Читать книгу The Maverick's Bride - Catherine Palmer, Catherine Palmer - Страница 8

1898, British Protectorate of East Africa

“Oh, Emma, what shall I do?” Priscilla Pickering lifted her tear-rimmed blue eyes. Sniffling, she raised her white lace handkerchief and dabbed at her cheek.

Emma sighed inwardly as she looked at her sister. “You will do as you’ve always done, Cissy. You will put on your brightest smile and bid him farewell as if he didn’t mean a thing in the world to you.” Stepping back from the open trunk, Emma tossed a pink ostrich-plumed hat onto the bed. “This will have to do, Cissy. We haven’t time to look for the white one. Father is already waiting on deck.”

“But, Emma, you don’t understand. Dirk is different. I do love him—truly.”

Emma buckled the trunk and picked up her own lavender hat. How many times had she helped her sister recover from a broken heart? She pursed her lips for a moment. “I know you love him. But, Cissy, honestly—you’ve loved them all. You insisted you loved that awful what’s-his-name who tried to take you off to Sussex. And you loved that banker chap who was going to carry you to France if Father hadn’t ordered him away and locked you in your room.”

“Emma, Dirk isn’t like those other men.” Cissy sniffled again and ran her delicate fingers through the ostrich plumes. “Dirk is good and kind. He loves me, Emma. We want to be married.”

Stifling another sigh, Emma crossed the floor of the steamship cabin and knelt before her sister. “Cissy, dear, you must try to accept the truth. Dirk Bauer is a soldier. He has no money at all. He’s leaving the ship in less than an hour for his post along the border. And Cissy—he’s not even English.”

At this Cissy burst into renewed sobbing. “Oh, Emma, I know it’s hopeless! We’ll leave this ship so Father can survey his silly railway—and I’ll never see Dirk again.”

Emma took her sister into her arms. “There, there. It’s not so bad.”

She reflected for a moment upon that morning—was it only three weeks ago?—when she and Cissy had been promenading on the deck. They had rounded a corner and come upon a cluster of young German soldiers. She smiled, remembering the awkward introductions, the men gazing in awe of Cissy, as men always did, and Cissy’s hat blowing, as if on cue, into the arms of the handsomest of them all.

Emma had gone off on her own then—preferring the ocean breeze and the rolling waves to flirtatious chatter. She recalled climbing to the top deck and standing alone beneath a brilliant azure sky. She had stared out across the endless ocean as if she might catch a glimpse of her future.

Subsequent meetings between Dirk and Cissy had been a great secret, although of course Emma had known. It was her responsibility to keep Cissy in hand. As the practical sister, Emma had attempted to dissuade her sibling from the fruitless course. But perhaps it had been the sea air, or the glorious sunshine. At any rate, Emma filled most of her hours with contemplation and study of the land to which God had led her.

The British Protectorate of East Africa.

Books, geographical society pamphlets, maps—as she devoured them, Emma shivered at the wonders in store. But the land held more than beauty. It was a place of hidden promises. God had laid out His plan for Emma’s life nearly two years before. While making her debut into society at St. James’s Court, she had heard someone coughing as she stepped down from the carriage. Wearing nothing but rags, a little girl huddled alone against the cold iron fence that surrounded the palace.

Despite longing to help the child, Emma had heeded her father’s command to stop dawdling. When she emerged several hours later, she saw two men lifting the girl’s lifeless body into a cart. That moment had propelled Emma on a journey that led her to Africa and the hope of finding a hospital where she could practice her hard-won skill as a nurse.

“It’s lovely for you, Emma!” Cissy pouted, breaking into her sister’s thoughts. “This is just your sort of thing—savages and wild animals. But where does it leave me? You’ll never get married—and Father won’t let me marry until you do.”

Emma wished for the thousandth time that her sister would follow the example she set and take hold of her emotions. At age twenty, Cissy should not be weeping and flailing about all the time. Common sense kept trouble at bay. Emma had learned that lesson the hard way.

“Cissy, you know Father dotes on you,” she said. “He’ll let you marry soon enough, I’m sure he will.”

