Into the Bright Unknown Read online

  Dedication

  For my husband,

  who came with me on this long journey

  Dramatis Personae

  Leah “Lee” Westfall, a sixteen-year-old girl

  Jefferson Kingfisher, Lee’s fiancé

  The Joyners

  Rebekah “Becky” Joyner, a widow from Tennessee

  Olive Joyner, her seven-year-old daughter

  Andrew Joyner Jr., her five-year-old son

  Baby Girl Joyner, an infant

  The Glory, California Crew

  “Major” Wally Craven, former wagon train leader

  Hampton Freeman, formerly Bledsoe

  Mary, Lee’s friend

  Old Tug and the Buckeyes, miners from Ohio

  Wilhelm, a hired thug turned blacksmith

  The Illinois College Men

  Jasper Clapp, a doctor

  Thomas Bigler, a lawyer

  Henry Meek, currently seeking employment

  Others, in San Francisco

  James Henry Hardwick, a wealthy businessman

  Miss Helena Russell, an associate of Hardwick’s

  Jim Boisclair, a former store owner from Dahlonega, Georgia

  “Mr. Keys,” Hardwick’s accountant

  Frank Dilley, a hired gun

  Sheriff Purcell

  Sonia, a pickpocket

  Billy, a young orphan and thief

  Melancthon Jones, a ship’s carpenter and cook

  Contents

  Dedication

  Dramatis Personae

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Author’s Note

  Back Ad

  About the Author

  Books by Rae Carson

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  LATE JANUARY 1850

  Chapter One

  The log cabin I share with the Joyner family is murky and dank, with a packed dirt floor that moistens to near mud at the base of the walls. But it has a solid roof, a cozy box stove, and—best of all—a single bright east-facing window with a real glass pane. Real glass! It’s such a rarity since coming west to California, but our claims have proved out so well that we can afford a few luxuries.

  I work hard each day and fall into my bedroll exhausted but happy. Usually, I’m awakened by Zeus, Becky Joyner’s proud rooster, who trumpets every single dawn like it’s going to be the best day of his life. Sometimes I don’t wake until the first light of morning shines through that window, warming my cheeks and eyelids.

  And every great once in a while, I’m so late abed that Becky or one of the children must intervene.

  “Miss Leah Westfall, you get up right this minute, or I’m going to pour the wash bucket onto your face.”

  A skirted shape looms over me, backlit by the light of the window. Her hands are on her hips, her head cocked to the side. I groan and rub my eyes. “Becky?”

  “Pull on your boots and a coat and come help me. Quick.”

  Obeying Becky is such a habit that I’m sitting up and reaching for my boots before her words sink in. “Something wrong?” I ask.

  “Just got news the peddler is coming. Any miner within fifty miles square is showing up this morning, and a few Indians besides. Every seat is full. We’ll probably run out of food, but we can keep everyone full up on coffee.”

  Becky is a terrible cook, but that hasn’t stopped her tavern business from booming. People come from all over to experience the “bad food, bad service” of the Worst Tavern in California. Or so they say. I expect the real reason they travel so far and spend so much gold is that our town of Glory now boasts a few female residents. Becky suffers at least one marriage proposal per day. Mary, her hired waitress, gets several per week. Even I get my fair share, in spite of the fact that I’m already affianced to the best fellow in all of California.

  Thinking of Mary puts a puts a nervous hitch in my breath. I’ve been meaning to talk to her about something important—about the real reason for Glory’s prosperity—but I keep finding excuses to delay: Knowing the truth might put Mary in danger. Knowing the truth might chase her away. Knowing the truth might make her stay, but for all the wrong reasons.

  I’ve been putting if off for weeks, ever since we escaped Uncle Hiram’s mine together. I just need to gather my gumption and get it done.

  “I’ll see you outside,” Becky says, and she leaves.

