Page 69 of Inventions of the Heart

MICHELLE AND HER CREWspent a whole morning digging. They needed to reroute the stream and had to dig a temporary waterway for it to follow.

Next, they’d fill a wagon with rocks, haul them to the stream, and drop them just so to block the waterway andreroute the stream into the new path. Then they would set up the waterwheel and turn the water back to its original course. The wheel would pump water out, and it would flow into a series of trenches they still needed to dig to carry the water to the grass. It wasn’t complicated, just a whole lot of hard work.

Michelle expected it to take at least a week for this pasture, and Zane had nine of them. The waterwheels weren’t here yet. Michelle hoped when they got here, she would have everything ready for installation, and they could start watering a few pastures.

Rocks to haul, ditches to dig. Honestly, Michelle was finding it all a trial. She’d much rather concentrate on the train car braking system she’d already patented. She had a dozen ideas for improvement and more ideas for passenger cars to make the undercarriage system absorb bumps and rattles and make them more comfortable for passengers.

And if she could just figure out that four-stroke cycle engine, she’d be rich. Which she already was, but money wasn’t her motivation. Achievement was. Maybe a twinge of power. She hoped that didn’t count as laying up treasures here on earth. Could power be a treasure? She thought of Benteen and suspected it could.

Jilly seemed to love the ditch digging and rock hauling far more than Michelle, so at least her sister was happy.

“Let’s stop digging for a while and eat the noon meal,” Michelle announced.

The men straightened from their shovels with a sigh of relief. They were cowboys, not ditch diggers, but they’d been given a big raise and were in high spirits.

Michelle sat down with a plate of beef, beans, and biscuitsthe cowhand cook had brought out. It was a relief to rest her back while Josh built a fire and the men made coffee. Michelle felt like she was a true rancher. Maybe she ought to learn to rope.

“Do any of you know men who are looking for a job? Men willing to do hard work for top wages?”

One nodded. “And with men getting married and such, there’s room in the bunkhouse.”

Another said, “I can think of a few.”

“Benteen has a lot of men on his payroll. Be careful who you talk to, but if you bring in more men, we’ll hire them. Otherwise, we’ll be spending the rest of the summer on this.”

The men had been involved in holding Benteen, and some had ridden as guards to town with him. They all knew he’d been let go. Zane trusted them and considered his men loyal. Michelle would trust them, too.

Smiling as Josh started one of his overly detailed stories, she let her mind wander to the details of the irrigation she planned. And to the gold they now had in the bank. And the work Zane was doing.

She thought of how nice it’d been to see Mama and Laura.

She’d already seen them twice since the wedding. Josh handed her a cup of coffee. She took it and thought of how happy Jilly was to be working at this hard labor.

Was she, though? Was Jilly happy?

Michelle caught her sister’s eye and tilted her head, then moved away from the men until they were well out of earshot.

When they came upon a couple of thigh-high boulders beside the stream, Michelle headed for one and sat.

Jilly stayed standing. “My back feels better if I’m on my feet.” Then she drank deeply from the tin coffee cup.

Her vividly red hair was in a tight braid, twisted into a bun at the base of her skull, but it had unruly curls and plenty of them escaped and hung in wispy ringlets around her face and down the back of her neck. Her green eyes caught the color of the grassy meadow and the backdrop of the leaves on the trees climbing the mountain nearby.

Michelle watched those eyes and considered and discarded several of the questions she wanted to ask.

“Jilly, what are you going to do?”

Jilly didn’t answer. Instead, she concentrated on drinking, but Michelle saw the wheels turning in Jilly’s head. She understood the question. She just needed to organize her thoughts.

“Did you see how exhausted Laura looked after that meeting at the ironworks?”

Michelle didn’t accuse her of avoiding the question. She guessed the answer was going to be a long one. And a serious one. “She’s not suited to it.”

“You are.”

Michelle knew that to be the truth. “You could manage a seat on the board, too.”

“I could manage it. But you’re the one who understands what California Ironworks is creating. You’re the one who could push them. It’s an excellent company, but you’d guide them in the way of raising the quality of their products. You could make it the finest ironworks in the state, maybe in the country.”

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