Dawn on a Distant Shore (23 page)

"Nathaniel!"
she said finally, gasping for breath. "You are supposed to be in gaol!
What are you doing here?"

He pulled her to sit
beside him on the cot. "Rescuing you."

"Rescuing
me?"

"Didn't they tell
you on deck?"

"No,"
Elizabeth said. "They most certainly did not, the rotters. I thought you
were a pirate. Does Captain Pickering know you are on board?"

He laughed out loud at
that. "Of course. Did you think we stowed away?"

"But how--"

He kissed her again,
her grinning pirate of a husband. "We broke out night before last and
headed straight here to keep you from going upriver. By God, Elizabeth, you had
me scared out of my wits."

"You were
scared!" Indignant, she grasped his forearms as hard as she could.
"Runs-from-Bears came to me this afternoon with the news that gallows have
been built at the garrison gaol. I have never been so frightened."

"It was close,
that's true. But we got away before they could try us--"

On the heels of relief
a new kind of dread. Elizabeth tightened her grip on him. "The entire army
must be looking for you. And what's become of Will?"

"He's on his way
to Québec--probably there already."

"This is a fine
mess," Elizabeth said. "Why is Will going to Québec? It makes no sense."

"It does if you
think about the way things look for him. He shows up to negotiate us out of
gaol and the next thing you know, we escaped. Somerville asked Will to
chaperone his daughter to Québec-- testing him, is the way Pickering looks at
it. So Will's in the clear, Boots, and you'll see him soon enough."

"But how shall I
see him if he is in Québec?" Elizabeth felt suddenly dizzy. "We are
going to Québec? But I want to go home!" She was mortified by her own childish
tone, and still more by the tear that spilled down her cheek. But he simply
wiped it away and held her.

"God knows we all
do, Boots, but Somerville's got troops looking for us all over."

"Nathaniel,
Québec is in the wrong direction!"

He kissed the palm of
her hand. "We can't go overland with the babies, not with Somerville set
on tracking us down. We've got no choice but to go north and look for a ship
there that will take us home down the coast from Halifax. If it weren't for Moncrieff
and Pickering, we'd be in a worse scrape than we are already."

Elizabeth struggled to
order the hundreds of questions that came to mind. "I don't understand why
Pickering should go to such trouble for us."

"He's a friend of
Moncrieff's."

"Moncrieff."
Elizabeth had all but forgotten the Scot and his mission to find her father-in-law.
It seemed very unreal right now, and utterly unimportant. "This is very
confusing, Nathaniel."

He nodded, smoothing
her hair. "I can't tell you exactly how it came to pass, except that Iona
got to Pickering through Moncrieff. And more than that, I can't pretend I ain't
worried. We'd rather set off overland on our own, but it just ain't safe."

He met her eye but
something flickered there, unsaid. It was absurd, the idea that the three of them
should somehow be unable to get away--Hawkeye and Robbie and Nathaniel could
slip into the forests and Somerville would never be able to put his hands on them.
Because she could not deny the truth to him or herself, Elizabeth said what he
would not. "I should not have come."

Nathaniel caught her
face between his palms. "Listen to me, Boots. I was never so glad to see
anybody in my life as I was to see you on that dock."

She laughed then,
covering his hands with her own and touching her forehead to his. "But
I've made things so much more difficult--"

"We've been in
worse spots," he said against her temple.

"Not by
much," she muttered.

"I knew you'd
come."

She frowned at him.
"Did you now?"

"Boots,"
said Nathaniel softly. "I never doubted you for a moment."

She sighed then, and
let herself collapse forward, her head finding the hollow of his shoulder. His
arms came around her and she felt the knot of anxiety that had fueled her
forward movement for all these weeks begin to unravel.

"We'll
manage," Nathaniel whispered. "We can manage anything, you and me.
Look at those babies, after all."

As if she had heard
her name called, Lily's curly head rose over the edge of the basket. She
blinked at them, and then the small button of a face began to collapse in on
itself, tears springing into the blue eyes.