“But I won’t have Dirk!”

“But you will have someone. Someone who will take care of you. You’ll have children and a happy home and everything you’ve dreamed of.”

“I want to marry Dirk.” Cissy wadded her handkerchief into a ball and set her jaw.

It was a look Emma knew well enough. With a grin, she gave her sister a hug and set the pink hat on Cissy’s head. “There now. Dry your eyes and put on your smile. We must leave the cabin soon. Father will be growing impatient.”

Rising, Emma shook out the folds of her lavender silk skirt and stepped to the mirror on the bulkhead beside the door. Cissy joined her, and together they adjusted and pinned their hats to the rolls of hair coiled on their heads. Emma watched Cissy dab at her soft blue eyes—twin sapphires set in the palest porcelain—and pinch her cheeks to bring out the roses. It was easy to see why men went mad for Cissy, Emma thought. Her sister’s hair shone like the sun and she had curves in all the right places.

Cissy smiled at her reflection, a flash of pearl-white teeth between pink lips. “When I have my inheritance,” she declared, “I shall hire servants to tend me wherever I go. Then I shall never be without the proper hat for each dress.”

Emma watched her sister fussing with the plumes. Did Dirk know Cissy would inherit half of their father’s money? She would have half, too—if she married a man of her father’s choosing. The very thought threw cold water on the embers of hope burning in her heart.

For a moment Emma gazed frankly at her own reflection, then she turned from the mirror to pull on her gloves. Her olive-green eyes were an advantage, but her hair waved so wildly and it was that awful wheat color. Her legs were simply too long, her neck too thin and her back too straight for popular fashion.

But what did she care for hats and gowns? Emma would much prefer diving into a pond, perching atop a hay cart or riding a horse, given a choice. But then, she never had been given a choice.

Picking up a lavender parasol from beside the trunk, Emma wandered from the mirror toward the other side of the cabin to wait for Cissy to finish her primping. From the porthole above her bed she had gazed out at the turquoise Indian Ocean, longing for a sight of the protectorate.

Finally, just that morning, they had made port. This raw, untamed territory on the east coast of Africa held her destiny on its burning plains. And she was determined to answer the call of God that flamed in her heart.

“Emma, do you think this pink gown is suitable today?” Cissy asked. “Perhaps Dirk will think it too bright. Perhaps he won’t believe how sad I am to lose him.”

“You look lovely,” Emma said absently as she lifted her skirts and placed one knee across her bed to move closer to the porthole. Pushing back the curtain with one hand, she leaned up to the round window.

Through the film of salt on the glass, she gazed at the busy harbor of Mombasa. An array of small wooden craft bustling with Arab traders surrounded the steamship. From one of its upper decks, a long gangway stretched to the pier. Down it, crewmen carried bale after bale, crate after crate of goods brought up from the hold of the ship. Other laborers scurried about on the wharf, rolling and muscling the cargo into place.

Mangy dogs and scrawny children chased one another through the throng of sailors and dockworkers. Stray chickens, blind in their quest for spilled grain or seed, bobbed across the footpaths and were kicked aside to flutter and squawk in the dust. Groups of men Emma recognized from the ship had just set foot on the soil of British East Africa—a land they had come to colonize. The Englishmen stood stiffly among scampering natives who wore little more than a cloth tied about the waist.

Just then Emma’s eyes were drawn to a frenzied movement near the cargo plank. A large wooden crate had broken loose from its ropes and was careening down the long ramp toward the pier. Gasping, she watched helplessly as dockworkers attempted to slow the runaway box. Gaining momentum, it threatened to tip and fall into the sea. But it righted again and continued its downward plunge. Shouts echoed across the harbor as men fled before the hurtling crate.

“Oh!” Emma cried out just as the box collided with two men, knocking them into the water. On impact, the crate began to break apart—jagged, splintered boards seesawing this way and that. As it tumbled the final few feet toward the pier, Emma spotted a child—oblivious to the commotion around him—spinning a tin hoop directly into the crate’s path.

“No, stop!” Horrified, she pressed her palms on the glass.

