Forget-Me-Not Bride (7 page)

She didn't know much about their eventual destination, which was Dawson City, apart from the fact that it was situated high on the Yukon River, perhaps too high for sea-going vessels to be able to reach it. If that were the case, presumably they would travel by train to Dawson from wherever they disembarked. That is, if there were a train line. Not for the first time she realized how criminally ignorant she was of where she was going and what she would find when she arrived.

‘I'm cold, Lilli'Leo said plaintively, interrupting her thoughts. He was still dressed only in his undergarments and the sea breeze had reduced him to goose-pimples.

Reluctantly Lilli turned away from the view. The early morning, before the bulk of the world was awake, was her favourite part of the day and she would have liked to have remained where she was, staring out across the ocean, watching the distant coastline sliding by. She was certainly determined to spend as much time as possible on deck because only on deck was the Greek god likely to see her and renew his acquaintance with her.

‘You're now going to have the pleasure of meeting Misses Bumby, Salway, Hobson and Rivere,' Lettie said darkly as, an hour later, they made their way towards the dining saloon for breakfast.

‘And Miss Nettlesham,' Lilli reminded her as they squeezed along dark narrow gangways.

Lettie shook her untidy mane of hair. ‘I doubt we'll see Miss Nettlesham in the public dining-saloon. She's the kind to have breakfast in her cabin.'

Lilli felt a flash of anxiety. Would the Greek god also be spending most of the voyage in his cabin? The
Senator
was a large boat and there were easily two or three hundred men aboard her. What if she never saw him again? Even worse, what if he wasn't going to Dawson after all but was only travelling as far as Seattle or Vancouver?

‘Does the
Senator
stop off anywhere for more passengers?' she asked Lettie as she followed her into the crowded dining-saloon. The noise level was so high that Lettie didn't hear her. Unable to see anything but a mass of bearded faces and nearly overcome by the smell of human sweat and bacon grease she ploughed on in Lettie's wake, Leo clinging to her skirts; Lottie close behind her.

In a far corner of the saloon a table flanked by benches had been set aside for the use of ladies. As Lettie unceremoniously slid onto the end of one of the benches the young women sitting around the table shuffled closer together to make room for her, and for Lilli and Leo and Lottie.

‘So you're the late arrival,' one of the young women said to Lilli in a husky voice thick with amusement. ‘When we heard you were bringing two kids with you we thought you must be in your dotage. What were you? A child-bride?' The speaker had an odd, almost monkey-like face that couldn't, in a million years, have been described as beautiful. The eyes were too big, the nose too short, the mouth too wide. These deficiencies had, however, been spectacularly overcome. Unnatural-looking fox-red hair was piled high, tumbling forward in a frizz of curls over her forehead. The lemur-like eyes danced with laughter. The wide, dazzlingly smiling mouth was painted as garishly as a chorus-girl's.

‘No,' Lilli said with an answering grin. ‘Lottie and Leo are my brother and sister.'

‘I don't think anyone will choose you as a bride when they know you have a family in tow,' a heavy-featured girl with an unfortunate dark line of hair on her upper lip, said doubtfully.

Lilli sat down and hoisted Leo onto the bench beside her. ‘I'm the one that's going to be doing the choosing,' she corrected, keeping her voice friendly.

‘I'm afraid that's not quite how it …' the girl began, a slight frown drawing thick eyebrows together.

‘For goodness sake, we should be making introductions, not getting pickety.' It was the husky-voiced girl. She stretched her hand across the table towards Lilli. ‘My name is Marietta Rivere and I'm very pleased to meet you.' It was a small hand, almost paw-like.

‘I'm pleased to meet you, too,' Lilli said warmly.

Leo had been gazing at Marietta in almost mesmerized fascination. Now he said admiringly, ‘I like that coloured stuff on your mouth. Does it taste nice?'

There was a snort from a pale-looking girl sitting on Marietta's left-hand side. Marietta ignored it. ‘I think it must do,' she said, a chuckle in her voice, ‘Because I've never had any comp …'

‘I think you should remember Leo's age,' an auburn-haired girl sitting at the top of the table said quickly, her voice gently reproving. She turned her attention to Lilli. ‘I'm Miss Salway. Kate Salway.'

‘Lilli Stullen,' Lilli said as the moustached girl next to her passed her three enamel plates.

