Is this seat available?”

“Help yourself,” Katy said.

He dropped down into the seat with enough weight to make the supports groan. “Hot, isn’t it?” he commented, taking off his
derby and fanning his red face.

Katy looked out the window at the passing scenery, but she felt his eyes on her.

“I’m headed for Seattle. Is that where you’re going, too?”

“Yes,” she answered shortly.

“Traveling alone all the way to Seattle. My, my. Aren’t you a brave little thing.”

She shot him a seething glance.

“Myself, I’m bound for the Klondike.” He puffed out his chest, which had the effect of also expanding his rotund stomach.
“Going to make a fortune in gold.”

Katy surveyed his pudgy build with unconcealed contempt. “You plan to haul yourself and a thousand pounds of supplies over
White Pass?”

His eyes grew round, his face red. “I beg your pardon?”

“Do you know how steep that pass is?”

“I imagine I know much more about it than you, miss! I’ve read accounts in the newspapers.”

“By someone who’s actually done it?”

“Well, no. But someone who knew, nonetheless, that White
Pass is most hospitable to the traveler who wishes to travel overland to the Yukon River, and thence to the Klondike.”

Katy shook her head.

“Even if the trail to Dawson presents difficulties, they will be overcome. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, miss. You,
after all, are a woman.”

The look Katy gave him made the man lean away, then get up. He slapped his derby firmly onto his head as his lips pursed in
disapproval.

“Good day to you, miss!”

“And a good day to you, fool,” Katy muttered to his back as he retreated down the aisle. She felt a twinge of guilt for taking
out her ire on an innocent bystander. Today didn’t seem to be her day to be a social success.

The train made two stops during the day. During both Katy sat glued to her seat. If Armstrong expected her to get off the
train and turn tail back to Willow Bend, he was sorely mistaken. It would take more than a single setback to knock Katy O’Connell
from her chosen path. Other passengers left the car and strolled about outside, stretching their legs, while the train took
on coal, water, passengers, and mail. Katy almost expected the greenhorn to seek her out at the first station to make sure
she followed his orders, but the twenty-minute stop passed without a sign of him. She was relieved and miffed at the same
time. He’d forgotten her, the ingrate, dismissed her like some piece of dust he would flick from his sleeve.

An hour after sunset, the train stopped in Missoula, and Katy went to the baggage car to visit Hunter. The wolf was glad to
see her, his tail wagging like a dog’s, his eyes accusing her of neglect.

“Don’t give me that woeful look!” Katy scolded him. “I figure you’ve been sleeping all day. And that blanket the conductor
gave you is a lot more comfortable than the hard seats back in the passenger cars.”

Hunter’s tail thumped in acknowledgment.

“Bet you’d like a walk, though, huh?”

Nervous that the train would leave without her, Katy took the wolf out only long enough for him to accomplish his business.
When she returned to the baggage car, men were unloading baggage under the supervision of the conductor.

“So many people are getting off the train here?” an amazed Katy asked.

“The train’s stopping for the night, miss,” the conductor said. “There’s a mighty steep stretch a ways ahead, and we need
to add another engine. It won’t be available until tomorrow morning.”

“Can’t we sleep on the train?”

“I wouldn’t advise it, miss. Those seats make a mighty hard bed, and there’s riffraff in this part of town. There’s a hotel
about half a block up that’s safe enough for a lady, though.”

Katy felt in her pocket for the money Armstrong had given her to get back to Willow Bend. That would be more than enough for
a room, and a bed would feel better than the hard seat she’d been sitting on until her backside was numb. She didn’t mind
sleeping on the ground under the stars; but a wooden seat in a stinky train car was a different prospect altogether.

“I’ll take my valise,” she told the conductor. “That one there.”

He pried it from under the pile and handed it down. “Your dog can stay here, if you like.”

Katy shook her head. “He’d better come with me.”

“We’ll see you in the morning then, miss.”

The hotel clerk was polite enough to Katy when she registered for the night, but he eyed Hunter with misgivings.

“Don’t worry. He’s perfectly housebroken. He’s probably cleaner than most of the people you have staying here.”

“Uh… well, there’ll be an extra charge for the dog.”

Katy dug into the little reserve of funds she’d brought with her from home—very little. At the time she’d thought Armstrong
would be holding to his bargain and paying their expenses. At this rate she wouldn’t be having many more meals on the way
to Seattle.

She left Hunter in the hotel room with a firm admonishment to behave himself and went down to the dining room for what probably
would be her last meal until she could find someone willing to take her on as a guide. A waiter met her at the door with the
look that waiters reserve for women who enter a restaurant alone.

“We do not serve unescorted females, miss.”

“I’m a guest at the hotel,” she explained.

“Be that as it may, we still do not serve unescorted females. Sorry.”

Katy drew herself up and tried to intimidate the waiter with silent indignation. She’d seen Olivia do it a time or two to
other doctors who refused to accept her as a professional equal. Olivia occasionally employed this method on her pa as well,
who wasn’t easy to intimidate. It worked slick as spit for Olivia. For Katy it didn’t work at all. The little weasel in a
stuffed shirt simply looked right through her as though she weren’t there.

“If you’ll excuse me, miss, I have duties to attend to.”

“Wait a minute, mister. Whoa there. If I can’t eat here, where am I supposed to eat?”

If she’d been a pig wallowing in slime he couldn’t have regarded her with any more distaste. “I’m sure I don’t know, miss.
Perhaps one of the boardinghouses.”

“I didn’t see any boardinghouses.”

“A few miles into town.”

“Oh, yeah?” She balled her fists and slammed them onto her hips. “I’m supposed to walk a few miles into town because I’m not
good enough to eat in this damned hog trough of yours. Like hell I will, you little—”

A familiar voice interrupted her rising temper. “Well, if it isn’t Miss Katy O’Connell! I see you didn’t take my advice.”

The waiter, whose upper lip was beginning to bead with nervous sweat, jumped on the opportunity. “Are you with this lady,
sir?”

The greenhorn raised one mocking brow. “I suppose I must be.”

“Come this way, if you will.”

“After you.” Jonah made a sweeping bow to Katy and motioned her forward. She obeyed, because the small concession was the
only way she was going to get something to eat.

The waiter deposited them at a table that was none too clean, and the foursome at the next table—men she recognized from the
train—had obviously made a quick trip to a saloon before dinner. Their boasts of what they would do with the fortunes of gold
from the Klondike were loud and slurred.

“They won’t allow an unescorted woman into the place, but they’ll serve those blowhards,” Katy scoffed.

“Those gentlemen are just savoring a bit of adventure,” Jonah said. “As apparently you are, Miss O’Connell. What are you still
doing here? I told you to get off at the first stop.”