Chapter Nineteen

Tyler followed Cory along the catwalk. His balance improved with each run. He enjoyed the view of Cory’s hips swaying as she preceded him. It was a hypnotic movement that trained his feet to move in a mirrored dance of her footwork.

“Hey, I’m pretty good at this.” He lost his footing and began waving his arms like a fledgling on the edge of a nest afraid to fly.

“Stop fooling around. We’re coming up on Lock Sixteen.”

Tyler regained his balance and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with a kerchief from his pants pocket. “Does that mean a break?”

“Locks are not breaks,” Cory informed him. “Everyone has a job to navigate the boat through a lock. There are usually five in a crew.”

“We’re the crew?” Tyler did a quick head count. “Do we have to go all the way to Cleveland?”

“No. My cousin Colin is in Peninsula. That’s Lock Twenty-nine. He’ll board for the rest of the trip north.”

“The Mary Louise is coming south,” Captain Donovan called out from the stern. “We’ll be able to make headway and not wait for the lock to fill.”

“Headway?” Tyler watched as the wooden gates of the lock opened, and another boat headed toward them.

“It means we can go straight into the lock without waiting for it to fill.”

“Fill with what?”

Cory pointed to the canal. “Water. The water is higher on this side of the lock. The Mary Louise came into the lock on the lower side. Once inside the lock, the doors are closed on both ends and the lock is filled with enough water to make the boat rise to this level. Once she passes, we can go in, and we lower the water like we did before.”

“Headway!” Captain Donovan hollered.

Paddy pulled up on the mules and let the towline go slack to the bottom of the canal. Paddy kept his mules to the far side out of the way of the mules pulling the Mary Louise as she passed. As soon as she was clear, Paddy moved the mules forward. The towline grew taut and pulled the canal boat toward the lock.

“Use your pike to keep the boat from hitting the gates or walls,” Captain Donovan ordered.

“You take the starboard side.” Cory prepared to push on the leeway side.

Captain Donovan manned the tiller to line up the boat with the lock, letting it glide in. Tyler and Cory poked with the pikes enough to keep the rub rails on the side of the boat from smashing into the large cut quarry stones and jarring them from their precarious perch.

Ethan jumped to the lock’s edge and wrapped the bow line around the snubbing post to stop the boat as it reached the end of the chamber of the lock.

“The tender shed is empty!” Ethan called out.

“We’ll have to tend the lock,” Captain Donovan said.

Tyler looked at the abandoned shed. “What happened?”

“They fired all the lock tenders in March except those at feeder gates. The two men at Lock Fifteen work at Mustill Store. Most captains didn’t start the season until the end of May this year because of flooding. Now there’s talk of leasing the canal.” Cory lowered her voice. “Everyone thought the railroad would put the canal out of business, but the state’s lack of funding is ruining it.”

“Is the captain losing money?”

“Not as long as he has grandchildren working for him.” Cory nodded toward Ethan. “Think you can help with the gate so Paddy can stay with the mules?”

Tyler jumped off the boat opposite Ethan and mimicked him. Each turned a balance beam attached to the miter gates. Once the back gates were closed, they ran to the other end of the lock and turned the paddle control to open the sluice door in the bottom of the gate wall. Water rushed out, and the boat lowered with it.

Once the boat was level with the water outside the gate, Ethan and Tyler closed the paddles and opened the front miter gates using the balance beams. Ethan released the bow line and jumped on board the Irish Rose. Tyler leaped onto the bow deck, and Paddy tossed him the towline. Tyler slipped the hook through the deadeye, and Ethan signaled Paddy to move the mules.

The boat hit the side of the gate. “Look lively!” Captain Donovan called out. Cory shoved against the wall. Tyler grabbed a pike.

“Push against the stone. You could damage the lock if you break the wood.”

“And I thought a blacksmith’s job was hard,” Tyler remarked. “One lock and my shirt is soaked. Are we going all the way to Peninsula? That would be thirteen more locks.”

The boat cleared the lock, and they stopped pushing. “River Road is at Lock Twenty-four. Do you think you can handle it that far?”

He let out a gasp. “How long has the captain been doing this?”

“More than thirty years, right Captain?” Cory asked.

“Made the run from Akron to Cleveland and back again every summer except for the year I broke my leg,” he said. “That’s the year your father met your mother.”

