Suddenly I felt trapped, closed in. I did not trust that woman, and now she was talking to Oats. Probably it was idle conversation, but I dared not risk it.
I glanced across the table at Dorian Chantry. Did I dare ask his help? Did he even know about me? If I could just get off, in the middle of the night, when no one suspected …
I was a fool to be thinking of him. He had not so much as noticed me. It was my family I must consider, and what this money would do for them. We had been poor for such a long time. We lived all right because we could hunt, but now it could be different.
Very different.
What I needed now was time to think, to plan. If I could get off this steamboat now, or soon, I could get a horse and ride south. It was closer to home than Cincinnati, although wilder country, I believed.
If I only had a map of the river! Often the steamboat stopped at small places, sometimes only landings. If I could get off without anybody knowing, get off in the middle of the night …
That nice young man, Robinson. He would know. He had offered to help.
He wasn’t thinking of that kind of help, I warned myself. Still, if I could just get off somewhere …
I could get Mr. Robinson to show me a chart of the river. I knew they must have some in the pilothouse. Suddenly I was startled from my thinking. He was speaking to me. Dorian Chantry was speaking to me!
12
“Did I understand you to say, Miss Sackett, that you are leaving the steamer at Cincinnati?”
“That is my present plan, Mister … is it Chantry?”
“Dorian Chantry, at your service. I believe you know my Uncle Finian?”
“I’ve had the pleasure, and indeed it was a pleasure. He is a very fine man, a remarkable man.”
“And a stern one, very stern.”
“With reason, perhaps?”
His glance was cool. “No doubt he feels it so.” He resumed the former topic. “From Cincinnati you go home, I believe? Is not that very rough country?”
“Some might think it is.”
“But there is a stage? Or can you take another steamer?”
“There is, I think, but right across country is quicker.”
He was irritated. How foolish of her to come so far, unprotected and alone! Because of it he had to leave everything and come on this wild-goose chase, escorting a girl who did not seem in the least grateful. She was pert, almost impudent.
“I am astonished that your family would permit it. Suppose you met a bear? Or a man of evil intention?”
I made my eyes very wide. “I’d take him home for supper.”
“What? You’d invite such a man to your home?”
“I meant the bear.” I smiled innocently. “Could I do less?”
His expression showed his exasperation. “Uncle Finian said I was to see you safely home. He was quite worried about you. He said there were — ”
“They are here.”
Startled, he looked up. “Here?”
Before he could say more, I said, “It is very nice of your Uncle Finian to worry about me, but I shall be quite all right. I would not want you to go to so much trouble. There are bears where I am going, and quite a few men, but most of them are very nice.”
“It is preposterous for you to travel alone.” He glanced at the woman who sat beside me. “Don’t you agree?”
“I should say I do! And across country? Dear me!”
“But there was no one else. My uncle was not well, and the trip must be made. Anyway, it is nearly over now. Soon I shall be home.”
Irritated, he looked down at his plate. What must he think of me? Yet I could not keep from teasing him. He looked so exasperated, and so handsome.
“You must not worry, sir. I shall be all right, and there will be no need of an escort. I shall manage very nicely.”
He was very cool. “I am not at all sure of that. From what I have heard, you have had your bag stolen from you already — ”
“I have it back.”
“And you disappeared from the stage for several days. I had no end of trouble finding you.”
I gave him my prettiest smile. “But you did find me! I can’t thank you enough! I don’t know what I’d have done without you!”
He gave me a very cool, level glance. “Miss Sackett, my uncle insisted I see that you got home safely. I shall do my best to do just that.”
I glanced at the third table. Timothy Oats was gone. Essie Buchanan was rising. Where was Elmer?
From where I sat, I could see the door to my cabin, but of course, there was an outer door, too. It was locked, I had made sure of that, but such men know how to open locks as simple as that would be. “If you will excuse me … ?” I pushed back my chair and arose.
Dorian Chantry got to his feet also. “Will I see you at breakfast, Miss Sackett?”
He was certainly tall. “I believe so. Thank you, Mr. Chantry.”
As I walked away, I heard the woman who had sat beside me say, “She’s very pretty, you know.” I did not hear his reply, if he made one, although I very much wanted to.
Our cabin was empty when I reached it, my carpetbag untampered with. I turned and looked at myself in the mirror. That blue dress was becoming.
I shook my head. I must stop thinking such thoughts. What I must do now is get home with the money. It would do so much for us, make my mother’s years so much more comfortable. As for Regal, he was probably recovering very well, but how did we know? Several men who had been clawed or chewed by bears had never really gotten well. A man I knew at the store said it was because bears often fed on half-decayed meat and fragments of it clung to their teeth. Regal should have a doctor look at his wounds, and if I got home with the money, we could afford it.
One side of me did not want Dorian Chantry along at all, but another side certainly did want him to come with me. I knew the woods where we would soon be. I knew how to move like an Indian, but did he? Suppose he got chewed by a bear? I’d never forgive myself.
I had wanted to meet him, and now I had, but I must have left him with a very bad impression. It was obvious that he disapproved of me and that I was a nuisance. Surely he had other plans. He had not wanted to come all the way out here into what was almost a wilderness, just to be sure some silly girl got home safely, somebody who should not be out there alone anyway.
The more I thought of it, the worse I felt. My pretty blue dress! It must seem very plain and dull to someone who saw so many beautifully gowned women, and saw them all the time.
How could I even talk to him? What did women like that talk about? And what did they talk about to a man?
Essie Buchanan came in and stepped into the corner where the washbasin and mirror were. She began fluffing her hair, and glanced at me out of the corners of her eyes. “You shouldn’t be back here,” she said. “It is much too early! I met a couple of interesting men out there, and I told one of them about you. He would like to meet you. I told him I would try to arrange it.”
“No, thanks, I need the sleep. I’ve been traveling a lot.”
“You’ll never meet any men back here. They don’t permit men aft of the midship gangway, you know. Come on! We’ll have some fun.”
“You go ahead.”
“That man I mentioned. He’s middle-aged but he’s worth a lot of money. To the right girl he’d be very generous.”
Well, I just looked at her. Regal had told me about women like her. “No, thanks,” I repeated.
After she had gone forward, I lay staring up at the underside of the deck above me and thinking. It was unlikely that either Elmer or Timothy Oats would attempt anything while aboard the steamer, although they would be watching for their chance. It was when I went ashore that I must move with care. What I must think of was some way to slip away from them. It was then I thought of the Big Sandy.
But that was Indian country, hunting ground for a half-dozen tribes; the Creek, Cherokee, Shawnee, and several others hunted there. I was known to the Cherokee, and the Sacketts were known to them all, I suspected, but I’d be taking a great chance. Still, it was early in the season and hunting parties would not be out in any number.