Forget-Me-Not Bride
Page 14
‘I’d like to take you for a walk through an Indian settlement,’ he said, a hot flush at the backs of his eyes as he slid an arm around her waist. ‘We’ll be at Skagway by early afternoon but Skagway isn’t Indian and it isn’t the prettiest place on earth.’
She felt heat surge into her cheeks. No matter what private understanding there might now be between them she couldn’t stand in broad daylight with his arm around her waist! Not when it was common knowledge they were not travelling together and when there was no engagement ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. If people thought she was allowing a near stranger to take liberties with her person it would reflect badly on the other Peabody brides’ reputations. And Edie had already had one hideous experience without her own behaviour encouraging another.
‘People are looking,’ she said huskily, moving away from him slightly so that the contact between them was broken.
He suppressed a surge of exasperation knowing that she was quite right, that people were looking. And certainly if once the rumour that she was on intimate terms with him spread, it would be impossible for her to be accepted by polite society in Dawson. And that was, after all, what he wanted for her? Wasn’t it?
‘Sure you can get her a respectable, well-paying job,’ Kitty had said to him when he had told her of his plans to pay off Josh Nelson and make arrangements whereby Lilli could support herself and Leo and Lottie, ‘but she’ll never be able to fit into her own kind of society in Dawson if gossip has it there’s more between the two of you than meets the eye.’
She had looked at him with the kind of directness he had never known any other woman capable of, ‘And if there is more between the two of you than meets the eye, I’d like to be the first to hear about it.’
He had grinned, sliding his arms around her waist, holding her close. ‘There’s been nothing more than a goodnight kiss,’ he said, knowing Kitty would take such a revelation in her stride. ‘She’s a nice kid who has had a raw deal and who I’d like to help, okay?’
Kitty had cocked her head slightly to one side, ‘It’s okay for now,’ she had said, regarding him shrewdly, ‘but it won’t be okay if you start getting in too deep. Women can’t be played with as if they’re a deck of cards, Jack. And that goes for me as well as Miss Lilli Stullen.’
It had been a warning and he had taken due note of it. Now, however, again within kissing distance of Lilli Stullen’s full-lipped mouth, he couldn’t help wondering if it was a warning he was going to ignore. There was something oddly moving about engaging the attentions of a young woman who took the charade so very seriously. He thought back to the previous night and wondered if she had ever been kissed before. Somehow he doubted it. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. If his assumption was correct it made the warmth and willingness of her response even more remarkable.
‘We’ll be able to get away from prying eyes when we reach Whitehorse,’ he said, beginning to stroll with her down the deck, enjoying the smell of lemon-blossom that emanated from her hair. He wondered what she rinsed it in; how long it would be unpinned; how heavy and silky it would feel falling across the backs of his hands. ‘I’ll hire a buggy to take us out to the rapids.’
She was so conscious of his nearness she could barely think of anything else. She hadn’t wanted to step away from his arm when it had circled her waist. It had been one of the hardest things she had ever done and she had only done it because she didn’t want gossip about herself to adversely affect Susan and Kate and Edie and Lettie.
‘That would be lovely,’ she said sincerely, ‘Leo and Lottie would love a buggy-ride. They haven’t been in a buggy since we left Kansas.’
Jack opened his mouth to say he had been envisioning a buggy-ride that would give them an opportunity for a little privacy and then thought better of it. Her innocence was such she hadn’t realised how far he had intended their kissing and caressing to go and suddenly the idea of violating such innocence, for no reason other than selfish amusement, didn’t seem to be quite such a good one.
‘We could take one of your friends as well,’ he said, abandoning all thoughts of seduction, ‘the more the merrier.’ The wryness in his voice was lost on her. She only thought how extraordinarily kind he was.
‘Morning, Miss Stullen!’ a grizzled-haired, roly-poly figure she had seen before but had never spoken to, said, breezing up to them like an old family friend. ‘Morning, Lucky Jack! It’s mighty good weather we’re havin’, ain’t it?’