There was a large dish of crisp bacon rashers in the centre of the table and as Lilli began to fork rashers onto the plates the girl said bluntly. ‘Bumby.'

‘I beg your pardon?' Lilli said, startled.

‘Bumby,' the girl said again. ‘Miss Susan Bumby.'

‘And I'm Miss Nettlesham,' the almost albino-looking girl sitting on Marietta's left-hand side said, not proferring her christian name, her intonation indicating that she regarded herself as being of far more consequence than Miss Bumby or Miss Salway and certainly of far more consequence than the
outré
Miss Rivere.

‘I'm pleased to meet you,' Lilli said politely, hiding her amusement, understanding all too well why Lettie had taken such a dislike to her.

‘Edie hasn't introduced herself,' Marietta said as she poured a mug of milk for Leo.

The young woman in question, sitting on Marietta's right-hand side, blushed and bit her bottom lip in an agony of shyness.

Marietta handed Leo the mug of milk and then said, ‘Edie's full name is Edith Hobson. She's only sixteen and is the baby amongst us. Or she's the baby gold-rush bride-to-be amongst us, because I don't suppose Lottie is looking for a husband yet and I'm not including young gents, like Leo here, in my reckoning.'

Even though the very expression ‘gold-rush bride-to-be' filled Lottie with panic on Lilli's behalf, Marietta's fizzing effervescence was so contagious that Lottie found herself giggling. Leo, highly flattered at being referred to as a ‘young gent‘ positively preened himself.

‘If Edie's the youngest, I must be the oldest,' Miss Bumby said gruffly, a gleam of bacon fat trickling down her chin. ‘I'm twenty-eight,' she added, so that there would be no need for speculation.

‘And I'm twenty-six,' Miss Salway said, doing her bit to break the ice between them all.

It was Lottie who truly broke the ice. ‘Why are you all going to Alaska to marry men you've never met?' she asked ingenuously.

There was a sharp, shocked intake of breath from Miss Nettlesham. A peal of husky, unchained laughter from Marietta. Susan Bumby had flushed scarlet. Kate Salway looked discomfited. Edie looked bewildered.

‘You're forgetting your manners, Lottie,' Lilli whispered to her with unusual sharpness, aware of the embarrassment that had been caused.

‘No, she isn't.' The speaker was Kate Salway and everyone looked towards her. From the moment she had introduced herself to Lilli, Lilli had been aware of the auburn-haired young woman's inner calmness and quiet authority, an authority even Marietta seemed to pay heed to. ‘It's a very reasonable question,' Kate said, looking around at them all, ‘and I don't mind trying to answer it, though I'm afraid it won't be easy for me.'

‘Well,
I
have no intention of baring my soul to a child, or to the rest of you,' Miss Nettlesham said chillily, rising to her feet. ‘Nor do I think I shall be joining you for meals in future.'

‘Who are you goin'to sit with instead?' Marietta asked intrigued, ‘a nice respectable gun-slinger or a decent, hard-working card-sharper?'

Lettie hooted with laughter and even Miss Bumby's mouth twitched.

‘If Mrs Peabody had had the slightest inkling of your true character she would never have countenanced your travelling with us!' Furious spots of colour burned Miss Nettlesham's pale cheeks. ‘You're not a respectable young woman at all! You're a … you're a
floosy
!' She flounced on her heel and marched away, leaving Leo gazing at Marietta with even more avid interest than previously.

‘Miss Nettlesham's going to have to lose her high and mighty airs when we reach the Klondike,' Susan Bumby said knowledgeably. ‘I've lived there and I know.'

‘Are you a gold-prospector?' Leo asked, his eyes rounding. ‘I didn't know ladies could be gold-prospectors …'

‘I'm a kindergarten-teacher. In another few weeks I might even be
your
kindergarten-teacher.'

‘And you've lived in the Klondike?' There were so many questions Lilli wanted to ask Susan Bumby she didn't know where to start. ‘You've lived in Dawson City?'

Susan nodded. ‘I most certainly have and if you have any questions you want to ask about Dawson, I'd be happy to oblige.'

Before Lilli could inundate her Marietta said, puzzled, ‘If you've lived in Dawson, why'd you travel to ‘Frisco to ask Mrs Peabody to fix you up with a husband? Why didn't you find a rich stampeder while you were livin'there?'

