Both men nodded, but it was Dwayne who spoke. “We never could stomach our own cooking,” he admitted. “And we get lonely sometimes, especially in winter.”

“And that’s why we ain’t sharing our secret,” Harry said, drawing her attention again.

He shook his head. “We ain’t getting any younger, and we need to find that gold this fall.”

“Why now, after all these years?” she asked.

“‘Cause we want children,” Harry explained impatiently, sounding as if she should have figured that out by herself. He puffed up his chest again. “A man wants to leave a bit of himself when his time comes to depart this earth.”

Sadie had to cough to cover up the fact that she was choking. Children? Heck. Both brothers were nearing sixty years old.

“Ah, Sadie?” Dwayne said. “I don’t suppose that if you find that gold first and are wanting to donate it to a good cause like your papa intended, you would think Harry and me are good causes?”

“You wouldn’t have to donate all the gold to us,” Harry said, warming to his brother’s idea. He leaned forward and rubbed his hands together. And she’d swear that she could almost see the beginnings of an idea forming behind his puckered brow. “We could pool our information and hunt for the gold together. Then split it.”

Dwayne was shaking his head, frowning at his brother. “We already tried that with her papa, remember?” he told Harry. He looked at Sadie. And damn if he didn’t waggle his finger at her again. “No offense, missy, but since we’re wanting to buy two wives, it’s going to take all the gold. We gotta have some left for when we come home, so we can take good care of them.”

Harry frowned back at his brother, not liking that his plan was so quickly shot down. He darted a look at Sadie, then suddenly stood up. “We gotta go now,” he said, prodding his brother to get him moving. “We need to make camp before it gets dark.”

“Why can’t we just stay here?” Dwayne asked, once he was standing. “She’s already got a fire going.”

Harry shook his head and nudged Dwayne toward their canoe. “She’s got a husband,”

he reminded his brother. “She might want some privacy.”

Dwayne, suddenly grinning again, turned a dull shade of red. “Oh,” he whispered to Harry, not intending for her to hear. “You mean they might want to diddle.”

This time Harry’s nudge was not so gentle. He gave his brother a mighty shove into the river. Dwayne caught his balance by grabbing the canoe, then continued to wade out and climb into the stern. Harry grabbed the bow and shoved the boat toward deep water, then quickly climbed in and picked up his oar.

Dwayne waved his paddle into the air. “‘Bye, Sadie,” he said. “We’ll let you know where Plum’s claim is after we take out all the gold,” he said as they turned into the current, letting it carry them away. He twisted in his seat, still waving his paddle, still grinning. “We might even give you a nugget, just so you won’t be skunked.”

They began to slip toward the bend in the river, but still Dwayne kept waving and talking. “Say hi to your husband for us!” he hollered. “And remember, missy. If he don’t treat you right, you come see me and Harry. We ain’t afraid of them MacKeages.”

Harry, apparently not liking his brother volunteering him for such dangerous service, slapped the water with his oar, soaking Dwayne. Dwayne sputtered something under his breath while wiping the river off himself.

The last Sadie saw of them, both men were paddling furiously, Harry determined to outrun his brother and Dwayne determined to catch him, apparently forgetting they were both sitting at opposite ends of the same boat.

Chapter Sixteen

Staring at the spot where Dwayne and Harryhad disappeared, Sadie fought the bubble of laughter that was threatening to burst from her belly.

Buying wives. For all these years those two old goats had been hunting for gold because they were sure they had found a way to make the long winters less lonely.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Sadie walked back to her camp, continued past the fire, and stopped just in front of a giant boulder. She crossed her arms under her chest and smiled at the tall clump of brush beside it.

“Now do you understand why they’re harmless?” she asked the dense honeysuckle.

Morgan emerged from behind the honeysuckle to stand in front of her. And he didn’t appear anywhere near as amused as she was.

“Do you suppose a man cansell a wife in this catalog they spoke of?” he asked, his eyes gleaming in the last light of the setting sun. He suddenly sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not that I could get very much for you,” he added tiredly. “A disobedient wife can’t be worth a hundred dollars.”

“They’re good men, Morgan,” Sadie continued, deciding to ignore his not so subtle threat. “Between the two of them there isn’t a mean bone in their bodies. Either of them would give the shirt off his back to someone in need.”

“I will admit they do appear more a danger to themselves than to anyone else.” He took hold of her shoulders. “But when it comes to gold, even the most timid of men turn lethal, Mercedes. They become blinded by the promise of riches. They act without thinking.”

“Not Dwayne and Harry.” Sadie shrugged free and walked to the campfire, pulled the now boiling soup off the grate, and set it on the ground to cool. She picked up her spoon and pointed it at Morgan.

“They’re my friends,” she told him, accentuating her words by poking the air with the utensil. “And you will trust my judgment,” she added. “Marriage is supposed to be a partnership, Morgan. Tell me, do you think I’m stupid?”

“What?”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” she repeated. “That I’m a simple-minded woman who needs a man to look after her?”

His eyes narrowed at her question, and his jaw flexed while he thought about his answer. Sadie almost laughed out loud. The poor guy looked like one of those men who

’d just been asked by his wife if her pants made her ass look fat. He understood that any answer he gave would be the wrong one.

Sadie stopped pointing her spoon and used it instead to stir the soup, hurrying the cooling process along. Their overcooked dinner was starting to look like mush.

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” he finally said, his voice guarded. “I just think you’re too trusting.”

Sadie slumped her shoulders. Wrong answer. “Too trusting,” she repeated. “As in the way I’m trusting you?”

She watched Morgan take a deep breath and let it out with a harsh sigh. He rubbed his hands over his face before he looked at her again. He slowly shook his head.

“What is it you’re wanting from me, Mercedes?”

“I want you to respect my judgment when it comes to Dwayne and Harry. Until either of them does something that proves different, I want you to treat them kindly. And,” she said, pointing her spoon again when he started to speak, “I want you to trust me.”

He snapped his mouth shut and started thinking again. Sadie took a careful sip of the soup and nearly gagged. She turned the pot upside-down and dumped their ruined dinner onto the ground, then rummaged around in her dry pack, pulled out two granola bars, and tossed one to Morgan.

He caught it, examined the bar with a critical glare, then turned that glare on her. Sadie lifted her shoulders.

“Hey. You probably wouldn’t get fifty dollars for me. You beginning to rethink this marriage thing?”

“I’m beginning to think it’s time to go to bed,” he said, standing up and tossing the granola bar on top of her dry pack. He walked toward the sleeping bag she’d laid out by the ledge, pulling his sword off his back as he went. Sadie quickly scrambled to her feet.

“There’s one more thing I want, Morgan.”

“And what would that be?” he asked, turning his head to look at her, lifting one arrogant brow.

Well, damn. She didn’t know how it had happened, but she was pretending to be this man’s wife for the next seven days, and she assumed that included sleeping with him.