KATEY DISCOVERED that buying a comfortable English coach—at least a new one—as Judith Malory had suggested, wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a day. The man at the first coach yard she’d visited had said three weeks. The second coach builder had said he could have one made for her in a month. He had a waiting list!
It was bad enough that all the passenger ships departing for the Continent in the next few days had filled their lists already. The best Katey could do was to buy passage for two on a ship that sailed next week. She was still smarting over that, so she wasn’t about to delay leaving London even longer for a coach. This was all Boyd Anderson’s fault. Mr. Calderson hadn’t released them until yesterday afternoon, apologizing profusely when the man he’d sent to London returned and said the Malorys had indeed corroborated Katey’s version of events.
On the way back to their London hotel, Katey told Grace, “I think we’ll just revert to our original idea and buy a coach after we get to France.”
“You don’t think we’ll run into the same problem there?” Grace asked.
“Yes, but at least we can begin touring the country while we wait.”
Grace nodded. “Then what’s next on the agenda here before we leave? A new wardrobe? Hiring a coachman for a coach you don’t own yet?”
Katey raised a brow at her maid’s sarcastic tone. Her own mood was taking a downward swing. She hated being dependent on other people’s schedules. She wanted to leave England now, not next week. She’d wanted to buy a coach today, too, not next month. She’d even briefly thought of buying her own ship so she wouldn’t have to deal with someone else’s schedule anymore and could just stick to her own. But she could just imagine how long it would take to build a ship!
She’d only been half-serious yesterday when she’d told Grace they wouldn’t be leaving for six more days and had ended with “I should just buy a ship so we don’t run into delays like this again.”
Grace had rolled her eyes at her and replied, “Buying a coach is a good idea, buying a ship isn’t. We aren’t sailing around the world. We only need a ship to get to the next continent.”
“And then the one after that.”
“Yes, but how many months later will that be?” Grace had asked. “You said it yourself, that crossing Europe by land is going to take a long time. Besides, there aren’t that many continents for us to visit—are there?”
Whatever schooling Grace had received in Danbury hadn’t included geography. She readily admitted she’d only stayed in school long enough to learn to read and write. Katey’s education had been much more extensive, and while her tutor had been diligent in teaching her about the world, she hadn’t had picture books that showed her what he was talking about, so it had been hard for her to imagine how different Europe and Africa were from America. Her tutor had only given her a taste of what was beyond the horizon, leaving her wanting to see it for herself. She knew from her tutor’s lectures that it would be more convenient to sail from country to country rather than traveling over land.
“It’s too bad we can’t rent a ship,” Katey had ended with a sigh.
Grace had chuckled. “That’s funny. Waiting for the next ship to leave for the port you want to go to is only a small inconvenience, a small price to pay for seeing the world.”
But Katey was definitely learning that patience wasn’t one of her strong points. “Well, what about a new wardrobe?” Grace prodded.
“Why do I need a new wardrobe? I’m already carrying around trunks of clothes I’m making no use of, so why on earth would I buy even more?”
“Because you have nothing but serviceable, everyday clothes that you used to wear at home in Gardener. You don’t have a single fancy dress or wrap. What if you’re invited to a nice dinner or—”
“Invited by who?” Katey chuckled. “We’re not exactly meeting people who give fancy dinners.”
“You could. You should at least be prepared. Or will you be declining invitations just because you don’t have anything appropriate to wear?”
Katey conceded that point. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have at least one special dress, would it? And I did want to get another comfortable traveling ensemble. There might be time for that if we find a seamstress today. Very well, tell the driver to turn around. I think I noticed some shops a few streets back.”
Grace spoke to the hack driver, but after resuming her seat she said, “Now that we’ve got that off our list of immediate business, are you going to visit the child, to make sure she got home all right?”
“I don’t know—actually, I think not. I wasn’t pleased with the end of that little adventure, so I’d just as soon forget it. She was a delightful girl, though. I’ll at least jot off a note to—”
“Coward.”
Katey stiffened. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me right. You’re afraid that if you go anywhere near a Malory house you’ll end up running into him again.”
“You’re quite wrong there. I would love to run into Boyd Anderson again so I can put that pistol I bought the other day to good use.”
Grace snorted. “You wouldn’t shoot him.”
“I hung him, didn’t I?”
Grace burst out laughing, but when she wound down, she said with a fond smile, “What you do in those little tales you create is just daydreaming out loud, Katey. Pure fantasy like that has no bearing on what you’d really do if given the chance. But that was funny, the way you hung him. It’s too bad that was only your imagination getting angry.”
“I don’t know why you keep thinking I’m incapable of anger, that you’re the only one who gets to experience that emotion. I was furious over that whole incident.”
“Maybe, but you’re avoiding the point.”
“Maybe because I don’t want to discuss him?” Katey was quick to reply.
“I meant about the child. Jotting off a note without expecting a reply isn’t going to tell you that she got safely home. What if it wasn’t really a relative who ran off with her that day? What if Anderson was one of the kidnappers and he took off with you just to get you out of the way so you wouldn’t suspect what was really going on? What if Judith never got home?”
Katey laughed now. “You’ve listened to too many of my tales!”
“I’m being serious.”
“Then pick a subject that isn’t so absurd. The Oceanus belonged to him. And during the crossing we heard it mentioned that it was just one of many ships that belong to the shipping company his family owns. That man is no pauper, Grace.”
“Neither are you, but that didn’t stop him from pointing a finger, did it?”
That statement had some validity. “Very well, I’ll make sure I get a confirmation when my note is delivered. I have been assuming that everything is fine in regard to Judith. But I don’t have to go by the Malory residence myself to do that.”
“Fair enough,” Grace said. “I just didn’t want to see you leaving any loose ends here—speaking of which, we’ve got time before we sail for another jaunt to Gloucestershire.”
“No,” Katey said immediately. “Actually, I was thinking about a nice drive along the southern coast, perhaps as far as Dover, or maybe all the way to Cornwall if we don’t dally. We didn’t get a chance to visit the southern shires before we left for Scotland.”
Grace crossed her arms, looking stubborn, before she said, “I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t mention that you may never get back to England once we leave here. You might get to Italy and decide that’s the country where you want to put down roots. You already said Scotland would be a nice place to live, so I know you’re going to be looking at all of these countries we visit with an eye toward where you plan to roost when you finish seeing the world.
“So think about it,” Grace continued. “You know you’ll end up regretting that you didn’t make a greater effort to meet your mother’s family, when we’re on the other side of the world.”