“Are you sure?” Cory met Tyler’s gaze and winked.

“I remember it well. The summer of 1839. Canal captains were highly respected back then. Fortunes were at stake. Tempers were hot and fights common. Danny O’Hara cut the Irish Rose off to beat me into the Deep Quarry Lock. He was the dirtiest fighter in these parts, but I didn’t take nothin’ from nobody back then. I had headway, but O’Hara closed the gate and took my turn. We scrapped for more than an hour on the bank with so much sweat pouring off of us; we could have filled the lock with it. Then he knocked me down onto his boat. I scrambled up the wall but slipped. His boat smashed against my leg and broke it in two places.”

He made a breaking motion with his hands. “It looked so bad, CJ called for a doctor. Your pa came to set it. He had me cursing his name when he put the bones back where they belonged, but he set it straight. I don’t even have a limp. He ended up in a whole lot more pain than I did.”

Tyler looked at Cory. “Pain?”

“Mother.”

“Maureen Rose Donovan was sixteen and the prettiest lass in these parts,” Captain Donovan explained. “Had plenty of men trying to wed her, but she turned them all down. She was waiting for the right man to come along and ask her. She decided Doctor Sterling Beecher was the right man. Only he never proposed. He kept calling to check on my leg but never courted her. Unfortunately, it healed.”

Tyler was being treated to a family yarn and urged the Captain to continue. “Unfortunately?”

The captain grinned. “He didn’t have any reason to call anymore. I took matters into my own hands and laid down the law. No man trifles with my daughter.” He waived his finger in Tyler’s face. “I told him if he likes what he sees, then put a ring on her finger.”

“I bet that was an easy decision,” Tyler said.

“It wasn’t as easy as you think. He didn’t have many patients and marrying a canal brat lost any chance to gain more.”

“Mama wasn’t a canal brat!”

Captain Donovan snorted. “High society types thought otherwise, but true friends remained loyal. They lived at Glen Knolls with Hiram and Adelaide until you were born.”

“Most of his patients paid bills with produce or livestock. He had so many cows and chickens, he decided to buy land in Darrow Falls and farm it. The price for wheat had tripled since the canal opened and corn was nearly double. He’d still be a farmer except for the fire in ’45. A lot of people were hurt, and your father took care of them. He earned the respect of everyone in the area and gained plenty of patients.”

“Papa said he owed a favor to Hiram and Adelaide,” Cory said.

“They were generous folks,” Captain Donovan said. “Never turned anybody away who needed help. I was sorry to hear Hiram died.”

“To think I was born at Glen Knolls,” Cory remarked to Tyler. “I guess that’s why I’m so fond of the place.”

“It holds some pleasant memories for me, too.” Tyler watched Cory blush. He wondered if either one of them could settle for nothing more than memories.

****

By the time the boat reached Lock Nineteen, Tyler had become proficient at treading the catwalk. He gripped the board with his toes and stepped back and forward in a rolling gait. “Maybe there’s some privateer blood in me,” he confessed. “Miss Olivia’s folks lived along the coast.”

Cory laughed. “More likely pirate blood.”

“Then you can be my wench.” He grabbed her around the waist and threatened to make them fall. They came out of the woods into a clearing with a road ahead. He saw two men on the bridge over the lock and released her. “Looks like Edward found us.”

Cory turned around on the bow cabin. “Edward and Buck.”

Edward gave his horse’s reins to Buck and stood on the edge of the wooden planking of the bridge.

“That ugly fellow looks familiar,” Captain Donovan announced from the stern. “The fancy dressed one looks like he wants to jump on board.”

Tyler knew a confrontation was imminent. “Is there a way to go through the lock faster than a tortoise’s pace?”

“Rushin’ don’t get a lad any place sooner than he ought.”

“Then it looks like he’s going to board,” Tyler called back to Captain Donovan.

“Let ’im board. We’ll give him a nice welcome and then hurry his departure, with your help, laddie.”

Tyler grinned at Cory. “I like the captain.”

“I’m rather fond of him, too.”

“Stay here with Ethan.” Tyler hurried back to the stable cabin.

Edward jumped aboard. He landed on the roof in front of Tyler. Captain Donovan didn’t let the additional passenger stop him. He steered the boat through the gates of the lock. “Look lively,” he called out.

