Miles Before I Sleep

by Byrd, M. Donice

  “Are you visiting someone in America or just going on a holiday?” she asked casually, and Andrea was sure the woman had struck up many polite conversations with the same question.

  “Actually, I’m going there to live,” Andrea answered in her most refined voice.

  “Then you’re traveling with your husband?”

  “My brother,” she lied quickly, having not thought before to explain with whom she traveled. She preferred it not become public knowledge that there was an unescorted female aboard. “Jim, I fear, is not much of a mariner and will undoubtedly spend the most of the voyage in his cabin.”

  The woman started to say something but Andrea didn’t hear a word of it. Her attention was suddenly seized by a sailor standing some ten yards behind Lady Pike. His eyes were fixed on her, and the moment she saw him, she could not draw her eyes away. Recognition was instantaneous. And by the smirk that formed on the man’s lips, it was apparent he recognized her as well.

  Until the previous spring, Clyde Sully had worked as a common seaman on her father’s ship, The Nightingale. By his sailors’ uniform, it was apparent he now worked on this ship.

  Andrea had seen him too many times in her father’s office not to recognize the tall, wiry man. After returning from sea, the ship’s crew would line up in the office to receive their pay. She had been relieved to find out he had been sacked. Of all the men employed by Sebastian James, he was the one man who had ever been rude to her. Offensive was more accurate, although he never spoke to her directly. He had been fired for making lewd remarks in Andrea’s presence—lewd innuendoes about her. His eyes, as they were now, would be fixed upon her, and the words that he spoke to the men closest to him carried across the small office, as his voice boomed loudly over all the others. It was pretty much the same each time. He’d say how much he’d like to “sail The Andrea.” He would even describe the ship, its sleek hull, deep hold and billowing sails in a manner so lewd that it could only be called vulgar. No one doubted he was talking about the girl rather than the ship. She did her best to ignore him and had she not been too afraid to walk past the man, she would have left the office to find her father. Sebastian would have had him whipped if he had heard the man, but Sully was smart enough to wait until her father was aboard ship with the captain, leaving his clerks to dole out the pay.

  Andrea never knew who told her father, but she would be forever grateful.

  Clyde Sully was joined by another crewmember and Andrea forced her eyes back to the woman in front of her. The woman could have been speaking another language for all Andrea understood the continuous din of her voice. She glanced several more times towards Sully, only to see that he was still eyeing her as he conversed with the second sailor who also occasionally looked her way. But whether she was the topic of their conversation, or the man was only following Clyde Sully’s eyes, she did not know.

  Breaching all rules of decorum, Andrea hooked her arm around the older lady’s elbow and began strolling away from Clyde Sully. Lady Pike gaped at Andrea, not certain how she should react to such an uncalled for intimacy. Andrea released her arm with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry,” she exclaimed as if she had not known what she was doing. She released her arm but kept walking. “You just remind me so much of my dear Aunt Nellie…I don’t know what I could have been thinking.”

  Slightly flustered, Lady Pike accepted the apology after a brief pause.

  “You will come to the ladies’ saloon with me, won’t you? I just can’t stay out in the sun a moment longer if I want to keep my complexion,” Andrea said.

  “As it so happens, I was supposed to meet my daughter there in a few minutes.”

  The two started towards the ladies’ saloon. As Andrea turned into the passageway, she cast a last look over her shoulder to see if Clyde Sully was still watching her and did not see him. Nor did she see the form emerging from the dark passageway until it was too late. The man agilely sidestepped, but was unable to avoid colliding with her. Automatically, he seized her elbows to steady her, but released her with equal swiftness when she regained her balance.

  “Pardon me,” she said swiftly, her eyes adjusting to the dim light of the corridor. “I wasn’t watching where I….” She trailed off when she saw the man she had run into was Miles Huntington. The decisive moment was upon her. Would he recognize her? It had been five years since she had danced in his arms, but it was less than a fortnight since her self-portrait appeared in the paper.

