by Merry Farmer
“Yes, of course,” Natalia said, her excitement growing. “What fun it will be to fly all the way across England, and then to climb aboard a boat.”
Her statement was met by barely concealed chuckling from more than one gentleman standing in line with them. In fact, as she glanced past Phoebe, taking in their surroundings, she saw several men of various classes grinning at the two of them.
“I wish they wouldn’t stare so,” she said, leaning closer to Phoebe and hoping the men didn’t overhear her. “It’s quite rude.”
Phoebe had gone paler than she already was. “Perhaps we shouldn’t draw too much attention to ourselves,” she whispered. “There’s no telling what any of these gentlemen might do if they discover we are alone.”
“But we aren’t alone,” Natalia said as they inched closer to the ticket window. “We’re traveling with each other.”
Their turn to purchase tickets came, and Natalia stepped boldly up to the window to purchase two tickets to Liverpool. Her heart pounded against her ribs with excitement and she felt very grown up indeed to be taking charge of her life the way she was. She just wished Phoebe had the same enthusiasm. As it was, her new friend’s wariness raised tiny shoots of doubt at the back of Natalia’s mind. Her mother had implied that she wasn’t mature enough to enter a marriage, that she had so much more to learn about life and the ways of the world. Purchasing tickets and heading out to the vast collection of train platforms in an attempt to find the correct train and the right seats on that train should have made her feel decidedly mature. Instead, as she and Phoebe were jostled this way and that, ending up on the wrong platform at first, and having to ask a station porter to show them the way, Natalia secretly wondered if there was some truth to the things her mother had said.
“Here we are at last,” she sighed in relief as they were directed to the correct car on the train heading to Liverpool.
She and Phoebe stared up at the train car. It wasn’t what Natalia had expected. She’d only ever traveled first-class before, which meant a private compartment. The train car that matched the number on her ticket certainly wasn’t private, and there was nothing first-class about it. Several sets of curious eyes stared at the two of them from the windows that were cracked open to let in as much fresh air as possible, some of them belonging to children.
“This can’t be right.” Natalia studied the tickets, then glanced back to the train car.
Phoebe pressed closer to her side, glancing over her shoulder at the tickets. “No, this is right. This is what you purchased.”
Natalia pressed her lips together, then stared down the length of the train to where a few well-dressed ladies were climbing into first-class compartments. “Well,” she sighed at last. “I did say I wanted an adventure.”
They climbed aboard, keeping their cases with them and struggling to store them in the rack above their seats, once those seats were located. Within minutes, Natalia had the feeling that she and Phoebe were the main source of entertainment for everyone else in the car.
“What a delightful day for traveling,” she told them all with a smile, nearly tipping to the side as she shoved her bag deeper into the rack. “I, for one, cannot wait to watch the countryside speed past.”
“You might want to keep your voice down,” Phoebe whispered, sliding into the seat once her bag was secure.
“How will we make new friends if we do that?” Natalia asked, determined to make the most of her journey.
“I’ll be your friend, love,” A burly man seated two rows behind them said. When Natalia turned to him, he wiggled his eyebrows.
Natalia swallowed and sank into the seat beside Phoebe. “I see what you mean,” she whispered in return. “I don’t think I want him to be my friend.”
Phoebe shifted closer to the window, and Natalia shifted with her as the train jerked into motion. Natalia was captivated by everything outside of the station as the train began its voyage. Phoebe didn’t seem as certain, though.
“You intend to marry Dr. Townsend, don’t you?” she asked in a quiet voice as they picked up speed.
“I do,” Natalia sighed happily. “I love him more than anything.”
Phoebe chewed her lip for a moment before saying, “You do realize that this is more the sort of a life that a humble doctor could provide and not the kind of life we have become accustomed to with our family’s titles.”
Natalia blinked away from the passing cityscape and glanced to Phoebe. Her insides felt frozen for a moment. “Linus is going to make a name for himself,” she insisted. “Surely, once he has done that, we can do better than this.”
“Perhaps,” Phoebe said with a kind smile.
“Everything will work out for the best, you’ll see,” Natalia went on. Phoebe was probably more concerned about the fact that her own financial and social situation had fallen in the last few years.
Still, as much as her new friend’s words didn’t sit right, as much as they made her wonder whether the things people had been telling her all along might be true, Natalia was determined to push forward with her plan. She was convinced love would make everything all right in the end.
It was the longest journey of Linus’s life. By the time the train pulled into the station in Liverpool, he was ready to throw up his hands and let his father do whatever he wanted with Lady Darlington.
“Tell me again about how God’s love will keep us all warm and safe through even the darkest winter,” Lady Darlington said on a sigh, leaning closer to his father as they stepped down from the train.
“With the right community in place, a community which loves and supports one another, all things are possible,” his father said with his most fetching smile.
Linus could see the old man cracking around the edges, though. He’d promised Lady Phoebe that he would keep an eye on her mother, but long before they’d come close to Liverpool, Linus had begun to wonder if his father was the one who needed assistance.
“I could see myself giving everything to a community like that,” Lady Darlington said, clinging to his father’s arm. “How joyous it would be to never worry about abandonment or deceit.”