The ragged boy’s brown eyes darted up and his face transformed to terror. His brown sparrow legs froze, rooted to the dusty pier. Just as the splintered box slid off the gangway, a black horse thundered through the crowd of petrified onlookers. A dark figure swept the child into the air. The crate slammed onto the wharf and split into a hundred fragments. Boxes of tea, chairs, iron barrels spilled out. Emma glimpsed a man in a black hat cradling the frightened boy in his arms, and then the crowd swarmed them.

Bolting from the window, she ran for the cabin door. Her heart in her throat, she could barely choke out the words. “Cissy, come quickly! An accident. People are hurt.”

“Emma, what do you think you’re doing? We’re not to go ashore yet!” Cissy grabbed her parasol and rushed into the hallway after her sister. “What has happened?”

“A crate broke loose. There was a child. Hurry, Cissy!”

Emma lifted her skirts and sprinted up the stairs from the first-class cabins onto the deck. As she emerged, bright sunshine broke over her and she sucked in a great gulp of fresh sea air. The certain knowledge that she was needed propelled her toward the gangway. Racing past the row of Englishmen lining the ship’s guardrail, she started down the sodden wood ramp.

Nearing the bottom, she assessed the situation. One of the African laborers knocked into the water had been rescued. He lay motionless on the pier. Pushing through a circle of agitated onlookers, Emma knelt beside the unconscious man. Her mind hastily reviewed the nursing instructions she had learned under the tutelage of Miss Florence Nightingale and Mrs. Sarah Wardroper, matron of St. Thomas’s Hospital.

Sound and ready observation, Emma recalled Miss Nightingale repeating. Sound and ready observation. The first and most important tool for a good nurse.

Stripping off her lavender kid gloves, Emma laid a hand on the man’s chest. He was breathing.

“Thank God,” she whispered.

Never let a patient be waked out of his first sleep, Miss Nightingale had instructed. But this man was not asleep. He had collapsed and was utterly insensible. What to do in such an emergency?

And now Emma realized she had left her instruction manual in the cabin. Without Miss Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing to guide her, would she pass this first true test of her skills?

Emma was no doctor and such a dire situation called for a physician. Aware of the crowd pressing around her, she ran her hands along the African’s limbs to check for distortion. He was dripping wet but not bleeding, insensible but whole. Yet, how to rouse him? How to restore him to consciousness?

Miss Nightingale’s words flickered through her mind. Accurate observation. A certainty of perception.

Emma’s fingers traveled swiftly across his skull and she noted a swelling near his ear. Yes, he had taken a blow—a serious one. As she watched the man breathe, her fear turned to resolve. At the least, she would do something to ease his suffering.

She mentally cataloged the essentials for a patient’s comfort and healing. Pure water. Cleanliness. Light. Warmth. Effects of the loss of vital heat must be guarded against—especially in cases of collapse such as this.

First and foremost, he needed fresh air.

“Stand back,” Emma ordered the crowd jostling around them. “Please, someone fetch a pail of clean water. Cissy?”

Before she could speak again, a pair of well-muscled arms slid beneath the man and lifted him from the ground.

“Let’s get him out of the sun,” a deep voice rumbled.

Emma glanced up in surprise to find the injured dockworker supported against the broad expanse of a leather-vested chest. Eyes the color of a rain-washed sky looked down at her from a face that might have been carved from oak. Although young, it had been worn into striking planes and hollows. The sun had burned it to a buckskin brown. A shock of black hair fell across the forehead and brushed the dark brows.

Recognizing him as the man she had seen on the horse, Emma nodded. “He should be in the shade. But he needs fresh air, and we must keep him warm.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The tall man turned from her, and the crowd parted as he strode toward a grove of palm trees.

Her patient momentarily out of her care, Emma stared after the stranger. Clad as no man she had ever known, he wore trousers of a blue that might have been indigo once but had long since faded into a soft, light shade. They molded to his long legs as if almost a part of him. His thick brown leather boots were nothing like the soft leather spats and buttoned footgear her father sported. These had odd chunky heels, squared-off toes and silver spurs that spun when he walked.

