Crazy Faith

by BrynnaRaven

It is 1899. Cora and Alice Munro leave an ill-favored life in Colorado behind to join their father, a gold prospector, in Alaska. On the way, they meet three capable men in whom they must place their wary confidence. On arrival they part company, but a major setback throws them together again, leading to a decision that offers Cora and Alice a chance to learn to trust, and to love.

1. Chapter 1

Crazy Faith

"I lit my love and watched it burn
Asking nothing in return
Except the lessons I will learn
By holding crazy faith

I've been touched by that bright fire
Down to the root of my desire
While the smoke it rises higher
On my crazy faith

You're not asking if I love this man
I know you don't, you don't believe you can
Yet I've seen love open like a dancer's fan
It's crazy I know, but my faith says so
It tells me

Am I a fool for hanging on
Would I be a fool to be long gone
When is daylight going to dawn
On my crazy faith

The questions will not let me sleep
Answers buried way too deep
At the bottom of a lovers' leap
Made by crazy faith

You're not asking if I love this man
I know you don't, you don't believe you can
Yet I've seen love open like a dancer's fan
It's crazy I know, but my faith says so
It tells me

Love your losing, lose your love
Let the hawk fly from the glove
Do not search the skies above
Search your crazy faith

Love is lightning, love is ice
It only strikes the lucky twice
Once so you will know the price
And once for crazy faith

You're not asking if love this man
I know you don't, you don't believe you can
Yet I've seen love open like a dancer's fan
It's crazy I know
But my faith says so…"

-Mark Simos (For Alison Krauss)-

Chapter 1

***TRIGGER WARNING*** This chapter has content pertaining to close-call sexual assault/nonconsensual touching (no actual rape).

Nome, Alaska, 1899

Edmund Munro sat at the makeshift desk in the corner of his tiny cabin, poring over documents in the dim light cast by the lantern hanging on the low log beam above, a fire staving off the chilly air. Even in May, Alaska was frigid at night, but still it was better here than the unforgiving Klondike had been. He shuddered at the too-recent memory of that hellish and unsuccessful venture. At least there was better weather here along the Snake River, and a far better chance at success finding gold. He'd pretty well lost his ass in Dawson City, and he desperately needed to recoup those losses here; for himself, and more importantly for his daughters whom he had failed and left to fend for themselves. Fortunately, the relocation to Nome was so far promising to be a wise move based on what he and his few remaining men were recovering just from panning the beaches, and soon enough his family would be together again. He sighed, his fatigue showing in the leathery lines around his cornflower-blue eyes, stray locks of his too-long steel-grey hair falling haphazardly across his forehead. He stood abruptly when a knock sounded at the door and it creaked open slowly.

"Ah, Duncan. What can I do for you, my boy?" The weary Scotsman smiled, moving his hand from the Colt .45 revolver at his hip. A strapping, square-jawed young Englishman stepped inside, removing his weathered hat so that his ginger hair caught the dancing firelight like spun rose gold.

"Apologies for the interruption at this late hour, but I leave for Seattle tomorrow morning, sir. I only wondered if there is anything else you might have thought of for me to bring back when I return, supplies or otherwise?"

"Of course. I don't think so, only what's on the list I've given you. Mining season is coming upon us, and we've got to get sluices and rockers built soon if we're going to have any chance of reclaiming our loss in Yukon territory. And of course, your most important task – getting my daughters here to me safely."

"Of course, sir. I expect the scout I sent to have already reached them by now, and them well on their way to rendezvous with me in Seattle. I would imagine I'll have a telegram waiting when I arrive saying as much."

"Good, good. I can't stand to think of them alone in that godforsaken place anymore, it crushes my soul to think of what I've put them through, and for what? Failure in the Klondike. I should have left well enough alone and been happy with the small success I had in Cripple Creek. Invested in something to earn steady capital instead of chasing more wealth. But there's no going back now." Munro shook his head and stepped closer to the fire, his back to Duncan. The younger man glanced down at the papers on Munro's desk, one in particular catching his eye for several moments before he looked up again to reply.

"Don't despair, sir. All will be right in due time, I can feel it. Once I see Cora and Alice here safely and we have the equipment we need to move enough earth, things will be well enough again – I daresay more than well enough, if all goes accordingly. And, Providence willing, Cora will accept my proposal as willingly as you have supported it." He glanced down at the papers once more, an odd smile on his face. It was gone by the time Munro turned to face him with a nod and a deep sigh.

