According to Batchwell, none of you will be allowed beyond the hall steps until such time as we can convey all of you to the nearest town.”
Her eyes sparkled in the dim light of the lamp. For all intents and purposes, Dr. Havisham had been told that—contract or no contract—at the first possible convenience, she’d be sent packing.
“You and I both know that such an arrangement is unfeasible. At some point, the women will need to take the air.”
“They can take all the air they want. All they have to do is open a window.”
She shook her head. “That will never do. These women aren’t prisoners, Mr. Ramsey.”
“They aren’t exactly invited guests.”
“So they’re to be punished? From what I can see, the other passengers—the crew, the stranded farmers and businessmen, even the families—aren’t being held to the same constraints.”
Hoping to avoid a full-fledged argument, Jonah chose his words with care. “Not punished. Consider it...protected.”
“Protected? From what? Life?”
“This is a mining community, Dr. Havisham. By definition, that means that it is inhabited by a bunch of men.”
“Are your employees convicts? Of ill-repute?”
“No.”
“Then you hold them in so little esteem that you believe they will...what? Explode? If they get too close to an unattached woman?”
“Not at all, Miss Havisham.”
“Doctor.”
“Look... Sumner—may I call you Sumner?”
“No.” Her look was obstinate, but she finally relented. “Oh, very well.”
“All right... Sumner. The men here are tasked with a difficult and dangerous job—”
“The women have no designs on going into the mine, Mr. Ramsey.”
“If I’m to call you Sumner, then you must call me Jonah,” he offered impatiently.
It was clear that she was loath to embrace such informality, but he waited until she finally conceded.
“Very well. Jonah.” She took another sip of her cocoa. “The women will confine their activities to the town proper.”
“No.”
“No?”
“As I was saying, the men of Batchwell Bottoms have been chosen with great care. In order to even apply for a job here, they have to prove that they already have a good deal of mining experience. But that’s not the only measure of whether or not they’ll get a position. These miners have to prove that they are God-fearing men of good character—”
She opened her mouth to say something, but he stopped her with an upraised hand.
“—and then, they have to agree to certain stipulations—”
“I know, I know. No drinking, cussing, smoking, gambling and no womanizing.”
Clearly, she’d read the advertisement for employment carefully, even if she’d omitted mentioning that she was a woman applying for a man’s job.
“If you will remember, the advertisements state ‘no women.’ They do not use the term womanizing.”
“I simply assumed—”
“Then you assumed wrong. These men have given up a lot to be here—including tailoring their behavior to a certain code of conduct. But that’s not the most significant sacrifice they’ve made, Sumner. Most of these miners come from back east, the British Isles, Italy and Greece. In order to pay for their passages to the wilds of Utah, the vast majority of them have signed an agreement to work for five years to pay off the debt. Despite the nickname this place has earned, not all of them came to us as bachelors.”
He pointed to the window where the sky was already beginning to turn to gray. “Out there are fathers, brothers, husbands and sweethearts who have agreed to spend years away from their loved ones in order to make a new future, not just for themselves, but for their families. They’re willing to do the job and live with untold privations so that, one day, they can send for them.”
“I hardly think that our group would—”
“They will be a temptation.”
“One we can rebuff.”
“But worse,” Jonah continued, “they’ll be a reminder, Sumner. And sometimes, simply seeing a reminder of what you’re missing can be the cruelest form of torture.”
To her credit, she finally fell silent. For several minutes, she ruminated on his words.
“Are you missing someone, Jonah?”
The question was so unexpected—and far too personal for their short acquaintance—that for a moment, Jonah was taken aback.
Rebecca.
No.
She wasn’t his to miss. She hadn’t been for a very long time.
Jonah could have commented on Sumner’s lack of tact—not to mention her impudence. But he answered honestly.
“No. I’m here for the long haul.”
The words held grim finality when spoken aloud, but he couldn’t take them back. It was the truth. Rebecca, his former fiancée, had found a new man to share her life with. One who was free from unsightly scars. One whose body wouldn’t betray him one day, as Jonah’s was bound to do.
Sumner sighed and said, “Be that as it may, Mr. Ramsey—”
“Jonah.”
She grimaced. “Jonah. The women will still need their belongings.”
He couldn’t prevent a short bark of laughter. “And what’s so important that I should risk the lives of my men on unstable packs of snow less than a day after we’ve already suffered one avalanche?”
She lowered her mug, and he couldn’t account for the way it pleased him when he found that it was empty.
“You’ve spoken of the sacrifices of your miners. But what you haven’t yet acknowledged is that your employees aren’t the only ones sacrificing a great deal. Most of those women were on that train as a group of mail-order brides heading west, and they’ve paid just as dearly for their passages. They have no way to notify anyone about the delay they’ve encountered—so, who knows if they will have husbands waiting for them when they finally arrive at their destinations? Furthermore, the women brought all of their belongings with them—some of them valuable heirlooms and household goods needed to start their lives as married women. The longer their trunks lie moldering in the snow, the more the women will have lost precious ties to families and homes