  “Are you all right? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “N-no, of course not.” Andrea heard the wavering of her voice. As if a switch were thrown, she raised her head regally to compensate. The response was instinctive after years of what her mother called acting. To show fear or nervousness would only work against her.

  “Are you sure, my dear,” Lady Pike asked solicitously. “You look a little pale.”

  Andrea laughed slightly. “Then I guess I wasn’t out in the sun for too long after all.”

  “Indeed,” Lady Pike ruffled, trying not to indulge Andrea’s sudden humor with a smile. The girl did have the most unseemly, yet impish, manners. “And you, Mr. Huntington, I trust you are also undamaged?”

  “Quite so,” he responded, affecting a British accent.

  Surprised by his folly, a genuine smile spread across her face.

  “Surely, Lady Pike, this is not a second lovely daughter?” Miles Huntington asked.

  “Oh no,” she answered in her singsong voice. “This is Miss Andrews. We’ve only just met.”

  Miles extended his hand to her. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Andrews.” Before she could return the platitude, he released her hand and turned back to the older woman. “I was going to have a message sent around to your cabin to ask if you and your family would care to join me at my table again this evening. But since I have found you, I can ask you in person.”

  “My husband is still suffering from these sea maladies, but Callie and I would love to join you again.”

  “Good. Eight o’clock then?”

  “Very well.”

  He nodded to Lady Pike. “It was nice to meet you, Miss Andrews.”

  Andrea nodded slowly and said nothing, but followed him with her eyes as he departed. When she realized Lady Pike was bustling down the hall, the younger woman hurried to keep up.

  He had not recognized her! She could hardly believe it. She had not known how she would have dealt with him if he had. It was exactly as she had hoped. However, it did rankle her pride just a bit that he did not remember her, because she had never forgotten him. Even five years later, she still remembered the moment they had bumped into each other as they stepped onto the dance floor. Over the years, it seemed that the moment her breasts flattened against his chest had escalated tenfold. She had been too aware of her nervousness at the time to give meaning to the new sensations. But she had thought about that moment many times. Sometimes at night, as she lay in her bed, she would tentatively press her hands to her breasts trying to recreate the feeling. It was never the same.

  She certainly did not understand why the image of Miles Huntington in her imaginings made her feel so contented, but it did. She knew men only used women’s bodies as a release for their lust. Miles Huntington would be no different. But for some reason, when she thought of Miles, that act didn’t seem as repulsive. Andrea did not have to worry about that since she was never getting married. Ever. Besides, for all she knew, he was already married.

  Andrea would have been surprised to find out Lady Pike’s thoughts were also on Miles Huntington’s eligibility.

  “I hope Callie is here already. I can’t wait to tell her about Mr. Huntington’s invitation.” She leaned closer to Andrea and confided in hushed tones, “I wouldn’t mind having Mr. Huntington for a son-in-law.”

  “I would have thought a man his age would be married.”

  “Or looking.”

  The conspiratorial tone of the woman’s voice gave Andrea pause.

  Both wome
n scanned the saloon, Lady Pike looking for her daughter, Andrea staving her curiosity. Andrea’s eyes stopped on a vivacious brunette chatting carelessly with several other ladies of varying ages. Her tinkling laugh drifted across the room to Andrea making her envious of the young woman’s self-confidence and natural charm. As the woman brought her mirth under control, she looked in their direction and waved at Lady Pike. Excusing herself from the group, the woman came towards them and Andrea got this sickening impression that this was Alma Pike’s daughter.

  Her first instinct was to dislike her. Outwardly, she was everything Andrea wished to be. Her smile was wide and friendly, almost toothy in its zenith. Her coloring was rich, with her thick brown hair and dark expressive eyes. She had deep red lips and high color in her cheeks, which Andrea would later discover, under closer inspection, were enhanced by cosmetics. Andrea felt washed out and dull next to her.

  Lady Pike made the introductions and as soon as Callie Pike spoke, Andrea lost much of her envy. The tone of her voice was as grating as a waterfront fishwife’s.

  Mother and daughter seated themselves on a small couch in the corner and Andrea took an open chair nearby.