Her petticoats causing some difficulty, Emma stood from the wharf. As she started toward the palm grove, she noted that the stranger’s shirt was clean and white—brilliant in the afternoon sun—but it didn’t do the things a shirt was meant to do. It had somehow lost its stiffness, the collar hanging loose at his neck and the sleeves rolled to his elbows.

Oddest of all was the man’s hat. Not a derby, a top hat or even a straw hat, this was made of jet-black felt, and it bore a wide, curling brim with a black leather band. The crown rose above his head, then dipped into a valley at the center.

As Emma approached, she saw him place the injured African on a patch of cool white sand near his horse. Then he slid a wool blanket from behind the black saddle.

“Emma, come quickly!” Cissy’s voice drew her attention. “They’ve taken the other one out of the water. No one will touch him.”

Whirling away, Emma followed Cissy through the crowd to the second African, who lay among the debris of the shattered crate. His body, clothed only in a fabric of native weave tied at the waist, glistened with water. He was awake but bleeding from a deep slash across his arm.

“Oh, Cissy, you know I’m not a surgeon,” Emma exclaimed, kneeling. “But we can’t wait for one. We must bind this wound without a moment’s delay.”

She glanced up to find her sister’s normally rosy cheeks pale, eyes wide with trepidation. Realizing Cissy would be no help, Emma turned her attention to the injured man. With effort, she lifted his trembling shoulders into her lap.

“I am here for you now,” she murmured. “With God’s help, I shall put you to rights.”

Miss Nightingale abhorred the practice of cheering the sick by making light of their danger or by exaggerating their probabilities of recovery. A good nurse must be concise and decisive, she instructed her pupils. Any doubt or hesitation should be kept to oneself and never communicated to the patient. Yet, Emma believed kind words could never hurt.

“Now, let me have a look at your arm,” she said gently. The man probably could make little sense of her English language, yet she prayed her tone and touch would suffice. As she lifted his wounded limb, he flinched and tried to pull away. The gash was deep.

“I must bind your arm. I need a clean bandage. Can someone fetch a—”

Observing the sea of dark faces surrounding her, Emma understood at once that she was alone in this effort. The crowd hung paralyzed, every eye focused on her.

“What would Miss Nightingale say now?” she mused. In such a place as this, everything necessary to good patient care was unavailable. Shaking her head, Emma lifted the hem of her lavender skirt, grasped her cotton petticoat and tore off a wide strip. It would have to do. She wrapped the fabric around the man’s arm and tied the ends into a neat knot.

“You must go home and wash this wound, sir. Use soap and hot water. Put on a clean bandage and then…” She paused and looked up again. Cissy had vanished, and the row of silent faces gaped at her. “Does anyone here speak English?”

“I’ll talk to him for you, ma’am.” The oddly dressed gentleman shouldered his way through the crowd and knelt in the dust beside her. “Touching a dead man is against these folks’ religion. They’re afraid both fellows are going to die.”

“Not if I can help it. Will you please tell this man something for me?”

“If he knows Swahili.”

“You’re American, aren’t you? I can tell by your manner of speech.” Emma looked up into the brilliant blue eyes. “At first I thought you might be Italian.”

“Italian?” The man’s mouth curved into a slow grin. “Born and raised in Texas. But I’ve lived here long enough to get by in the language.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” She made a desperate attempt to calm her fluttering stomach. “Please tell this man he must find a doctor as soon as he can. A surgeon if at all possible.”

“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, ma’am. He won’t be able to afford the treatment.”

“He should have stitches.” Dismayed, she shook her head. “Please tell him to wash the wound in fresh water. And keep it wrapped in cloths—clean ones, mind you.”

The stranger listened intently, then turned his focus from her and addressed the wide-eyed patient in a string of incomprehensible syllables.

“What did you tell him?” Emma asked.

“What you said, but he won’t do it. He’ll visit the mganga—the local medicine man—and get some homemade remedies. He’ll be all right.”

