GOLD FEVER

CHAPTER EIGHT

'KATHERINE MAY'

There were times when Paige Guthrie just wanted to scream about what her life had become.

When she'd been younger, she'd dreamt of moving to Atlanta or Charleston, somewhere elegant and glamorous where the women wore silk dresses and the men tipped their hats to you. There, she'd become the most famous actress in the South, starring opposite all the best actors in all the latest plays. As a skinny, dirty kid, she would stand on the steps of their homestead and recite the poems they had to learn for school to their big, old dog. Even then, she had been able to hear the applause of the crowd and smell the roses as they landed around her feet.

Instead, she'd ended up becoming a schoolmarm in the one cow town that she'd always sworn that she would escape. She'd had no choice when her daddy had gotten sick with the same disease that was the death of most of the miners in the town. Doc Baker had said that it was from breathing in the black dust day after day and that there was nothing he could do to heal him. He couldn't work in the mines any more, but their family still had needed to be clothed and fed, and it had fallen on the two oldest children to do so. So, Sam had gone to mine for gold in Midas Creek, and she'd taken up a position at the village school.

If Hope Springs had been a more lively place, Paige might not have felt like she was the one under the death sentence instead of her daddy. If it hadn't been founded by a religious man who had placed a church at the centre of their town and refused to allow drinking, dancing or acting anywhere near it, she might even have been happy there. As it was, there was only one interesting person in the whole town, and she wasn't the sort of person whom schoolmarms were normally allowed to associate with. 

Katherine May had come to Hope Springs a few months ago – a tall, beautiful woman with dark curls and brilliant, green eyes- and the townsfolk had been gossiping about her ever since. It was plain by her expensive home and manner of dress that she was fantastically wealthy, but no-one knew where she had gotten her money. Some people said that she had worked as a whore and made it all on her back; others that she'd married a wealthy man and run away with all his money. Either way, everyone agreed that she wasn't respectable. Strange men had been seen entering her house in the evening and only coming out the next morning. She had been overheard buying bottles of moonshine from the mountain folk. Worst of all, she had never been in the big, white church at the centre of town on a Sunday. While decent, God-fearing folk were singing hymns and listening to the pastor preach, she stayed at home. Dot McAllister was sure she had seen an idol in her front room, and said it was a crying shame to have a heathen like her in their nice town. Paige didn't care about any of that. For her, Katherine May was like a glimmer of gold among all the dust of Hope Springs. She would never have the courage to pay her a call or even to greet in the streets, but just knowing she was in the town was enough to make life just a little bit less ordinary. She bet there were scores of women like Katherine May in the big city.

In new irritation, Paige kicked her legs against the side of the bench. She was sitting outside the schoolhouse waiting for her pupils to arrive, although she knew she would be lucky to see any of them today. It was harvest season, and their folks needed all the help they could get to bring in their crops. Even if they weren't farmer's kids, they'd hang around the fields in hope of getting a job and the money that came with it. They didn't make much hauling in crops, but it was more than they earned sitting around in school and learning their tables. As their parents always said when she tried to encourage them to send their children to school, money in their pocket was more use than knowledge in their heads.

As a result, Paige was surprised to notice a figure coming down the long path towards the schoolhouse a few minutes later. Tall and slim with a graceful easiness about him, he might have been the oldest of Riley boys. She had not expected to see any of them until harvest season was over – their father had five acres under wheat this year, and every hand would be needed to bring it in.

"Mornin', Zeke," she called, standing up and dusting off her gingham skirt, "I didn't expect . . ."

She broke off with a blush as the man drew closer and she saw his face. He certainly wasn't Zeke Riley with his thatch of sandy hair and broken nose that had never healed straight. He was easily the most good-looking man she had ever seen; the sort of man you had to look at twice to make sure that he was real.

"Sorry to disturb you, chere," he nodded his greeting, "I'm looking for a friend of mine."

"W-who?" she squeaked. She could have kicked herself for it. She had always thought of herself as elegant and sophisticated, fully the equal of any situation.

