Far From Home (29 page)

Georgiana received a card from the Charlesworths inviting her to a supper party at the Portland Hotel. She remembered Wilhelm Dreumel saying that the Charlesworths lived there and that Mrs Charlesworth behaved as if she owned it. ‘What will you do, Kitty, whilst I am out?’ she asked, for she had been unable to think up a reason to decline the invitation.

‘Don’t know, miss.’ Kitty had seemed rather lethargic over the last few days. ‘I’ve done all the mending and the ironing. Perhaps I’ll go for a walk, if that’s all right?’

‘Of course.’ Georgiana gazed at her. ‘Feel free to do whatever you want. Do you need money?’

‘Not at the moment, thank you.’ Kitty swallowed. She looked as if she was going to cry. ‘Are we staying here, Miss Georgiana? Or are we going on somewhere else?’

‘Have you got a taste for travel, Kitty?’ Georgiana asked. ‘Were you not exhausted by the journey?’

Kitty pressed her lips together. ‘I’m more exhausted staying here, miss. The streets are hot and ’pavements— sidewalks are hard, and the days seem to drag.’

‘They do!’ Georgiana agreed. Then, sighing, she picked up her parasol. ‘Well, as I don’t want to stay in New York either, we must think of what we shall do next.’

When Georgiana arrived at the Portland the other guests were already gathered in the Charlesworths’ suite of rooms. Some of the ladies turned to stare as she entered, then turned away, hiding their mouths behind their fans as they spoke.

‘Miss Gregory.’ Mrs Charlesworth greeted her and both women inclined their heads. ‘We were just speaking of you.’ She waved her hand in the direction of the other guests. ‘Do come and be introduced. Mr Charlesworth has been telling us of your hazardous journey across country and through the forests. And of the wolf!’ Her eyes grew wide. ‘Of how you were all almost torn to pieces by the brute.’

‘A slight exaggeration, Mrs Charlesworth!’ Georgiana said solemnly. ‘Some of our party were still asleep in the tent and quite out of danger.’

‘Oh, you had a tent?’ a male guest interrupted. ‘I thought you said you were out in the open, Charlesworth!’

‘Well, we were, in a manner of speaking,’ Charlesworth blustered. ‘Out on this ridge. Great danger of being blown off in the storm. My word, never seen rain like it. Torrential! We could easily have been washed over the edge. As it was, I said to this tracker fellow, best build a fire within the shelter of the mountain, to stave off the wild animals, you know.’

‘But the wolf still came?’ A woman in a satin gown with a bustle, wearing a lace cap on top of her curls, flapped her fan vigorously. ‘You must have been very frightened, Miss Gregory? I wouldn’t have been able to go on any further.’

‘Then you would have had to stay on the mountain,’ Georgiana replied sweetly. ‘But wolves don’t normally attack. This one had become separated from its pack and was therefore vulnerable.’

‘Oh, nasty creatures!’ Mrs Charlesworth exclaimed. ‘I’m so glad that I don’t have to go amongst them. And neither will Mr Charlesworth any more, for he says he has quite finished with that kind of thing. You would do well to take our advice, Miss Gregory, and stay in the city.’ She looked around her guests. ‘Shall we go in to supper?’

‘You’re very brown, Miss Gregory,’ one of the women commented, as they were seated at table. ‘Did you not take a parasol or hat with you on your journey?’

‘I had noticed it too,’ said another. ‘I have an excellent lotion I can recommend to you, but you must stay indoors for at least a week for it to be effective.’

‘I suppose that in England you do not have such heat as here in America,’ Mrs Charlesworth observed. ‘I believe you get a great deal of rain? If you stay in America you must keep indoors during the summer months or your skin will be ruined.’

Georgiana was astonished that they should discuss her so personally. She heard from down the supper table one or two thinly veiled references indicating that the travels of women alone were not entirely approved of by the ladies in the company.

She listened half-heartedly to the conversation going on around her, and came to the conclusion that it would not matter if she didn’t join in the discourse, for no-one appeared to be listening to anyone else in any case. Is this going to be my life if I stay here? she wondered. Swapping stories with a company of people who are probably as bored as I am? She pricked up her ears only once, and that was when Charlesworth remarked in an undertone to a man sitting nearby that if he wanted to buy a fur for his wife, then he should come to see him. ‘I did a good deal,’ he murmured. ‘Sold on a share in a mine that’s worked out, for a pack of pelts. Poor old Dreumel,’ he added. ‘He really believed in that mine.’

