Forget-Me-Not Bride (18 page)

‘It just goes to show you can't tell a book by its cover,' Jack said gravely, wondering if he hadn't, perhaps, missed his way in life. It really was ridiculously easy to sound like a sanctimonious preacher. ‘I know you're grateful to him for saving Leo's life,' he continued, seeing no reason why he shouldn't put an end utterly to Cameron's aspirations where Lilli was concerned, ‘but you've given him your thanks for that and it might be best now to give him a wide berth.'

Lilli tried to remember who else, quite recently, had made a similar remark about not being able to tell a book by its cover. Had it been Kate? And who had she been referring to? She gave herself a mental shake. Whoever had said it and whoever it had been about, it wasn't of the slightest importance. What
was
important was the advice Lucky Jack had just given her. She remembered how she had allowed Leo to spend time alone with Ringan Cameron the previous afternoon and shuddered.

Ringan Cameron may have redeemed himself in the eyes of his Maker by saving Leo's life but a man who had once killed with his bare hands was a man too unstable to have a child in his care. She remembered how he had swept her up in his arms and carried her off to her cabin and waited for another shudder of horror. None came. Even though she now knew the crime he had been imprisoned for she couldn't pretend to herself that she had felt anything but safe and secure in Ringan Cameron's muscular arms.

From across the Strait came the sound of whirring saw-mills and exploding dynamite.

‘Pioneers blasting a new town out of the coastal granite,' Jack said knowledgeably, aware that he had achieved his object and that it was now time the subject was changed. ‘All the way up this coastline you'll see similar sights.'

Lilli looked shorewards to where a seemingly endless forest shelved down on an irregular collection of log cabins and tents all crowded at the water's edge.

‘A little further north of here is an Indian settlement,' Jack continued, remembering how soft and yielding her lips had been the previous evening; remembering the brief, sweet feel of her breasts against the palms of his hands. ‘Indian towns aren't remotely like white towns. The pace of life is much more slow-moving.'

Even just thinking about the previous evening gave him a rising in his crotch. He hadn't intended a shipboard dalliance with Lilli Stullen, past experience having taught him that respectable young women were far more trouble than they were worth, but a shipboard dalliance it had turned into and, as it had done so, he saw no reason not to enjoy it to the full.

‘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 real 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.'