Forget-Me-Not Bride (21 page)

Panic seized her. Had she been foolishly naive in clinging to the belief that Miss Nettlesham totally misunderstood the relationship between Kitty and Lucky Jack? Was Kitty far more to Lucky Jack than merely a business partner?

From this new angle Lilli could see Kitty Dufresne's figure in more detail. The elegant travelling-costume was not quite as nip-waisted as she had expected. In fact, it wasn't nip-waisted at all. And though the retroussé nose was deliciously girlish, there was nothing girlish about the line of jaw and throat. Shock, followed by overwhelming relief, roared through her. What on earth had Miss Nettlesham been thinking of, spreading the rumour that Kitty was Lucky Jack's paramour! She was far too old! Why, she was easily in her thirties!

Suddenly, as if sensing she was being stared at, Kitty turned, looking directly across the crowded dining-room, her eyes, behind a saucy froth of veiling, meeting Lilli's before Lilli had a chance of looking away.

Fresh shock sizzled through Lilli. Though they had never been introduced, never even met, there was recognition in Kitty Dufresne's eyes, recognition that could mean only one thing. Lucky Jack had spoken to Kitty about her.

‘And Mr Jenkinson has kindly agreed to accompany us to the rapids when we reach Whitehorse,' Susan was saying when Lilli finally returned her attention to her own table. ‘He's hoping there will be some rare species of butterfly in the area and …'

‘And does he know of your situation yet?' Kate interrupted gently. ‘Does he know that when you reach Dawson you'll be obliged to marry a Peabody Marriage Bureau client?'

Susan shook her head, her large featured face flushing blotchily. ‘No … it isn't a subject easy to bring up, is it? I mean, it makes it sound as if I'm desperate for a husband … any husband … and as if I'm no great prize.' She gave a small, mirthless laugh. ‘And all that's true, of course. Or at least, it
was
true.' She plucked at her napkin with carefully buffed nails. ‘It's no longer all true because I no longer want to marry just anyone. I want to marry Mr Jenkinson.' She looked up from the napkin, looking around at them, despair in her eyes. ‘And I'm sure, if only there was time for our friendship to deepen in a proper manner, he would ask me to marry him. But there isn't
going
to be time …'

‘Oh, Lord!' Lettie said suddenly, her naturally pale face turning even paler as she looked beyond Susan to the entrance of the dining-room. ‘They've let him off the ship!'

It was blatantly obvious she wasn't referring to Mr Jenkinson.

Only Lettie and Marietta were facing the dining-room door.

‘Damn!' Marietta said forcefully through her teeth as everyone else turned to look, ‘Damn! damn! damn!'

The brute who had terrified Edie and assaulted Lilli swaggered across the room to a table where his cronies were seated.

‘Well, we all know he couldn't be kept in unofficial custody for ever,' Kate said practically as Edie slid her hand nervously into Marietta's.

‘The best thing to do is to ignore him,' Lilli said crisply, aware that Lottie and Leo were also beginning to look apprehensive. ‘Did you speak to Kitty Dufresne about Edie, Marietta?'

Marietta shook her head. ‘No … there wasn't time. But I will do. And if she can be helpful, I think she will be.'

Lilli thought Marietta was right in her judgement. When Kitty Dufresne's eyes had met hers there had been no prurience or meanness in their sloe-black depths, only kindly curiosity. And if kindness was one of Kitty Dufresne's virtues, there was every reason to hope she would extend that kindness towards Edie.

‘Your maiden in distress obviously knows my identity,' Kitty said dryly to Jack. ‘And she's far more striking looking than you ever indicated. Why on earth do Irish girls hold all the aces when it comes to night-black hair and magnolia-cream skin? Perhaps next time when we're trawling for working girls we should trawl for them in Dublin or Cork.'

Jack grinned and their two male companions cracked up with laughter. ‘With regard to what we were talking about earlier, I think Miss Stullen could manage
The Eldorado
very nicely,' he said, his eyes holding Kitty's. ‘We need someone respectable in there as we're aiming for respectable custom …'

‘Then
The Eldorado's
not a dance-hall or saloon?' one of his companions asked, interrupting him.

Jack shook his head. ‘It's a hotel. And a damn good one too. The Reverend over there …' he indicated the Reverend Mr Jenkinson. ‘He's booked in at
The Eldorado
.'