  Nearly bursting with excitement, Lady Pike gushed, “Guess who’s invited us to dinner again.”

  “He did? Really, Mama?” At her mother’s nod, Callie sighed. “He’s the one, Mama. I can feel it in my bones. Before this voyage is over, I’m going to be engaged to Mr. Miles Huntington.” She looked off into the empty air, a dreamy smile across her face. “Do you think we will live in New York or London? I don’t know if I want to live so far from you and Papa.”

  Lady Pike glanced at Andrea and shook her head like an overindulgent mother. “My dear, the man owns this ship. You can come home and visit three or four times a year, if you have a mind to.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” She laughed airily. “Have you met Miles?” she asked Andrea.

  Bristling over the way she called him Miles, Andrea would have loved to have said, “I met him years ago at a ball given in my father’s honor and danced half my dances in his arms.” Instead, she simply said, “Yes, we’ve met.”

  “Mama, do you think we could invite everyone from the ship to the wedding? After all, this is where we met. Isn’t it romantic?”

  Nauseating was more like it, Andrea thought.

  “It depends on who is paying for the wedding, my dear. I was thinking more along the lines of a simple wedding. But really, darling, we are getting ahead of ourselves.”

  “Maybe he’ll even change the name of the ship. Let’s see, maybe The Lady Fair should be The Dark Lady… No, that doesn’t sound right. Oh posh, The Callie or The Callie Pike then.”

  “I believe it is bad luck to change a ship’s name,” Andrea volunteered, knowing that her father’s ships frequently wore the wrong name and flag when in the port of a country that was on less than friendly terms with England. “You know how superstitious sailors are.”

  “Oh,” Callie said disappointedly, her bottom lip coming out in a pout. “Perhaps his next ship.”

  Andrea wanted to suggest that Miles Huntington was probably hopelessly in debt from building this ship. Not only were steamships substantially more expensive than a wind powered vessel, but the H & O had made the ship unbelievably luxurious. Everything she had seen of the ship was first rate, no expense spared. But if she had pointed that out, she would have appeared catty, so she let the woman’s fancy pass without comment.

  Andrea sat back and listened as the two women discussed what Callie should wear at dinner. The mother and daughter had such an easy rapport with each other. It had never been like that for Andrea and Lillian. Lillian, rather than commenting on her daughter’s attributes, as Lady Pike did, always seemed to find Andrea’s flaws. Her hairstyle did not suit her face, the color of her dress was not complementary, the cut of her dress did not flatter her figure, she was simply too tall, even though she was shorter than Lillian by an inch.

  Lady Pike left to see to Callie’s wardrobe, leaving Andrea alone with Callie.

  “Aren’t you worried about…marrying a man,” Andrea asked in a moment of seriousness.

  “I should be more worried if I were marrying a monster,” Callie answered keeping a straight face with some effort. She waited until she saw that Andrea had caught the joke before she laughed.

  Andrea laughed only because it was polite. She had been sincere in asking and wanted a real answer. Offhandedly, she wondered if Lady Pike had ever told her daughter about what happens in the marriage bed.

  She leaned closer to Callie, her tone was hushed. “But really, aren’t you afraid of…being with a man?”

  “Whatever for? I should imagine it shall be perfectly natural. I mean, men and women have been, you know, for hundreds of years. No one has died from it that I know of. Oh, I suppose I’ll be nervous the first time, but only because I wouldn’t want to displease him.”

  Andrea nodded her head knowing that Lady Pike had never broached the subject with her daughter. Poor girl, she thought compassionately, she had no idea of what she was getting into. Andrea could not bring herself to disillusion her. Perhaps it was better to go into the marriage blindly. She could live with her misconceptions of love and happiness, whereas Andrea could only see marriage with trepidation.

  Lady Callie’s maid arrived in the saloon a few minutes later. Lady Pike had sent her after Callie so they could dress for the midday meal.

  After they departed, Andrea decided to return to her cabin to change also. It would be her first time in the dining room and she was excited to sample the ship’s fare.

