Far From Home (13 page)

‘Doesn’t seem to go anywhere, miss, but it might be. Oh!’ she said as Henry veered to the left. ‘Henry thinks it is. Perhaps she knows the way.’

‘It seems she does.’ Georgiana peered down the track. ‘There have been vehicles along here anyway. Look, those are wheel marks.’

Henry trotted briskly on down the track, which was lined on either side with trees, further blotting out the little remaining light.

‘And there’s a track on the right, miss. Just there, by that old hut.’

Henry, without any signal from the rein, turned down the right-hand track and trotted on. They came upon a clearing where the track petered out and the mare came to a full stop.

‘It’s the wrong road!’ Georgiana could have wept. ‘Now what shall we do?’

Kitty shivered. ‘We’ll have to stay here till morning, miss. We can’t drive in ’dark.’

Henry whinnied and pawed the ground, half turning her head towards them.

‘We promised her some food when we arrived,’ Kitty said. ‘She must think we’ve got there. I’ll give her some hay, shall I?’

Georgiana nodded, too dispirited to speak. She sat with her shoulders drooping and the reins held loosely in her hands as Kitty jumped down from the cart and gathered up the sack of hay.

‘Should I unhitch her, Miss Gregory, or do you think she’ll run away?’

‘She won’t run away if we show her the hay.’ Georgiana climbed wearily down. ‘But keep hold of the reins just in case. We don’t want her to go back home and leave us stranded.’

They unhitched the mare from the cart and scattered some of the hay on the ground, but once she was free from the shafts Henry started to move off with Georgiana and Kitty in tow.

‘Whoa! Whoa! Come back.’ Vainly they held on, the reins cutting into their hands, but Henry was determined to be off, through the clearing, through some sparse trees and onto a downward path.

‘I can’t see where we’re going!’ Kitty shrieked. ‘It’s pitch black.’

‘Hold on,’ Georgiana shouted. ‘Don’t let go. We might never get her back.’

Henry came to a dead stop and bent her head. Kitty almost fell over as the momentum ceased. ‘There’s water, miss! It’s a stream. I can hear it gurgling. She’s onny come for a drink. Ooh,’ she whined. ‘It’s boggy. My boots are wet!’

When the mare had finished drinking, she shook her head and about turned and set off back to the cart and the mound of hay, where she started to graze. Georgiana fastened the reins to one of the shafts where the horse had freedom of movement but couldn’t escape without taking the dog cart with her.

‘That hut back there,’ she said. ‘I think it might be a cabin which the waggon drivers use for shelter. Let’s take a look and maybe we can spend the night in there. Otherwise we’ll have to sleep in the dog cart and it will be cold and very uncomfortable.’

‘And we can’t sleep on the grass,’ Kitty declared. ‘Cos it’s wet and stony and there might be wild animals,’ she added. ‘Miss Gregory,’ she murmured. ‘Are you scared? I am. I don’t like being in ’dark.’

‘I don’t mind it if I know there’s a candle or a lamp within reach. But I don’t like it when I can’t see my hand in front of me as now.’

But as they spoke, their voices having involuntarily dropped to whispers, a moon appeared from behind the mountains, lighting up their immediate surroundings.

‘Oh hurrah!’ Georgiana cheered. ‘Thank goodness.’ She gazed up into the night sky. ‘It’s clear, not much cloud, though it’s cold. We shall be all right, Kitty. Let’s take the blanket and the food with us so we don’t have to come back again.’

They both jumped as an eerie shriek came from beyond the belt of trees. The mare lifted her head as if listening, but then dropped it and continued grazing.

‘It’s all right!’ Georgiana tried not to panic. ‘It’s just a bird or an animal. Come on,’ she urged, ‘quickly,’ and with a rush they gathered up their belongings, bags and blanket and stumbled out of the clearing and up the path towards the cabin.

It was staunchly built from logs with a thick wooden bolt drawn across the door, so they knew at least that there was no-one inside. They heaved at the bolt and cautiously opened the door. ‘Might there be rats, do you think?’ Kitty shuddered. ‘I hate rats! There used to be rats where we lived in Hull. Dirty nasty creatures.’

‘I shouldn’t think so.’ Georgiana blinked, accustoming her eyes to the blackness of the interior. ‘I think they prefer to live in holes outside.’

‘What about snakes?’ Kitty peered into the hut. ‘Might there be snakes?’

