As he pushed up off the rock, Luke glanced at Zerek’s son Ambrose, who was just emerging from the digs. Taller than his father by half a head and built like a young bull, he was a handsome youth with a shock of sable hair, strong features, and cobalt eyes like Cassandra’s.
“Mr. Zerek,” Luke said, extending his hand. “You’re just the man I’ve been waiting to see. I’d like a word with you, if you can spare me a few minutes.”
Zerek rubbed his palm on his coat to remove the grime, then reached out to shake hands. Even in the dusky light, Luke could see the imprint of a headlamp across the man’s brow. Jet hair tufted in a rooster tail at his thinning crown where he’d jerked the band from his head. Gripped in his left hand, Zerek’s light and lunch pail clanked as he pumped Luke’s arm up and down.
“What’re you wantin’ to speak with me about?” Zerek asked. “Not my job performance, I hope.”
“No, nothing like that.” Luke reached past the older man to shake hands with Ambrose. “You fellows are two of my best men. I just have a proposition for you, Milo. One that I’d like to discuss privately, if you wouldn’t mind.” With an apologetic smile at Ambrose, Luke glanced back at Milo and added, “I thought, perhaps, you’d let me buy you a drink down at the Golden Slipper.”
Zerek glanced over his shoulder at his son. “The boy and me usually put in a few hours each night at our own dig before we call it a day. I reckon we can take a night off, though, if you’ve got something important to discuss with me.”
“It’s important,” Luke assured him. He directed a pointed look at Ambrose. “I apologize for excluding you, Ambrose, but the matter I need to talk with your father about is of a personal nature.”
Ambrose shrugged a muscular shoulder. “Don’t make me no never mind.” He gave his father a broad wink. “I’ll just head home and have a nice big bowl of Cassie’s stew. There’s worse things than spending an evening toasting my toes before the fire.”
Cassie’s stew. Picturing the girl standing at a hot stove, with a rosy glow on her sculpted cheeks and lantern light creating a halo around her dark hair, Luke felt a yearning that ran so deep, it stymied him. To go home every night and find her there. To see her smile. To feel that odd warmth she emanated surrounding him. He wanted that, he realized with some startlement, even more than he wanted her body, which was to a considerable degree.
As Ambrose Zerek walked off, Luke clapped Milo on the shoulder. “Well, now that that’s settled, how’s about we go get that drink?”
Milo smiled and fell into step beside Luke. In places, the path was so steep and narrow, Luke hung back to walk single file. With every step they took, the darkness became thicker. By the time they gained the bottom of the hill, they could no longer clearly see Ambrose, who walked some distance ahead of them.
“So, you do a little prospecting on the side, do you?” Luke asked as they reached more level ground.
Milo shifted his light and lunch pail from one hand to the other. “Isn’t no rule against that, is there?”
Luke chuckled. “Hell, no. As long as I get a full day’s work for a day’s wages, I don’t care what you do on your own time. Found any color yet?”
“Only a sniff,” Milo admitted. “But I have a gut feeling. There’s gold in that hole, mark my words.”
It was a familiar refrain around Black Jack. Unlike Luke, who’d struck a rich vein, most prospectors spent their entire lives chasing a dream, with nothing to show for it but a bent back and calluses on their palms. Lady Luck, their elusive mistress, usually got the last laugh.
“Well, I wish you well,” Luke said, sincerely meaning it. “There’s nothing quite like hitting pay dirt that first time.”
“I hope I get to find out for myself,” Milo replied.
Luke gazed ahead, searching for a good way to broach the subject he wished to discuss. As they gained the cobblestone sidewalk on Diamond, the main street of town, they angled right toward the Golden Slipper, the third gambling establishment on the opposite side of the thoroughfare. Piano music drifted to them, and occasionally Luke heard bursts of laughter. With the setting of the sun, things began to get lively at the various saloons around Black Jack. The miners, off work for the day, had a few hours to play, and the sporting girls, ever eager to turn a trick, began to drift downstairs to entertain them.
“I ran into your daughter today,” Luke began, “over in the churchyard. She was telling the orphans stories, and I lingered for a few minutes to listen.”