Brides of Alaska by Tracie Peterson Read Free Book Online Page B

answered.
    â€œIs your father dead as well?”
    Sam nodded. “He got into a fight over a claim. The man took a knife out and killed him then and there. They strung the killer up not twenty feet from where my father lay dead and hanged him. My mother was never the same after that. She was left with three children and had no idea how to support them. The miners were good to her, however. They took up a collection and gave her three hundred dollars.”
    â€œWhat happened after that?” Julie asked, fascinated with Sam’s story.
    â€œShe moved us around. Sometimes she did laundry for other miners. Other times she’d cook and run a boardinghouse. When my sister married and moved off, I was thirteen and my younger sister was nine. Ma moved us to Seattle, where talk of the gold rush to Nome and the Klondike was all I ever heard tell about. It got in my blood, and I promised myself that I’d one day make the trip to Nome and find the gold that had eluded my father.”
    â€œSounds interesting,” Julie said, “but why did it take you so long before you came to Nome?”
    â€œI couldn’t leave my mother and sister, and they didn’t want any part of it. My mother was getting old, so I went to work. I did a little bit of everything but finally stayed with shipyard work. My sister married at sixteen and offered to take my mother back East with her, but Ma wanted to stay close to where my father was buried. She made me promise to bury her in California, so I stayed on.”
    â€œYou never married?” Julie asked boldly.
    â€œNo,” Sam said with a smile. “I never found the right woman. My mother died not long before my twenty-eighth birthday, and right after I got her buried alongside my father, I boarded a ship for Nome and never looked back.”
    â€œIt must have been lonely for you,” Julie said thoughtfully. She knew how the loss of her own mother had left an unfillable hole in her heart.
    â€œYeah, I guess it was in some ways. Of course, I had the comfort of knowing she was saved. I’d see her again, and that made it a lot easier to deal with.”
    Julie’s eyes opened wide. “So you’re a Christian?”
    Sam grinned. “Yes, I am.”
    â€œTell me how you came to know God,” Julie said as she shifted her weight.
    August and Vern came in with a tray full of rocks. “Sam, you take the rocks from the bed, while we put these hot ones in their place,” Vern said, using tongs to place hot rocks around Julie’s covered feet.
    August held the tray, while Vern positioned each rock. Sam put the cooled rocks in a pile on the floor, and when he reached beneath Julie to retrieve the rocks which August had placed underneath her, the girl began to laugh.
    â€œI thought this mattress was a little lumpy. Now I see that it was just that I was sleeping on rocks.”
    Sam bent over her and reached across to get the last of the stones. He gave Julie a wink and quickly handed the rocks to Vern.
    â€œWe’ll warm up another batch, Sam. How are you doing, Jewels?” Vern asked as he put a hand to his daughter’s forehead. “You feel much warmer. That’s a good sign. Let’s just hope you don’t suffer from frostbite.”
    â€œPlease don’t worry, Papa,” Julie said and pulled her arm out from the mattress to touch her father’s hand. Feathers flew everywhere, causing Julie to sneeze. It was only then that she realized they’d stuffed her inside the goose down mattress. “What a wonderful idea! Who thought to put me here?” she asked.
    â€œIt was Sam’s idea,” August replied. “Sam was determined to save your life, and he usually gets what he wants. They don’t call him Lucky Sam for nothing.”
    â€œLucky Sam,” Julie echoed as she looked up and met Sam’s eyes.
    â€œThat’s right, and so’s the part about getting what I want,” Sam