Nathaniel was across
the room before Elizabeth could move, lifting Lily into the crook of his arm and
crooning in the same tone she had had from him just moments ago. Elizabeth
could not quite put a name to his expression, half worry and half relief. Her
throat tightened with tears and she swallowed them down, determined not to
weep.

An indignant squawk
pulled her out of her trance. Nathaniel passed Lily to Elizabeth and scooped
Daniel up, all flailing arms and legs and a furious expression that settled suddenly
at the sight of this strange man. The two of them regarded each other for a
long moment and then Daniel sputtered a hello in his father's face.

There was a knock on
the door, and a murmuring of familiar voices: Hannah, breathless and happy,
Runs-from-Bears, Robbie and Hawkeye. She had last seen Hawkeye on a hot August
night, walking away from Lake in the Clouds. Leaving his home and kin because
he had come up against laws that made no sense to him, white laws that did not
fit the world as he understood it, a world that for him would forever be red.
She had feared that she would never see him again, but here he was. He seemed
unchanged by his long months in Montréal's gaol, standing tall in the open door,
as lean as leather. Under the mane of hair his gaze was as keen as it had ever
been. He had one arm around Hannah, and with the other he pulled Elizabeth to
him and looked hard at her.

"I see you've
brought me my grandchildren, daughter." He kissed her cheek and bent down to
look at Lily.

"Hello, little
girl," he said.

Then Nathaniel crossed
the room and put Daniel in his grandfather's arms, and Elizabeth watched
Hawkeye change before her eyes.

It was full dark, the
night tempered only with the vague light of a reluctant moon. Coming up on
deck, Elizabeth could just make out the pale shapes of the mainsails, and the
outlines of human forms at the rail: Hawkeye, Runs-from-Bears, and Robbie, deep
in hushed conversation. But before she could join them, Captain Pickering had
appeared at her side.

"Madam. May I
inquire, is all to your satisfaction?"

She nodded. "Yes,
very much so, Captain."

"It is a very
small vessel for so many, but I hope it will still serve."

Elizabeth assured him
that it would serve very well.

Even in the kind light
of the moon his face was not easy to look at, but his manner was sincere as he leaned
toward her. "I hope you have forgiven me for my little performance on the
dock at Sorel. I could not speak of your husband openly, but it did grieve me
to deceive you. Your cousin the viscount did send his very best wishes for your
safe delivery."

She smiled.
"Please, Captain Pickering. There is no need to speak of deception, or forgiveness.
I admit that I have never been so surprised in all my life as when I found Nathaniel
here, but nothing could have given me greater happiness. I am not sure what we
have done to merit all the trouble you have taken for our sakes--"

He waved her
thankfulness away with a gloved hand. "Had you heard that I am shortly to
be married?"

Elizabeth did know;
she had had the whole story of Giselle Somerville's dinner party, and its
repercussions, from Hawkeye and Robbie. It was a strange set of circumstances,
but she wished Pickering joy as if there were nothing unusual at all in the way
he had come to his bride, or the party games the bride had chosen to play with
other men while she was unattached.

"I hope that we
do not cause a rift between yourself and your new father-in-law," she
finished.

"The lieutenant
governor does not concern me," said Pickering. "I offered my
assistance not to thwart him, but to serve justice and to please his daughter."
His tone was cool, and it reminded Elizabeth that he might be a gentleman of
good breeding, but Pickering was also an accomplished merchant commander and
highly successful in his business pursuits.

Elizabeth glanced at
Hawkeye, but the men were still turned away from them and deep in conversation.
"You surprise me, sir. I thought it was Mr. Moncrieff who had interceded
to ask for your assistance."

There was a slight
hesitation. "It was Miss Somerville who brought Mr. Moncrieff's concerns
to me. And a bridegroom can rarely deny his bride when she asks a favor,
especially one with such merit. I do not believe that these men are spies, Mrs.
Bonner, and I should have been very sorry to see them hang."

The words sent a small
shower of gooseflesh up Elizabeth's back. "Was there truly danger of that,
sir?"

He glanced up into the
riggings. "I fear so. If Somerville had had his way. He is a man of strong
passions--" He hesitated again. "And not easily put off his course.
He is the kind who might well start a new war simply to ease his own wounded
pride."

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."