[Yukon Quest 01] - Treasures Of The North (16 page)
Grace saw her friend’s face redden and knew her temper to be clearly pricked by Peter’s upbraiding. Looking to Doris for help, Grace prayed that the matter might be put behind them.
‘‘Captain, I wonder if you might tell us of a reliable hotel in Skagway,’’ Doris said as if nothing were at all amiss.
‘‘No, ma’am, I am not at all familiar with anything being reliable in that town. Deviousness runs rampant and decent people are not without risk to their well-being.’’
‘‘Sounds like life aboard your ship,’’ Karen said, lifting a cup of coffee to her lips.
Grace could not understand why Karen had so completely taken a disliking to the captain. Certainly he had spoken his mind on the matter of women traveling unescorted, but that was his prerogative. She knew Karen to be outspoken on her views and to have a view on nearly every matter, but her response to Captain Colton was so intense and so evident that Grace couldn’t help but wonder if her reactions were born of something else.
A sinking feeling came over Grace. Surely Karen couldn’t find the man attractive and therefore be miffed to find her interest not returned. Or perhaps it was returned. Perhaps this was how people in love reacted to each other. There was a sarcastic playfulness to it. Neither one seemed completely disturbed by the other’s actions, and the captain had positioned Karen at his left, while Grace had been appointed to sit directly opposite him at the small table.
The idea of her governess, who was so obviously closer to the captain’s own age, falling in love with this fascinating man left Grace feeling rather under the weather. She pushed her food around the plate as if she were participating in the feast. But she never managed to eat more than a few morsels.
‘‘Are you ill, Miss Hawkins?’’ the captain asked as one of his men returned to pour more coffee.
Grace looked up to find all eyes fixed on her. ‘‘I suppose I’m still trying to get used to sea travel. It is my first time.’’
He nodded sympathetically. ‘‘It sometimes takes a bit of an adjustment.’’
Grace nodded, then bowed her head and ignored Karen’s look of concern.
Please don’t love him,
her heart silently begged of her friend.
Don’t be in love with Captain Colton, for
I fear my heart has already taken up that occupation
.
Peter Colton knew his time would be better spent elsewhere, but nevertheless, he chose himself to deliver the trio of ladies to their new quarters. He was unexplainably drawn to Grace Hawkins, and even now had no desire to return to his duties. He wondered if she had slept well after her time with him on the deck. He wondered if she was still haunted by the painful memories of the fiance
she’d left behind. There was, of course, no opportunity to ask such personal questions, but that didn’t stop Peter’s mind from pondering the answers.
He stopped abruptly outside the door to the cabin and smiled. ‘‘Here we are,’’ he announced. He hesitated, his gaze meeting that of Miss Hawkins. She smiled. Grateful for the excuse to further his stay, Peter spied the Barringers coming up behind the women and decided introductions were in order.
‘‘Mr. Barringer, this is Miss Pierce, her niece Miss Pierce, and their friend Miss Hawkins. Ladies, this is Mr. William Barringer and his two children, Leah and Jacob. They have the cabin next to yours.’’
Doris extended her hand. ‘‘Glad to meet a family man, Mr.Barringer. Is your wife traveling with you as well?’’
Mr. Barringer looked to the deck. ‘‘My wife passed on some weeks back.’’
‘‘Oh, I am sorry,’’ Doris replied. ‘‘Life is such a precarious act. One minute we walk the wire with the greatest of ease and the next moment we find ourselves falling to the net below.’’
‘‘And sometimes there’s no net to catch us when we fall,’’ Barringer countered with a sad sort of smile.
Peter thought the circus analogy rather amusing. The older woman was quite a character. Her trim little frame seemed more imposing than most. She could hardly have stood more than five foot two, certainly no taller than Grace Hawkins. She had been a schoolteacher, he’d been told, and given her prim and proper appearance he could well envision her in that position. No doubt she would have tolerated little nonsense from her charges. Still, he knew the woman to have a sense of humor. She’d entertained them with several stories over breakfast, and in spite of her independent nature, Peter found her to be enjoyable company.
Not so her niece, who seemed to take great delight in tormenting him. Her gold-red hair suggested trouble from the start, but even with his own superstitious tendencies, Peter had tried to give the younger Miss Pierce the benefit of a doubt. She had quickly proven his concerns on target, however.
Watching the women exchange pleasantries with the Barringer family, Peter found himself studying Grace. He had thought himself thorough in his assessment of her, but with each new opportunity to observe her, Peter found something new to consider. She wore her hair rather simply. Parted in the middle and pulled back into a casual loop at the base of her neck, the rich cocoa color beckoned his touch. The style seemed to suit her, but Peter couldn’t help but wonder what her hair would look like, feel like, once Grace released it from the confines of the bun. Last night she’d been a bit disheveled, but nevertheless her hair remained in fair order and all the while he had envisioned it blowing in the wind.
As if realizing his consideration of her, Grace looked up and smiled. Peter felt his heart skip a beat. Her smile warmed him from head to toe. Chiding himself for feeling like a schoolboy, Peter couldn’t help but enjoy the gift of her open friendship. He was glad she had defied her father and cruel fianceto run away. If she’d remained in whatever place she called home, he might never have met her. And that, Peter decided, would have been a grave injustice to them both.
‘‘So, Mr. Barringer, are you headed to the Yukon for gold?’’ Doris questioned.
