Rivers of Gold Read Free Page A

appreciate the thought.”
    “At least it’s warmed up some,” Leah offered. “It’s not nearly as cold as it was in November.”
    “That’s for sure. I hope I never see forty below again,” Karen commented. “A person can hardly move away from the stove for fear of their blood freezing in their veins.”
    “Yes, it’s much warmer now. I heard Adrik say this morning that it was clear up to five degrees above zero,” Grace said, turning her attention back to her sewing.
    “A veritable heat wave,” Karen said, laughing. She wrung out the last of the laundry and hung it over the line. “We’ll just pull together. I know this isn’t what any of us imagined, but since Christmas is nearly upon us, we should plan for some sort of celebration.”
    “The Catholic church needs folks to sing in the choir for the midnight mass on Christmas Eve,” Leah offered.
    “We aren’t Catholic.”
    Leah looked to Karen and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. They said they’d take anybody they could get. Apparently the other churches help them out on Christmas Eve, then the Catholics come and help out on Christmas Day with our church. I guess they just want it to sound pretty for Jesus’ birthday.”
    To Karen, the idea didn’t seem like such a bad one. It was a pleasant thought to imagine churches joining together to offer each other support in spite of their differences. “I suppose we could go sing with them on Christmas Eve. I’ll speak to Adrik about it.”
    “Jacob won’t want to go. He can’t sing. He says that Ma and I were the only ones who were blessed with that talent. He and Pa couldn’t carry a tune no matter how hard they tried.”
    Karen noted the twinge of sorrow in Leah’s voice. Her mother had died prior to the family’s coming north, and her father was believed to have died in an avalanche near Sheep Camp. The child had no one, save her brother, Jacob, to call family. Karen loved the girl, however. Her brother, too. Karen had become a surrogate big sister and mother allrolled into one. She had made a promise to herself and to God that she would care for these children until they were grown and able to care for themselves. It seemed a companionable arrangement, and they offered each other comfort in the wake of each tragedy.
    And the entourage had known their share of sorrow. Karen had come to Alaska in hopes of finding her missionary father. He had died before they could be reunited. Grace had lost her sister-in-law, Miranda, during a storm on Lake Laberge. This had also been a huge blow to the morale of the party—especially to Adrik’s friend Crispin Thibault, who fancied himself in love with Miranda. Crispin had long since parted their company—seeking his solace in a bottle of whiskey rather than God. He was one more casualty of the gold rush as far as Karen was concerned.
    The frozen north was well known for exacting its toll. Families all around them had suffered loss. Babies and children died from malnutrition and exposure to the cold. Women died in childbirth, and men were often injured while working to mine their claims. Death was everywhere. It was the one thing that truly bound them all together—even more so than the gold.
    “Isn’t there some sort of town Christmas party planned?” Grace questioned. “I heard one of the nurses talking about it when I was over to the hospital the other day.”
    “Yes, there are plans for quite a shindig,” Karen replied. “I suppose that will be the best we will have for a celebration. There’s hardly opportunity or means to exchange gifts and certainly no room to put up a tree in here.”
    She looked around the room. The eighteen-by-twentyfoot tent had seemed so big when Adrik had managed to trade their smaller two tents for this one. Now, the walls seemed to have moved closer together. They had five people living in a space hardly big enough for two. Karen was most anxious to put an end to the adventure.
    “So did you get a chance to talk to