The Alaska Brides Collection Part 36

"I will go where Xoots leads. I would enjoy seeing more of this great land."

"Xoots? You call my father Grizzly Bear?" Amy giggled.

Guwakaan nodded. "But he is a skinny bear these days. He lost too much weight healing, then more growling because the healing was slow. I will fatten him up." Despite her teasing, she turned adoring eyes on Amy's father, and he pulled her into a gentle hug that included the baby.

Amy remembered her mother using the same tone when she talked about her father. This one would make Father very happy.

"Uh, Mr. Simons?" Braden squared his shoulders.

"It's Simonovich, son. Done with all that pa.s.sin' for anything I ain't. Proud of my Russian blood."

"Good. What I was going to say is, uh...you're rich, sir. Aye, you've got yourself a gold mine. And if these two speak the truth, it's a good one."

Guwakaan spoke quietly. "We cannot eat goon. I can see it if it makes a good spear tip or a pot, but why the madness around the goon?"

Petrov said to Braden, "You take it, son. I've found plenty of ways to dig a living out of this frozen world. I don't need a bunch of yellow rock to make me happy."

Braden shook his head. "I'm finding enough of my own. Just traces, nothing big, but that suits me. I hate the thought of another gold rush, this one aiming straight at me. I think I'll just leave it for you. Maybe someday Ch'ak'yeis' will want the gold."

"We will raise him better than that, Xoots. Just wait and see." Guwakaan and Amy's father exchanged a look that spoke of complete agreement.

"So when do we head for Texas?" Petrov looked at Thompson.

Amy's stomach sank when she thought of her father leaving. Then she remembered what Braden had said about getting married.

"Right after the wedding." Braden turned to Thompson. "You're a lawman, closest thing we've got around here to a judge. You can speak some vows."

"True enough," Thompson said. "I'm sworn to do such things by the state of Texas. I'm not sure if it's okay up here, but no one will care."

"Well, I certainly care!" Meredith stepped into the cabin, her hands on her hips, her cheeks flushed. "You'll be married by a proper minister, and that's that."

"What is going on here?" Ian asked.

Tucker stood behind him.

Braden gave them a shortened version. The nearest minister was in Skaguay. Thompson, the Stucky brothers, Petrov, Guwakaan, and Ch'ak'yeis' were all heading that way anyway. So it was decided the Raffertys, Tucker, and Amy would accompany them, have the wedding, and return home together after seeing Amy's father off.

Meredith acted as if she'd been given a priceless gift when they decided she could go.

Amy stood listening to them, her temper growing until she thought her insides would explode. She opened her mouth to tell them all their planning was for nothing because someone had yet to properly propose.

Wait on the Lord.

Amy froze. If she'd waited, her father would have handled these men, then written and sent for her. If she'd waited, she wouldn't have risked her life on that cliff when Barnabas pushed her. If she'd waited, she wouldn't have been at the mercy of Barnabas Stucky. Had she learned nothing?

She calmed down and turned to Braden.

He smiled at her. "I think we've forgotten something mighty important, haven't we, little Amaruq?" He took her arm and led her out of the cabin. With a backward glance, he said, "And you all give us a few moments of peace while I ask this woman to marry me."

Her calm turned to serenity as Braden pulled her to stand beneath a cottonwood turning to blazing yellow. The leaves fluttered overhead like the wings of angels. A raven swooped low and called out. The river rustled and bubbled nearby as it rushed toward Skaguay. She and Braden would soon rush along with the river toward Skaguay, too, because of course she was going to say yes if he ever got around to asking.

Braden wrapped her in his arms.

She waited for the sweet words of love every woman longs to hear.

"When I realized you'd run off this morning, I wanted to wring your neck."

Amy lowered her expectations considerably. So Braden didn't have the Irish gift for sweet blarney. So he didn't possess that poetic Irish soul she'd heard tell of. So he was a lunkhead. So what? It didn't matter. She loved him.

