While Jess rowed back to the boat, Matthew watched the men on shore. He said, “It was a nasty situation resolved more easily than I expected.”
“Are they still standing there?”
“Still watching, but I don’t think they’re suspicious.” Matthew continued, “The hounds picked up the scent of us all, but I’m convinced we confused them. Just hope we can meet up with Alex and the rest of them tomorrow.”
Jess nodded. Pulling close to the Golden Awl, he dropped the oars as Matthew grabbed the rope ladder and turned to reach for the rope. Crystal came to the railing just as Matthew dropped to the deck. Leaning over, she saw the empty boat. Wide-eyed she looked from Jess to Matthew.
“Did you hear the hounds?”
She nodded.
“Alex and the others headed north. Jess and I were decoys.” He grinned down at her. “Tomorrow you have a job. You’ll be chief look-out. Hopefully they’ll find their way to the shore and we’ll pick them up.”
“And if not?”
“Then we’ll lay over in Paducah, Kentucky, until they catch up with us.” He paused. “Where’s the rest of them?”
“Joseph is in the engine room getting lessons on how to run a steam engine. He’s also been splitting wood for the cookstove. Amelia is preparing dinner for us.”
She paused. “Matthew, what will we do if—I mean, this is frightening.”
His jaw tightened. “There are risks, without a doubt. These days you just don’t go running all over the South with a bunch of runaway slaves on your heels.”
“What ever possessed Alex Duncan to get involved in such a project?”
“Right now,” he said with a twisted grin, “I could repeat back all the things he’s been saying to me for the past weeks. But frankly, given the circumstances we’re in, the reasoning behind his arguments just plain doesn’t hold water.”
Caleb joined them. His face was very sober when Matthew finished speaking. “So they got cut off?”
Matthew nodded. “How does the rudder look?”
“I need another day to work on it. Sure enough, it needs to be replaced, but with some wire and a few holes poked in it, I believe we can make do.”
****
The sun was setting when the river patrol boat pulled close. Matthew watched while the captain studied them. Then the man cupped his hands to his mouth and called, “I’m coming aboard.”
“Come ahead!” Matthew shouted. Turning to Crystal and Amelia, he whispered, “It’s nothing to be alarmed about. He won’t find anything.”
The officer came over the side with an apologetic smile. “Just routine. We’ve been petitioned to examine all the small boats moving on the Mississippi. It seems there’s been an increase in runaway slave traffic. Will you please escort me through your boat?”
“Certainly,” Matthew said, and then took the patrol on an extensive tour of the boat. When the man finally left them, Matthew sat down at the table and said, “It wouldn’t surprise me to have at least another check. I don’t think he was satisfied.”
“I saw the way he looked when he saw the cookstove down here in the woodpile,” Amelia said.
“I think he became suspicious when he saw the cotton stacked in the cabins. We would have done well to have all the cotton in one cabin. Too late now; we’ll have to expect another investigation.”
Matthew got to his feet. “If you ladies will excuse me, I’ll join Caleb in the pilothouse. He’s going to need all the help he can get tomorrow, and I think I need a briefing on what to do with that wheel and the bells.”
As Amelia watched him go, she turned to Crystal. “Life’s looking up already, huh?” She grinned, “I’m glad for you.”
Crystal felt her face grow warm. “Matthew is a wonderful person, but I’ve no intention of taking his flirtation seriously.” She paused and her breath caught as her words came in a rush. “Please don’t say anything to Olivia about—our conversation. I suppose I’ll need to tell her sometime, but not now.”
“Especially since Matthew is her brother?” Amelia’s eyes narrowed as Crystal hesitated, and finally she nodded.
****
When Matthew left the pilothouse, the moon had risen above the trees along the bank. On impulse he went down to the main deck. Crystal leaned against the railing, her face lifted to the moon. Matthew crossed the deck. “I hoped I would find you here. Where is Amelia?”
“In the cabin. I believe she’s washing her clothes. There are both advantages and disadvantages to losing all your wardrobe.”
“Name the advantages.”
“It doesn’t take a half hour to decide what you’ll wear in the morning.” He chuckled as she added, “But you must also do laundry each night. This is the first time in my life I’ve scrubbed clothes.”
“Let me see if it is ruining your hands.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “Smooth as silk. I’ll recommend you as a laundress.” He tugged her close, and she came willingly.
“Crystal—” he hesitated, then spoke in a rush of words. “I suppose I shouldn’t say this, but I must be fair. I think I’m beginning to love you more each day. If I’m not to have a chance with you, please say so.”
Crystal hesitated, turning in his arms. She looked out over the water. The party in Natchez danced before her eyes. Centered in the picture was Boyd Darkinson. While his ardent eyes had questioned and demanded an answer, Crystal had begun to understand the difference Joseph had made in her life. And that night, with Boyd’s proud Southern face bending over her, she realized she must reject forever the possibility of marriage and happiness.
Now, with an ache in her heart, she closed her eyes, wondering if her life was destined to be an endless procession of such temptations. Conscious of Matthew’s nearness, she swallowed the painful lump in her throat. But Joseph said I am to forget—
Taking her by the shoulders, Matthew turned her around. “You can’t encourage me?”
Her eyes focused on him. Trying for a teasing note as she studied his serious face, she said, “How do you know I won’t be a butterfly, flitting from you to the next?”
“Because I care enough to fasten you firmly to this stalk before you look for another.” His mouth searched for hers.
“Oh, Matthew, this is happening too soon.”
“Let me kiss you again, and then you say that.” Her arms reached for him. “I knew it,” he exulted. “I knew you were for me as soon as I saw you.”