‘I thought Reverends lived in parsonages.'

Jack's grinned widened. ‘They do. But the Reverend Mr Jenkinson has had the sense to realise that his new home will likely need quite a bit of work doing on it after weathering a Yukon winter.'

If Ringan could have eaten lunch alone he would have done so. No such luxury was possible, however, with almost the entire passenger list of the
Senator
eager to pitch into moosemeat, macaroni and cheese, hash, baked beans, pickled beets, blueberry pie and canned milk.

For himself, he passed on the pickled beets and wondered if he would ever be able to develop a taste for moosemeat.

‘You could pitch in with us, Scottie,' the grizzled-haired prospector sitting on his left-hand side said generously. ‘Rumour has it though that the strikes around Dawson are well nigh played-out and that Nome's the place to be.'

‘And if that's the case,' the young man on his right-hand side said, scooping baked beans up on his fork, ‘We'll be heading on out there just as soon as we're able.'

Ringan made an indeterminate sound in his throat.

Interpreting it as assent, the grizzled-haired man said, ‘If we all grub-stake an equal amount we'll all git along just fine.'

‘Och, aye,' Ringan said, knowing some kind of response was necessary and not able to think of anything more adequate. Nome? With the men now flanking him? It would be almost as much of an imprisonment as prison had been. What on earth would he talk about with them? What sort of satisfaction would he find doing nothing but grub for gold?'

As the conversation drifted on without him, he looked across the dining-room to where Lilli Stullen was seated, a shaft of light from a nearby window falling full on her. In its rays her smoke-black hair had a satin sheen. She was wearing blue. A misty-blue mandarin-necked blouse and a seven-gored skirt in a deeper tone of the same colour. The colour suited her, but then he hadn't seen her in anything that didn't suit her.

He wondered why, if she was indulging in a love affair with Lucky Jack Coolidge, she wasn't seated at Lucky Jack's table. And he wondered as to the identity of the woman who
was
sitting with Lucky Jack, and as to her relationship with him. They certainly looked to be on the best of terms and though she was no longer in the first flush of youth she was as lushly beautiful as a full-blown rose.

‘There's plenty of men with your type of past in the goldfields,' his grizzled-haired companion was saying. ‘Skagway's run by'em. Why, Soapy Smith would shoot a man as soon as look at him and he's boss of Skagway! I remember when …'

Ringan's mouth tightened. If his jail-bird past was already such common knowledge what chance did he have of living it down and practising as a doctor again? And if he didn't return to the profession he was trained for, the profession he had a vocation for, what the hell did life hold for him? How was he ever going to make it meaningful again?

As if sensing his inner chaos, a small, sailor-hatted head turned in his direction. Immediately, as their eyes met, his spirits lifted. He shot her an answering grin and a wink. Little Lottie Stullen reminded him an awful lot of Pattie when Pattie had been her age and sometimes merely looking at her brought a lump into his throat. She was a grand wee lassie on every count and her elder sister could be justifiably proud of her.

Lilli
was
proud of Lottie, but she was also often exasperated by her.

‘I've told you before, Lottie,' she said as they boarded the narrow-gauged train that was to take them over the White Pass, ‘I don't like you spending so much time in Mr Cameron's company.'

Lottie's eyes, so blue they were almost navy, held hers in such a manner that Lilli felt ridiculously uncomfortable. ‘Mr Cameron saved Leo's life,' Lottie said steadily, her waist-length braids framing her face. ‘I think he's magnificent and I'm proud to be his friend and no-one, not even you, is going to prevent me from being his friend.'

Lilli's discomfort increased. Lottie was shaming her and both of them knew it. ‘I've no objection to your being Mr Cameron's friend,' she said stiltedly, knowing she wasn't speaking the absolute truth. ‘But I'd still prefer it if you would sit with me and Leo for the journey to Whitehorse.'

‘I don't want to.' Lottie's voice was low and resolutely obstinate. ‘Mr Cameron doesn't have friends like the rest of the prospectors do. He's different from them, just as Pa was different from the ranch-hands he worked with. If I don't sit with him, he'll sit alone. And I don't want him to sit alone and Pa wouldn't have wanted him to sit alone either.'