“That is the nature of God’s love,” Linus’s father said.
He sent Linus a look of desperation, as if begging him to intercede somehow. Linus would have found it completely entertaining to have his father so thoroughly pinned to the spot by his own game if his father didn’t keep trying to get him involved.
“Son, why don’t you come and tell Lady Darlington all about the community you grew up in,” he said, attempting to shake himself out of Lady Darlington’s grasp.
“I would if I could,” Linus said with a half-smirk. “But I need to assist Lord O’Shea.”
“Yes,” Lady Darlington said. “Let your dear, talented son assist his employer. You and I have more to talk about than I ever could with a young man like that anyhow.”
Linus watched in grim satisfaction as Lady Darlington led his father into a small café within the station. He shook his head, then marched back to the first-class car, where Fergus was fighting with a porter who was attempting to assist him.
“There you are, Townsend,” Fergus growled as Linus grew near. “Why the devil did you insist on traveling second-class anyhow?”
“To fulfill a promise,” Linus said, pushing past the porter to assist Fergus himself.
“I wish you would tell us the whole story behind that man claiming to be your father,” Henrietta said as she stepped behind Fergus’s wheelchair, ready to push him.
“Unfortunately, he actually is my father,” Linus said. “No matter how much I wish he weren’t.”
“Tell me more about what you think he’s up to,” Fergus ordered.
Linus was spared having to go into detail as he lifted Fergus and moved him to his wheelchair. The operation took just long enough that Linus held out hope that the topic would be forgotten. He had no such luck.
“Is he courting Lady Darlington?” Henrietta asked as she
pushed Fergus forward. “Or is she after him?”
Linus let out a humorless laugh. “My father fancies himself a religious reformer. He likes to convert wealthy widows to his cause for reasons that I’m certain you can imagine.”
“The joke’s on him, then,” Fergus said. “Lady Darlington is as poor as a church mouse, if that’s the right metaphor for the occasion.”
“Yes, well, I believe my father thinks he can draw blood from a stone,” Linus grumbled.
“Should we put a stop to things?” Henrietta asked.
“We should,” Linus sighed, then grinned as he spotted Lady Darlington leaning across a table in the café to speak to his father. “But I’m beginning to wonder if the situation might take care of itself. My father is ambitious and conniving, but he’s never been particularly patient.”
In a way, he understood how his father felt. Impatience had pricked him all through the journey so far. All Linus wanted to do was to reach their destination in Ireland so that he could sit down and write to Natalia with all the things he should have said before leaving. Beyond that, he was impatient to get this chapter of his life over with so that he could figure out some way to build a future with her. A nice, normal life as a doctor with a wife at his side was all he’d ever wanted.
“I’ve arranged for our accommodation at an inn near the ferry dock in Bootle for the night,” Fergus said as Henrietta wheeled him on. “The schedule I was given indicates the last ferry of the day has left and we won’t be able to catch the next until bright and early tomorrow.”
“How lovely that you thought so far ahead,” Henrietta complimented him, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
Linus glanced into the café as they passed, wondering if his father and Lady Darlington had thought that far ahead. “I should let my father know,” he said with a sigh.
“Why?” Fergus asked with a wry grin. “I was under the impression you couldn’t put enough distance between you and your father.”
“I promised Lady Phoebe I’d keep her mother in sight,” Linus confessed. “Excuse me for just a moment.”
He broke away from Fergus and Henrietta and strode into the café.
“And you say that every member of your community provides for the whole equally?” Lady Darlington was in the middle of questioning his father, and batting her eyelashes at him as she did it.
“Yes, yes,” his father answered. He was smiling, but that didn’t fool Linus. It amazed Linus how much personal discomfort his father would go through if he thought he had a chance of winning a few pounds out of it.
Linus approached their table and cleared his throat. “I just wanted to let you know that the last ferry to Dublin has already departed for the day. The next one leaves tomorrow morning. So if you haven’t already made arrangements, you should find a place to stay for the night.”
Lady Darlington blanched. “I…I hadn’t thought to bring extra funds for an overnight stay.”
Linus’s father opened his mouth as if to protest, then changed his mind and sighed. “I can loan you what you might need, my lady. Provided that, once you are in receipt of the money you say your Irish relative owes you, I could be reimbursed?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Lady Darlington said with a wave of her hand. She glanced to Linus. “We will come with you to whatever accommodations you have made. That way, in the morning, we can all depart on the ferry together, as friends.” She turned to Linus’s father, reaching for his hand, “As the fledgling community of believers in God’s love that we profess to be.”
Linus wanted to wince or roll his eyes. His father’s brow shot up, though whether in delight that his new disciple had learned her lesson so well or in alarm that she had somehow taken control of the situation was beyond Linus. Linus could only bow to them, then turn to leave the café, wondering what sort of madness the next day would bring.
Chapter 9
Natalia had no idea what time it was when the train she and Phoebe had taken to Liverpool finally pulled into the station. All she knew was that it was dark, she was so exhausted she didn’t care if she and Phoebe had fallen asleep all over each other in a pile, not unlike the rest of the second-class passengers, and every bone and muscle in her body ached as she and Phoebe fetched their bags from the rack overhead and climbed down from the train.