‘It sure is, Stan,’ Jack said easily and then, knowing that Stan only knew Lilli’s name by hearsay and had never been introduced to her, he said, ‘Stan, may I introduce you to Miss Lilli Stullen. Lilli, this here is Saskatchewan Stan. He’s an old Klondike hand.’
‘Sure am, ma’am,’ Stan said, eyes as black as currants twinkling with good humour. ‘Mushed it over the Chilkoot in the spring of ‘98 and struck lucky practically straight away. So darn lucky I needn’t never go back but I’m just an old shovel-stiff at heart and I can’t seem to keep away from those rivers and creeks and bare, blue hills.’
‘I’m very pleased to meet you Mr … Mr …’
‘Just call me Stan, ma’am,’ Saskatchewan Stan said, coming to her aid. ‘Everyone does.’
‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Stan,’ Lilli said, wondering if he was younger than he looked, for he looked to be at least fifty years old.
‘And I’m right pleased to meet you, Miss Stullen. I seed what happened the other day when your kid brother went for a dip in the ocean and I felt real bad about it.’
Jack cleared his throat, certain of what was about to come. ‘Stan I don’t think …’ he began, frowning warningly in Stan’s direction.
Stan was oblivious. When he got into a conversational roll nothing could stop him and he was on a roll now. ‘Why, if me and Blueberry Pete hadn’t gotten into a dice game with Lucky Jack, the little nipper might never have wandered off on his own. Kids never do like hangin’around unattended, do they? Never had kids of my own, ma’am, ’cos I’ve never bin married, but I sure would like to have kids. Kids kind of settle a man, don’t they?’
Lilli dutifully agreed that children certainly brought stability. A dice-game! So that was where Jack’s attention was when he should have been keeping an eye on Leo! A wave of indignation flooded through her. Leo could easily have drowned and if he had drowned it would have been due to Lucky Jack’s negligence. It was a terrible thought and she didn’t know how to come to terms with it. She was, after all, in love with Jack. He was her Destiny. Her Fate. And he loved her. The mere memory of the way he had kissed and caressed her the previous evening was proof enough of that.
‘… and so I’ve been in Californey for the winter,’ Saskatchewan Stan was saying, barely pausing for breath, ‘and next winter I might mush down to Arizoney or even Floridy.’
Lilli smiled encouragement, her thoughts far from either Arizona or Florida. She shot Jack a covert look. He was smoothing his neatly clipped blond moustache with his thumb and forefinger, the sun glinting on his rakish earring as he listened to Saskatchewan Stan’s ramblings as if they were pronouncements of the greatest relevance.
Her heart felt as if it were turning over within her breast. What other man could look so sophisticated and yet so devil-may-care? And what other man would have the kindness to pay such attention to an amiable windbag such as Saskatchewan Stan? If she felt distressed at the thought of his negligence where Leo was concerned, how much worse must he feel? With great difficulty she stopped herself from slipping her hand into his and giving it a comforting squeeze.
‘… and my apologies for not bein’more spruced up,’ Stan was now saying to her. ‘I hadn’t expected there to be so many ladies aboard ship. Mighty pretty ladies too.’
‘And all looking for husbands,’ Jack said roguishly.
Saskatchewan Stan flushed beetroot. ‘Now don’t you go tryin’ to pair me off with any pretty lady, Jack. You know how ham-fisted I am around pretty ladies. They make me r
eal jittery.’
‘You’re not jittery now and Lilli’s a pretty lady,’ Jack pointed out, causing Stan to flush an even deeper shade of red.
‘She sure is. She’s a mighty pretty lady, but she ain’t on the loose so to speak.’ Stan’s consternation was so acute it was all Lilli could to prevent herself from bursting into giggles. ‘She’s kind of with you and that makes a difference to a man.’
Jack laughed and then, looking beyond Stan, his laughter faded. ‘Your friend is approaching,’ he said to Lilli, frowning slightly. ‘And she’s got a clergyman with her.’ He made it sound as if Susan was being accompanied by a dread disease.
‘The gentleman in question is the Reverend Mr Jenkinson,’ Lilli said, unable to keep amusement out of her voice any longer. ‘He’s travelling to Dawson to replace the incumbent Methodist minister there.’