Braden brushed her hair off her forehead and leaned close. "I knew if something happened to you my life would never be the same. And I'd have to live with the knowledge that my unwillingness to help you with something so dear to your heart might have cost your life."

"Oh, Braden, it would not have been your fault. G.o.d told me as clear as the call of a raven that I needed to wait. He has been trying to slow me down since I decided to climb on that steams.h.i.+p and come hunting my father. If I had left everything to G.o.d, all would have worked out. My father would have handled Owen and Stucky. Thompson would have shown up to take the men back to Texas just as he did today without me in the way causing trouble. Then Papa would have stopped in Seattle to see me, and I would have come home.

"It was all my fault. I want to charge in and do everything, but G.o.d wants me to learn to wait. He wants me to learn patience. From now on, I am going to listen to G.o.d's voice and wait on His timing. I understand how this land works. I have always waited for spring to come again with no desire to force my own ideas about light and dark, winter and summer. I have learned now that I need to do that in everything."

"Uh...can you wait right now?"

Amy tilted her head. "Wait for what?"

"For me to get a word in edgewise. I want you to marry me, Amy. I love you. And if you'd waited, we'd have never met."

"Yes, we would have. I would have come home with Papa on his way home from Texas. You would have been my nearest neighbor. Oh yes, we would have met, because G.o.d wants us to be together."

Braden nodded.

Amy had to speak of the one worry that plagued her heart. "And if I had waited, you would have had the time you needed to grieve for your beloved wife. In that, too, I did damage, forcing you to compare me to your graceful, ladylike wife with my crude mountain ways."

"Stop." Braden laid his hand gently on her mouth. "Is that the way it seemed to you?" Braden pulled her tightly into his arms. "Forgive me, Amy. It's true that my grieving hadn't run itself dry. But all I felt was guilt and anger, not sadness. You even got me past that."

"Guilt?" Amy pushed away from him far enough to look in his eyes. "Why would you feel guilt for your wife's death?"

"Maggie was never strong. Having a baby was very hard on her. She was not cut out for life on the frontier, and I knew that. But I couldn't imagine living in the city. If it hadn't been for me, she'd have gone back East. She had a chance, because she had an aunt back there who would have taken her in. But I loved her, and she wanted to stay with me. I wanted to have a family. Every way I looked at it, she seemed to have died because of me, and I couldn't forget her dying in my arms, crying for me to save her. I left home, feeling like a failure."

"But Braden-"

Braden shook his head. "Let me finish."

Amy waited.

"I know now there is no sense in those thoughts. The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh away. G.o.d gives no man the strength to save a life if G.o.d wants to bring one of His children home. When I compared you to Maggie, my guilt came because I found Maggie so lacking. Maggie never would have stepped in and cared for the family like you did. She'd have complained and handed off every job there was to someone else. I loved her and cherished her, but she wasn't fit for the rugged life we live. You are perfect for it. Perfect for me. She was the love of my youth, and I'll always cherish her. But you are the love of my life."

A smile spread across Braden's face. "You're the one G.o.d wants me to spend my life with. I know that as surely as I know the sun will rise in the morning." Braden looked up at the always-light sky. "Okay, I really don't know if the sun will rise in the morning anymore."

Amy patted him on the chest. "You will get onto the ways of Alaska in time."

"I will. I love you and want you to marry me." Braden kissed her lightly on the cheek. "What do you say, la.s.s? Are you going to wait this time? Or is this one time you can plunge right in?"

Amy smiled and then laughed and looked up at the wide, glorious sky, the towering pines, the soaring eagles, and the s.h.i.+ning sun. "I do not hear G.o.d saying to wait. Not for this."

He kissed her again. She didn't wait an instant before she kissed him back.

Epilogue.

They made it to Skaguay in time to lock the Stucky brothers in the town jail to await the next steamer and their ride back to Texas and justice. Meredith tried to talk Amy into buying a new dress, but the prices horrified Amy.

