Yukon Wedding. Allie Pleiter

It had never fueled something like this. In the middle of town. To her own person.

      Marriage was supposed to have kept her from being this kind of target. Instead of afraid, the whole affair made her angry. Marrying Mack was supposed to offer protection, but did it paint a bull’s-eye on her back instead? Or—worse yet—Georgie’s?

      Fuming, Lana pushed her way through the noisy waterfront crowd to the General Store building site. She stomped up the steps to thrust herself and Georgie through the half-framed doorway, casting the basket to the floor with a huff.

      “Still sore at me?” Mack’s tone was teasing until he saw her face.

      “There was a man down on the waterfront. He offered to help me with the basket, and I recognized him. Sort of.” She fought the urge to brush off her elbow where he’d grabbed her. “He was nice at first, but then he had the nerve to threaten me.”

      Mack crossed the large room to her in a handful of steps. “Who threatened you? Why?” His raised voice sent Georgie’s lip quivering.

      “He assumed you’d told me where you keep your gold. And Jed’s. And he made it quite clear that ‘a lady of my substantial resources’ shouldn’t walk the streets by myself.”

      Mack’s face darkened instantly. “Who said this?”

      “He looked familiar, but I don’t know his name. I’ve seen him before, I know that much.”

      “He threatened you because you’re married to me?” Mack nearly roared, sending Georgie into tears.

      Ed Parker came up behind Mack, “You’re frightening the boy, Mack. Hold your horses.”

      Mack tried to compose himself by turning away and pacing the room. “Of all the underhanded, low-life…” He looked up at Lana. “You said you knew him?”

      “I recognized him. I suspect he was an…associate…of Jed’s. He didn’t offer his name when I asked.”

      “He knows what’s coming to him if I did know his name. You’d know him if you saw him again?”

      “I doubt I’ll get his sneer out of my head for quite a while.”

      “Don’t you leave,” Mack commanded, pointing at both Lana and Ed as he made for the door.

      “He slipped back into the crowd, Mack,” Lana called. “A block or two back. You won’t find him now.”

      “Watch me,” Mack growled, sending Georgie into full-scale howling.

      “Must you—”

      “Mack!” Ed cut in as he beat Mack to the door frame. “Don’t go off all fired up. You won’t solve anything like this. He’s just some fool out to rattle your cage.”

      “Consider me rattled.” Mack looked back at Lana. “Are you hurt? Georgie? Did he touch you?”

      Lana smoothed Georgie’s hair, bouncing him up and down gently until his cries muffled down to short bursts of whimpering. “No, he caught hold of my arm for a second, that’s all.”

      “He touched you? I’ll wring his neck, I will.”

      “I’m not hurt, Mack. I refused to be bullied by some low-life miner off the docks.”

      “That low-life miner could have done any number of things to you. Or Georgie. Thank God above neither of you were hurt.”

      “He never touched Georgie.” She looked straight at Mack. “It’s getting worse instead of better, Mack. The boats just keep dumping people out, no matter who they are and what they want.”

      “Oh, we know what they want, all right. No questions there.” Mack drew a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders, grappling to get his temper under control. “I’ll find him.”

      “You will,” Ed said. “But not today.” Ed turned to Lana. “I’m right glad you’re okay after a scare like that. Do you think you could describe him? Anything that might pick him out of a crowd?”

      Lana felt her anger return as she brought the slippery character to mind. “He had an accent. Georgia. Or Texas, maybe.” She gave all the physical description she could, trying to keep her voice even and calm, to help Georgie settle himself. She opened the picnic basket and pulled out a bit of bread to distract the boy. “His hat had a colored feather in it. Like a peacock’s.”

      “The fool. Thinking he can do that to you.” Mack continued pacing, his voice low but still menacing. “You go nowhere alone. You understand that? Nowhere.”

      That wasn’t the answer. “Mack, I’m not some orchid who has to be guarded,” Lana countered. “He scared me, but I’ve lived here as long as you, and nothing’s ever happened before.”

      “You haven’t been Mrs. Tanner before,” he shot back.

      She had been Mrs. Jedadiah Bristow. That had been education enough. “And I’ve no mind to be imprisoned for that!”

      “I’ll not have you putting yourself in danger.”

      His overprotective response made her almost sorry she’d told him of the incident. “One fool thinking he can scare me is not danger.”

      “You don’t know that, Lana.”

      “It’s only worse when the waterfront is mobbed like that.”

      “So you stay off the waterfront. Until further notice.” His annoying, paternal tone had her thinking he’d wag a finger at her in another second.

      “I already planned to do just that. When the big ships are in.”

      “At all times.”

      “Mack—”

      “A man just threatened you, Lana, and I will not have you taking a chance like that again.” Georgie’s whimper returned and Mack visibly reined in his temper. “Not even to bring me lunch.” After a moment, he added, “Thank you for bringing me lunch, all the same. It smells wonderful.”

      He was making an effort, reluctant as it was. Perhaps she ought to as well. “There’s enough for you, Mr. Parker.” In her exuberance—and the joy of having more than enough supplies to cook anything she wanted after so many weeks of scraping by—she’d probably made enough for four.

      “I may not be a scholar, but I know enough to leave two newlyweds alone. Even arguin’ ones. How about I take Georgie over to the carpenters and see if I can find some scraps we can make into blocks?” He looked at Georgie. “You got any blocks yet, fella? Every boy needs blocks.” Despite Lana’s certainty that Georgie wouldn’t go two feet from her after all the fuss, Georgie toddled over to the big man’s outstretched hand.

      “Mind him, Ed,” Mack called after the unlikely pair. “He misses his own nephews, I think,” Mack remarked to Lana. “He’s a big old teddy bear on the inside.”

      She managed a laugh. “You’d never know it to look at him.”

      “He’s had a rough life. Seen a lot—both good and bad. He’s been a good friend, though, since…” He gave a forced sigh and settled himself on the store floor, sunlight streaming in around them through the still open framework on one side of the building. Some days she could be so swallowed up by the loss of her husband of three years that she would clean forget Mack had lost his best friend of nearly thirty years. How two such different men could grow up together and still stay friends always amazed her.

      She looked up at the grief shadowing Mack’s eyes and sighed. They still didn’t quite know how to be alone in a room together. Lana occupied herself by unfolding a napkin. “We’ve all had a rough night. Tempers are short.”

      He made a low grunt in reply and rubbed his neck. “Smells mighty good,” he admitted, as the scent of the chicken wafted through the room.

      She filled a tin plate and handed it to