Gold Rush Wedding

The morning before Lucinda's departure for the Philadelphia Female Medical College, she had a breakdown. She lost her confidence in an ocean of worry and anxiety.

  "George what if the ship sinks on the way to New York?" She twisted her gold wedding band around and around on her finger. "Worse, what if it sinks on the way back from New York, after I've spent two years at college?"

  George held her close. He kissed her hair. "Shh. Lucinda, your ship is not going to go down. You’re going on Steamer Day, on the ship carrying the gold back to Philadelphia. It’s the safest passage. I know in my heart you'll be back and you'll be the best female doctor in California."

  "But what if I'm not? What if I lose a patient, like I lost Ma and Pa?" The thought of her parents’ deaths gave her worries more fodder.

  "You're going to be a doctor, not a miracle worker. You're not Jesus, you know, raising people from the dead." He stroked her hair.

  "But people think I should be a miracle worker. What if I disappoint everyone?"

  "Then some people will be disappointed because they’re unrealistic. You’re going to be the best doctor in the United States. You're determined. You're going to accomplish this." He brushed her hair back behind her ear with his thumb.

  Lucinda calmed herself with deep breaths, but her trepidation remained.

  "What if you meet another woman, George?"

  George looked into her eyes. "Lucinda. I'm not falling for anyone else. My heart is bound to you like a tree is bound to the soil it grows in."

  Lucinda nodded, believing his words. But she still went on. "I know how lonely men can get out here."

  George stood up. He walked to the door and put on his hat.

  "Where are you going?" Lucinda asked.

  "I'm going to show you around and tell you my dreams one more time. I want them to be so real to you that you can carry them with you and pull them out of your pocket any time you have doubts." He took her shawl from the hook on the wall. "Put this on."

  She wrapped the shawl around her shoulders, and took George's hand. He led her up the hill to a lookout spot. He pointed to a slope in the hill.

  "See that dip in the land? That's where the opening to LuciArno mine will be. It's all been determined. I used a divining rod, and it pointed to that area."

  "Is that why it's marked off with logs?"

  "That's right. Once you're on board your steamer, bound for New York, I'll be breaking ground. The placer gold is all washed away now. The biggest gold strikes are underground."

  "I do hope you're right." Lucinda leaned her head against his shoulder as she gazed at the land.

  "I'm right. The divining rod doesn't lie, and it bent all the way down at that spot." George nodded. He took her down toward the granite cornerstone.

  "This granite rock is where I'll build your mansion. No more log cabins for you. I'm building you a proper home, made from stone quarried from our mine. You'll have a sturdy stone home. It’s going to glitter in the sunlight with specks of gold in the stone."

  Lucinda smiled at the thought.

  George pointed to the left of where they were standing. "Just down the slope from here, I'm building you a greenhouse. You'll be able to grow all the medicinal herbs you need to help you in your healing work. You'll have a year-round supply of fresh herbs for medicines, poultices, and tinctures."

  "It sounds magnificent, George."

  "That's not even the start of it. Imagine this." They sat down on the rock, and George extended his arm to the fields, sweeping across the landscape. "I'll fill the fields to the left with sheep and Spanish cattle. To the right, we'll be growing crops for food for the town of LuciArno. Beyond that, I'll have vineyards so we can bottle our own wine."

  Lucinda imagined the lush vegetation and the wind rustling through the fields.

  "Then I'm going to use the extra rocks from the mine to build a dam across the tributary up above. It will make a small lake. All the waterfowl and the wildlife in the area will come here for water. Plus, it will provide water for the mine and for the town. We'll put in stone aqueducts, like the Romans did."

  "George, your plan is brilliant. It sounds like utopia. But what will stop the miners from leaving and doing the same thing on their own?"

  George plucked some grass from the ground and rolled it in his fingers. "That's the best part of all. I have a new business model. The miners will have a stake in the success of the mine. The more profitable it is, the more money they will make. So in the end, it will pay them more to stay with me than to strike out on their own."

  Lucinda thought of the landowners and business owners she knew, and how their greed kept them from sharing any profits with their employees. "No one has ever run a business that way before, have they?"

  "Not to my knowledge. That's exactly why this is going to work. People are ready for it. A collaboration of workers for the success of a bigger operation."

  "Just don't forget me while you're making all these big dreams a reality," Lucinda reminded him. She brushed the grass from his hands and kissed his fingertips.

  "I will never forget you." He gripped her hand and kissed her. "If I did, a part of my heart would die."

  "As would mine." Lucinda kissed him again. She looked at his face, taking in every detail. The rebellious curl of hair on his forehead, his clear and sincere blue eyes, his lips she had grown to love kissing. She didn't want to forget a single thing. It would be two long years before she saw him again.

  The next morning, George drove Lucinda to the Port of Sacramento to board the daily steamship that ran to San Francisco. There she would spend the night with his family, and then board the ship that would speed her to New York. To Philadelphia. To her future. To his future. To the golden dreams that lay ahead for both of them.

  THE END