Susan Bumby's almost masculine face coloured. ‘No-one ever asked me,' she said with brutal honesty. ‘I thought this way someone might.'

There was an embarrassed silence and then Kate Salway said warmly, ‘I'm sure they will. Everyone has something special to offer in a married relationship and nothing is more important than kindness. Look how you won Leo's heart when you gave him a stick of liquorice. Please tell us a little about what we can expect when we reach Dawson. Is the weather freezing cold? Is the town full of saloons and dance-hall girls in big hats and pretty dresses? And if it is, why is there such a demand for marriage bureau brides?'

Breakfast over, men had begun to push back benches and rise to their feet, eager to take a little air on deck. As they left the dining saloon and the noise level fell, the Peabody girls gathered closer around their table, eager to hear whatever Susan Bumby might tell them.

Susan was unused to being the centre of attention and her downy cheeks were still stained an embarrassed red as she said, answering Kate's first question, ‘It isn't freezing cold in the summer. In the summer the Klondike is beautiful.' Her gruff voice softened noticeably and it became patently obvious to them all that she was returning to a land she had fallen in love with. ‘First of all there are the forget-me-nots. I don't believe there are forget-me-nots anywhere in the world as blue as Alaskan forget-me-nots. There are white anemones, too. And yellow buttercups. Then, in high summer, the hills are covered with low-bush cranberries and blueberries and kinnikinnik …'

‘What in the world is kinnikinnik?' Kate Salway asked, relieved that there was, at least, some summer warmth to look forward to.

‘Kinnikinnik is a green, red-berried creeper sometimes called Yukon holly. There's lots of wild life, too. Caribou and bear and …'

‘Bears!' Edie had begun to look distinctly apprehensive. ‘I don't think I'd like bears. I think bears would frighten me.'

‘Don't worry, honey,' Marietta's paw-like hand patted Edie's comfortingly, ‘I don't expect the bears come into town. They'll stay in the woods and …'

‘Woods?' There was a tremor in Edie's voice and she looked to be fast approaching tears. ‘I don't like woods, Marietta. Once, on an outing from the orphanage, I got lost in a wood and when I was found I was beaten.'

There was an appalled silence and then Marietta said thickly, squeezing Edie's hand in hers, ‘No-one's going to beat you again, honey. Not while I'm lookin'out for you.'

‘If you don't like woods and things, why do you want to live in the wilderness?' Lottie asked with ten-year-old frankness.

It was a question Lilli was also wondering and she couldn't quite understand why everyone suddenly looked so uncomfortable. Everyone, that is, except for Edie. Edie simply looked blank.

It was Kate Salway who answered for her, her eyes, as they met Lilli's above Lottie's head, conveying far more than her words.

‘It wasn't really Edie's choice to sail to Alaska, Lottie. Edie has spent all her life in an orphanage and now that she's too old to stay there, the orphanage authorities thought she might like to have a husband and a family and live somewhere pretty, like Alaska.'

A cold chill ran down Lilli's spine. Was Kate saying that the orphanage authorities had simply shipped Edie off as a Peabody bride in order to be rid of her? And was she also saying that Edie had little understanding of where she was going or what would be expected of her when she arrived? As she gazed around the table she saw by the expression in her companions'eyes that the answer to her unspoken question was ‘yes.'

‘Many people are frightened of woods, Edie,' Susan Bumby said in an attempt to be reassuring. ‘It's a very old fear going back to the days of primitive man.'

‘And anyone in their right senses is frightened of bears,' Lettie said. It was the first time she had opened her mouth and everyone's head swivelled in her direction. Lettie ignored them, lapsing into uncommunicative silence again and it occurred to Lilli that, though she and Lottie and Leo had established friendly relations with her, so far no-one else had yet done so.

Susan broke the silence. ‘Though men love the Klondike, not many women do. They don't like having to battle against nature for eight months out of twelve and they don't like the sheer vastness of the terrain.'

From the alarmed expression on Marietta's face it was obvious that she, too, didn't relish the thought of battling with nature and even Kate Salway had begun to look perturbed.

‘Is that why there's such a demand for mail-order brides?' she asked, wondering if it might have been better if Susan had left them all in happy ignorance.