Dawn on a Distant Shore
Page 50

This was unsettling, and confirmed Elizabeth's worst fears. "Then our debt to you and Miss Somerville can hardly be repaid."
Pickering touched his hand to his hat, and bowed. "Please do not speak of it," he said. "Now, I am sure you have matters to discuss with your family. If I may wish you good evening ..."
Elizabeth stood for a moment, watching the line of his back until he had disappeared into the dark of the quarterdeck. Her mind was racing in strange directions, toward Montréal and the gallows that would go untested, and then onward to Québec, where Giselle Somerville waited for her bridegroom and Will Spencer waited for them all. She went to join her party at the rail, her mind preoccupied. As she approached, their conversation stopped.
"Am I interrupting?"
Robbie's hand found her shoulder and squeezed lightly. "Yer bonnie face is verra welcome, lassie. But have ye tired o' Nathaniel already?"
"Hannah needed some time alone with her father."
"Aye, faithers and dauchters," said Robbie. "Nathaniel is a verra fortunate man."
Elizabeth felt Hawkeye's gaze on her, and she realized how very much she had missed him, and what a comfort his calm silence could be. She touched his sleeve.
"I have learned something on this journey."
He smiled. "And what's that?"
"What a fortunate woman I am." She wanted to say the rest of it, to tell all three of them how glad she was to have them around her, but she was still too much an Englishwoman for that kind of public sentiment. Instead, she said, "It seems that Giselle Somerville and her father have not parted on good terms. Pickering tells me that it was Giselle who engaged him to bring you away from Montréal."
Runs-from-Bears' head came up. "Ain't she the one who held up Otter for so long?"
"Aye, she's the one," said Hawkeye.
"We are indebted to her," said Elizabeth. "Whatever her history." With my husband, she might have added, but even unspoken she thought it had been clearly heard.
"Ye mstna judge her too harshly, lass." Robbie's tone was almost apologetic.
Elizabeth turned to him in surprise. "I do not judge her at all, I assure you. Miss Somerville's marriage and how she came to it is no business of mine. I am thankful for her part in getting the three of you out of Montréal. No more or less than that." But it was not completely true; she was curious now more than ever about Giselle Somerville, and uneasy that they should be in her debt.
There was silence for a long minute. The rigging whistled and clanked with the wind; on the quarterdeck there were low voices, the hiss of flame set to wick, and the sharp smell of tobacco. They had spent a happy few hours crowded around Captain Pickering's table, but now all of the cheerful high spirits of their reunion had been replaced with something more thoughtful. Elizabeth tried to catch Hawkeye's eye, but he was looking out over the water.
"Is there something else wrong?" she asked.
Hawkeye shifted. "Bears wants to set off overland for Lake in the Clouds," he said. "He could be there in two weeks, maybe less."
Elizabeth searched out Runs-from-Bears' face in the dark, but could make nothing of his expression. "You are worried for them."
He nodded. "We've been away a long time."
"Well, then," Elizabeth said calmly. "When will you go?"
"I'll wait until you find passage out of Québec."
She drew up. "Passage? But I thought we had passage--" She gestured around herself feebly.
Robbie coughed into his hand. "We didna like tae talk o' it before the bairns," he said. "But Pickering canna take us aa the way hame, lass. The Isis will be waitin' for him in Québec, and he mun sail wi'oot delay for Scotland."
Elizabeth leaned on the rail. She was thankful for the dark, for she feared she could not keep her anxiety from her face.
"But they'll be looking for us in Québec, too."
"I expect that's true," Hawkeye said. "But there must be seventy or more boats in port there at this time of year. They won't be too fussy about passengers as long as the fare's right. Moncrieff has been there a whole day, he'll be sniffing around already for us."
"Moncrieff again," said Elizabeth, pulling her shawl more tightly around her shoulders. "Is there no getting away from the man?"
Robbie snorted softly. "He's aye hard tae avoid."
Runs-from-Bears said, "It looks like he's done you more than one good turn."
"Oh, that he has." Hawkeye nodded. "And I expect we'll have to put up with a few more before he sails for home."
"That the Earl of Carryck's influence reaches so far surprises me," said Elizabeth thoughtfully.
"Ye dinna trust the man, it's clear."
"I suppose that I do not," Elizabeth admitted. "But I do not know him as you do, having spent so much time with him at close quarters." She hesitated. "You're not reconsidering the earl's proposal?"
Hawkeye grunted. "Got no interest in anything but getting this family home to Lake in the Clouds as quick as we can manage."
Elizabeth pushed out a sigh. "That is good to know," she said. "The next task is to find Will Spencer and send him back to Amanda straightaway."
There was the sound of a new step on deck, and Nathaniel appeared from Pickering's quarters. He crooked a finger in her direction, and then disappeared again.