Georgiana took a deep breath. There was every possibility that there might be snakes, she thought. ‘See if there’s a piece of brushwood lying around,’ she said. ‘And we can waft it around to clear anything out.’ She sounded braver than she was. I’ve always been considered sensible, she thought. I must behave as if I really am.

They found a fallen branch with dead leaves clinging to it and as Kitty held the door open to let in the moonlight, Georgiana swept around the hut, along the walls and corners, along the two rows of wooden double bunks and around the floor.

‘No snakes!’ she announced. ‘And look what’s here!’ On a shelf was a tinderbox complete with flint and steel, and a candle beside it. ‘If I can get a spark we can have a light for a little while, but we mustn’t use all the candle in case someone else needs it after us.’

She managed to strike a spark and lit the candle wick which lit up the hut to show it in all its bareness. But they didn’t mind – they could close the door and bolt it from the inside and know that they could sleep safely.

Except that they didn’t sleep. The bunks were hard and they were cold as they had only one blanket between them. As Kitty had an extra shawl, she insisted that Georgiana should have it. They heard too all kinds of strange noises, howling and shrieking and bumps against the walls of the cabin.

‘Are there bears, do you think, Miss Gregory?’ Kitty whispered through the darkness. ‘If there’s one outside how will we get out? And will it attack Henry?’

‘I don’t know,’ she whispered back. ‘There might be. But it will be gone by daylight,’ she assured Kitty. ‘Whatever is out there will go off to look for food.’

At dawn a chink of light appeared through a gap in the wall and achingly they roused themselves and stretched. ‘It must be very early,’ Georgiana said. ‘But we’ll start moving. There’s no sense in staying around here as we’re awake.’

‘I hope the bears have gone,’ Kitty said and put her ear to the door. ‘Can’t hear anything.’

Cautiously they slid back the bolt and opened the door a crack. A great draught of clear air entered the cabin and they saw sparkling dew on the grass.

Kitty crept outside and looked up and down the track. ‘We’re all right, Miss Gregory,’ she said. ‘There are no bears. We can go and get Henry.’

Georgiana leaned against the door frame and looked up into the blue sky and at the mountain tops, which were shrouded with silver mist. A large bird, maybe an eagle, she thought, hovered above them and she could hear the rushing of the stream.

Her spirits soared and she took a deep breath of mountain air. It’s strange, she reflected. Just a few months ago I would never have dreamed that I would spend a cold night in a wooden hut on a mountainside with no conveniences, and still be happy.

They gathered together their belongings, bolted the cabin door and walked on the wet grass towards the clearing, but they stopped simultaneously as they reached it. The dog cart was there as they had left it, but not Henry.

‘Oh, miss!’ Kitty wailed. ‘She can’t surely have run away home? Whatever will we do?’

What did I just think about being happy? Georgiana leaned against the dog cart. So what do we do? ‘Perhaps she’s by the stream,’ she said, none too hopefully. ‘We’ll take a look.’

The daylight showed that the stream was wide and the waters rushed headlong over stones and boulders. Higher upstream a small waterfall gushed and splashed over a rocky outcrop, the source of the sound reaching the cabin. A wide grassy track led towards it.

‘Look, Miss Gregory! There she is!’ Kitty spotted the horse splashing in the middle of the stream with her reins trailing. ‘Come on, Henry,’ she called. ‘Come on.’

But the mare whinnied, and turning the other way she retreated further downstream.

‘She might trip on the stones and break a leg,’ Georgiana said anxiously. ‘I’ll fetch the hay bag,’ and she rushed back to get it from the dog cart.

‘Here Henry, come for breakfast.’ She scrambled amongst the rocks, her skirts trailing in the water, and held out a handful of hay in the mare’s direction. Henry whinnied, but stopped her cavorting and stood looking at Georgiana. ‘Come on,’ she said soothingly. ‘Come on!’

The horse moved slowly towards her. ‘Good girl,’ she said softly. ‘Good girl. That’s it. Come on.’ Georgiana edged backwards to bring Henry closer to the bank of the stream. ‘Stay still, Kitty!’ From the corner of her eye she saw Kitty moving towards her. ‘Don’t disturb her.’

Henry stretched her neck towards the hay, which was just out of reach, took a step forward, leaned again and Georgiana opened up her palm to give her the hay. ‘Good girl,’ she said again, and gently, so as not to unsettle her, fumbled in the hay bag for another handful. ‘Here you are!’ She held out her hand again and as Henry reached for it she bent for the trailing rein and grabbed it.