“Medicine man? You mean a witch doctor? But that’s dreadful—”

“Emmaline Ann Pickering, what do you think you’re doing?” A familiar voice growled overhead. Hard fingers clamped around Emma’s shoulders.

She cried out as she was jerked to her feet. The wounded man’s head slid from her lap to the ground as Emma confronted a pair of hard gray eyes.

“Father.”

Godfrey Pickering scanned his daughter from head to toe. “Explain yourself, girl.”

“I was helping…” Suddenly faint, she realized her serious lapse in judgment. Any effort to justify her actions would fall on deaf ears, but she must try. “This poor man was badly hurt and—”

“Emmaline, look at yourself,” Pickering ordered.

She glanced down at her silk skirt, now dusty and spotted with blood. Her puffed sleeves had collapsed, all the air gone out of them like a pair of burst bubbles. A wisp of hair had slipped from beneath her velvet hat to curl down her arm. Attempting to find a pin and tuck up the stray tress, Emma focused on her father’s red face.

“How do you do, sir?” she murmured, dipping a slight curtsy. She had no choice but to play the demure daughter. “I hope I find you well.”

Her father’s portly chest rose in an annoyed sigh. “Emmaline, do attempt to conduct yourself in the manner to which you were raised. I should like you to meet the assistant director of the East Africa Railway, Mr. Nicholas Bond. Mr. Bond, my elder daughter, Miss Pickering.”

A gentleman with brown hair, hazel eyes and a pleasant face stepped forward to extend a gloved hand. “Delighted to meet you, Miss Pickering.”

Emma knitted her bare fingers for a moment, then held out her hand. “Mr. Bond, my pleasure. Do forgive me—I seem to have misplaced my gloves.”

“Not at all.” His lips brushed the back of her hand. “I’m dreadfully sorry you’ve had such a rude introduction to the protectorate.”

“A rude introduction?” Emma turned her eyes to the injured man again. He was sitting up, picking at the cotton bandage. “Such a mishap could hardly have been predicted, sir.”

The American gentleman who had assisted Emma earlier now stood and removed his black hat. He glanced at Mr. Bond as if expecting an introduction. When he received no response, he shrugged and thrust out his hand.

“I’m Adam King, ma’am. Pleased to meet you.”

Emma placed her hand in the large warm grasp. She studied his blue eyes, assessing and finding them sincere. “Emmaline Pickering. Thank you for your assistance.”

“Any time.” He continued to hold her hand. “You’re a nurse.”

“No, she is not a nurse,” Emma’s father broke in, taking her hand and setting it on his arm. “She is my daughter.”

“Mr. Pickering, may I speak plainly?” Nicholas Bond asked. “This man is unworthy of your acquaintance. Adam King is a troublemaker. He has been most unwelcome in Queen Victoria’s protectorate.”

“As bad as that, are you?” Mr. Pickering surveyed the American. “Perhaps I should know more about such an adversary.”

“Adam King. Rancher.” He held out his bare hand to the heavy-jowled man.

“Godfrey Pickering, director of the British Railway.” After a moment’s hesitation, he shook the extended hand. “Your name is familiar, Mr. King. Is your family occupied in a transportation industry, sir? Railway, perhaps, or shipping?”

Nicholas’s eyes darkened as he inserted his own answer. “I assure you, sir, this man is involved in no enterprise so honorable. His closest associates are uneducated farmers. He consorts with the native population—with savages of the lowest form.”

A flicker of anger briefly transformed the taller man’s features, but he made no reply. As the two men stared at each other in silence, Emma feared the confrontation would come to blows.

But Mr. Bond turned away with a nod. “If you will accompany me, Mr. Pickering, we shall make our way back to the ship and see that your baggage is sent directly to government quarters. Miss Pickering will be eager to prepare for tonight’s reception in honor of her father. Indeed, I should be honored to escort you myself. May I have the pleasure?”

Taken aback by Nicholas’s cutting remarks about the American who had been of such help to her, Emma nonetheless put on a smile. “How kind, Mr. Bond. I had no idea there was to be a reception.”

“It’s not every day the protectorate is graced with a dignitary of your father’s rank. We rarely have such charming company as you and your sister.”

