The Mother Lode: Finding Gold, Finding Love

By: Calder, Jamie

He came to California for gold. He found something more valuable.

In the spring of 1849, Edward "Ned" Hartwell does what is expected of him. The dutiful son of a Boston merchant, the respectable accountant, the fianc to a woman of impeccable breeding, he has built a life of quiet conformity. But when the whispers of gold in California become a roar, Ned sees a chance to secure the fortune required to cement his place in the world. He leaves Boston behind, promising Helena he will return a wealthy man ready to marry.

The West, however, has other plans.

The journey to the gold fields is brutal, and Ned arrives in the rugged mining camp of Hardwood Creek utterly unprepared for the life he has chosen. He is a man of ledgers and manners in a world of mud and violence, and every attempt to wrest a fortune from the earth ends in failure.

Then he meets Jack Callahan.

Jack is everything Ned is not: a seasoned prospector who knows the mountains like the back of his own hand, a man of the wilderness who carries his past in the scars on his hands. When illness strikes Ned on the journey, it is Jack who holds him through the fever, their bodies pressed together for warmth in the cramped darkness. In that moment, a connection is forged, intense, undeniable, and terrifying.

As Ned struggles to find his footing, Jack becomes his teacher, his partner in the claim, and the one person who sees the man behind the carefully constructed fa ade. But the gold fields are no place for secrets. In a camp ruled by rough justice and a preacher who condemns any deviation from God's law, the discovery of Morrison's body, beaten to death for the very desires Ned is beginning to acknowledge, serves as a chilling warning.

Trapped between the life he was supposed to want and a passion he cannot name, Ned must dig deeper than he ever imagined possible. He came to California to find gold, but he is about to discover that the most valuable treasures are the ones buried within ourselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN13: 9798253325605
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"