Ethan jumped off the boat and tightened the bow line around the snubbing post. The boat slowed.

“I have the mules.” Cory jumped off with the towline. She took the mules’ reins, and Paddy helped Ethan with the gates.

“Where is she, Tyler?” Edward looked below into the stable cabin.

Edward thought Tess was aboard the boat. Tyler glanced back at the stern and walked backwards along the catwalk. He bluffed. “You can’t have her.”

Edward followed. He took one step on the narrow plank and stopped. “She belongs to me! Hand her over.”

Tyler showed off his new prowess. He agilely danced back along the plank, daring Edward to follow. He held the pike out equally on each side for balance. When Edward refused to follow, he charged forward. Edward backed up to the front of the stable cabin.

“With that staff, it’s not much of a fair fight, but then a ruffian like you wouldn’t know about honor.”

It was as if they were boys again. “I broke your nose when you had the advantage. I can break it again.”

Tyler saw the Donovan boys opening the paddles on the gates. He hoped Edward lost his balance as the boat dropped with the outpouring of the water. He didn’t.

Edward looked around. “What’s happening?”

“It’s a canal lock.”

“You can have your duel once we’re out of the lock,” Captain Donovan announced.

Ethan and Paddy opened the front gates. Ethan helped Cory back on board and secured the towline.

“Give him a pike.”

Cory handed Edward the long pole and backed up to the bow.

Tyler squared off with Edward.

“Tess is my slave.” Edward took the pike in both hands. “The law requires you return her to me.” He swung the pole upward and caught Tyler’s pike in a jarring collision.

Tyler exerted his greater strength. “You own other slaves. You don’t need Tess.”

“I gave Tess to Regina as a wedding gift.” Edward pushed against Tyler, but he didn’t budge. “She was born on the Silver Pheasant, and she’ll die there.”

Tyler backed up, hoping to draw Edward out onto the catwalk and off the stable cabin roof. “She’s not going back.”

Edward charged, and Tyler battled back. Each blow of the wooden staffs echoed in the still, humid air.

“Reggie doesn’t want Tess.” Tyler swung the pike around to knock Edward off balance. “She sent her away.”

“Liar! She’d never do that.” Edward stepped back and then lunged forward with the pike. They locked the pikes in primitive battle.

Tyler needed to convince him of the truth. “I talked to her after you left.”

Edward stepped back. “Who do you think you are calling on my wife?” He charged forward on the narrow plank. He lost his balance and swung the pike up and down to regain it. The pole smacked Tyler on the cheekbone and nearly toppled him.

Tyler felt burning pain along his eye and the side of his face. Anger blinded him as he lunged. He locked Edward’s staff with his own.

“You had no right to be alone with her!” Edward shouted. “She told me about your proposal on our wedding day. You were trying to steal her away from me!”

Tyler needed to reason with him. “She turned me down.” He shoved Edward away. “Maybe if you had talked to her before going off after Tess, you would have saved yourself a trip. Adam reminded Reggie too much of Eddie. She packed Tess and the baby up and put them on a boat heading north before she realized how much trouble it would cause. Do you think Tess would leave Noah?”

Edward gasped for breath. “He followed her.” He swiped the pike at Tyler’s head.

Tyler ducked. “To find her. He’s her husband. He knows his place is beside his wife. Unlike you.”

“Don’t tell me how to treat my wife or my servants!” Edward swung the pike like a club.

Tyler jumped back. His pike flipped upward and smacked Edward on the side of his head. Blood flowed down his face.

“I want Tess back.” He stumbled on the plank.

“It won’t change anything!” Tyler knocked the pike from his hand. It fell into the cargo hold. Edward charged and threw a wild punch. Tyler took a couple blows to the face before he dropped his pike. He punched Edward and knocked him off balance. Edward fell on the cords of wood below, rolled several times, and splashed into the canal water.

Tyler looked back to see Edward’s wet head surface in the shallow muddy water.

Captain Donovan tied off the tiller and made his way to Tyler. “Are you all right, boy?”

Tyler’s head felt like a bee hive. “I’m fine.”

He grabbed his face. “A leech will take care of the swelling around your eye.”

His other eye widened. “A what?”

“Leeches.” Cory opened the trapdoor to the bow cabin. “There’s plenty in the canal. The captain keeps a jar for bleeding bruises.”