  I lace up my boots, splash icy water on my face, and wrap a scarf around my neck. I’m still wearing yesterday’s skirt of soft yellow calico, a parting gift from a friend who left for Oregon territory. If Mama were alive, she’d box my ears to see me wearing my everyday skirt to bed.

  My hand goes to the golden locket dangling at my throat, like it does every morning. It’s my last keepsake from Mama; I took it from her still-warm body right after she was murdered, and it traveled all the way across the continent with me.

  And as I clutch the locket in my palm, letting the precious metal invade all my senses, I realize that Mama would have been fine about the skirt. She was smart and practical, and she would have understood that things are different in California.

  I pull on my coat, push open the door, and step into the brisk morning.

  It’s a clear, bright day, perfect for prospecting. Frost surrounds the stoop, covers the canvas roofs of the nearby shanties, even edges our big muddy pond at the end of town. The sun is just now peeking over the oak and pines, turning all that frost into glittering diamonds. Shanties and lean-tos and tents hug the slope of our hill, all the way down to the muddy field and paddock. The structures don’t look like much from the outside, but one tent houses Jasper, a doctor; another has Wilhelm, a blacksmith; and still another a leather worker. Glory is a right and proper town now, as fine a town as any I’ve lived in, with even finer people.

  To my left is the Worst Tavern, full up on folks sitting at long tables beneath an enormous, thrice-patched awning. Mostly miners, a few Indians. Two woodstoves keep everyone in steady biscuits and provide extra warmth—the seats nearest the stoves are always first to fill. Becky works a griddle, flipping flapjacks and bacon. Her daughter, seven-year-old Olive, is at the other stove, using tongs to lift biscuits into a basket. Mary, Glory’s only current Chinese resident, is scurrying back and forth between the stoves and the tables, delivering food, filling coffee cups, growling at customers.

  When she sees me, she gives me a relieved smile.

  “What can I do?” I ask.

  “Coffee. Here, take this.” She shoves the pot into my hands. “Olive’s got a second pot brewing on the stove for when that’s empty. Sure hope that peddler brings another one. We’ll need three pots going at once by the end of the month.”

  I start at the nearest table and fill all the cups to three quarters full. Mary grabs dirty plates and heads toward the wash station. One of the miners, a grizzled fellow with a big bald spot dead center on his scalp, reaches up with grasping fingers for Mary’s backside.

  Mary whirls and—quick as a viper—whips out a handkerchief and snaps
it at him.

  The grizzled man snatches his hand back. “I was just being friendly!”

  “Be friendly without using your hands,” Mary says.

  The man frowns. “You ask me, this tavern ought to be called Uppity Women.”

  Mary grins. “Thank you for the compliment, sir.”

  He squints. Before he can suss it out, I step forward with my pot. “Hot coffee, sir?”

  “Don’t mind if I do!” he says, Mary forgotten.

  This is how it is most days at the Worst Tavern. Becky and Olive and Mary work themselves ragged to feed hungry miners, making mountains of biscuits, flapjacks, scrambled eggs, and bacon, cleaning dish after dish, all while avoiding the wandering hands of fellows who think coming to California means they no longer have to act like gentlemen. Sometimes I help out, but most days I’m out in the goldfields, working my own claim or helping my friends with theirs.

  I return to the stove for more coffee, just as Mary comes back for more biscuits. “I need to talk to you,” I whisper to her. “Just as soon as the morning rush is over.”

  She hefts the plate of biscuits with one hand and wipes her brow with the other. “Sure, Lee,” she says, and she’s off.

  Becky leans over. “You’re going to tell her?” she whispers.

  “Yep.”

  Becky’s brow furrows. “You sure you can trust the girl? She’s young and . . .” Her voice trails off.

  And Chinese? And foreign? I’m not sure what it is Becky won’t say, and I keep my face smooth with some effort.

  “She deserves the truth, Becky,” I say firmly.

  Becky turns away, scrambling her eggs a little too violently.

