Klondike’s Price
Copyright© 2026 by Heel
Chapter 3: Ten Miles in the Snow
By mid-winter, the Klondike had turned to ice and misery. The wind came down from the mountains like a living thing, gnawing through every crack in the walls. Vanessa’s cough had worsened; her voice came out hoarse, her hands too weak to play.
When the Golden Nugget let her go, no one seemed surprised. “You can’t fill the room if you can’t fill the air,” the owner said, not unkindly—but without pity.
Within days, her money was gone. Her fingers trembled too much to sew or cook, and her charm—once her greatest shield—had lost its shine. One night, a drunk in the alley grabbed her, his breath sour with whiskey and want. She fought, scratched, and fled into the snow, shaken to her core. After that, the world no longer felt safe or fair.
In the bitter silence of her small rented room, Vanessa realized something dreadful: there was no one left to help her. The town was overrun with the desperate, the broken, and the hungry. The only thing colder than the wind was people’s hearts.
But word spread fast in Dawson, even to the poor. Ten miles north, near a bend in the river, a miner named Bill Harcourt had struck a rich pocket. He worked alone, slept in a rough shack, and was known to carry his gold dust in a leather pouch tied at his belt.
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