Into the Wilderness (26 page)

Mrs.
Bennett patted Katherine affectionately and sent her back to finish her
breakfast. Katherine went rather reluctantly and sat with her chin on her
cupped palm. The sleeve of her morning gown showed faded and somewhat worn
against Mrs. Bennett's good white linen, and Elizabeth felt suddenly sorry for
Katherine, who so enjoyed beautiful things but had so few of them herself.
Elizabeth caught sight of her own face in the silver of the teapot, the lace at
her neck, and the fine gray silk of her own morning gown. She reached for the
paper.

"Let's
see," she said. Katherine brightened up immediately.

Elizabeth
skimmed the advertisements for the one that had aroused Katherine's interest.
"Ah," she said finally, and read out loud:

CLEMENTINA
STOWE, Has just imported, and has for SALE at her STORE on the Johnstown Main
Street a very neat assortment of MILLINERY GOODS consisting of the following
articles, caps, stomachers, shoe—Nots, Italian sprigs, lace, thread lace and
edging, spotted satin, crimson ditto, black pee longs a great variety of sash
and other ribbons, fashionable fans, all which she will dispose of on the
lowest TERMS."

* * *

"You've
been thinking of doing over your hat, I know," said Mrs. Bennett.
"Mrs. Stowe has some lovely things."

"Then
you must all go and satisfy your curiosity," said Mr. Bennett, folding his
own paper and looking around the table as if he had just woken up. "And I
must get to the office."

Elizabeth
smiled. "May I come by and see your offices, Mr. Bennett?" she asked.
"While we are in town?"

Mr.
Bennett, about forty—five years of age, was a round, slightly soft—looking man,
with a broad, good—natured face. Unless you looked at his eyes—which missed
nothing at all in spite of their pallid blue—you might overlook Mr. Bennett
completely. Elizabeth had felt him observing her more than once on her first
evening as their guest. She had found him more than willing to discuss the turn
of events in the French Revolution which had led—she learned with great
unease—to the recent execution of the king. He had been the only one of the
Bennetts to show any interest in her plans to teach school; they had even had a
discussion about Mrs. Wollstonecraft, whose writings he had actually read, and
thought about.

"Do
you have a question of the law for me, Miss Middleton?" he asked now.

"Heavens,"
said Mrs. Bennett. "Why would Miss Middleton have need of the magistrate?
I'm sure she would just like to see all of Johnstown while she is here."

"I
thought we were going to the milliner's shop," said Katherine, saving
Elizabeth the trouble of being more specific about her interest in Mr. Bennett's
work.

"Yes,
let's do that," Elizabeth said, rising from her place.

"I
will detain you no longer, my dear," he said to his wife. "And please
do bring the young ladies by the offices. I would be pleased to see you all
there."

* * *

It
took Elizabeth considerably less time to dress than it would take Katherine and
Mrs. Bennett; she had learned this fact on the first morning of her visit, and
now prepared herself for a half hour's wait by taking the paper with her to her
room.

The
Bennetts were quite wealthy, and their home was furnished in the latest style.
The room they had given to Elizabeth was dominated by a large four—poster bed
which was hung with a beautiful floral chintz and piled so high with feather
comforters that the brass warming pan was almost unnecessary. Now Elizabeth sat
by the window in a little bow—backed chair upholstered in a matching velvet and
read the paper. She had gone through many notices of meetings of the local
government and reports of legal disputes when her attention was claimed by the
advertisements. There were ponies and land and bear traps for sale, but there
were more personal matters as well. "Lydia Mathers," Elizabeth read,

* * *

the
wife of the subscriber, has eloped from her lawful husband in the company of
one Harrison Beauchamp, known gadabout and suspected thief taking with her a
good pewter jug, twenty pound in coin, three silver spoons, a snuff box, the
slave girl Eliza and her husband's good underclothes. By this notice her much
injured husband thinks it prudent to forewarn all persons from trusting her on
his account, being determined, after such flagrant proof of her bad behavior,
to pay no debts of her contracting. I treated her well.