"I do hope so, lad, and there is no one I'd trust more to escort my girls to me unharmed. You've been an asset to us all these last several years, and I hope Cora sees you as such, but you'll remember she's stubborn, and likely more so than ever by now. There won't be any pushing her if she's not of like mind."

"Quite so, sir. Well, I'll be going so you may retire in quiet." He put out his right hand, and Munro shook it firmly.

"I shall see you upon your return from Seattle, then. Safe travel to you, Heyward. Much depends on it."

---

Cripple Creek, Colorado - The Patroon's House Saloon

Cora Munro pushed a loose strand of her dark, wavy hair off her face, stopping by the window of the tiny bedroom she was cleaning. She opened the sash enough to let in some fresh morning air against the smell of stale sweat, liquor, and other things she didn't care to think too hard about from the night before. The weather was unseasonably hot and balmy for this time of year in Colorado, and everything felt sticky today. Of course, that wasn't saying much, considering she was standing in a cramped, recently-used whore's room, with the sounds of preparation for this afternoon's crowd already filtering up from the saloon and kitchen below. She finished gathering soiled laundry into her basket and turned to leave just as the room's resident came in, her pink dressing gown tied closed over her low-cut cotton shift.

"I don't know why you and Alice bother makin' up the beds, Cora," the young woman said, her pile of dark auburn curls shaking as she chuckled, reaching for the showy emerald-green corset and skirt draped over a wooden chair. "They'll be screwed up soon enough, in more ways than one." She laughed again, the sound turning into a deep cough.

Cora smiled. "We don't do it for them, we do it so that you'll at least get to enjoy a clean room for part of your day before the saloon opens. But you're still not well enough to be taking customers, Grace. I wish you wouldn't." She touched her friend's arm with concern. She had nursed the woman through a severe illness in the past several weeks, and it still hadn't cleared up completely.

"It ain't about whether I want to, Cora, you know that. I got to, or I'll be out on my ass. If I can't work, I can't live here, and if I ain't here I got nowhere else to go."

Cora nodded sadly. "I know, I just… I wish it could be different. For all of you."

Grace shrugged. "It ain't the worst. It can always be worse, right? Franny's good to us and treats us fair. And hey, look at you and Alice. You're gettin' by decent, and at least Franny ain't got y'all working on your backs."

There but for the grace of God go I,Cora thought darkly, her brows furrowing above her brown eyes. There were plenty of lecherous customers who often wished it otherwise, and the drunker ones didn't always keep their hands to themselves. The only reason Cora and her younger sister Alice hadn't been forced into questionable employment was because Franny McCann, the proprietor here at The Patroon's House, knew and loved Edmund Munro well enough not to put his daughters in such a position, especially since Alice was so young. Besides Munro's wrath being feared even from such great distance, Franny's late husband Malcolm had been a good friend of his when they had both been in the Army together. After their commissions had ended, they'd ventured west and put their efforts into gold mining. They had been lucky and had made a decent return from their claim – not a fortune, but enough to be moderately comfortable. Edmund had made sure Franny received her due share when Malcolm had been killed in a mining accident, and she'd used some of the capital to buy The Patroon's House from its previous owner, who had wanted to move on to California. Franny was a shrewd businesswoman, and the place had done well under her rule. She was fair-minded and took good care of the women in her employ, which was more than could be said of many other saloon owners.

When Edmund Munro's mine had stopped producing and before he sank into financial ruin, he had decided to gamble the remainder of his Cripple Creek spoils on an attempt to strike it rich in Yukon territory. He had sold their house in order to leave Cora and Alice with a small sum of money to survive on, and Franny had promised to look after them and give them honest work in return for Edmund making sure she was set up well when Malcolm had died. She gave the sisters room and board, and in exchange they helped Franny keep the barroom, bath, and the whores' rooms clean, did laundry, and helped serve food and drink in the saloon in the evenings. Additionally, Cora had become valuable to the saloon girls because of the medical knowledge she had acquired over the years, and they often sought her out for treatment for various ailments and injuries. Some of the poorer miners' families occasionally came knocking at the back door for her help as well, being less able to afford the town's one physician. Cora had a reputation for being kind, and she was willing to accept what little money they could pay, or trade for things she and Alice or other residents at the saloon might need.

