The Sheriff (Historical Romance) Read Free

1855
    San Francisco, California
    “C onlin. Harry Conlin, California representative for Clement and Clement.” A smiling, expensively dressed man with salt-and-pepper hair stepped forward to meet Kate when she disembarked at the busy harbor early on that May morning. “From J.J.’s description, you must be Miss Kate VanNam, heir to Mrs. Arielle VanNam Colfax’s estate.”
    Kate shook his offered hand. “Yes, sir, I am Kate VanNam. Thank you for meeting me, Mr. Conlin.”
    “Welcome to San Francisco,” he said with a friendly smile, “port of entry and financial center for the mining camps of the mother lode. Here, let me take that.”
    Harry Conlin quickly relieved Kate of her heavy valise. He took her arm and guided her through the swarms of merchants, shippers and passengers packing the Vallejo Street wharf. Dodging handcarts and wagons, coaches and cabs, Conlin and Kate carefully threaded their way through the crowd.
    When they reached the berth where the steam packet Lady Luck was moored, Harry Conlin explained, “Miss VanNam, I’ve engaged a stateroom for you on board.”
    “No, Mr. Conlin, I won’t be needing a stateroom for such a short journey. I’ll just—”
    Interrupting, he said, “Miss VanNam, Fortune is a hundred and fifty miles from San Francisco.”
    Kate frowned, disappointed. “That far? I thought surely I’d be there this by afternoon.”
    “I’m sorry. I know you must be terribly exhausted. Perhaps you’d prefer to spend the night here in San Francisco and leave tomorrow or the next day?”
    “No, I’m quite anxious to reach Fortune.”
    “Very well. You’ll spend a couple of nights on the Lady Luck before reaching the river settlement of Golden Quest and transferring to a much smaller steamer for the shorter trip to Fortune.” Kate nodded, trying to smile. Conlin ushered her up the gangway.
    Once on board, Harry Conlin said, “Now, tell me about your long journey from Boston. Was it terribly harrowing?”
    “Not at all,” Kate replied and meant it. “It was anunforgettable adventure.” Though weaker than when she had set out, Kate had lost none of her enthusiasm. “I can’t imagine why anyone would complain about such an incredible experience.”
    “No seasickness, no ocean storms?”
    “Well, I was a bit seasick, but only for a day or two. And there were a couple of storms with high winds that pitched the ship around, but I wasn’t all that frightened.” She smiled then and declared, “It took us only eleven days—with an overnight call in Havana—to reach the Caribbean port city of Aspinwall. There all the passengers disembarked and we were transferred to open-air railcars for the forty-eight miles across the isthmus to Panama. There, we embarked on the Sonora and steamed north for fifteen days. And here we are!”
    “Here you are indeed,” said Conlin, charmed and amazed that this spirited young woman registered no complaints whatsoever regarding a route most found extremely difficult.
    “I’m so glad to be in California,” she said. “And I can hardly wait to reach Fortune.”
    “Well, the Lady Luck will be getting under way very shortly,” he stated. “Time for me to disembark. You’ll be okay? You don’t need anything or…”
    “You’ve been most kind, Mr. Conlin.” Kate thanked him warmly.
    “My pleasure, Miss VanNam,” he said with a smile. “Should you decide you’ve had enough of Fortune,just hop the steamer coming downriver and return to San Francisco. Our firm will work something out with you, take the Fortune property off your hands.”
    “I’ll remember that,” Kate said, and bade him goodbye.
    In minutes the Lady Luck left the harbor. Soon it was steaming its way up the American River toward the towering Sierra Nevadas to the east.
    Within an hour the vessel left the coastal hills behind and rode a rising tide up the long, winding waterway.
    Two days later as Kate boarded the much smaller steamer at Golden Quest that would take