“Some what?” Sadie asked with a gasp. Of all the things she’d been expecting—like a new truck or maybe fixing up their house—wives were the last things she thought these two old bachelor brothers would want.
“Wives,” Harry echoed, frowning at her shocked expression. He resettled himself on his log and gave her a defensive glare. “We found this catalog where you can buy women.
They even sell trips to Russia, so you can meet them.”
“We get our pick,” Dwayne added, leaning forward, excitement lowering his voice to a whisper. “They throw this fancy party, and all the women come, and we get to meet them and then choose.”
“But you gotta marry them,” Harry explained, also lowering his voice in reverence.
“They ain’t whores or nothing. They’re respectable women.”
“They’re down on their luck, is all,” Dwayne added. “And so they’re wanting to marry rich men and move to America.”
“And once we find that gold,” Harry said, straightening his back, puffing his chest, and running his thumbs under his suspenders, “we’ll be rich Americans. We’ll have enough money to go to Russia, buy our wives, and bring them here to look after us in our golden years.”
“And we’ll get to diddle without having to pay for it,” Dwayne interjected, only to slap a hand over his mouth suddenly and turn beet red, realizing what he’d just said to her.
Sadie snapped her own mouth shut, realizing she was gaping like the village idiot. She felt heat rush into her cheeks. These two old goats were buying wives? From Russia?
“All this time… you’ve been hunting for… ? You think to actuallybuy wives?” she finished with a squeak.
She snapped her mouth shut again, took a deep breath, and fought to hold her composure.
“We’ll make good husbands,” Harry said defensively. “We’ll take right good care of them women.”
Sadie held her hands up in supplication. “I don’t doubt you will,” she quickly agreed.
She looked from Harry to Dwayne. “All these years you’ve been searching for Plum’s gold,” she started again. “This has been your reason the whole time?”
Both men nodded, but it was Dwayne who spoke. “We never could stomach our own cooking,” he admitted. “And we get lonely sometimes, especially in winter.”
“And that’s why we ain’t sharing our secret,” Harry said, drawing her attention again.
He shook his head. “We ain’t getting any younger, and we need to find that gold this fall.”
“Why now, after all these years?” she asked.
“‘Cause we want children,” Harry explained impatiently, sounding as if she should have figured that out by herself. He puffed up his chest again. “A man wants to leave a bit of himself when his time comes to depart this earth.”
Sadie had to cough to cover up the fact that she was choking. Children? Heck. Both brothers were nearing sixty years old.
“Ah, Sadie?” Dwayne said. “I don’t suppose that if you find that gold first and are wanting to donate it to a good cause like your papa intended, you would think Harry and me are good causes?”
“You wouldn’t have to donate all the gold to us,” Harry said, warming to his brother’s idea. He leaned forward and rubbed his hands together. And she’d swear that she could almost see the beginnings of an idea forming behind his puckered brow. “We could pool our information and hunt for the gold together. Then split it.”
Dwayne was shaking his head, frowning at his brother. “We already tried that with her papa, remember?” he told Harry. He looked at Sadie. And damn if he didn’t waggle his finger at her again. “No offense, missy, but since we’re wanting to buy two wives, it’s going to take all the gold. We gotta have some left for when we come home, so we can take good care of them.”
Harry frowned back at his brother, not liking that his plan was so quickly shot down. He darted a look at Sadie, then suddenly stood up. “We gotta go now,” he said, prodding his brother to get him moving. “We need to make camp before it gets dark.”
“Why can’t we just stay here?” Dwayne asked, once he was standing. “She’s already got a fire going.”
Harry shook his head and nudged Dwayne toward their canoe. “She’s got a husband,”
he reminded his brother. “She might want some privacy.”
Dwayne, suddenly grinning again, turned a dull shade of red. “Oh,” he whispered to Harry, not intending for her to hear. “You mean they might want to diddle.”
This time Harry’s nudge was not so gentle. He gave his brother a mighty shove into the river. Dwayne caught his balance by grabbing the canoe, then continued to wade out and climb into the stern. Harry grabbed the bow and shoved the boat toward deep water, then quickly climbed in and picked up his oar.
Dwayne waved his paddle into the air. “‘Bye, Sadie,” he said. “We’ll let you know where Plum’s claim is after we take out all the gold,” he said as they turned into the current, letting it carry them away. He twisted in his seat, still waving his paddle, still grinning. “We might even give you a nugget, just so you won’t be skunked.”
They began to slip toward the bend in the river, but still Dwayne kept waving and talking. “Say hi to your husband for us!” he hollered. “And remember, missy. If he don’t treat you right, you come see me and Harry. We ain’t afraid of them MacKeages.”
Harry, apparently not liking his brother volunteering him for such dangerous service, slapped the water with his oar, soaking Dwayne. Dwayne sputtered something under his breath while wiping the river off himself.
The last Sadie saw of them, both men were paddling furiously, Harry determined to outrun his brother and Dwayne determined to catch him, apparently forgetting they were both sitting at opposite ends of the same boat.
Chapter Sixteen
Staring at the spot where Dwayne and Harryhad disappeared, Sadie fought the bubble of laughter that was threatening to burst from her belly.
Buying wives. For all these years those two old goats had been hunting for gold because they were sure they had found a way to make the long winters less lonely.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Sadie walked back to her camp, continued past the fire, and stopped just in front of a giant boulder. She crossed her arms under her chest and smiled at the tall clump of brush beside it.
“Now do you understand why they’re harmless?” she asked the dense honeysuckle.
Morgan emerged from behind the honeysuckle to stand in front of her. And he didn’t appear anywhere near as amused as she was.
“Do you suppose a man cansell a wife in this catalog they spoke of?” he asked, his eyes gleaming in the last light of the setting sun. He suddenly sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not that I could get very much for you,” he added tiredly. “A disobedient wife can’t be worth a hundred dollars.”
“They’re good men, Morgan,” Sadie continued, deciding to ignore his not so subtle threat. “Between the two of them there isn’t a mean bone in their bodies. Either of them would give the shirt off his back to someone in need.”
“I will admit they do appear more a danger to themselves than to anyone else.” He took hold of her shoulders. “But when it comes to gold, even the most timid of men turn lethal, Mercedes. They become blinded by the promise of riches. They act without thinking.”
“Not Dwayne and Harry.” Sadie shrugged free and walked to the campfire, pulled the now boiling soup off the grate, and set it on the ground to cool. She picked up her spoon and pointed it at Morgan.
“They’re my friends,” she told him, accentuating her words by poking the air with the utensil. “And you will trust my judgment,” she added. “Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, Morgan. Tell me, do you think I’m stupid?”
“What?”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” she repeated. “That I’m a simple-minded woman who needs a man to look after her?”