She let out a gasping breath and gently pulled the horse towards her. ‘Naughty girl, running away!’ She stroked Henry on the nose as she nuzzled towards the hay bag which was in her other hand. ‘Come on.’ She let out a laugh. ‘You can have some more breakfast when we’ve tied you up again.’

After they had hitched the mare back to the cart, they swilled their hands and faces in the cold sparkling water and took a long drink, which refreshed them. Georgiana consulted the map again. ‘I’m sure this is the right way, yet there’s no road out of here.’

‘Do we drive through the water, miss? Those squiggles might mean the stream.’

‘But how do we get the cart over the stones? It’ll get smashed!’ She looked towards the stream. ‘Wait here with Henry,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and see if there is another way.’

The clearing sloped down towards the stream, with a regular track through it where other creatures had made their way to the water. Georgiana looked to where the waterfall cascaded down, and saw hoof and wheel marks leading to it. The track was wide enough to take a horse and even a small waggon, but where did it go? Only to the edge of the waterfall? She walked towards it and as she came to the end of the track saw that, where the water fell into a pool, there were no stones or rocks, but a gravel bed which led to the other side of the stream.

‘This is where Henry came into the water,’ she said to herself. ‘She didn’t come over the rocks. Then she wandered downstream.’

She looked across to the other bank and perceived that the gravel bed came out in shallow water. As her eyes followed upwards she saw a track leading to another clearing. ‘That’s it,’ she breathed. ‘That must be the way.’

They set off once more after a breakfast of bread and cheese and Henry automatically turned right as they reached the stream, trotted along the track and entered the water without any urging, pulling briskly up the other side. As they reached the top they saw a wide track running beside the foothills of the mountains and a vast expanse of rocky land below them.

‘I can’t see any settlement, miss,’ Kitty said in a small voice. ‘And we’ve no bread or cheese left!’

‘I can’t understand it,’ Georgiana murmured. ‘I thought that the country was teeming with settlers. Why has no-one built here?’

They drove on for over an hour, the morning sun getting ever hotter as they reached the lower plain, the heat bouncing off the rocks as they passed through outcrops and narrow gorges.

‘Look, miss.’ Kitty’s eyesight was keen. ‘Two people on horseback just in front of those rocks. Over there, to the left.’

The riders were now coming nearer, and both women drew in a breath. ‘Oh, miss,’ Kitty said fearfully. ‘They look a bit fierce, don’t they?’

Georgiana tried to stay calm. The two men did indeed look wild and menacing. They had long black hair and were dressed in loose cotton shirts and narrow fringed trousers. One had a coloured band tied around his forehead, the other wore a wide round hat. They rode swift spotted Appaloosa horses. ‘You can’t expect people to dress in their best out here, Kitty,’ she began lamely.

‘They’re Indians, miss!’ Kitty’s voice was breathless. ‘They’ve got rifles! Oh, what shall we do?’

‘Hush!’ Georgiana was sharp with nervous tension. ‘They’re harmless. The Indians live side by side with the settlers now. We’ll ask them if they know Lake or Mr Dreumel.’

As the men drew level she called out, ‘Good morning,’ as pleasantly as if they were out for a drive on a sunny day. ‘We’re looking for a Mr Lake at a settlement which has no name. Are we on the right road?’

The two men glanced at each other, then at her and Kitty. ‘Where’s your man?’ said one.

‘We – erm, we don’t have one,’ Georgiana admitted. ‘We wish to find Mr Lake to take us to Mr Dreumel.’ She added a lie. ‘He’s expecting us.’

The men conferred in a language they didn’t understand, then stared unsmiling at them. ‘You come with us,’ said the one who had spoken previously.

‘Oh no. We can’t!’ Georgiana was alarmed. ‘Mr Dreumel is waiting for us.’

The man nodded, then they both wheeled around and took a place on either side of the dog cart. Henry whinnied and nuzzled at the other horses, then, as one of the Indians slapped her rump, set off at a fast pace, with Georgiana and Kitty hanging on as if for their lives.

‘I object!’ Georgiana shouted to the men. ‘Slow down! We don’t wish to go with you. Who are you?’

‘Iroquois!’ The Indian in the headband riding nearest to her turned towards her and slowed his pace. ‘We Iroquois.’ He suddenly gave an ear-splitting whoop. ‘You be my squaw!’ he announced.

‘Certainly not!’ she began heatedly, then she saw a glance and the beginnings of a grin pass between the two of them. They’re fooling with us! They think we’re fresh from the city and frightened of Indians. Whereas I know for a fact that treaties have been signed!