As Lilli's jaw sagged Lottie shot her a look both pleading and defiant and then, interpreting Lilli's dumbfounded silence as reluctant acquiescence, she turned and walked away to the rear of the train where she knew she would find her friend.

Lilli opened her mouth to call her back and then closed it again. What could she possibly say to Lottie in explanation? She certainly wasn't going to give her nightmares by telling her that Ringan Cameron had once been convicted of murder.

Wryly it occurred to her as she settled Leo comfortably into a seat next to a window that such a disclosure might not give Lottie nightmares at all. Lottie would most likely dismiss such a revelation as being unbelievable, which it very nearly was. The shock she had felt when Lottie had spoken of Ringan Cameron and their Pa in the same breath was still reverberating through her. Lottie was unnervingly perceptive, but surely this time she was very, very wrong? If anyone resembled Pa it was Lucky Jack, with his adventurous spirit and love of gambling.

Leo broke into her train of thought by saying, ‘Marietta and Edie are about to board. Will they know where we're sitting?'

Lilli bent down slightly to look through the window. Marietta was making what looked to be an almost royal procession through a sea of men, Edie protectively in her wake. Lilli grinned. It wouldn't matter where Marietta was, sophisticated city or small town, male heads would turn. Here, in Skagway, her fox-red hair clashing sizzlingly with her shocking-pink shirtwaist and mulberry coloured skirt, she was almost causing a riot.

She waved furiously to attract her attention and indicate whereabouts she and Leo were sitting. Marietta's grin almost split her face as she waved back in acknowledgement.

‘Phew,' Lettie said as she sat gratefully into the seat opposite Leo. ‘I thought we weren't going to be able to all sit together. Where's Lottie? Have I just stolen her seat?'

Lilli turned away from the window and sat down next to Leo.

‘No, she's gone off to chat with Mr Cameron. Where are Kate and Susan?'

Lettie smoothed a stray wisp of hair back into her immaculate chignon. Ever since Kate had shown her how to make the best of herself and had given her a dress she could feel proud to wear she had taken infinite pains with her grooming. ‘Susan is being escorted aboard by her parson friend and Kate is being escorted aboard by Lord Lister.'

‘By
who
?'

Lilli goggled at her. Lettie, for the first time since Lilli had met her, giggled.

‘Lord Lister. You must have noticed him aboard the
Senator
. He was the only man wearing English jodhpurs.'

‘And he's a
Lord
?'

Lettie nodded.

‘And he's paying his attentions to
Kate
?'

Lettie nodded again.

Marietta breezed into the compartment, saying fizzily, ‘Lord knows why any of us girls bothered going to a marriage bureau! Susan looks all set to embark on life as a parson's wife, Kate has collared a member of the British aristocracy and even Edie here has been indulging in a little flirtation.'

‘I haven't'Edie protested, flushing rosily.

‘His name is Saskatchewan Stan,' Marietta said, adding, to put Lilli and Lettie's minds at rest, ‘and having met him I don't think there's any need to worry he'll take advantage where he shouldn't. In fact I'd go so far as to say he's absolutely harmless.'

‘He carried my bag for me,' Edie said with childish pleasure, her cheeks still apple-red. ‘He didn't ask to carry Marietta's. He asked to carry
mine
. And he didn't frighten me. He was all roly-poly and he made me laugh.'

‘Then that leaves only Lilli and me without beaus,' Lettie said, squeezing up a little to make room for Edie as she sat down.

Marietta looked across at Lilli and raised her eyebrows. ‘I think it only leaves you, Lettie,' she said, her voice thick with amusement ‘Lilli is inundated with beaus. The only thing is, I'm not sure which is the one she's hoping will take her to the altar.'

Lilli felt a little pulse begin to beat fast and light in her throat. There really was no reason why she should keep her relationship with Lucky Jack a secret any longer.

‘My beau is Lucky Jack Coolidge,' she said blandly, enjoying the expression of incredulity on her friends'faces. ‘And when we get to Dawson he's going to pay off Mr Nelson and marry me.'

‘So when Pa died we went to live with Uncle Herbert and Aunt Hettie,' Lottie said, standing with Ringan on the tiny open observation platform as the train inched its zig-zagging way up the glittering heights of the White Pass. ‘Only Uncle Herbert didn't want Lilli living with him and I don't really think he wanted me, either. The only one of us he wanted was Leo.'