Flora's Wish (28 page)

“Oh, I'm not Mrs. McMinn,” Miss Brimm protested.

The steward looked down his nose at her, and then he returned his attention to Lucas. He gave the fellow a don't-you-dare-protest look.

“Yes, well, this way,” he said as he led them up to the stateroom level. “Our best passengers are on this floor. You'll dine in our dining room and can relax in our well-appointed lounge. I'm sure you saw those on your way up the stairs.” His attention went to Miss Brimm. “There is also a ladies' cabin for your use and enjoyment should you wish an environment free of those of the male persuasion.”

“Thank you,” she said as she pointedly stared at Lucas. “I'm sure I shall like that very much.”

The steward gestured to a pair of doors side by side. “These are your rooms.”

Outer cabins, Lucas noted. At least he would have a place to find some fresh air if need be. And then a thought occurred. “They don't connect, do they?”

“They do not, sir, though if you wish I could find a pair of rooms that do—”

“No,” Lucas and Miss Brimm said together.

He retrieved the pad from his pocket. “I'll just check to be sure your luggage has been properly stowed and your staff shown to their accommodations. Will you be in need of anything else before dinner?”

“No, thank you,” Lucas said as he placed a coin in the man's palm.

When the steward had hurried away, Lucas escorted Flora Brimm to her stateroom. He opened the door to take a quick glance inside. Unlike the lavish attention to decoration down in the salon, this stateroom was serviceable, almost plain.

One narrow bed lined up against a wall while a chair and dresser with a pitcher and washbasin sat across from it. A passenger who awakened during the night need only to lean out of bed and reach for the pitcher, so tiny was the space.

Light poured in through the windows on the door that led to the balcony ringing the upper level of the steamboat. When night fell, an oil lamp that hung over the lone chair would have to suffice.

“Not exactly fit for a princess,” he said with a grin. “Should I check under the mattress for a pea?”

“I know you think you're funny,” Flora said as she swept past him to place her Bible and handbag on the dresser. “But I think your humor is masking something.” She gave him a pointed look. “The question is what?”

Ignoring the question, he stepped out into the hall. “I'll give you a few minutes to get settled, and then I would like you to meet me out on the balcony.”

“Why is that?”

“Until this vessel sails, Miss Brimm, I plan to keep you within sight.”

“I've told you repeatedly that I want Mr. Tucker found. And knowing what I do about his innocence, why would I risk him looking guilty?”

“Fair enough, but if you're being followed, I'm going to know probably before you do.”

“You think Mr. Tucker could be aboard?”

He shook his head. “It's doubtful, but I am not taking any chances.”

“Well, you have me next door to you. How convenient.”

“Our cabins are side-by-side so I can keep tabs on you. As I said, nothing's going to happen to you on this voyage without my knowledge.”

She shrugged. “I'm so tired I could be asleep within the hour, so honestly I don't suppose it matters where you or I sleep.”

Oh, but it did. Lovely as she was, Lucas knew the woman could easily invade his dreams if he allowed it. And knowing they shared a thin stateroom wall might make those dreams much more difficult to dismiss.

“I'll be back in five minutes. Don't think of leaving without me. Remember, there is still a warrant for your arrest back in Eureka Springs. Once you're out of my personal custody, you're a fugitive, Miss Brimm. Do you understand?”

“I make no promises,” was her cryptic response.

“You're not serious, are you?”

She waved away his question and turned her back on him to reach for her Bible.

Deciding she was properly warned and decently occupied, Lucas stepped over to open the door to his stateroom. Finding a room that was a mirror image of the one he'd just left, Lucas stepped past the bed and dresser to stand at the door leading to the balcony.

He drew in a deep breath of the humid air and then let it out slowly in hopes he could release some of his concerns too. It didn't work. Nothing but catching Will Tucker would.

Lucas thought of Flora Brimm. Of the Bible she carried all the way from Eureka Springs. He'd give his eyeteeth for a Bible about now. Something that could give him the guidance and assurance he needed that the way he was now traveling was the right one.

That he hadn't gone off on this investigation with revenge as the only motive.

But the well-worn copy of the New Testament he usually traveled with now lay buried six feet under in a coffin made for a true princess. And like it or not, Will Tucker was the reason for it all.

Lucas stepped back from the window with its view of St. Louis and the docks and settled onto the chair to rest his head against the wall. Though he knew the woman who could lead him to Tucker was just on the other side of the partition, he needed to take a few minutes to get right with the Lord first.

Sliding off the chair, he knelt in the middle of the tiny stateroom and laid out all his complaints against Will Tucker, Flora Brimm, and the Lord Himself. When he was finished, Lucas remained right there, keeping his silence until he decided God wasn't ready to talk to him just yet.