‘Then if that’s the case I don’t think he should see you with me,’ Jack said, mindful of Kitty’s warnings on the subject. ‘Come on, Stan. Let’s take our leave of Lilli. Clerical respectability is in the offing.’
With almost indecent speed they turned on their heels, leaving her strolling alone towards Susan and the Reverend Mr Jenkinson.
With a twitch of her lips Lilli noted that the Reverend Mr Jenkinson was keeping a very proprietal distance away from Susan. So far, that, if she had chosen to, she could have easily walked between the two of them.
‘I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine,’ Susan said to him, her large face looking almost pretty she was so happy. ‘Lilli, the Reverend Mr Jenkinson. Mr Jenkinson, my friend Miss Stullen.’
‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Miss Stullen,’ Susan’s beau said, his moon-face beaming. ‘I understand we will be neighbours in Dawson. I’m hoping to start a small school there for Indian children as I understand from Miss Bumby that at present there are no such facilities. As a work colleague of Miss Bumby’s, perhaps you could give me a little advice as to how I should go about organising such a school without offending the orthodox school-board authorities?’
‘I’m afraid you are mistaken about my being a colleague of Miss Bumby’s,’ Lilli said, vastly entertained at having being taken for a school-mistress, especially a school-mistress capable of giving a mature clergyman professional advice.
‘Although Miss Stullen doesn’t teach, she’s very good with children,’ Susan said quickly. ‘Her younger brother and sister are travelling with her to Dawson. Leo is six years of age and Lottie, ten, and I’m very much looking forward to having Leo in my class next term.’
‘Splendid, splendid,’ Mr Jenkinson said affably, hiding his perplexity as to what a single young woman with two young siblings was doing en route to the pioneering north.
Lilli, seeing Lettie and Marietta in the distance, politely excused herself and made an escape. It was obvious Susan hadn’t yet disclosed to Mr Jenkinson that she was returning to Dawson as a Peabody bride for if she had done so, she would have said that she, Lilli, was a Peabody bride also.
‘Where are Lottie and Leo?’ she asked when she came within hailing distance of her friends. ‘I thought they were with you?’
‘They were but we ran into Leo’s saviour and they’re hanging over the bow with him, eager for a first sighting of Skagway.’
‘Oh Lord!’ Lilli said, aware that she had a problem on her hands.
Marietta’s green cat-eyes widened. ‘What’s the matter? We didn’t think you’d mind. Leo’s got a bad case of hero-worship where Mr Cameron is concerned and Lottie obviously thinks he’s pretty wonderful as well.’
‘Yes, well, I think I’d better go and relieve him of them all the same.’
Both Marietta and Lettie stared at her, mystified. Lilli stared back at them helplessly. She couldn’t explain. She owed Ringan Cameron too much to be responsible for spreading the news that his criminal offence had been murder. He had, after all, served time for his crime. Like herself, he was embarking on a new life in Dawson and the fewer people who knew about his past the better his chances of success in that new life would be.
Quickly she began to walk towards the bow, aware for the first time of the sense of expectation amongst her fellow passengers.
‘Portal of Romance, that’s Skagway,’ one old-timer was saying to a party of new-comers. ‘You’ll see it any minute now, crouched at the foot of the White Pass mountains …’
‘This is the Lynn Canal, Miss Nettlesham,’ a senior member of crew was saying as Miss Nettlesham held a pair of binoculars to her eyes. ‘It’s a long, natural arm of water …’
Lilli took a detour behind them so as not to be waylaid. She had a guilty conscience where Miss Nettlesham was concerned feeling she should have made more effort to befriend her. Now, however, was not the time to put her omission to rights.
There was quite a crowd of people in the bow, all of them looking towards the soaring, snow-covered mountains that now seemed almost close enough to touch.
As always, Ringan Cameron’s distinctive colouring and build set him apart from the men nearby him. He was standing at the deck-rails, his back towards her, Leo and Lottie at either side of him. As she approached him she couldn’t help noting that he had the most beautiful head of hair she’d ever seen on a man. Ranging subtly in hue from mahogany to nutmeg it had enough natural curl in it to spring and twine around a woman’s finger.