"Yes, Grace," she agreed solemnly. "It could always be worse." She turned to leave, her face breaking into a smile when she saw Alice coming out of a room down the hall with a full laundry basket of her own. Her dark honey-blonde hair was piled up high off her neck in the heat, her brow dewy above her big hazel eyes.

"Shall we get laundry done before it gets even hotter?" she asked Cora with a rueful smile. "At least we know it will dry quickly in the heat of the day." The sisters descended the wooden stairs together, and were met near the bottom by Franny Mc Cann, already dressed for the day in sapphire blue silk taffeta, her brown hair done up in curls with a jaunty black hat perched at the front. She held a folded piece of paper in one hand.

"Girls, there's a telegram come for you," she informed them with a smile, holding out the paper. "It's from Seattle."

"It must be from Papa!" Alice gasped, taking it eagerly and nearly tearing it in her haste to unfold it so she and Cora could read it together. They so rarely heard from their father, and often feared bad news when they did. Both sisters wished he had simply left well enough alone and never gone north at all, but his mild success in Cripple Creek had lit an unquenchable fire in him and his head engineer Duncan Heyward, and there was no dissuading them from their mission. The last telegram from Munro had said only that he and the other men with him had reached Nome safely, but his daughters had had no update until now on their father's latest effort to find his fortune in gold.

"CORA AND ALICE A GUIDE WILL COME SOON TO BRING YOU TO SEATTLE TO MEET D HEYWARD AT GATEWAY HOTEL ON OCCIDENTAL ST AND JOIN ME IN NOME ALL IS WELL AND HAVE MISSED YOU BOTH MUCH LOVE PAPA"

Cora stared blankly at the telegram, until Alice's delighted gasp snapped her out of her fog. Alice dropped her laundry basket and hugged Cora.

"What does it say?" Franny asked them. "Good news I hope?"

"Oh yes! Papa has sent someone to fetch us and take us north to join him!" Alice exclaimed happily, letting go of Cora to throw her arms around the older woman. "Oh, I wonder when the guide will arrive? It says 'soon', but that could be any time!"

"I suppose we'll simply have to see," Cora replied, returning her sister's happy smile. "It would take weeks for someone to reach us from that distance, but things must be going well in Nome if he's sending for us."

Alice bounced on her toes and grabbed her older sister's hands. "What an adventure! I won't be able to sleep for the excitement of waiting!"

"Well, as much as we'll all miss you gals around here once you've gone, it's high time y'all get out of here and get on with life," Franny said, placing a hand on each of their arms. "It ain't proper to be livin' in a place like this when you're so young and well-bred. But at the same time, God knows what'll await in Alaska either. It certainly ain't the place to find a respectable man around every corner."

"You've been good to take us in as you did, Franny," Alice assured her. "As for Alaska, I'm barely nineteen, and I don't give a fig about finding a husband yet, not when there are so many new and exciting experiences to be had first. Nor does Cora, despite her ripe old age of twenty-four… though I suspect Duncan Heyward may try to change her mind once we are all reunited, given that he "sends his best" to her in every telegram or letter Papa has sent since they left here." Alice grinned at Cora and wiggled her brows teasingly, causing Cora to roll her eyes and sigh. Duncan had shown interest in her since he had been employed by her father as his chief mining engineer here in Cripple Creek. He was loyal to her father and seemed like a decent man, but Cora was not at all sure how she felt about him as a marriage prospect. She had never felt particularly attracted to him, and something about him simply didn't sit right with her, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Franny laughed. "All right, off with us all. We open in two hours, I've got bookkeeping to do, and all that laundry ain't gonna wash itself." She patted their faces and bustled down the narrow hallway to the room that served as her office. The sisters headed toward the back door with their baskets, where the washtub and clothesline awaited behind the building. Alice hummed happily to herself, while Cora ruminated quietly on their father's telegram. For the most part, she shared Alice's excitement. The idea of traveling so far, meeting new people, seeing new things and beautiful, wild places – that appealed to her very much. She appreciated what Franny had done for them, but she was ready to leave this life behind. As well as Franny treated her employees, the environment was still depressing and a little hopeless, and since Alice was getting older and her slender figure filling out, the customers took more and more notice of her, which worried Cora to no end. Franny was right – a saloon full of drunk miners and cowboys was no place for two young women who weren't "working girls" and had no intention of becoming such. Cora had been drunkenly cornered and groped in a dark hallway more than once, narrowly avoiding being raped on one occasion. It had left her so shaken that she hardly ever let Alice leave her sight for fear of the same happening to her, or worse. Franny couldn't protect them forever, and some men were more violent than others. Both sisters had seen and heard enough around The Patroon's House to know they were ready to be away from such a place, and even so, Cora expected, some of those memories would haunt them for a long time, even thousands of miles away in Alaska. Like Alice, she wanted to see their father again, but her anticipation was also tinged with a resentment she couldn't help feeling at being left behind to this life in the first place.

