“Nay, the temperature drops quickly in the mountains at night, and I wouldn’t want you to catch a chill. We’ll stir the fire to life for you, Miss MacCarthy.”
She and Oliver fell into step behind the two Irishmen as they led them to the cabin.
Like Daniel, Charles also pronounced her surname as “MacCartty,” and he too spoke with an pleasing Irish lilt. Charles was also a fine looking man, though he didn’t come close to Daniel’s good looks. He stood around five feet nine inches, and he was broad across the chest and shoulders. His face was more square in shape, more rugged, and his eyes were brown.
Though the same age as Daniel, Hannigan’s darker hair was already receding at the temples and forehead. He had a shrewd, assessing look, and a wary manner, which must balance out Daniel’s open friendliness and easy trust. She had no doubt the two made excellent partners.
Daniel hurried to light several lanterns once they were inside. Charles opened the flue in the metal chimney of a pot-bellied stove and stirred the banked fire to life. A flurry of activity followed as the two gathered their things, including a pail of water that sat on top of the stove.
“Make yourselves at home. We’ll be back in a few moments.” Daniel’s gaze lingered on her for a moment
Nodding absently, Meredith looked around the interior of the cabin. The first level consisted of two rooms, one was the living area, and she could see a bed and a rag rug through the partially opened door to the second room. Two chairs, each with its own footstool, sat near the stove, and a rough-hewn end table stood between them. The table held a lit oil lantern, a clay pipe holding remnants of tobacco sitting in an ashtray, and two books. She moved closer to check the titles. “Books about mining,” she muttered to herself.
A kitchen area against one wall held a wood-burning cookstove with an oven, a warming drawer, and a heavy cast-iron top with four round inserts that could be removed with a tool hanging off the side. The stove also had a tank attached for heating water.
Various pots and pans hung from pegs on the wall. A hand pump, sink, and a small expanse of wood counter took up a good part of that wall, and a cupboard had been built into the corner. Beneath the counter the open shelves held supplies.
A table and four chairs had been placed beside one of the cabin’s two windows. At the end of the cabin opposite to the first floor bedroom, a steep, narrow staircase led to what she presumed was another bedroom.
Meredith couldn’t sit still, so she wandered around, studying the place where Daniel lived. These two men kept their home neat. The room held no clutter, no piles of unwashed dishes or dirty laundry. The two were sticklers when it came to neatness.
Her chest tightened, the ache bittersweet. In a few moments, Daniel would read the letter he’d written to himself. How would he react?
Daniel couldn’t stop thinking about the woman. The moment he’d set eyes on her, he’d been filled with inexplicable gladness, and a sense of familiarity. He pumped water from their well into the tub they kept in a walled off corner of their shed. Here is where they did their wash and bathed when the weather permitted. Now that they had a surplus of funds, they’d ordered another stove and materials to make the room more weather proof.
“I can’t believe you almost told two total strangers we were going to celebrate another sizable haul of gold,” Charles said as he added the pail of heated water to the tub. “Mark my words, Danny, those two want something.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything about the gold. I was going to say we were about to celebrate the end of another good day of honest labor.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why, but I’m certain Miss MacCarthy is the decent sort. Somehow I …” How could he describe the odd sensation that he knew her well when he couldn’t remember ever meeting her before. “Well, I sense her goodness.”
Charles barked out a laugh. “What you sense is that she’s a pretty lassie with a sweet, curvy figure. You’re like a pup. You greet every new encounter and every stranger with your tail wagging and your tongue lolling.”
“I can’t explain it, Charles, but somehow I know her, and—”