‘Dreumel did?’ the man exclaimed. ‘Why – doggone it, Charlesworth! Dreumel isn’t the kind of man to take a chance! You sure it’s worked out? Where is it, this mine?’

Charlesworth shook his head. ‘I really couldn’t tell you. Somewhere between the State of New York and State of Pennsylvania,’ he muttered. ‘In the middle of the wilderness anyway. Nobody will find it, not till they run the railroad through it. I wouldn’t be able to find it again at any rate.’

Georgiana took a deep breath, then sipped some wine to steady herself. But I could, she thought. I’m sure that I could.

Charlesworth insisted on escorting her to the Marius when she stated her intention of walking back after supper, rather than taking a hackney carriage. ‘Can’t be too careful, Miss Gregory,’ he said, tucking his hand in a familiar manner beneath her elbow.

‘By the way.’ He leaned heavily and confidentially towards her and she pulled away, murmuring, ‘Excuse me!’

‘Beg pardon.’ He gave her an indulgent smile. ‘But I was about to impart a confidentiality.’

‘Please don’t, Mr Charlesworth,’ she said in alarm. ‘It would be most improper!’

‘Don’t be alarmed, my dear.’ He once more took her by the elbow. ‘All I was going to say was that our little secret is quite safe!’

‘Our little secret!’ She stopped suddenly in her tracks. ‘Whatever do you mean, Mr Charlesworth? You and I do not have any secrets, little or not!’

He shushed her, making a show of putting his fingers to his lips. ‘I mean about the tent!’ He nodded his head and raised his eyebrows significantly at the same time.

‘I have no idea what you are talking about!’ Irritated, Georgiana raised her voice. ‘Please be more specific.’

‘Being in the same tent, I mean.’ He spoke in a whisper and glanced around. ‘On our journey across the mountains!’

She was horrified. How could he be so ungentlemanly as even to mention it? She recalled Lake saying that he didn’t trust him.

‘I wouldn’t want Mrs Charlesworth to hear of it,’ he continued, and the expression on his face seemed to invite her to join in some duplicity. ‘She’s not a woman of the world, you know. She wouldn’t understand at all! She couldn’t begin to comprehend the dangers of our journey or the need for companionship when facing such hardship.’

‘Companionship! What nonsense, Mr Charlesworth,’ she said briskly. ‘You were asleep instantly. Kitty and I both remarked on it,’ she lied. ‘And there was no danger whilst Lake was there to guard us
and
he sat outside the tent all night,’ she added significantly. ‘Just to be sure!’

‘I did?’ Charlesworth’s self-esteem seemed to droop. ‘He did! Oh! I see.’

What did bother her, however, she ruminated as he left her at the door of the Marius, was that he was quite the sort of man who might brag of his exploits to his gentlemen friends. They would hoot bawdily if he told them he had shared the tent with Miss Gregory and her companion, ignoring the fact that an armed guide was guarding them. If he could exaggerate the tale of the wolf, he could certainly boast, with a wink and a nod, of a night on a mountain top.

And where does that leave my reputation? she wondered as she climbed the stairs to her room. To be talked about all over New York!

‘Kitty, I need to speak to you,’ she said during breakfast the following morning.

Kitty pressed her lips together and looked at her anxiously.

‘It’s all right,’ Georgiana soothed. ‘It’s nothing dreadful. But I must discuss an issue with you and gauge your opinion. I have come to a decision. At least,’ she wavered, ‘I think I have, but I must give you the option of saying yes or no, for your future is as important to me as it is to you, and you may not wish to share in what I want to do. You may have ideas of your own.’

‘Oh, Miss Gregory.’ Kitty started to weep over her coffee cup and hastily put it down in order to blow her nose. ‘I’ve something to say to you too. I’ve been trying to pluck up courage for days and I haven’t been able to.’

‘Good heavens, Kitty. Don’t cry. You’ll make
me
want to cry and I haven’t done that in a long time.’ Though I’ve wanted to, she pondered miserably and blinked her eyes rapidly.

‘Fact is, miss.’ Kitty’s mouth trembled. ‘And I don’t want you to be angry with me, cos I value your good opinion above anything else.’ She sniffed and Georgiana waited uneasily for her to unburden herself. ‘But I’d better tell you before you tell me what you were going to say—’

‘Go on then, Kitty, don’t keep me in suspense. I’m not going to bite you!’

‘Fact is, miss, I don’t want to stay in New York.’ Kitty lifted moist eyes to Georgiana. ‘I want to go back to Dreumel’s Creek.’