Thy—Will—Be—Done
Mathers of Canajoharee.

* * *

Elizabeth
didn't know whether she should be more shocked at Mrs. Mathers' behavior or at
her own first and abiding impulse to laugh out loud at another's misfortune.
I
have been here not even two months
, she thought,
and my sense of
propriety has been permanently undone.
She read the advertisement once
again and wondered at a place in which a man would advertise so openly that his
lawful wife had eloped with another man. At her aunt Merriweather's there was
occasional talk of elopement, but the brides were always young women with more
opportunity than good sense. Girls who ran off to Scotland to be married to men
with too little money or who otherwise pleased their families too little.
"Mark my words," aunt Merriweather had said without exception when
these cases came to their attention. "Happy unions cannot take root under
such a cloud of deception and artifice."

The
next notice was much less amusing.

* * *

RUNAWAY
SLAVE. Goes by Joe. Well grown field negro especially dark skinned, missing two
toes on the left foot, run away from me Tuesday last.

Thought
to be headed into the Bush. Reward.

M.
Depardieu, Pumpkin Hollow.

* * *

Mrs.
Bennett was calling for Elizabeth, who rose and reluctantly put the paper aside
on the chair. But as she was turning away, a word caught her eye and she picked
up the paper again.

* * *

WANTED.
Any word on the whereabouts of the old Indian Sachem Chingachgook, known also
as Great—Snake or Indian John. To settle a debt.

Jack
Lingo. Leave a message at the Trading Post, Stumptown.

* * *

Elizabeth
stood reading this advertisement again and again until Katherine knocked at her
door impatiently.

"Coming,"
she called, and with cold hands hid the paper among her things.

* * *

To
Elizabeth's great surprise, Julian was waiting with the ladies at the foot of
the stair. He bowed to her most formally and then grinned.

"Good
morning, sister," he called. "I understand we are to go to the shops.
I could use your excellent advice, as I would like to have a new coat
made."

Katherine
was so pleased to have Julian along for this outing that she barely allowed
Elizabeth time to answer her brother before she overwhelmed him with fragments
of at least three different questions and requests. Once again Elizabeth
realized that Katherine's single—mindedness was sometimes a boon: it provided her
with time to think through awkward situations, and for that reason alone she
should be thankful.

While
Elizabeth's enthusiasm for the expedition into the town was even less than it
had been before, she did not mind the walk at all and she managed to hold a
polite conversation with Mrs. Bennett as they moved along, thinking most of the
time about her brother, and managing to keep thoughts of Nathaniel at bay. Now
that she was in Johnstown, she had no idea how she would ever make her way to
Barktown to seek him out at the Midwinter Ceremony. Elizabeth was only a little
disappointed, and she reasoned to herself that it would be only a few days
before she returned to Paradise, to her school, and to Nathaniel. It all seemed
very far away and strange now. But real. Nathaniel was real, and what she felt
for him was real. She was here because of him, and what she might be able to do
for him, and for herself in the process.

Katherine
had taken the arm Julian offered, and the two of them were far ahead when Mrs.
Bennett took up a new topic of conversation which demanded Elizabeth's entire
attention.

"Your
brother is kind to spend his morning with us," observed Mrs. Bennett.
"When he must have other business to attend to."

There
was a small pause, and then Mrs. Bennett surprised Elizabeth greatly.

"You
must make allowances if Kitty seems sometimes overly ... absorbed. She has
suffered a quite crushing disappointment in the past year, and although she may
seem to be insensitive, I assure she is just the opposite. She had hopes of Dr.
Todd, until quite recently. Has she spoken to you of him?"

Elizabeth
walked without answering for a moment, and then she began carefully.

"No,"
she said. "Katherine does not speak to me of her personal affairs."

"And
Dr. Todd? Did he mention this to you?"