  “She helped me destroy Hiram’s Gulch, remember? We wouldn’t have escaped without her. I can’t begin to guess how many lives she saved. Besides, she’s been working here for a month. In all that time, she’s earned for you three times what you pay her, without once complaining. I trust her, and so should you.”

  I’m preaching to myself as much as Becky, I suppose. I trust Mary. I do. It’s just that my secret is such a big one, and so many people have been hurt because of it.

  “What does Jefferson say?” Becky says. “He’s going to be your husband; it’s only proper you consult him.”

  “Jeff trusts her. He says it’s up to me whether I tell her or not.”

  She shovels eggs onto a plate just in time for Mary to dash by and sweep it up. “If you think it’s best,” Becky says.

  The morning passes quickly. Miners only linger if they had too much to drink the night before; otherwise, they’re up and away to their claims as soon as possible. Everyone knows the easy diggings will be gone soon, and there’s no time to spare.

  A final wave of hungry miners heads our way, and I look up, hoping to see Jefferson, but it’s just Old Tug and his Buckeyes from Ohio. Jefferson must be at his claim already. With our wedding coming up, he’s keen to build his stake.

  “Morning, gentlemen,” I call out as Tug and his men find seats. “Coffee?”

  Tug wipes at bleary eyes. “Please, Miss Leah.”

  “Hard night, huh?” I ask, filling his cup.

  He grins through wiry whiskers, showing all two of his teeth. “Won two gold eagles playing cards,” he says.

  “Congratulations.”

  “Two gold eagles makes me mighty eligible, don’t you think? High time I found a Mrs. Tuggle.”

  Not this again.

  “It’s a pity I’m already affianced,” I tell him solemnly.

  “Oh, not you,” he says with a wave of his hand. “Got my eye on that little China girl.” And sure enough, his gaze follows Mary as she heaps bacon onto plates and wipes up spills with her handkerchief.

  I sigh. Poor Mary.

  “You think she’ll have me?” he asks.

  “I doubt it,” I say.

  His eye widen with affront. “Ain’t nothing wrong with me!”

  “Course not. But Mary is one of the handsomest girls I ever saw. Also, she’s a woman of intelligence and learning. Did you know she speaks three languages?”

  He shakes his head.

  “So, I suggest that instead of proposing straight out, you court her. Woo her. Show her what a fine gentleman you are.”

  “You think so?”

  “I do.” That will give me time to warn my friend. Old Tug has asked every woman he’s met to marry him, starting with Becky Joyner and then me.

  “I reckon you might be right,” he concedes. “I don’t want to mess this one up.”

  I give his shoulder a pat and move on to the next table.

  The Buckeyes eat quickly, but unlike most customers, they scoot their chairs and benches in and take their dishes to the wash station themselves. They tip their hats at Mary, who is elbow deep in the washtub. Old Tug lingers. “Have a fine day, Miss Mary,” he says, with the most earnest, hopeful gaze I ever saw on a fellow.

  She looks up from her dishwashing and smiles. “Thank you, Mr. Tuggle. You too.”

  After they leave, Mary turns to Becky. “All right if I steal away with Lee for a spell? She needs me. I’ll be back to finish the dishes; I won’t shirk.”

  Becky stops scraping the griddle just long enough to give a wave of permission.

  Mary grabs my hand and pulls me away from the stoves and the giant awning and into the sunshine. “I’m so glad you wanted to talk,” she says. “I needed a break.”

  “Is it awful, working for Becky?”

  “No, not exactly,” Mary says. We head toward the creek and then turn upstream. The path is rocky and steep, but well traveled now that so many Glory residents have claims in this direction. “But after the miners leave, it’s just me and Becky and Olive, working in silence. Olive is a sweet thing, but I don’t think Becky cares for me much.”

  I’m not sure she’s wrong. “Becky is distrustful of all things unfamiliar,” I tell her. “But she’ll come around.”