‘Oh, Kitty!’ To her chagrin, an uncalled-for tear ran down Georgiana’s cheek and she hastily brushed it away. ‘So do I!’

Any doubts the two women may have had about their decision to return to Dreumel’s Creek after only a short time back in New York were dissolved that same morning, when Georgiana had an unexpected visit from Mrs Burrows.

‘I am meeting a friend for luncheon,’ she said. ‘And thought I would drop in on the off chance that you might be here. I do hope you don’t mind.’

‘Mrs Burrows, I could not be more delighted to see you,’ Georgiana greeted the older woman warmly. ‘You are perhaps the only person I know in New York who can give me advice and tell me whether or not I am about to act foolishly.’

‘My dear young woman.’ Mrs Burrows seated herself comfortably in a chair in the Marius lounge and snapped her fingers at a boy to bring coffee. ‘I cannot conceive that you would ever be foolish. It is not in your nature.’

How very little you know of me, Georgiana thought. I could be on the verge of being very witless indeed. She briefly outlined the journey she and Kitty had undertaken to Dreumel’s Creek, and their return. She sketched in details of the mine and the valley and of Wilhelm Dreumel’s disappointment at not being able to sink another shaft, and of Mr Charlesworth pulling out of the venture. She didn’t mention Lake, for fear her manner would betray her.

‘You travelled so far and back and are now considering returning! Mm.’ Mrs Burrows considered, and when the boy had brought their coffee said in a positive tone, ‘Wilhelm is well rid of Charlesworth anyway. He wouldn’t know how to set about a day’s work, though his money would have been useful. What Wilhelm needs is some practical help as well as an input of money.’ She pondered for a moment. ‘How much does he need, do you think?’

Georgiana gazed at her in astonishment. ‘I – I wasn’t suggesting that you—!’

‘Oh, I know you were not,’ Mrs Burrows replied briskly. ‘But if Wilhelm Dreumel thinks sinking this other shaft is worthwhile, then it will be. He doesn’t take unnecessary risks.’

That’s what the man at the Charlesworths’ supper party said, Georgiana recalled. So it must be true. ‘Do you think, then, Mrs Burrows,’ she said hesitantly, ‘that if I was to use my inheritance to put into this venture, I would be acting irresponsibly?’

Mrs Burrows’ smile creased her face into a dozen wrinkles. ‘Others might, my dear, but I would say, nothing venture nothing gain. What would you do with your inheritance if you didn’t use it in this way?’

‘Why, nothing! Only live on it! I had no other definite plans.’

‘And if this project should fail, and if
I
am to be sensible I should warn you that it might, what then? Would you scurry back to England and fall on the mercy of your relatives and hope that they would support you?’

‘They did not approve of my coming out here, Mrs Burrows. I would not under any circumstances crawl back and tell them that they were right in their judgement and I was wrong! No,’ Georgiana said determinedly. ‘I would work. I’d teach or – or anything. And I am aware,’ she added, in case Mrs Burrows should remind her, ‘that I have not been prepared for earning a living.’ She raised her head defiantly. ‘But that will not stop me!’

‘Well then! Use your money,’ Mrs Burrows declared. ‘And if you lose everything, come back and see me and I’ll fix you up with a rich husband. I remember you saying on the ship that that is what you wanted above all!’

‘Oh, Mrs Burrows.’ Georgiana laughed, shaking her head. ‘You know that I did not.’

‘Mmm.’ Mrs Burrows scrutinized her. ‘You look so very fit and well that I was certain you had fallen in love already! I felt sure you had given your heart to some rich and handsome fellow in New York!’

‘You would have heard of it if I had.’ Georgiana smiled wistfully. ‘I can put my hand on my heart and say truthfully that I have not!’

Kitty asked Georgiana if she would pay her her wages now instead of at the end of the year. ‘I know it’s not usual, Miss Georgiana, but I want to be independent,’ she said earnestly. ‘If we’re going back to Dreumel’s Creek, then I want to work. You won’t need a maid, and I can be your companion without you paying me.’

Georgiana was astounded. Kitty, it seemed, had thought through her plans quite carefully. ‘What will you work at, Kitty?’ she asked.

‘Well, I can’t really do it without you, miss. Because if you didn’t want to go back, then—’ She hesitated. ‘I’d have to make another plan, and I’m not totally sure of that one yet. But if we can find our way back over the mountains, then I’d go and be cook at Dreumel’s Creek. I’d ask Mr Dreumel if he’d let me buy supplies from him and then I’d charge the men for their breakfast and supper.’

‘You know that the men haven’t found gold, and that they might not? It isn’t a certainty.’