Elizabeth
pulled up short, and found the older woman's brown eyes steady and
unapologetically inquisitive.

"I
wonder why you think that Dr. Todd would speak to me of such personal
matter," Elizabeth said. "I assure you there is no cause for him to
do so, nor would I welcome such a cause."

"I
see." There was a new tone in Mrs. Bennett's voice, whether of relief or
disappointment, Elizabeth could not tell.

"You
see the Grant mansion," Mrs. Bennett pointed out in passing. "What
gardens they keep. You must come and see them in the summer. Mrs. Grant's roses
are the envy of all of us." And then, with a small drop in tone, Mrs.
Bennett took up her previous topic again: "Please forgive my
forwardness," she said. "I forget you are here so recently from England,
where things are perhaps not so direct. But I do worry excessively about
Katherine. Her mother was my dearest friend."

Mrs.
Bennett stopped suddenly and grasped Elizabeth's arm. "Look," she
said with great animation, directing her attention across the road. Mrs.
Clinton is in town, do smile, do nod, Miss Elizabeth. The governor's wife. I
wonder what the Clintons are doing in Johnstown. They must be visiting with the
Dubonnets."

Katherine
and Julian had turned back to join them, and Elizabeth had a moment to reflect
on Mrs. Bennett's sudden switch of topic. She wondered whether the lady was as
flighty as she seemed, or if this was a calculated attempt to distract
Elizabeth and to disarm her. She thought ahead to her conversation with Mr.
Bennett, and hoped that he would keep the topic of her visit to himself.

* * *

It
wasn't until the contents of three shops had been inspected that Elizabeth was
able to slip away and find her way to Mr. Bennett's offices. Julian and
Katherine were so much enjoying themselves that they were best left to Mrs.
Bennett's animated direction, and barely seemed to register her departure. She
was let go once she promised to meet them at home for dinner, and with a great
deal of relief Elizabeth made her way into the street.

Johnstown
was a good—sized town with a great deal of business, and Elizabeth found it
possible to lose herself in the foot traffic. This was the first time she had
been on her own since leaving Paradise and she felt the pleasure of it. As they
had spent very little time in any of the towns on their trip north from
New—York, Elizabeth was interested in everything she passed, from the
black—smithy and tannery to the impressive homes of the town's first citizens.

Mr.
Bennett's offices were in a street off the main business area. Elizabeth stood
contemplating her errand when the door of a tobacconer's opened and Galileo
emerged with his arms full of packages.

"Miz
Elizabeth!" he greeted her solemnly with a deep bow of his head, and then
broke into a grin.

"Where
have you been keeping yourself?" Elizabeth asked. "I haven't seen you
at all since we arrived."

"Errands
to attend to for the judge," Galileo explained, holding out his packages
as evidence of his industry. "The judge don't care for town, you
see."

"Something
I have in common with my father, then," Elizabeth noted dryly.

Galileo
considered Elizabeth with one eye squeezed shut, the wiry salt—and—pepper
twists of his eyebrows meeting in a tumble over the sharp blade of his nose.
"Are you ready to head on home?" he asked. "I can have the
horses ready first thing in the morning, just you say the word."

"That
would be very good," Elizabeth said with a smile. "But do let me
check with Miss Witherspoon, and with my brother."

"Huh!"
Galileo's frown spread across his face and then disappeared as quickly as it
came.

"I
don't think Mr. Julian ready to go just yet."

Elizabeth
considered Galileo, wondering how much information he was willing to volunteer
about Julian's whereabouts and his activities in the last two days. But it was
getting late, and she cast a worried look toward Mr. Bennett's offices.

"I
have an errand," she said. "But I would like to talk to you about the
trip home, later." She took her leave from Galileo and had turned away
when across the road a weathered gray door flew open with a bang. From the dark
interior a terrific bellowing erupted, followed by the form of a slight man
dressed in ragged homespun who fairly flew through the air to land in a hump in
the road.