---

The following Friday, The Patroon's House was inundated with customers celebrating the week's end with drinking, gambling, and the company of women. Cora and Alice were helping the bartender serve drinks and running food from the kitchen. Franny made her rounds between the barroom and upstairs, making sure no one caused trouble or overstayed their allotted time with the girls. Cora stopped at one of the card tables to say hello to Robert, a handsome, dark-haired miner who often came in to see Grace. Grace was perched on his lap and seemed quite happy to give him her undivided attention. Cora knew that at least for her friend, Robert was more than the average customer, and Grace missed him when he didn't come around. She suspected by the light in Robert's eyes that the feeling might be mutual, and secretly hoped that one day he might make enough at mining gold to marry Grace, and she would never have to do this kind of work again.

Across the barroom, Alice dropped off a round of bourbon for a table of men she'd never seen before, most likely just passing through town on their way to somewhere else. I wish I was already on my way somewhere else, she thought distractedly, wishing their guide would arrive already so she and Cora could go and be with Edmund again. This round of drinks was one of many she'd delivered to this particular table, and each time she'd come back, the men grew drunker, rowdier, and behaved more lewdly toward her, particularly their ringleader, a burly man with stringy hair and icy blue eyes that made Alice shudder a little when she looked into them. He gave her the feeling she really ought to steer clear of him, but he was a customer and he hadn't done anything to warrant being denied service, unless pinching her backside every time she walked by the table counted against him.

"Not so fast, pretty gal," he called out as she turned quietly to leave, wrapping an arm around her in an attempt to pull her onto his lap. "How about you stay here and keep me amused for a little bit while I finish this poker game, and then we can continue the entertainment upstairs after that?" His eyes moved down her front.

Alice stiffened, and her cheeks flushed as she tried to extricate herself from his grasp. "I'm sorry, I'm not… I don't… that is, I'm only helping to serve drinks and food, I'm not a… I don't work here like that."

"Well, ain't that a damn shame, boys?" He slurred, still hanging onto Alice while his friends looked on and encouraged him. He leaned in, his eyes chilling her to the bone, and she could smell the cheap bourbon mixed with his sour breath. "Maybe the owner of this place ought to change that, huh? Pretty, proper little English miss like you, you'd catch a fine price for a tumble in bed. I'd pay it. You ever been with a man before, sweetheart?" His hand slid down from her hip and he gave her bottom a rough squeeze.

"Alice, is everything all right?" Cora's voice behind her was full of repressed anger, knowing everything was definitely not all right.

"Yes," Alice replied firmly, grabbing the customer's hand and pushing it away so she could get up. "I was just explaining to this gentleman, and I use that term quite loosely, that if he desires the kind of company he's after, he may look elsewhere."

The other four men at the table laughed at that, and the troublemaker's eyes grew angry at the embarrassment. His narrowed gaze shifted to Cora.

"And what about you, sweet thing? You her mama, or what?"

"No, her sister, and as she already said, you'd best look elsewhere if it's a warm bed you're after. We've got other work to do." She took Alice's arm and led her away, and Alice could feel her sister's hand shaking despite the grip on her elbow. "Stay away from them for the rest of the evening," she said quietly. If they want more drinks, I'll take them."

"Why, so they can treat you just as awful?" Alice hissed back. "Let them go to the bar and see Bill if they want to get drunker. I'm going to find Franny to tell her to watch out for them. I get the feeling whatever poor girl he ends up with isn't going to get treated very well, and Franny won't stand for that."

