In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

go to the Roman Stable. Tell Joe Wong that your name is Tom Clancy. He’ll help you get your stuff put on the train for Azure City. The pair of you will go to Lisette’s sister there. I have the deed to a farm just outside the City. Marie bought it in my name and has been taking care of it for me. I’m going to turn the farm over to you, Jeanne. You can move onto it as Mr. and Mrs. Tom Clancy who came to farm and raise geese."

Samuel had opened and shut his mouth several times during this speech. All he finally said though was, "Yes Ma’am."

"Excellent," Giselle replied. She turned to Jeanne.

"Kiss your fiancé good night so he can leave to get his stuff. Come to my room and I will give you a letter for Lisette’s sister Marie."

The door to her room shut behind her and Samuel and Jeanne were left staring at each other.

It was quite twenty minutes later when Jeanne entered her grandmother’s room. Her hair was coming down and the shoulders of her gown weren’t quite up as far as they should have been.

Giselle had undressed and put on a loose robe over her nightgown. She had a cloth belt laid on the dressing table and a handful of gemstones set out. A large, square-cut, red stone sparkled in the gaslight.

"Pull up a chair," Giselle instructed Jeanne, "So I can show you how this works." As she spoke, she slipped the several stones into pockets in the belt.

"Where did those come from?" Jeanne asked.

"I brought them with us when we left Copper City," she said. "They were part of the stock I had left over when we closed the store."

"But I thought the Smiths took your entire inventory," Jeanne exclaimed.

"They took a fair amount of it," Giselle agreed, "But I never kept all my stock out where it could be seen or found. This is part of what I had put aside as a stake for you girls. I took these out of hiding the day we left for the Golden Tricorn."

She tapped the cloth belt. "This is a money belt. She pushed six of the stones towards her granddaughter. "Keep these where you can easily get at them. You can exchange them for money to buy supplies for the farm. This," she held up the large red stone, "is an earth ruby and its worth around twenty thousand gold chips on the open market. I had it authenticated as coming from earth when I brought it through the portal. Keep it for emergencies. Wear the belt under your clothes when you’re traveling. When you get to the farmhouse, you can have Samuel build you a good hidey-hole to keep these in."

Ira Johnson wasn’t much pleased to discover Samuel’s absence the next morning, but he supposed Samuel had gone back to the ranch to avoid any further discussion about St. Vyr’s holdings. By this time, Ira had heard about the fight in the garden between Emory and McCaffey, and he held a short, pithy conversation with Emory about his behavior and sent him home. Samuel could deal with him when he got there, he thought. It was a good thing Samuel had left, he reflected, otherwise it would have been necessary to hide sending a runner to Copper City. The letter invited Marlow Chamber to come to River Crossing, ad offered him three thousand silver chips. Chamber had the reputation as a sniper who "handled" situations for a price.

It wasn’t until a week later when Ira returned to his ranch that he found Emory still drunk and discovered Samuel was gone.

Crosswinds

THE ENTIRE FAMILY CAME down to the loading docks to see Gisele and her two granddaughters off on their buying trip to Junction City. Both Bethany and Alec showed bruises from the fight with Johnson last night, but since Henry had also seen it and told Mike about it, no one said anything. Carlos appeared sullen and he winced at the loud noises the rivermen were making as they prepared the boat for the trip upriver. Iris was pale and heavy eyed, and she avoided looking at him or standing anywhere near him.

Bethany frowned at the pair and whispered to Jeanne, "What’s wrong with them?"

"Lover’s quarrel," Jeanne replied succinctly. "They’ll get over it."

She flung her arms around Bethany and hugged her hard, before handing her sister a sealed letter.

"Don’t read it until you’re alone, okay?"

"Why, what is it?" Bethany asked. "What’s wrong? Are you in trouble?"

Her sister gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I’m not in trouble, and I’m going to be the happiest woman in the world. Please believe that. I love you Sis."

She gave her father a dutiful peck on the cheek before following her grandmother and sister up the ramp.

Michael St. Vyr rolled his chair back toward the street, stopping at the edge of the wooden walkway where his carriage waited.

"Mom convinced me the pair of you need a little time alone without all of us in your faces, so Carlos and I are going to stay in town for a couple of days," he told Bethany and Alec.

"Mike—".

"No, you take a little time for yourselves boy," St. Vyr said, holding up a hand to stop him. "Those yahoos Johnson hired are still licking their wounds from being run off Ruby Canyon. We’ve got time before they start something else."

"Thank you, Papa," Bethany said, bending down to kiss him. She slipped her had under her husband’s arm and looked up at him. "It’s going to be fun, having just us at the ranch."

"Henry’s got a report for us," St. Vyr told Carlos as they watched the carriage roll away. "Let’s head over to the Hotel and find out what he’s learned."

They found Henry sitting in a dark corner of the bar at the Hotel, sipping a whiskey.

"Better if we’re not seen keeping company," Henry said dryly to St. Vyr. "So far, no one’s noticed that I