Free Gold Dust by Emily Krokosz

the sun like a cat. She felt Jonah’s
     eyes on her and smiled just to make him mad. Her smiles always seemed to make him mad.
    “Katy, why aren’t you married with children hanging on to your skirts rather than running with a pack of uncouth men up to
     the Klondike? Look at you! You’re young and pretty enough to find a husband and have him care for you, but instead you run
     wild as some barefoot rowdy.”
    “Mmm. I’d like that—to run barefoot through that cold Klondike water and see gold nuggets between my toes.” Out of the corner
     of her eye she saw him flush, as if the image was too much for him. “What’s the matter, greenhorn? Haven’t you ever waded
     barefoot and barelegged through a mountain stream? What kind of life have you had?”
    “A responsible life lived within the confines of social convention, which I suspect you know very little about.”
    “Horsefeathers! You talk as if I’m some sort of criminal.”
    “You ought to get married to some brave man who will take you in hand.”
    “If marriage is so grand and responsible, why aren’t
you
married?”
    “I told you before. I don’t lead a settled enough life to care for a woman. A woman needs to be sheltered.”
    “Well, Mr. Responsible, I don’t need to be cared for, especially by some bossy man who expects a woman to spend her life cooking
     and cleaning and mopping up after babies.”
    “Most women enjoy that.”
    “Some women don’t!” She threw his words back in hisface. “Some women want to live a life not settled enough to care for a man. And out here, a greenhorn like you needs to be
     sheltered.”
    For a moment his face was a battleground of conflicting expressions. Then he smiled with an unexpected flash of strong white
     teeth. “You are the most outrageous female I have ever met, Katy O’Connell.”
    “You don’t say!”
    “You belong to a world that died a couple of decades ago, do you know that? But I wish you luck.”
    Katy couldn’t help but grin. Jonah was impossible to stay mad at for very long. “I guess I wish you luck, too. Though I don’t
     know why I bother. Generally I figure that someone who doesn’t know how to take care of himself deserves what he gets.” She
     walked jauntily away and shot him a knowing smile over her shoulder. “Just remember, I warned you that you need help. Don’t
     blame me when you get taken!”
    Jonah told himself that he would be glad to see the last of Katy O’Connell, entertaining as she was. With her free-swinging
     stride and her open, easy smile, she was disturbing in a way no proper woman should be. Of course, that was because she wasn’t
     even close to being a proper woman.
    One would think that on a steamer crowded with 140 passengers, a conglomeration of boats, sleds, wagons, carts, and various
     types of livestock, avoiding one rather small female would be easy; but it wasn’t. She seemed to be everywhere he was, serving,
     cleaning, polishing, running errands. Jonah suffered an urge to help the little imp when he saw her lifting, scrubbing, and
     hauling, but sternly reminded himself that she’d gotten herself into this position. She wanted a man’s adventure; let her
     pay a man’s price.
    The fifth night out of Seattle, north of Mary Island in the tortuous sea channels known as the Inside Passage, Jonah relaxed
     in the evening cool, leaning against a lifeboat, gazing out upon the calm sea. Katy sat nearby, propped against thedeck cabin with her face tilted toward the full moon. Her wolf, a handsome silver-gray animal of intimidating size, sat close
     against her. Jonah expected the creature to loose a blood-chilling howl toward the sky at any moment, but he merely leaned
     against his mistress as a child might press close to its mother. Though quite sure Katy knew she was watched from the concealing
     evening shadows, Jonah began to feel as though he were intruding upon a private moment. He was about to leave when two prospective
     gold kings came