Cora nodded and let Alice go, her stomach in knots. She went toward the saloon doors to speak to Liam, the gargantuan Irishman whose six and a half feet of well-muscled presence generally kept undesirable behavior at bay – but not always. Before she reached him, she was flagged down by a table to fetch drinks for them, so she set about doing that with the intent to talk to Liam as soon as she was done. While she was behind the bar, she didn't see the troublemaker get up from his table and follow Alice into the dim, isolated back hallway by the stairs. It was only when she glanced over and saw him missing from the table, and Alice nowhere to be seen, that her heart plummeted inside her ribcage. Without thinking further, she rushed alone toward the hallway, an empty whiskey bottle still in her hand, trying to calculate exactly how long Alice had been gone. Long enough, it would seem.

Rage rose like wildfire inside Cora when she found Alice in the dark near the back door, pinned against the wall by the big stranger, who was attempting to lift her skirt while she struggled against the large hand covering her mouth, her eyes wild with helpless, angry fear.

"Prissy little bitch, you think you're too good for this? Well, you ain't. Stay still, goddammit," he hissed, shoving a knee between her legs. He was either too drunk, too focused, or a little of both, but either way he never saw Cora behind him. "Maybe we oughtta get that sister of yours involved in the fun too," he grunted, shoving himself against Alice.

"That sounds like a fine idea," Cora intoned harshly, smashing the empty bottle she held against the back of his head. He toppled away from Alice in shock, his body slamming into the closed door across from him, but he didn't go down. Alice leapt away from the wall, nearly hyperventilating with relief, but it was short lived when the man stumbled forward and made a grab for Cora.

"You fucking bitch," he snarled, shoving her backward and then clutching a fistful of her long, thick hair. Blood streamed down the side of his neck from where she'd hit him with the bottle.

"Stop it! Let her go, you filthy bastard!" Alice yelled, trying to pull him away from her sister. He shoved her roughly away and dragged Cora into the barroom, too drunk and angry now to remember there were people everywhere. He threw her down onto a tabletop, glass smashing to the floor beside her, and the impact knocked the breath from her for a moment. He moved to trap her there with his body, but she raised her legs and kicked him hard away from her, getting to her feet as quickly as she could manage to. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man's friends rushing over from their table, and then she saw stars as he backhanded her hard across her right cheek. She reeled back from the impact, pain exploding through her sinuses, and Alice caught her and pulled her back to the safety of the bar. She slumped onto the floor with a groan, and Alice looked at her face, already swelling from the hit.

"Cora, your face! You'll be all black and blue!"

"I'm all right," she insisted. "And more importantly, you're all right."

Alice hugged her with a sob. "I hate this place. I wish we could leave now!"

Liam had come over from his post by the door and now punched the stranger square in the face, knocking him out cold. The man's friends jumped on Liam, and in no time sides were taken and there was an all-out barroom brawl going on. Whores and customers alike came out of upstairs rooms to gawk at the calamity below them. It didn't get very far before a single gunshot stopped the entire room dead. Cora and Alice peered around the bar to see a man standing in the doorway holding a smoking Winchester rifle, dust falling from the hole he'd shot in the roof above. He was striking and rather frightening. Some kind of Indian, tall and strong and dark-skinned with craggy features carved out of stone and a downturned, disapproving mouth. His black hair was long and tied back, he was dressed in a well-worn buckskin jacket and pants, and he looked as if he'd been traveling the earth for decades. Eyes as black as obsidian glinted as his gaze swept over the room.

"Frances McCann." He stated simply, his voice booming in the silence.

"That would be me. What can I do for you?" His sharp eyes lit on a slightly pale-faced Franny, who had stopped midway in her rush down the staircase when his rifle shot had rung out.

"I was told that the Scotsman's daughters were at The Patroon's House." He gestured at the sign hanging above the door, proclaiming the name of the establishment. "Munro. Alice and Cora. I am Magua. I was sent by Duncan Heyward to take them north to Seattle."