With that he crooked his elbow for her to take. Reluctant to leave Adam King so abruptly, Emma nevertheless slipped her hand around the railway director’s arm. But as she lifted her skirt, she turned back to the Texan. Nicholas had no choice but to pause.

“Mr. King,” she said quietly. “Again, I thank you for your assistance.”

The rancher nodded.

“Will the two men be all right, Mr. King?”

Adam’s eyes met hers. “They will, Miss Pickering. I’ll make sure of it.”

“And the child—the one you lifted onto your horse?” For some reason, she wanted him to know she had seen him save the boy.

He tipped his head in acknowledgment. “He’s with his mother.”

“Your actions belie your reputation, sir,” she said. “I’m glad. Good day, Mr. King.”

Without meeting his disturbing gaze again, Emma allowed herself to be led up the gangway and back onto the ship. Spotting Cissy at the rail, she disengaged herself from Mr. Bond, who was eager to accompany her father toward the myriad trunks and hatboxes emerging from below deck.

Joining Cissy, Emma noted her sister’s damp cheeks. “What is it, dearest? Are you ill again?”

Clutching her hankie tightly in one fist, the younger woman gripped the railing with the other. “Dirk. He’s leaving and I shall never see him again.”

Emma spotted the contingent of German soldiers marching down the pier, beginning their long journey toward the border post. Dirk Bauer kept the formation. But as the brigade turned inland, he glanced back for an instant, his eyes locking on Cissy. Then he rounded a corner and was gone.

Cissy stifled a sob with her handkerchief. “I love him, Emma,” she said softly. “Truly, I do.”

“I know, dearest. Your heart is broken.”

“Don’t mock me, Emma! The pain is so great I can hardly bear it.”

“I’m not making light of it. I understand your suffering.”

“Impossible. Romance is as foreign to you as this sweltering continent is to me. You’ve never known real love.”

I don’t suppose I have, Emma mused, placing her hand over Cissy’s. But then, I’ve never cared a fig about men.

Emma would not fall in love—of that she was confident. Certainly she would never marry. God intended her to labor for Him as a nurse. He had called her into that glorious service, just as certainly as He had called Miss Nightingale.

Even as Emma recited the assurance she had held in her heart these two long years, her focus wandered to the pier below. Amid the dispersing crowd, the tall rancher stood watching her. He clutched his hat in one hand and hooked the thumb of the other over his belt. His weight rested on one leg, while his broad shoulders slanted in an easy slouch.

Unlike her father and the other Englishmen of her acquaintance, this American looked comfortable, perfectly at home in his body. She had never been allowed to feel so at ease with herself. Corsets, laces and petticoats were tangible reminders of the strictures that bound her.

What would such a man as Adam King be like alone, away from the crowds? Hadn’t the warmth of his hand on hers made her shiver? Hadn’t it conveyed a promise of strength and security she had never felt in her life?

“Emma, who are you staring at?” Cissy’s voice broke into her thoughts. “It’s that man on the pier, isn’t it? The one in the strange hat. Who is he?”

“His name is Adam King,” Emma murmured. “He’s an American.”

He had begun speaking with the ship’s purser now, a much shorter man with a protruding belly. As Emma made to turn her sister away from the rail, she saw the rancher lean forward, his index finger punctuating his words with regular jabs at the other man’s chest. Clearly furious, he edged the ship’s officer backward step by step.

“What could the purser have done to anger him so?” Cissy asked.

“I can hardly imagine,” Emma replied. The American looked so different now—all his dark strength surged upward into black fury. She gripped the iron rail, conscious of her heart beating in heightened rhythm with the rancher’s advance. Just as the purser backed into a low wooden box and could go no farther, Adam stopped. He appeared on the verge of throwing the hefty adversary into the harbor, when the purser whisked a long white envelope from behind his back.

The American snatched the envelope, and the purser scampered up the gangway like a hare eluding a fox. Tearing open the envelope, Adam took out a letter and scanned its contents.