  Mary shrugs like it’s no big deal, but Mary is not one to share her thoughts easily, and the fact that she did is a sure sign that she is vexed.

  “Becky hasn’t been unkind to you, has she?” I ask.

  “No. But she hasn’t been kind either. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

  “Not yet. Once we’re out of earshot of town.”

  Mary raises her eyebrows but doesn’t protest.

  We continue uphill until we reach a spot where the creek stairsteps down a series of boulders, creating frothing rapids. The sound of the rushing water ought to mask our voices.

  I glance around to make sure no stray miners are passing by. “So,” I say. “I have a secret.”

  “I’m listening,” Mary says, and she has that unreadable look again, the one I used to find so daunting.

  I take a deep breath. Why does this never get easier? “You see . . . I . . . You know Old Tug?” Silently I curse myself for cowardice.

  “Yes.”

  “He’s sweet on you. He might ask you to marry him. Didn’t want you to be caught by surprise.”

  Her face brightens. “Maybe I ought to encourage him.”

  Not the answer I expected. “Mary! He’s vile!”

  She nods. “Yes. All men are vile.”

  “No, they’re—”

  “Lee, I know a lot more about men than you do, and trust me, they’re all gross, disgusting creatures. But Tug is nice. Maybe the nicest man in Glory. He never grabs me or threatens me or treats me like I’m not a person. He could stand to bathe more, but he always picks up his dishes, and he leaves me generous tips.”

  “Huh.” I consider defending Jefferson, who is the opposite of vile, but I decide I’d rather not argue. “I hadn’t pegged you for the marrying kind.”

  She gives me a look that would curdle cream. “Because of my previous occupation?”

  “No! You’re just . . . I guess I don’t know.”

  “Well, I haven’t decided if I want to marry or not. But if I do, it will be to a kindhearted fellow like Tug. Is that what
you needed all this secrecy for? To tell me about him?”

  “No.”

  Mary crosses her arms. “Out with it, Lee.”

  I sigh. A breeze sends a gust of waterfall spray, and as I wipe my wet face with the end of my scarf, I say, “So . . . remember my uncle? How he kidnapped me? Forced me to help with his mining operation?”

  “I was there, remember?”

  “Right. Of course.” The end of the scarf twists in my hands. Twist, twist, twist. “Before that, he killed my parents. Took over the homestead. And after I escaped, he chased me across the continent.”

  Mary peers into my face. “I always thought his obsession with you was mighty peculiar. I mean, you’re his niece, but still.”

  “It was more than that. And Mary, you have to swear up and down and sideways that you won’t tell another soul what I’m about to tell you.”

  “I’ll swear no such thing. You either trust me or you don’t.”

  I glare at her. She is determined to make this difficult. “Fine. Here it is. I can find gold. Not like a miner. Like a witch. I have a . . . power.”

  Her black eyes fly wide as she blurts something in Chinese.

  “What? I don’t know what you just said—”

  “Something my mother would have whipped me for saying. Are you serious, Lee? You are serious, aren’t you. You’re not funning me at all.”

  “I’m not funning you.”

  Her sudden smile could light up all of California. “Show me!”

  “Wait. You believe me?”

  “Of course. You may be daft sometimes, naive in the ways of men, but you’re not a liar. And it makes sense. All those rumors about the Golden Goddess . . .”

  “Yeah. Those.”

  “Show me,” she says again.

  I’ve had to prove myself before, so I know just what to do. I reach behind my neck and unclasp my locket. I hand it to her, chain and all.

  “I’m going to turn around and close my eyes. Hide the locket somewhere, and I’ll tell you where it is.”

  “All right.”

  I turn my back to her, extending my gold sense. The locket shines like a beacon in my mind, a spot of warmth and light. Only a few seconds pass before I say, “Don’t put in your pocket, Mary. That’s too easy.” Mary gasps. “Hide it somewhere more interesting.”