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he could have known the fairytales I created around a man I'd never met.  That had been safe, innocent.  Like having an imaginary friend or being borne off to marry a prince, and just about as likely.
                  "She did.  You were always close to my uncle, and to my mother, I suppose."
                  He laughed.  "She was like my mother, mine and Roy's, constantly calling us out for misdeeds, which only made us behave worse.  We both had mothers.  We didn't need Katherine."
                  I missed her, and so I asked.  "What was she like?"
                  A moment of reflection, hidden by the shadows.  "Like you, I think.  She was strong and fast and funny, she didn't behave as-"  He stopped abruptly, as if worried he was about to insult either my mother's memory or myself.
                  "As she should?" I asked.  "I have heard tales, Mr. Longren.  And not just of her behavior."
                  I couldn't see if he had the grace to blush.  I continued, teasing.  "Water snakes in her sewing kit.  Hay in her hair.  Nothing she ever reached for where she expected it.  And the Halloween pranks alone, it's a wonder she loved you both so."
                  He laughed, warm and comfortable, and said, " Now is when I should ask if you're willing to stay."
                  "Now is when I should ask if you've overcome the need to tuck reptiles into the mending," I countered, and for that moment, we were at ease.
                  When he spoke again, it was as he rose to fetch a match and light the lamps on the kitchen walls, making the rose-patterned wallpaper glow and bringing himself back to into reality.  "This wasn't the way I had hoped to welcome you.  Much of today must have been a mystery to you.  What do you want to know?"
                  My mind spun.  I wanted to know how anyone could ever have the courage to step inside a mine and descend into the earth.  I wanted to know if there were other midwives in Gold Hill or Virginia City or even far away as Dayton or Reno, and what the townsfolk thought of them.  I wanted to know –
                  "Who is Jason Seth?" I asked. 
                  It took a few minutes for him to answer.  The lamplight played over his face, highlighting the straight lines.  He looked grave, but not angry.
                  At last, he said, "I thought you might have overheard us."
                  "In part."
                  He grimaced.  "Enough to build an unsavory portrait, perhaps?"
                  I shook my head.  "Enough only to build curiosity."  That sounded frank but I didn't soften it.  "If I am to be your wife – "  I let the sentence hang.
                  "Fair enough.  Jason Seth filed the claim of the mine next to Silver Sky.  At the start, it looked that he had found a better vein of ore than we had.  This strike is to the Nevada territory as the gold in California was there.  There's enough.  When a claim runs dry, file another.
                  "Jason Seth wasn't of the persuasion to give in.  It's possible he should have."  He paused, looked toward the door to the sitting room, as if he had heard something or was listening to be certain we weren't overhead.  "His mines played out fast.  Where claims around his produced, his gave up nothing but dirt and minerals.  The harder he tried, the worse his results."
                  "I don't understand," I said.  "Why, if the mines around his were flourishing?"
                  Hutch made a motion with one hand, as if brushing away a fly or moving past the question.  "The man holds his pennies, dear.  He didn't pay for anything he strictly didn't have to pay for and it showed.  His workers were angry and disinterested.  His mines were dangerous and not the best