Read Online [Yukon Quest 01] - Treasures Of The North by Tracie Peterson - Free Book Online Page A

you gettin’ into a fair heap of trouble with them cards, too.’’
    Bill shrugged. ‘‘I was just a boy then. Patience . . . well, she changed my mind about games of chance. Guess her death has changed my mind again. At least it’s a way to lay my hands on some cash.’’
    ‘‘Don’t reckon I can talk you out of it. Hate to see you spending your nights in places better left unvisited. Laws have changed, don’t you know. Some of them activities are more likely to see you in jail rather than the bank.’’
    ‘‘I don’t plan to put myself in too much danger,’’ he told her. He thought of Patience and how she would have given him the devil for even considering what he was about to do. He had to have money, however, and he had to have it fast. Anyone who understood gold rushes knew that you had to act without hesitation. If not, the land got snapped up before you even had a chance to show your face in the territory.
    ‘‘Well, the young’uns can stay here with me. The garden needs weedin’ and waterin’. There’s always something they can help with.’’
    ‘‘Jacob’s big enough to get a job of his own,’’ Bill said rather thoughtfully. He’d not thought of putting his son to work until just that moment. ‘‘Maybe he could deliver groceries or shine shoes. He’s good with horses. Maybe he could work at one of the liveries.’’
    ‘‘Could be. Sounds a heap better than what you have in mind.’’
    Bill yawned and rubbed his bearded chin. ‘‘A man has to do what a man has to do, Granny.’’
    ‘‘Especially when he’s got no woman to fuss over him and keep him on the straight and narrow path.’’
    Bill felt his throat constrict, guilt washing over him. Patience had always talked about the straight and narrow path. She believed that God’s way was far more narrow a path than most folks wanted to believe. Bill considered himself a rather religious man, but he knew God understood when he ventured off the path to one side or the other. In fact, he believed God looked the other way in some of those particularly messy points of life.
    ‘‘I saw you had a stack of wood in the back,’’ he said, suddenly unable to deal with his own discomfort. ‘‘I’ll just mosey on back there and split some of it for you. I want to earn my keep, after all.’’
    ‘‘You’d earn it a sight better doing that than gambling it away or dealing in some other underhanded fashion,’’ Granny said, never looking up from her beans. ‘‘Suit yourself.’’
    Jacob woke up in a pool of sweat. The heat of the Denver afternoon had joined together with a hideous nightmare of being thrown into the pits of hell. Trembling, Jacob eased off the bed so as not to disturb Leah. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and tried to steady his rapid breathing.
    From the time he’d been little, Jacob had known that his mother’s fondest wish was for him to accept Jesus as his Savior. In all the days that had followed from that first introduction to the Gospel message, Jacob had known that someday he would be left with a choice between deciding for God—or against Him. But someday always seemed far away. At least it had back then.
    Years ago, he had figured his folks to live forever. The reality of death made little impact on his world. He’d known of folks who’d passed on. Had even heard stories of his grandparents and how they had died, but death didn’t seem anything so immediate that he needed to actually make a commitment to God. After all, his mother said, it would be the most important decision in his life.
    ‘‘Don’t promise God anything, Jacob, unless you intend to keep that promise,’’ she had said. ‘‘Even the Word says it’s better to make no vow at all than to make one and then not keep it.’’
    So Jacob had made no vow. Much to his mother’s disappointment.
    Now in the dark, musty room, Jacob felt overwhelmed with grief. His knowing God was the one thing his mother had longed