They both worked their way back upriver to where he’d left Mercedes, and Morgan heard the voices as he neared camp. He hunkered behind the protection of an outcropping of ledge, behind a dense bush, and watched as his disobedient wife strolled to the river and warmly greeted the very men he had told her to avoid.

“Why, if it ain’t Sadie Quill,”Harry said, waving his paddle at her. “Haven’t seen you in a year of Sundays. I thought you’d gone off to the big city to be a weather girl.”

Sadie grabbed the bow of their canoe to keep it from hitting a rock, then stepped back when Harry stepped out. Together they pulled the heavily packed boat halfway up onto the beach, pulling a grinning Dwayne with it.

“Hi, Sadie,” Dwayne said, nodding and smiling and shaking a finger at her. “You trying to beat us to Plum’s gold?”

“And I’m winning, too,” she shot back. “I’m a full day ahead of you two lazy prospectors.”

Dwayne giggled and scrunched his shoulders. “Not this time, missy,” he said with another giggle, his eyes nearly disappearing into his grin. “We got something better than a map this time.”

“Dwayne,” Harry snapped. “Get out of the boat before you roll it.”

Dwayne scrambled up the length of the boat until he found himself unable to get past their gear. He solved his problem by simply stepping into the water and wading ashore.

Sadie moved back, worried he might shake himself dry like a dog, and smiled when she saw his gaze drift down the shore and his eyes suddenly widen in surprise.

“You got a dead moose!” Dwayne said, pointing at the moose. He started running toward it. “You killed a moose, Sadie!” he yelped as he ran, stopping at it so suddenly he almost fell. He looked back at her and pointed his finger again, this time waggling it like a mother lecturing a naughty child. “You ain’t supposed to kill these, missy. It’s illegal.”

Sadie ambled after Harry, who had followed his brother to view the moose. “I didn’t kill it,” she told Dwayne. “My husband did.” Now what on earth had made her say that?

“The moose attacked his boat, and he was defending himself.”

“You got a husband?” Harry asked, first looking at her in surprise, then scanning the campsite for signs of the man. He looked at her again, his eyes narrowed. “You bring back one of them city fellows from Boston?”

Sadie slowly shook her head, still reeling from the thought that she had just told these men that she had a husband. “No. He’s a local. Morgan MacKeage.”

“We heard of them MacKeages,” Harry said, his eyes still narrowed. “They own the ski resort.”

“They’re an odd bunch,” Dwayne piped in, though he appeared more interested in the moose than in the conversation. He suddenly stopped handling an antler and looked at her, his grin still in place. “What made you go and get hooked up with one of them, Sadie?” he asked. “I heard they’re a big, mean-looking group of fellows that keep to themselves.”

“They are big,” Sadie agreed, unable to keep herself from grinning back. Dwayne’s unflappable cheeriness was always contagious. “That’s probably why I married Morgan.

He’s taller than me.”

Dwayne’s gaze scanned her from head to toe. He suddenly straightened to his nearly six-foot height, puffed out his chest, and shot her another crooked-tooth grin. “Well, hell’

s bells, Sadie. If I’d known you was looking for a husband, I would have offered to marry you. I don’t even care about your scarred hand or nothing. I think you’re right pretty just as you are.”

God save her, Sadie could feel her heart melting at his sincere offer. “Thank you, Dwayne,” she replied, nodding with gratitude. “But Morgan beat you to it. You’re going to have to let a girl know sooner that you find her pretty.”

Dwayne bobbed his head, his face flushed red as he nervously darted a look around the perimeter of her camp. “I hope your husband didn’t hear that,” he whispered. “I don’t want him thinking I was poaching on his property.”

Sadie waved Dwayne’s worry away, then tucked her arm through his and led him toward the campfire. “He won’t take offense,” she assured him as they walked. She guided him to a rock and sat him down, then motioned for Harry to take a seat on the log. “Now, how about a trade, gentlemen?” she said.

“What you needing, Sadie?” Dwayne asked. “You running low on supplies?”

“No,” she told him, shaking her head while she quickly scanned the woods herself, looking for Morgan. She hoped he had walked a fair distance to find a spring and that he wouldn’t suddenly come barging in waving his sword like a heathen. All she needed was another twenty minutes, and then she could send Dwayne and Harry safely on their way.

“I was thinking of trading you two some supper for a peek at what you’ve got that’s even better than a map,” she said, hunching down and stirring the soup, sending the delicious smell toward them.

Both sets of eyes staring at her narrowed, and the smile finally disappeared from Dwayne’s face. He waggled his finger at her again. “We ain’t telling you spit, missy.”

“Why you still looking for the gold, anyway?” Harry asked. “You don’t need it none.

Them MacKeage fellows are rich.”

“They are?” she asked, lifting one brow.

Both men nodded. “They own most of the land in these parts, all the way up to Canada,”

Harry continued, waving toward the west side of the valley. “And they got that fancy resort.”

“I’m still after the gold,” Sadie told them, “because it never was for me. You know that.

Dad was hunting for it only to prove the legend. He intended to donate the gold to a good cause.” Sadie lifted her other brow. “What are your plans for it?”

Dwayne was suddenly smiling again, rubbing his hands together. “We’re going to buy ourselves some wives,” he said, nodding to show he was serious.

“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?”