She gave herself a sharp mental reprimand. What on earth was she thinking of? Ringan Cameron’s fiery hair would certainly never curl around her finger. Thick, sleek, wheat-gold hair was the only kind of hair that interested her.
She cleared her throat. ‘Excuse me, Mr Cameron, but it’s time Leo and Lottie started getting ready to disembark.’
He turned round to face her, but not with an easy, dazzling smile as Lucky Jack would have done. Beneath his bushy moustache his well-shaped mouth remained straight and there was an unreadable expression in his dark grey eyes. She remembered the intimate embrace he had witnessed between herself and Jack Coolidge and wondered if he was remembering it also and if that was the reason for his reserve. At the thought that he might be thinking her the kind of woman he didn’t want to associate with, indignation flooded through her. He was a murderer for goodness sake! How dare he take a holier-than-thou attitude where she was concerned?
‘We’ve another hour, easy, before we dock,’ he said, and against her will she was reminded how pleasant a Highland burr was in a rich, dark, male voice.
‘All the same I’d like them to come with me back to our cabin,’ she said firmly, knowing she sounded like a bossy school-mistress but not knowing how else to tackle the situation.
Lottie turned away from the view and looked at her in astonishment. ‘But we haven’t anything to pack,’ she pointed out reasonably. ‘We’ve been living out of our travel-bags ever since we boarded. All we have to do is pick them up and carry them off the ship with us.’
Lilli came as close to glaring at her as she’d ever done in her life. If she insisted again that Leo and Lottie return with her to their cabin, Ringan Cameron would immediately leap to the right conclusion about the reason which, under the circumstances, would be deeply embarrassing. She gritted her teeth. There was only one alternative. As she obviously couldn’t leave Leo and Lottie alone in the company of a man who had murdered, she would simply have to stay with them, with him.
‘We’ll stay on deck for another fifteen minutes and then we’ll have to return to the cabin for our bags,’ she said tightly.
Lottie, aware that something had deeply ruffled Lilli’s feathers but mystified as to what it could have been, said, ‘Are you feeling all right, Lilli? You look a bit fraught.’
‘I’m feeling fine,’ Lilli said, resisting the urge to throttle her.
Even Ringan Cameron had begun to look at her a little oddly. Only Leo was impervious to the tension. Standing on the bottom deck-rail, his weight against the top rail, he hadn’t even turned round to her but was staring at the shimmering mountains in wide-eyed wonder.
A glimmer of a smile touched his straight mouth. ‘Not verra. These mountains make Scottish mountains seem like wee hills.’ The glimmer of a smile deepened. ‘Scottish mountains are more beautiful though.
She smiled in response, unable to stop herself. He was a Celt, like herself. And like herself his homeland would always be more beautiful to him than anywhere else on earth.
‘I was born in Ireland, in Wicklow,’ she said, moving nearer to the deck-rails and leaning her weight against them. ‘The Wicklow Mountains are the most beautiful mountains in the world.’
‘I was born in Skye, within shadow of the Cuillins, and I’d have to dispute that last statement.’
She laughed. Of course he would. The whereabouts of the most beautiful mountains in the world were something an Irish girl and a Scotsman would never agree on in a million years.
‘Ye havna much of an accent,’ he said, glad that her earlier abrupt manner had mellowed into pleasantness. Her curtness had sat oddly on her. She had neither the face nor the voice for it and he doubted it was something she gave vent to very often. Certainly little Lottie had seemed totally perplexed by it.
Lottie said now, tossing her braids back over her shoulders, ‘Ma and Pa left Ireland with Lilli when she was my age. After that we lived in America.’
He made an indeterminate sound low in his throat that could be interpreted to mean almost anything and Lilli, caught unexpectedly in a mood of deep nostalgia, said, ‘Our Pa was a travelling-man. He worked with horses whenever he could. One time we lived on a ranch in Wyoming for two years. Another time we lived in Colorado …’
‘And don’t forget Montana, Lilli,’ Leo said suddenly, ‘I liked Montana.’
Ringan chuckled. ‘Ye got around a tidy bit. I’ve been to Montana myself, but only to camp and hike.