"Her name's Kate," he slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and came out with a crumpled sheet of paper. Unfolding it, he held it out to her. She took it from him, her face growing even hotter as her hand brushed against his smooth one. It was the hand of a gentleman, she thought, not hardened or calloused by working in the fields or the mines.

Glad of the opportunity to hide her embarrassment, she looked down at the sheet he had given her. It was a pencil sketch of a woman - her mouth was curved in an arch smile and her eyes met Paige's challengingly.

"This is . . . Katherine May?" she exclaimed, not sure why she was so surprised by that. Katherine May was the only person in Hope Springs who would know a man like this.

"She live around here, chere?" his eyes were intent.

"Y-yes. On Main Street. In the old McAllister place," she handed the paper back to him.

"Merci, chere. Been looking for my Kate for a long time," he smiled at her, "Au revoir."

"Awevwah," she echoed vaguely, as he turned and walked back down the path.

Her mind was racing like a wild horse set free. If she hadn't misheard him and she knew he hadn't, the man had just called Katherine May his Kate. Did that mean he was her husband? She wondered if all the crazy rumours about her were true, if she had stolen his money and he had come to get it back from her. It wasn't very likely, but then nothing about Katherine May was. Paige suddenly wished that she hadn't told him where to find her. If she were honest with herself, she'd been taken in by his handsome face and charming manners, and hadn't thought twice about blabbing everything to him. She'd forgotten her momma's advice that all that glittered was not necessarily gold.

"You're a proper idiot, Paige Guthrie," she sighed, "God, I hope Katherine May's gonna be all right."

***

Kate lay stretched out on the divan, idly swirling a tumbler of moonshine in front of her. A whirlpool was forming in the middle of the clear, slightly oily liquid, catching reflections of the room around her and pulling them into its centre. She was not yet drunk, but she fully intended to be by the time the morning was over. It was the only way she knew of surviving her time in Hope Springs, a town that had been founded by people whose idea of fun was singing hymns and handling snakes.

It was the perfect place to hide until all the fuss passed, of course. Nobody would suspect pious, strait-laced Hope Springs of harbouring a thief. It was a town where people still left their doors unlocked at night and their valuables in plain sight, because it was a mortal sin to covet let alone to steal. If Kate hadn't been lying low, she might have shown them that everyone wasn't afraid of burning in hellfire forever. It took all of her self-control to keep from creeping out by night and helping the folk of Hope Springs to share their possessions as the good book commanded. It wasn't that she needed the money after the heist that she'd pulled in Moonshine Creek, but she missed the thrill of being a thief. She missed the excitement of planning a pinch, and the afterglow of knowing that she had executed it well. She even missed the lightning shiver of fear that came on hearing movement in the hallway and knowing that the people were awake. Remy had been right when he had said that they had gold dust in their blood and couldn't get it out.

Kate had found that she had been thinking more and more about Remy lately. As much as she hated to admit it, she'd made a damn stupid choice by double-crossing him and riding away with the money. With a price on her head and the Wolverine on her trail, the last thing she needed was another enemy looking to hunt her down and turn her over to the law. The extra half-a-million wouldn't matter much to her when she was swinging from the gallows' tree. It wasn't only that, however. She'd forgotten how lonely the outlaw life could be. The company of an interesting man would have made it much more bearable, especially when he looked like Remy did.

She downed the moonshine, making a face at its bitter taste, and lay back on the divan. It wasn't fine liquor, but it was strong and it worked. She could already feel its warmth beginning to spread through her, lifting her up and taking her away from herself. She closed her eyes and let herself drift into sleep.

Kate had been dozing for quite some time when the knock on the door came. She sat up on the divan, dizzy and slightly nauseous from the moonshine. Slowly and clumsily, she got to her feet and rearranged her hair in its previous sleek bun. She didn't even try to fix her linen dress, which was rumpled and creased beyond any hope of smoothing. With her luck, it would be Dot McAllister come to pray for her again, and she didn't want to give the old biddies in town something else to gossip about.

"I'm coming," she called, giving her hair a final pat and walking to the door. She undid the chain and pulled it open to greet her visitor. She felt her insides turn to water when she saw the man standing there.

"Found you at last," Remy said mildly. 

***

TO BE CONTINUED

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