‘‘We are. We’ll work a bit in Dyea or Skagway. I didn’t have enough for supplies and passage north,’’ Bill Barringer admitted, ‘‘but we’ll manage it just fine. My children are hard workers and together we’ll soon earn enough to send us north.’’
‘‘Your children should be preparing for the school term,’’ Doris said in a stern manner. ‘‘I spent my life teaching school, and I would not see a gold rush push aside the importance of education.’’
Barringer shrugged. ‘‘Folks have to do what they have to do. Jacob here is fourteen. He’s had enough schooling to get him by. He can read and write better than I can. Leah is twelve, and I don’t rightly figure a man is going to much care whether she has an education or not. She’s as pretty as her ma was, and when she grows up she’ll have suitors enough to keep her from having to worry about such things.’’
‘‘Mr. Barringer, that is hardly a proper attitude to take,’’ the younger Miss Pierce joined in. ‘‘We stand on the threshold of the twentieth century. Education is of the utmost importance for our children.’’
‘‘I didn’t realize you had any children,’’ Peter couldn’t help but comment.
Karen glared at him, her blue eyes narrowing. ‘‘I do not have children of my own, Captain, but like my aunt, I have dedicated myself to educating other people’s children.’’
‘‘Then perhaps you can start up a school in Dawson City or Skagway or help an existing one,’’ Peter replied. ‘‘Either way, this man has the say over his family.’’
‘‘I am fully aware Mr. Barringer is in charge of his family,’’ Karen retorted.
‘‘I wonder,’’ Grace interjected, looking a bit tired, ‘‘if we might be allowed to go to our new quarters. I fear I’m feeling a bit overcome.’’
Peter wasted no time. ‘‘Mr. Barringer, please remember to keep your family contained to this end of the deck.’’ Bill Barringer nodded as Peter turned. ‘‘Come, ladies, your cabin is just here on the other side of Mr. Barringer’s.’’
He was grateful for Grace’s interference, but at the same time he felt it necessary to put Karen Pierce in her rightful place. He had a low tolerance for arrogant women. Perhaps it was because they grated on his sense of propriety, but it was even possible they simply threatened Peter’s own sense of power. He didn’t like to think of it in that way—didn’t like to imagine his own arrogance going toe to toe with someone else’s, yet he knew very well that he could be a most prideful man.
She isn’t going to usurp my authority on this ship, pride or
no pride. I am in charge here. This is my domain,
Peter thought quite seriously. He looked past Grace to Karen Pierce and decided then and there that he would do whatever it took to make her realize she had clearly met her match. He would stand his ground with her, and she would not get the better of him in any manner.
THE STEAMER
Merry Maid
sliced through the gray-green waters of Lynn Canal and slowly but persistently transported its passengers ever northward toward Skagway, Alaska. Skagway had become the start of the path to the Yukon, with its sister town of Dyea being the fork in the path. Both towns had their benefit for the gold stampeder, but neither were perfect.
Skagway had a better harbor, but Dyea was working on the possibility of extended wharfs. Dyea had the shorter Chilkoot Pass, but Skagway offered White Pass, a route that allowed for animals to pack supplies for a good portion of the distance. At least that was the theory. No matter the path, those who found themselves drawn north by the call of gold also found themselves face-to-face with a rugged, austere beauty that defied them at every turn. Some gave up to go home empty-handed and heavyhearted. Others pursued the dream and lost their lives, while a few fortunate souls managed to actually strike it rich.
Karen thought the stampeders rather amusing and sad at the same time. They were searching for something they’d never had, something they only dreamed of finding. They had risked life and limb to endure the difficult climate and conditions, and all for the remote possibility that they just might find gold.
Grown men—men who should, for all intents and purposes, be in their right minds—honestly believed the exaggerated stories of their predecessors. They talked of fortunes to be had for the taking—of a land where the biggest effort required of you was to bend over in order to pick the gold up from the ground.
Of course, Karen reasoned, they would probably think her decision for coming north to be just as crazed. But hers was a journey of purpose and need every bit as much as theirs. She, too, felt called to the desolate lands of Alaska, but the gold she sought came in human form.
She thought of her father momentarily. Wilmont Pierce was a hero of sorts to his youngest child. Karen knew him to be a wise and fair man, with both feet firmly planted on the ground. When he’d suggested the journey north, Karen had been surprised. It wasn’t like him to go off on a whim. But somewhere along the way, he had read of missions being set up in the north. Missions that with the government’s blessing were starting schools and changing the face of culture and purpose in the Alaskan wilderness. Her father had been appalled to hear that the natives were being stripped of their own ways and imposed with the manners, practices, and speech of the white American. He believed there had to be a way to blend both and still accomplish a positive result. And it was with that dream in mind that he took his wife and independently traveled north.
She admired her father for his decision. He was an opinionated man, but he was not unwilling to yield his philosophies if someone could make an argument for a better way. Unlike Captain Colton, Karen thought, who seemed only to find value in his own thoughts.
Still, he had managed to give them a lovely room with a window. Arranged at the bow of the ship, Peter had also quartered off a section of the deck that was to allow for private moments of refreshment for the little family and the trio of proper ladies.
Karen had figured the captain to be completely indifferent to their needs, but apparently he was not completely indifferent to Grace. The idea that he might well entice Grace with his charms, only to crush her spirits in the end, troubled Karen and made her quite anxious. Men like Colton and Paxton, men of power and knowledge, often believed the world and its people to be their playthings. How different they were from her beloved father.