Alice took Cora's arm with a quiet gasp, and the sisters stood and slowly emerged from behind the bar, both thinking that the granting of their wish to be rid of this place once and for all could not have come at a better time.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

First of all, I must thank you, readers, for your patience as you waited and waited for the first chapter of this story. It took so much longer than I wanted it to take. Trying to write after being back at work and having a lot of other things going on is a HUGE challenge. I am working more than I thought I would be initially, but I don't mind because I absolutely adore my job – for those not following me on Tumblr, I started working as a post-op nurse at an orthopaedic surgery center back in March, and it is wonderful there, and I am so happy, but also so busy. In addition, in May I finally did something I've wanted to do my whole adult life – I passed my motorcycle safety course for my license endorsement, and I became the proud owner of a beautiful black 2012 Honda Shadow Spirit, aptly dubbed Raven. Needless to say, my addiction to motorcycling and all that comes with it was swift and merciless, and I spend more time riding Raven out on mountain and country highways than I should, but I can't help it. I'm in love! Lastly, I got into a slump in June when I lost my sweet, amazing ride-or-die kitty of thirteen years, Batman. Our household misses him terribly. But at last I was able to buckle down and get this chapter written, and I hope future chapters will not take so damned long.

That being said, this AU is a very different one, and I'm interested to see how this story progresses and what you guys think of it. I know the plot, but as you know, the characters often dictate what actually gets written, and I think this will be a fun journey. I love 19thcentury period settings, so that seemed a natural choice. I can't tell you exactly what made me go with a setting in Alaska, except there was just something about the majesty of it, and the unforgiving yet deeply beautiful environment there. There are some interesting parallels, too, since Alaska is dubbed "The Last Frontier", and LOTM is a story of the eastern Frontier. Also like the eastern woodlands, both the fur trade and gold rushes also displaced First Nations people in Alaska and Canada. Instead of a burning desire to serve the war interests of Britain, in this story Edmund Munro has a burning desire to find his fortune in gold, and Duncan is his main man. The Yukon/Klondike gold rush hit just a few years before the Nome gold rush, and very few who made the extreme and deadly effort saw a big payoff. Many of these prospectors really did leave Dawson City in the Yukon and head to Nome when gold was discovered along the Snake River, because it was easier to find and easier to mine there, so more people saw success in the end. It was also much easier to get there – steamships could go between Seattle and Nome fairly regularly, and so in the late 19thcentury, Seattle shifted from being primarily a logging town and also became a major supply port for the mining industry.

When I first contrived this idea, and I mean in the VERY early days, I will confess I almost had Alice and Cora actually being whores, but in that early plot their father was dead, and they had been forced into it out of desperation. Frankly I couldn't stand the idea of doing that to them (and they didn't like it much either), so obviously things changed a bit. Me knowing where this plot goes, I think it works much better this way and makes a better story. Why a whorehouse at all, you may ask? Well, there are several reasons, and you'll find out along the way, but mostly I needed to give the sisters some trust issues involving men, and in the west back then, especially in small mining towns like Cripple Creek (a real place by the way), there weren't many other employment options for women yet, unfortunately. The situation they are in, with Franny's late husband being a friend and partner of Munro's, seemed the best way to have them in that kind of environment without them being expected to work as whores, but still being exposed to enough of that life to make them a little gun-shy.

This story does have kind of a soundtrack, though not the same way as Flying Into the Fire did. Most of what I like for this one is instrumental bluegrass and Celtic music, and occasionally a song in that genre with lyrics. The entire story brings to mind the song at the beginning of this chapter, "Crazy Faith" by Alison Krauss and Union Station, for a couple of reasons – one being the crazy faith it took to be a gold prospector like Munro back then, and most primarily because of things that happen later in the story. This first chapter I was inspired by "Dark Circles" by Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. I liked the lazy waltz of it for the opening scenes, and it has a slight restlessness to it that brought to mind how Munro is feeling guilty and missing his daughters, and Alice and Cora in their current living situation in the less-than-desirable environment at The Patroon's House.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, and the adventures that await the Munro sisters. Will Magua be good or evil? What surprises are in store? When will a certain band of sexy Mohicans enter the plot, and are they even Mohican in this story? Do I even know that yet? It remains to be seen, muahahaha! I promise I will try my damnedest not to make any of us wait as long as it took for this first chapter, myself included. Thank you for reading, and please try to comment (even just a short sentence!) so I know if I'm on the right track, because I always want to know what you think. It helps me be better at what I do!