A Fine Mess

Chapter One

April 1863
Lucky Star Ranch
Placerville, California

Andrew Carter growled softly as he crumpled the telegram in his fist. He'd been making such good progress on the house he was building for himself and his fiancée, and now the nails and shingles he'd ordered had gotten held up in Sacramento. According to the telegram, the delivery driver had broken his leg and wouldn't be making another run to Placerville for at least a month. Andrew was already pushing his luck. The spring rains wouldn't hold off forever. He needed to get a roof on that house now.

"I should have known something would happen," he grumbled to his family at breakfast the next morning. "Things were going too well."

Pa looked up over his coffee cup. "It's just to Sacramento. Why don't you take the buckboard and pick them up?" He smiled at Mama as she dropped another hot biscuit on his plate.

"Because I'm supposed to ride to Auburn today to pick up that mare I bought for Molly," Andrew said.

The Carters' Lucky Star Ranch was nearly 10,000 acres. If he expected Molly to live on it with him, she'd need a horse. And he'd found a beautiful one—a little copper-colored Appaloosa mare.

"I'll go get the building supplies for you. I've been itching for a trip to Sacramento."

Andrew glanced across the table at his younger brother, Frank, whose blue eyes were sparkling with the promise of shenanigans. Andrew exchanged skeptical glances with his parents. The seventeen-year-old tended to get into trouble in Sacramento, usually in the saloon.

Next to Frank, their cousin, Lyddie, clapped her hands. "I'll come with you," she said. "I'd love to visit the apothecary." Lyddie loved chemistry. Her father was a physician and had trained her so well that she was as good as any doctor herself. Uncle Jacob had sent her west from their home in Washington, D.C., to get her away from the war while he served as a surgeon in the Union Army. Ever since arriving in California, Lyddie had been treating injuries and illnesses from Granite City to Lake Tahoe.

Andrew looked back at Pa, whose expression had turned from skeptical to alarmed. Lyddie generally had a good head on her shoulders, but she was only a year older than Frank, and he had a gift for talking her into bad ideas.

Thank goodness Pa could think fast.

"Wonderful idea!" he said, leaning back in his chair. "I have some financial business that needs to be transacted in Sacramento. You two wouldn't mind taking care of that for me, would you?"

Andrew swallowed a chuckle when Frank grimaced.

"What sort of financial business?" Frank said.

"Oh, stocks and bonds, things like that. Shouldn't take you more than three or four hours."

"Three or four hours?" Lyddie asked, wrinkling her nose. She glanced at Frank, and Andrew bit down on his tongue to keep from laughing.

"You know, Pa, I think Andrew would be better suited for that job, being the good businessman he is and all," Frank said.

"Yeah, Uncle Will," Lyddie added. "I'd hate to mess up something that important."

"I have great faith in the two of you, but if that's how you feel, maybe Andrew should be the one to go," Pa replied. Andrew did a poor job of disguising a snort of laughter as a sneeze, but Lyddie and Frank didn't seem to notice.

"Couldn't you go, Pa?" Andrew said. "Then I could still go get the horse."

"Sorry, son, but I've got to help the men with the last of the branding. We came across a few stragglers the other day, and we need to get them marked and mixed in with the rest of the herd. It can't wait. Can't you wire the seller in Auburn and let him know you'll be a few days later than you thought?"

Andrew scrubbed his hands through his dark hair. It was no good suggesting Frank help with the branding. Pa insisted on overseeing that himself. "Only problem is I didn't put a deposit down on that animal. Didn't have the cash on me when I saw her. Seller's been holding her for me in good faith. If I don't show up by this evening, he may sell her to someone else."

"I don't know much about stocks and bonds, but I sure know a few things about horses," Frank said, cheerful again. "How about me and Lyddie go to Auburn for you and get the mare?"

Andrew chewed his lower lip and out of the corner of his eye saw Mama twisting her wedding band while Pa's spine stiffened. The idea wasn't a whole lot better than sending the pair to Sacramento, but he didn't see any other solution. "All right," he said, sighing. "I'll get you the money."