Emma craned forward, anticipating the reaction. Suddenly lifting his head, Adam raised his eyes to the sky. For a moment the man stood frozen—a great tower of pulsing strength, barely leashed by rigid muscles. Then, as if a cord had been severed, the bonds broke and he snapped back to life. Ripping the letter in two, he hurled it to the ground and spun on his spurred heel.

He strode to the grove of palm trees, took his horse’s reins and mounted. The animal reared, hooves churning, then it turned away from the ship to gallop along the harbor and out of sight.

“Heavens,” Cissy exclaimed. “I should like to know what was in that letter. Shall I go down and fetch it?”

“No, Cissy.” Emma caught her sister’s arm. “That man’s business is not our affair.”

“But haven’t you the least bit of curiosity? After all, it’s not every day one sees a cowboy.”

“A cowboy?” Emma frowned. “Mr. King introduced himself as a rancher.”

“He’s American, isn’t he? With those boots and spurs, what else could he be?”

Emma watched the dust settling along the path the horse had taken. A cowboy…the sort of character she had only read about in books. Cowboys led wagon trains across the prairies and drove herds of longhorn cattle down dusty trails. What could such a man be doing in Africa?

“I hope we see him again,” Cissy said. “I should like to tell my friends at home that I talked to a real cowboy.”

“We won’t see him again,” Emma told her sister. “Mr. King must have come to Mombasa for that letter and he certainly wasn’t pleased with its news.”

“He was in a great hurry to be off.” Cissy tilted her head. “Emma, are you all right?”

Stiffening, Emma realized she was still staring after the man. “I’m fine, of course. Look, Cissy, our father’s new acquaintance is moving our way. He’ll expect an introduction.”

His top hat a burnished black in the late sunlight, Nicholas Bond held his shoulders straight and his chin up as he approached. Nothing about him echoed the casual slouch of the cowboy rancher. A sudden thought brightened Emma’s spirits. Perhaps Mr. Bond might capture her sister’s fancy and draw Cissy’s attention from poor Dirk Bauer.

“I should like you to meet Mr. Nicholas Bond,” Emma said as the man presented himself. “He’s the assistant director of the railway. Mr. Bond, my sister, Miss Priscilla Pickering.”

“Delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss Pickering.” He smiled, swept off his top hat and pressed his lips to Cissy’s hand. “And now your father awaits. May I direct you ladies from the ship?”

With a polished clip in his step, he escorted the sisters down the gangway behind their father.

“Your trunks are safely stowed,” Bond announced, clapping his hands to summon a trolley. As a pair of young African men pulled the wheeled vehicle to a halt, he turned to the women.

“Miss Priscilla,” he said, holding out a hand. “Take care, please. This is no English carriage.”

Cissy dipped her head in polite acknowledgment. As Nicholas and her father helped Cissy up the squeaky stair into the covered trolley, a flutter of white caught Emma’s eye. Half of Adam King’s letter tumbled toward her in the gentle breeze. After a moment’s hesitation, she snatched it up.

Roses the color of blood and wine bloomed in a tangle of green vines across the top of the paper. Watercolor florals, done in an elegant hand. The scent of perfume, heady and evocative, clung to the letter as Emma began to read.

My darling. The words swam out in flowing blue ink. How I’ve longed to be in your arms! How I’ve missed you—

The torn page stopped the words. Emma glanced up to see the men busily tucking Cissy’s skirts into the trolley. She read on.

As you know, I had planned to arrive in January, but unfortunately—

Another stop. Emma rushed to the next line.

—the governor’s inauguration on the twenty-fifth, and I do wish you could—

—such a long trip, but I know it will be worth it to see you—

—I understand how lonely you’ve been and how much you want someone to—

—and so after a great deal of careful deliberation as well as many conversations with—

“Emmaline?”

Her father’s tone froze Emma’s eyes on the final words: I remain forever, your faithful wife—

—Clarissa

The torn paper cut through her like a razor’s edge.

Dropping the letter, Emma saw the breeze catch it and whip it across the pier, whisk it high into the air and send it fluttering into the turquoise sea.

“Emmaline!”

Her father’s voice left no room for longing.