The Claim Read Online Free

activity. Spaark and Millie were already hard at work.
    “It looks as if we shall have a full room for supper,” I said. “As usual.”
    “Pretty dress, Boston Jane,” Keer-ukso, one of my Chinook friends, said flirtatiously. He was lounging in a corner of the kitchen. “Maybe I marry you if you wear that dress!”
    Keer-ukso was incredibly handsome, with thick black hair and a finely muscled body. His old name, before he changed it to Keer-ukso, had suited him perfectly: Handsome Jim. Young women had a tendency to trail after him, although he paid them little attention, for the only young lady who mattered to him these days was the one across the kitchen stirring a kettle of oyster stew: Spaark.
    “Boston Jane is too smart to marry you,” Spaark said, rolling her eyes at me.
    She was a young lady from the neighboring Chehalis tribe, and we had grown to be close friends in the past months as weworked together at the hotel. I had met her at a meeting of the local tribes the previous winter, and she and Keer-ukso had taken a liking to each other. The two of them were now courting, and she lived at Chief Toke’s lodge. She had a marvelous sense of humor and kept Keer-ukso on his toes.
    “Boston Jane, you not marry me?” Keer-ukso gave a mock-wounded look, but I saw the sparkle in his eyes.
    “Shouldn’t you be off helping Jehu instead of getting in the way?” I said, batting him toward the door.
    “Jehu is fine by himself,” Keer-ukso said.
    “Well, then you can stay and help with supper,” I suggested. “I see that Willard is missing as usual, and I’m sure that Spaark and Millie would welcome the help, wouldn’t you, ladies?”
    Keer-ukso didn’t look the least bit affronted. “I am better cook than Spaark or you!” Among the Chinook, it was quite common for the men to cook as well as the women.
    “Wonderful!” I said, pointing to a bucket. “Another batch of oysters needs to be shucked.”
    Millie grinned and held up an enormous sack of potatoes. “And the potatoes peeled.”
    Spaark followed suit. “And the dishes washed!”
    Keer-ukso looked aghast, waving his hands in front of him defensively. He beat a hasty retreat out the back door.
    Spaark shook her head at him affectionately, and we all laughed.
    “Splendid. Now if I can only find Willard,” I said, casting a glance out the back door of the kitchen, “I can set him to work peeling potatoes.”
    Ten-year-old Willard Woodley was the only son of a recently arrived family, and he was a true rascal. His mother had asked me if I would hire him, as he had rather abruptly quit his job assisting the laundress, Mrs. Dodd. There was always a surfeit of work around the hotel, so I was happy to oblige her. Unfortunately, Willard had the uncanny ability to disappear when there was any real work to be done.
    I poked my head out the kitchen door. “Willard?”
    Silence was my answer.
    “Willard,” I called. “I just finished baking a pie and thought you might enjoy a slice.”
    Spaark grinned mischievously at me.
    “It’s still warm from the oven,” I continued in a loud voice. “And it looks just delicious, doesn’t it, Spaark?”
    “Oh yes,” Spaark said, playing along with my little game. “I will have pie, too.”
    Just then, a pair of eyes topped off by a mop of blond hair peered in the doorway.
    “Willard, how lovely to see you!” I exclaimed in delight.
    Willard came creeping into the kitchen, eyes scanning the worktables for pie. Hot on the boy’s heels was a black, potbellied dog. It was Brandywine, longtime resident of Shoalwater Bay. Brandywine and Willard were inseparable nowadays, probably because they could always count on each other to find something tasty.
    “Where’s the pie?” Willard asked suspiciously.
    I crossed my arms in front of me. “Actually, Willard, I am just about to make the pie, but I promise to put aside a nice slice for you.”
    The boy’s face fell.
    “In the meantime, I would very much appreciate