  As she entered the corridor to her room, she saw Clyde Sully lingering nearby. When he saw her, he strode towards her with purpose.

  Andrea quickly dashed into her room and shut the door locking it. A moment later, there was a knock on the door.

  “Who is it?” she asked without opening the door.

  “You know who it is,” he said keeping his tone low.

  “Go away.”

  “You can’t hide forever,” he said menacingly. Clyde Sully was astute enough to realize he could not be seen standing outside the door of the passenger cabins making threats. “Eventually, you will have to talk to me.”

  11

  After her confrontation with Clyde Sully, Andrea could not get her nerve up to leave her cabin for the midday meal. At breakfast she had consumed the last bit of food she had brought with her, so by suppertime, she was famished. Standing at her door, she waited to emerge until she heard other people leave their cabins to go to the dining room. Although she felt safe in the presence of other passengers, her eyes continued to dart into every alcove and shadow expecting Clyde Sully to reach out from the darkness and pull her into a storage closet.

  When she arrived at the dining room, Andrea encountered an unforeseen problem. Having never traveled by passenger ship before, she had not expected the seating to be assigned. Since her passage was booked under the name Jim Andrews, she had to convince the maître d’ that there had been a mistake and her name had been misspelled on his list. But when she was escorted across the room and a chair held out at Miles Huntington’s table, she nearly bolted. Only the gnawing in her stomach, and her fear of causing a scene, allowed her to pull her shoulders back and sit down in the seat offered to her.

  Lady Pike and Lady Callie stared open mouthed as Miles Huntington took careful notice of her.

  “It would seem,” Andrea began in explanation to the Pikes, “that I am assigned to this table.”

  “Indeed,” Lady Pike said, piqued. “I was under the impression that one had to be invited to join either the captain or you, Mr. Huntington.”

  “If I don’t miss my guess, I’d say Miss Andrews, is in the cabin my cousin was to occupy. He was supposed to join me at my table for the length of the voyage. Circumstances have prevented him from making the return crossing. His arrangements have obviously been transferred to the occupant of his stateroom,” the dark headed man sai
d with some amusement. Adding to Andrea, knowingly, “How is Jim?” His eyes crinkled in the corners mischievously.

  Her soft gasp went unheard in the din of the diners. “He-he’s been ill. I fear my brother may have taken a sudden turn for the worse.” Andrea picked up a menu hoping to end the conversation.

  “You don’t say….” One eyebrow shot up. “Perhaps I should have the doctor look in on him.”

  “I thought you weren’t acquainted,” Lady Pike inquired.

  “I met Miss Andrew’s brother in the ticket office. I didn’t make the connection until just this minute.” He turned back to Andrea. “The family resemblance is remarkable. I’m surprised I didn’t see it before.”

  Andrea could tell he was toying with her. He knew that “Jim” was assigned his cousin’s cabin and that he had come aboard alone. He did not seem at all angry, as she might have expected. Instead, he appeared to be entertained by her farce.

  “I was surprised myself,” she replied, feeling only slightly less tense, but smiling pleasantly. “Some say if it weren’t for his spectacles and mustache we would look exactly alike.”

  He chuckled. “I would have to agree.”

  Andrea glanced across the table at the other two women. Lady Pike's mouth was drawn in a tight, bloodless line, making her lips whitish. Her angry brown eyes met hers for only a moment before Andrea lifted her menu before her.

  Lady Callie’s expressive sable colored eyes were fixed on Miles Huntington. She worried her full lower lip with her teeth as she nervously curled a ringlet of hair around a finger.

  “Shall I speak with the steward tomorrow or would you prefer to do it, Mr. Huntington?” Andrea asked.

  “Miss Andrews?” His eyebrows lifted and his head tilted sideways in question. “What is it that we need to discuss with him?”

  “The dining arrangements, of course. Now that we know that a mistake has been made, it must be rectified so you may have more room for your guests.”

  “I wouldn’t hear of it,” he stated firmly. “Until your brother is well, you must allow me to see to your welfare. Without his companionship, some of the male passengers and ship’s complement might get into undue mischief.”