Forget-Me-Not Bride (19 page)

‘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.

Not wanting Ringan Cameron to come to any correct conclusions she forced a taut smile. ‘The scenery is staggering, isn't it? Is it similar to Scotland?'

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.

‘Do you think we'll be able to camp and hike in the Klondike?' Leo asked, turning his head and looking up at Ringan hopefully. ‘I'd like to camp. Especially if there were wolves and grizzlies around!'

‘I believe wolves and grizzlies are verra mean-tempered animals,' Ringan said equably, ‘and from what I've heard aboard ship, the Klondike is plagued by mosquitos and I wouldna fancy sharing a tent with those wee devils.' His hands were on the brass rail, his arms splayed. The sleeves of his plaid shirt were rolled to the elbows and the strength of his arm muscles was impressively apparent. Lilli felt a tingle run down her spine. For all his apparent equability, it was a strength he had once unleashed with fatal consequences and there was no way on God's earth she could ever allow Leo to go camping and hiking with him.

‘We could have a wee stroll together at Whitehorse though,' Ringan was saying to Leo. ‘There are rapids there and I believe they're verra bonny.'

‘Mr Coolidge is taking us to see the rapids,' Lilli said speedily.

‘I'd rather go with Ringan,' Leo said, blissfully oblivious of the signals she was giving him with her eyes.

‘Well you can't,' Lilli said with a bluntness that startled even him. ‘Mr Coolidge is going to hire a buggy and Lettie is going to come with us and …'

As Leo opened his mouth to protest further Ringan Cameron said in his easy-going manner, ‘If arrangements have been made it would be verra impolite to renege on them, young Leo.'

Lilli felt a shaft of gratitude towards him. That difficulty, at least, had been surmounted.

‘
Skagway
!' a burly individual standing nearby them suddenly shouted. ‘I can see it clear as day!'

A great cheer went up and Lilli said in relief, ‘We need to get back to our cabin now to collect our bags.'

Ringan merely nodded, but there was an odd expression again in his eyes, one almost of concern. Heartily wishing Ringan Cameron was a more comfortable acquaintance, she herded Leo and Lottie to the nearest companion-way.

‘No-one else is getting their bags yet,' Leo complained as she shepherded him down the stairs.

‘We are.'

Lottie's braids had fallen over her shoulders and she flicked them back again, saying, ‘You're being awfully bossy, Lilli. What's the matter? Are you worrying about what's going to happen when we reach Dawson?'

‘No.' Lilli steered Leo in front of her as they began to negotiate the long narrow corridor that led to their cabin. ‘That's all been sorted out, Lottie. There's no longer anything to worry about.'

‘Sorted out?' Lottie hurried after her. ‘How do you mean “sorted out?” Do you mean you're no longer going to have to marry anyone?'

Lilli opened the cabin door and Leo tumbled into the minuscule space beyond. She had been waiting for a suitable opportunity to tell Lottie about the understanding that now existed between herself and Lucky Jack but there had never been a suitable opportunity. ‘I
am
going to marry someone,' she said, aware that the present moment was far from ideal for such a disclosure. ‘But someone I
want
to marry.'

‘Oh God,' Lottie said, in a manner far too old for her years. She sat down weakly on Lettie's bunk. ‘Oh
dear
God. It's Mr Coolidge isn't it? You're fancying yourself in love with Mr Coolidge.'

Leo had scrambled up into a top bunk out of the way and was now laying on his tummy, his head and shoulders over the bunk's edge, looking down at them and listening to them with wide-eyed incredulity.

‘You're ten years old, Lottie!' Lilli said sharply, rifling through her travel-bag for a clean shirtwaist with which to disembark in. ‘You shouldn't be taking the Lord's name in vain and accusing me of ‘fancying'myself to be in love when I've told you I
am
in love!'

Lottie gripped her hands tightly together in her lap, her face pinched and white. Lilli was being absurdly romantic and impractical again. Mr Coolidge
looked
rather wonderful and so Lilli though he
was
wonderful. But she, Lottie, didn't think he was wonderful. He hadn't kept an eye on Leo when Leo had been in his care and Leo had nearly drowned as a result. Ringan Cameron had saved Leo's life and was far,
far
more wonderful than Mr Coolidge and yet Lilli, at times, was barely civil to him! It was all beyond her understanding.

‘You should be very glad for me,' Lilli was saying, unbuttoning her blouse with such vigour a button sprang free of its moorings. ‘At least I won't be marrying a stranger!' She began to fight her way into a crisp, clean shirtwaist. ‘Mr Coolidge is a man of importance in Dawson. He's a businessman and an hotelier
and
he's handsome!' Her voice was thick with indignation at Lottie's lack of understanding. ‘As handsome as a Greek god!'

Lottie raised her eyes to heaven. A Greek god indeed! Still, it did sound as if Lilli was sincerely in love with Mr Coolidge. And if Mr Coolidge had asked her marry him …

‘If you're going to marry Mr Coolidge does that mean you don't object anymore to his teaching me card-tricks?' Leo asked hopefully.

Lilli tucked her shirtwaist beneath the waistband of her cream serge skirt with unnecessary briskness.

‘I find that question extremely tactless and ill-timed.' She thrust her discarded blouse into her travel-bag. ‘Why you and Lottie have to be quite so annoying just when everything is going so well, I can't imagine. And everything
is
going well. We'll be in Dawson within another day or so and …'

The cabin door burst open and an ashen-faced Marietta stood on the threshold. ‘We've got trouble,' she announced tautly. ‘The pig who terrorised Edie says that when we get to Dawson he's going to outbid anyone else who fancies marrying her.' Her oddly attractive, feline face was so grim it was scarcely recognisable. ‘And he's boasting that he'll then do whatever the hell he wants with her!'

‘Where is Edie now?' Lilli asked urgently, picking up her heavy travel-bag.

‘She's on deck with Kate and Lettie, waiting to disembark.'

‘And the pig?' Lilli felt sick. Somehow she had just known something like this was going to happen and she hadn't a clue as to what could be done about it. ‘Where is he? And how did you get to know what he's been saying?'

‘He's still being forcibly kept to his cabin by the captain and crew,' Marietta said as she gave Leo a hand down from the bunk. ‘He's had plenty of friends visiting him though and they've not been shy of announcing his intentions.'

Lilli stared at her, appalled. ‘You mean he isn't afraid of what people will say?'

Marietta's wide mouth twisted in an ironic grimace. ‘We're in the Klondike now, Lilli. Or as near as makes no difference. As far as our male travelling companions are concerned, respect for women is pretty low on their list of priorities. And Edie is a Peabody bride. She's up for grabs anyway and if the pig wants to do the grabbing …'

She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to. Lilli felt the sting of bile in her throat. ‘Up for grabs.' In those three ugly small words lay the true reality of what it meant to be a Peabody bride. Mrs Amy Peabody's apparent motherliness, the deceiving cosiness of the bulging photograph albums, the false reassurance of the newspaper article about the radiantly happy Peabody bride and her gold-rich husband, were all red herrings designed to lure naive and indigent young women into the Peabody Bureau's clutches.