“Is that the only one?”
“Only passenger coach with regular stops.”
“What else is there?”
“All else we got is a delivery wagon going to Reuben’s Bend, passes through
Five Rocks. But it ain’t leaving for three-four hours. Won’t get you there till after ten at night. ’Sides, it ain’t no passenger coach. Sometimes a body might sit
in the back, with all the sacks of feed and whatnot, but it ain’t no place for a lady.”
“Has anyone else asked to ride in it today?”
“No, but –”
“Then I’d like a ticket for that, please.”
“I told you, miss, it ain’t a regular coach. That ride will shake you so you don’t remember which way’s up. And everything’ll be closed that time of night.
He’d have to let you off in the street, all alone.”
“No one meets it in Five Rocks?”
“No, like I told you, it normally don’t stop at all, just passes through.”
“Is there room for me and my things?”
“Well, yes, but –”
“Then it will be perfectly all right. As long as the driver will help me on and
off with my things, I’ll be fine.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “All right, you say so, lady. You be back
here, right out there on that sidewalk,” he said, jabbing his finger at the door, “at
a quarter to six. You might gotta wait an hour. Like I been tryin’ to tell you, it ain’t a coach with a regular schedule. Leaves when it’s ready. Gets here when it
gets here.” He paused, apparently waiting for her to change her mind. Then he
sighed and scribbled something on a piece of paper. “I ain’t gonna charge ya nothin’. You give this to the driver.” He handed her the paper. “Name’s Sully.
He’s a great big fella with a wild bush of rusty hair. Wears one a them buckskin
jackets with long fringes. Slow as they come, but ain’t no one got a better nature.
You don’t gotta worry nothin’ about him. He’ll see you standin’ there and stop.
You tell him Jonas said it was all right.”
Olivia told Jonas she would arrange to have her belongings delivered to the
stagecoach office and he promised to move them out to the sidewalk before he
closed for the day at half past five. She returned to the boat and looked through
her wicker baskets for the hateful poke bonnet she’d bought in Detroit and her black hooded cloak. She didn’t want anyone in Five Rocks recognizing her
before she’d had time to talk with her family.
The ride wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. It was too bumpy to try to nap, so
she’d spent it sitting up front next to Sully, mostly trying to teach him his multiplication tables. When they approached Five Rocks, Olivia reached for the
hood of her cloak and pulled it over her poke bonnet, casting her face so deep in
shadows she wouldn’t have been able to recognize herself.
Sully reined in the horses outside Ferguson’s Livery, across from the
Episcopalian church. The moon was bright enough for her to read the big sign that declared, “Fear not if you have sinned and repented – A step backward often
precedes a great leap forward.” Tell that to Mabel Mears, she thought.
The street was empty. She climbed down and whispered to Sully, “Could you
please shove my baskets into those bushes over there behind that sign, but be real quiet about it? No one knows I’m coming. It’s a big surprise for my family.”