Slowly he climbed to his feet and walked toward the door. He could practically reach Flora Brimm's cabin while standing in his own, so it only took a moment to close his door and knock on hers.

When there was no immediate answer, Lucas tried again. “Miss Brimm, open the door, please,” he said none too quietly.

Of course she ignored him. First the Lord and now this aggravating woman. Didn't anyone want to speak to him?

Lucas tried the knob, which yielded to his hand. He opened the door and stepped inside. While her Bible remained on the dresser, the woman and her handbag were nowhere to be found. He went out into the hall and turned his attention to the steward at the end of it.

“Have you seen Miss Brimm?”

The fellow's shrug was not the answer Lucas wanted. He gritted his teeth. He would search every inch of this vessel if he had to, and if he did not find Flora Brimm, she and not Will Tucker would become the focus of the investigation. For while Tucker had fooled someone Lucas loved, Miss Brimm would have managed to fool him.

And that wasn't a possibility he wanted to consider.

F
ive minutes were long gone, and the Pinkerton agent had not yet come knocking at her door. This was fine, because Flora wasn't quite ready to see Lucas McMinn again. Not when being without him meant she did not have to endure his endless attempts to remind her that she was, indeed, in his custody.

Personal custody. And it certainly is beginning to feel a little too personal.

Just what she felt was a matter she tried not to consider. For no matter how endlessly the man irritated her, there was something in the way he looked at her. Something that emboldened her to do things a Brimm just would not do.

Like stealing chocolate cake for a picnic on the roof and licking the frosting off the fork. Like dancing in the rain.

“No,” Flora whispered. “I'm not going to think about that.”

He said he would give her time to get settled, and then she was to meet him on the balcony. Yes, that was the better plan, she decided.

She closed the stateroom door behind her and walked over to the rail to look down at the activity below. What appeared to be chaos, much like an ant bed stirred up by a stick, was in fact an organized process.

Men carried the remainder of the cargo onto the deck and then reappeared to fetch more. Others carried logs she assumed would fire the engines that turned the paddle wheel. Still others traversed the narrow planking across muddy docks to escort travelers aboard.

It was all so fascinating, not because she'd never traveled by steamboat, but because she'd never taken notice of it before. Always she'd been escorted, either by her grandmother or some other family member. The only other time she'd managed to travel alone, she'd escaped the maid's attention and found her way into the main salon where she'd met Will Tucker.

She wondered now if that fortuitous meeting might have happened had she not determined to give Violet's copy of
Pride and Prejudice
one more try.

“How silly,” Flora muttered. “We were meant to meet, and that's that.”

The declaration said, she moved down the deck to find a chair where she could await Mr. McMinn. She settled just around the corner from where their rooms were. Not far at all. She was sure it would take him no time at all to find her whenever he was ready.

Flora found the tension easing from her. While the breeze could hardly be called fresh due to the combination of the smells coming from the dock and the scent wafting up from the river below, there was nonetheless something pleasant about being outdoors.

Others must have felt the same way, for the promenade was filled with travelers taking the evening air whether seated in clusters or walking the length of the deck. Minutes passed as she relaxed in the warm sun. She smiled and nodded to a trio of ladies as they strolled past, and then she returned her attention to the docks below.

A familiar figure caught her attention. Was that Mr. McMinn down on the docks having what appeared to be a heated conversation with someone? Flora rose to return to the rail.

Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward to get a better look. It
was
Mr. McMinn. What in the world was he doing down on the docks with the
Americus
ready to sail at any moment?

While there was little chance he could hear her from this distance and even less chance she would make the attempt of shouting to him with so many fellow travelers nearby, Flora knew she might capture his attention should she move into view and fix him with a stare. Just to be sure, she punctuated that stare by placing her hands on her hips, the universal gesture in the Brimm household for indicating displeasure.

At least it always had been for Mama and Grandmama.

The last of the crew began removing the planks in preparation for departure, while down below a chorus of male voices echoed up commands to fire up the boilers. Still the stubborn man refused to look in Flora's direction.

At this rate, he would miss the steamboat for sure.

The thought caught hold as the final plank was pulled onto the deck, leaving the
Americus
free to depart. With Lucas McMinn no longer sleeping on the other side of her stateroom wall, she was free.

Free from the ridiculous arrangement of personal custody. From the shadow of supposed guilt over some unnamed crime that he believed she or Mr. Tucker or the both of them had committed.

Free to marry Will Tucker right there on the docks in Natchez by the first riverboat captain who would agree to it, should she so desire.

And should Will actually meet her there, as he had promised.