****
Before Crystal and Amelia were out of bed, they heard the clanking and shudder. Amelia lifted her head and worried, “I hope they know what they are doing. I wish they would wait for Alex. Somehow I have more confidence in that young man.”
Crystal sat up. “I think I do, too. Perhaps we should get up before we find ourselves in the Mississippi in this state of undress.”
Amelia shuddered. “One dip is enough. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. The flames—” She paused and looked curiously at Crystal. “I’ve heard that when you are dying, your whole life flashes in front of you. Did you feel that way?”
Crystal chewed her lip. Something flashed in front of me last night when Matthew kissed me, she thought. And this morning I have a terribly guilty conscience. I suppose I should just tell him now before my resolve flies out the window. She glanced at Amelia and said, “Dying? No, I was too busy thinking about what to do next. Did your life flash in front of you?”
“No, that’s why I wondered. If anybody’s would, I’d expect it to be mine.” Her face was troubled when she faced Crystal.
Crystal took a deep breath. “Amelia, I know you girls reputedly live a pretty rough life, but my old nurse—I call her Auntie T, well, she says, no matter what your religion is or isn’t, the Lord is willing to listen when you just say you are sorry and want another chance to prove it.”
Amelia picked at a thread on her blanket. Abruptly the serious expression fled. “So much for Auntie T; I get the feeling I need to prove it and then say I’m sorry. Seems I don’t have the confidence He’ll listen ’til then.”
“All hands on deck!” Matthew shouted outside their door. “We’re heading out as soon as breakfast is finished.”
Breakfast was unusually quiet. Crystal and Matt exchanged quick glances, but said very little to each other. Afterward, Crystal and Amelia were washing dishes when the boat shuddered away from the shore and headed up the Mississippi. Crystal gave a sigh of relief. “At least we’re moving again.”
Amelia walked to the other side of the boat and gazed at the line of trees on the bank. “Even though I know they’re gone, I feel creepy going off without them.”
Crystal joined her at the rail. Nodding, she added, “I just hope and pray that they will not have problems, and that very soon we’ll all be together again.”
****
Caleb had the men cut back on the engine speed. “I just feel better chugging along without the necessity of flanking this thing, or trying to claw her off another sandbar.”
Matthew called Leon out of the engine room. “Let’s move the cotton from one cabin into another. I don’t want any cause for suspicion the next time we’re stopped.”
“How long will it take us to get to Paducah?”
“Caleb says two or three days. We’ll repair the rudder and wait for the others. There’s no chance they’ll be ahead of us.”
Amelia asked, “Will they be able to reach the boat?”
Matthew nodded. “This rig is small enough we can dock it in pretty shallow water.”
“We’ll need supplies, Matthew.” Crystal shook the empty cornmeal tin. Turning to Joseph she said, “If you chop more wood, I’ll bake bread—that is, if you can tell me how to do it.”
Joseph’s face brightened, and with a pleased grin, he said, “Missy, I’ll be glad to. Fact is, I’d be willing to do it for you.”
Crystal paused, still pondering over the expression on his face. He responded as if she had paid him an extravagant compliment. Feeling ill at ease and deeply aware of their relationship, she turned away saying, “If you wish. I can better spend my time doing other things.”
****
Amelia and Crystal sat close to the railing and watched the scenery. They were now in their second day, and could begin to see the broad sweep where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers joined.
“I remember this,” Crystal said. “It seems like the ocean here—water as far as you can see.”
Amelia chuckled. “That reminds me of a story I heard. It was several years ago this happened. One of the men on the boat swore he was on the Belle Air at the time. Might have been. The Belle Air was shipping downriver in flood stage. They’d lost all their sightings and, like others before them, decided to take a shortcut through the flooded fields. They ended up taking their steamboat right down the main street of Chester, Illinois. There was plenty of water, and things were going well until they bumped into a three-story building and knocked the top story off. When they tried to change course they ran into a stone mill, bounced off some brick buildings, and destroyed the jailhouse before they got back where they belonged.”
“Oh, Amelia, that’s outrageous. No one would believe that!”
“Some of the others claimed they had heard the story.”
The smell of baking bread began to fill the boat. Abruptly Crystal’s laughter died away. She saw Amelia’s face reflected her thoughts. “I hope they have enough to eat, and that—oh dear, where do runaways sleep?”
Silently they watched the forest surrender to cotton fields. They passed a hog farm, full of raucous noise and overpowering smell. There was a flour mill beside a stream, a school house silent in the noonday sun, and then a tiny village. Amelia sighed. “Without the children around, this trip seems to drag on forever.”
Crystal asked the question that had been on her mind for several days. “Amelia, how did you come to work on a steamboat?”
“Mind if I don’t answer that?” came the tart reply.
“I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that it seems like an interesting job, and I wondered—” She looked up and caught a swift glimpse of pain in the woman’s eyes, reminding her that the woman had mentioned having a story to tell.
Amelia drawled. “You are a pampered, sheltered child, Crystal; you’ve no idea how life really treats some of us.” Her lips twisted. “And for your sake, I hope you are never forced to see it thus.”
She rose and went to the table beside the stove. “Joseph, that bread smells wonderful. If you are ever out of a job, I will recommend you to the best steamboat on the Mississippi as head cook.”
Crystal saw the shadow in his eyes as he glanced toward her. He heard everything Amelia said. I wonder what pain Joseph and Evangeline had to suffer? For the rest of the afternoon, Crystal sat by the railing and watched Joseph and Amelia while she brooded over the strange drift of circumstances in her life.
Later that evening when Matthew came down from the pilothouse with that light in his eyes, her heart responded with a joy she had thought impossible.