“Where are we?” Phoebe asked in a bleary voice, rubbing her eyes with one hand as they stepped out of the station and onto the dark and mostly empty street.
“Liverpool,” Natalia said, knowing it was not a real answer.
Phoebe looked askance at her. Natalia caught the look as though it were a jab in the ribs and decided she had better take charge of the situation before Phoebe mutinied.
“I don’t suppose the ferry to Dublin leaves in the middle of the night,” she said, setting down her bag and reaching for the small purse she had tucked away in her traveling coat. “I think I have enough money to hire a hack to take us to the dock and to purchase—what do you think you’re doing?”
She’d let her guard down for half a second, and a shadowy man had stepped up behind her and grabbed the handle of her bag. As soon as he’d grasped it, he lunged into motion, attempting to run away, but Natalia wasn’t having any of it. She jumped after him without thinking, grabbing the back of his threadbare coat and hanging on for dear life. Phoebe screamed as she was pulled along with the man.
Her ploy worked. The man attempted to shrug out of his coat, but he couldn’t shed it entirely without dropping her bag. A police whistle sounded behind Natalia. The attempted robber instantly let go of her bag and dashed off into the night. Natalia spilled backwards as he shook her off, landing unceremoniously on her backside in the gutter beside the station. She groaned at the jab of pain that shot up her spine and the foul smell that wafted around her, but at least she had her bag.
“That will teach the likes of him to steal from me,” she said, panting, as she wobbled to her feet. She took a few, unsteady steps onto the curb and toward Phoebe, who now had a police officer at her side. “See?” she said, shaking as she attempted to straighten her hat and pat some of her hair back in place. “I told you that we would be perfectly capable of making our way to Liverpool and beyond by ourselves.”
Even in the weak lamplight that barely illuminated the darkness, Natalia could see Phoebe go pale. Truth be told, she was no longer feeling confident about their chances of making it on their own in the middle of the night in a city she’d never been to before. But as soon as a shred of doubt took hold in her, she brushed it away. Her mother would gloat if she knew what had happened to her, and that was the last thing she wanted.
“Are you well, miss?” the police officer asked as Natalia rejoined Phoebe.
“Quite well, thank you, sir.” Natalia did her best to pretend she was addressing the man in the middle of the day at a genteel garden party.
“Nothing permanently injured, I trust?” the man went on asking, looking as though he might want to frisk her just to be sure.
Natalia’s brow inched up in surprise. Man of the law or not, the police officer was certainly still male. “No injuries,” she said. She shifted her weight to one leg then asked, “You wouldn’t know how we could find our way to the dock where the ferry to Dublin leaves, would you?”
“In the middle of the night, miss?” The officer seemed surprised.
“Do you suggest another time?” Natalia answered with a fair bit of sarcasm, staring down her nose at him. It was about time she assert herself as a member of the aristocracy, as much as she professed to dislike using social class as a bludgeon.
The officer blinked and tugged at his uniform, looking as though he were coming to his senses where proper behavior toward ladies was concerned. “The next ferry doesn’t leave until eight in the morning, miss,” he said.
With a slight wince, Natalia said, “That’s ‘my lady’ to you, sir.”
The officer’s eyes lit with appreciation, and a bit of dread. “Yes, my lady. There are several
establishments in the area of the dock that stay open all hours to accommodate gentlefolk like yourselves who arrive late on the train. I could escort you to a carriage that will take you there, if you’d like.”
“That would be fabulous,” Natalia said with a smile.
The officer set to work flagging down one of the shadowy carriages that had lined up across the street from the station, likely hoping to provide their services to those arriving from all over England. It was such a relief to have someone step in to help that Natalia practically sagged against Phoebe as they waited for a carriage to pull around.
“You have more moxie than I ever could,” Phoebe whispered to her, eyes wide. “That was nerve-rattling.”
“It’s all a matter of acting as though you are in control of the situation,” Natalia whispered back. “Even when you are not.”
The officer opened the door of the carriage for them, and as Phoebe stepped forward, she said, “I hope that Dr. Townsend appreciates your boldness. Every man I’ve ever known prefers that the ladies of their acquaintance stand back and let them take charge.”
Natalia frowned at the statement, then followed Phoebe into the carriage. Of course Linus would appreciate her decisiveness when it came to taking necessary action. He wasn’t like all of the men of her class that she’d met. And she was certain that he would be overjoyed to see her as soon as their paths crossed again.
The journey to the ferry dock took longer than Natalia thought it would. So long that she fell asleep in the carriage. She was awakened by the driver pounding on the door and demanding his fare for driving them. She paid after alighting, and from there, she and Phoebe made their way to a sheltered waiting area as the first rays of the sun peeked over the eastern horizon.
The only bit of luck they had was that they were able to purchase their passage and board the ferry well before it was due to set sail.
“If I can just find a quiet corner to rest in for a few more minutes,” Natalia began as they dragged themselves aboard. Her statement was cut off by a long yawn.