"I prefer sheepskin anyway, Merry. Why would I spend money like this for a dress made out of thin calico that won't last?"

Meredith fussed at her, but Amy wouldn't be budged.

Braden left the women to shop for other things while he found a preacher.

Parson Henderson had come to bring G.o.d to thousands of madmen and admitted he found his work trying. He insisted on spending the day with them.

Braden and Amy were married in front of a tent-Parson Henderson's church. Amy's father and his wife and son were there, along with the Raffertys and Tucker.

Guwakaan had gathered a bouquet of yarrow and daisies for Amy. Amy held them easily, surprised by the strong a.s.surance from G.o.d that she and Braden were meant to join their lives.

Pastor Henderson, a gaunt man, tall and gangly but with a serene smile that reflected his devotion to G.o.d, spoke the vows.

"Do you, Braden-"

"Pastor Henderson, excuse me, but can I make my own promises to Amy?" Braden interrupted.

Looking surprised, Pastor Henderson said, "Of course, if the vows are made to Amy before G.o.d."

"They are." Braden turned to her and took her hands in his. He smiled gently, and Amy's heart became his without a word spoken.

"Your hands are calloused." He held them snugly as if trying to warm them.

"I am sorry." Was this when he remembered his fine, gentle wife?

"I love that about you." Braden cradled her hands against his chest.

Amy's doubts faded away under the s.h.i.+ning light in his eyes.

"I love that you are strong. I love that you know this land and respect it and understand it. I think I loved you from that first day I sat beside you on the boat, but I was too afraid to trust my heart and the voice of G.o.d telling me He'd led me straight to you. You are going to be a source of strength for me all our lives."

"You do not need my strength, Braden. You saved my life. You were there, helping me on that cliff and at Papa's house because of your strength and wisdom and your caring spirit."

"Although I have my own strength, I need yours as well," Braden said. "Having a real partner to stand beside will make us more than we are alone. I promise before G.o.d to always love you, always honor you, and always cherish you."

"And I promise before G.o.d to love, honor, and cherish you, too, Braden."

"And obey?" The twinkling light in Braden's eyes made it easy.

"Yes, I'll obey you. Because I know you will not ask anything of me that is not right. And I know you will listen to me."

Braden nodded. "And I know that if you object to something I say, it will be for a good reason. I'll listen to that reason, and we'll decide what's best together."

Amy whispered, "Amen."

"Amen." Braden kissed her.

Pastor Henderson blessed their vows.

Amy kept expecting that warning voice to tell her, Wait. It never came.

She and Braden had waited until this golden day, until G.o.d's own time. They'd waited long enough.

GOLDEN TWILIGHT.

by Kathleen Y'Barbo.

Dedication.

To Cathy and Kelly Hake, who prayed me through this one, and to Mary Connealy, whose dream of writing about Alaska gave birth to the stories and characters that became the Alaska Brides series. Also, I am deeply indebted to Karl Gurcke, historian of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway, Alaska, for his insights into the rich history of the area around which the fictional town of Goose Chase is set.

Chapter 1.

April 23, 1899, Oregon.

As far back as she could remember, Fiona Rafferty wanted to be a doctor. While other girls her age were cutting paper dolls from the Sears Roebuck catalog, she spent her time patching up ornery barn cats and setting bird wings-when she wasn't fis.h.i.+ng with Da. By the summer of her tenth year, she'd even saved the life of her father's prized spaniel after the old gray mare kicked him.

Her brothers, Braden and Ian, told her she had a talent for healing. If only that talent hadn't failed her the one time it mattered most. With the proper training, Fiona had no doubt she could have saved Ma.

Fiona shrugged off the memory of her mother's illness and forced the feather duster to continue its path down the spines of the books in Da's library. For a man who made his living from the earth, her father was an educated man. He'd mortgaged his dreams to buy this farm, only to see the love of his life buried beneath the uncompromising Oregon dirt.