“I want to go now,” she pleaded.
“Yes, well. I can see the draw of adventure, miss,” Uncle offered, placing his book on the table next to him and lacing his fingers over his still spare middle. “Perhaps I shall have to join the party and see what this new land is all about.”
“Why ever would ye do such a thing?” His mother huffed. “Here ye have everything for a comfortable life.”
Uncle’s eyes widened. “And here I thought ye preferred the harbor and Norfolk.”
“And so I did when my dearest Jehoshaphat was alive. And my children were small. My sister, Maxwell, lived nearby. Those were happy days.” Tears filled the corners of her eyes, and she picked up her needles and put them back down again.
“Perhaps ye shall see the Maxwells as ye travel to Kentucky?” His uncle winked at Zeke.
Her eyes widened and her lips made a perfect “o” of surprise. “Should we? They removed to North Carolina, did ye not say we should travel near North Carolina?”
Dread weighted his stomach. His mother had no more understanding of geography than he had a roadmap of the streets of heaven. Last he heard his aunt and uncle Maxwell had removed all the way to Tarburg. There was no possible way for them to detour that far south.
“On the other hand, ye might consider staying here.” His uncle shifted his gaze to his sister-in-law drawing the pause longer than strictly necessary for any kind of emphasis. “with me.”
Startled at the implication of his invitation, Jane Smith dropped her needles again. Was his uncle sweet on his mother? Hesitation in his manner sure pointed to the possibility, and was that hope in his eyes? Zeke settled himself back down. This could change everything.
By nine o’clock the next morning, Beti had fed Silas and his ewes and checked on her cow and horses. She smoothed a few stray hairs into the bun at the back of her head before heading out to call on Mr. Smith and his wagons. On the porch she found Captain Taylor.
“Miss Sigridsdatter, may I have a word.” Captain Taylor tipped his tricorn. The spring sunshine glittered off the brass buttons on his chocolate brown frock coat. The coarse wool fabric was typical of her countrymen. She hoped she could do better with her new breed of sheep.
“Certainly, Captain Taylor.” Defenses rising, she led him to the parlor in the front of the house. Footfalls in the room upstairs thudded toward the stairs.
“I have come to ask ye a few questions.”
She supposed she should have anticipated this visit. Somehow she’d assumed that her friendship with Agatha Thornton would be enough. Beti lifted her chin. “What would ye like to know?”
“I am concerned that ye can carry yer own weight on this trip. Others have voiced some concern about the safety of a woman traveling alone.”
The look in Hezekiah Smith’s eyes before she left him last night flashed in her memory.
“Perhaps ye are in the habit of underestimating women, sir.”
His eyes flashed, but his demeanor remained calm. “No, ma’am. I served with many courageous women. Our own Mrs. Thornton is an example. I do not question whether or not ye are the right gender, but whether or not ye possess the skills for success ye will need. That our team will need. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
“I can shoot and dress game. I can drive my wagon and packhorses. I can dress a wound and cook a roast and biscuits. I am strong Captain Taylor.”
“Someone came to me and suggested…” He let the words drift like a dingy trailing a galleon.
“That I was less than respectable.”
“Are ye?”
A burning constricted her throat. Who could be spreading rumors about her. So far she’d not met anyone she knew before. The looters, or at least she thought they might be the looters that dug up her father’s grave, were the only possibilities and she hadn’t seen them talking to Captain Taylor or any others of the party. They’d slipped into the tavern and hadn’t come out again while she was there.
Well, there was nothing for it but to tell the truth. Aggie and her friends were God-fearing. Hopefully they would understand.
Beti exhaled a prayer. “No, Captain. I am the respectable daughter of a disrespectable man. He repented and attempted to right his wrongs, but memories are long.”
Captain Taylor nodded. “And that is why are ye traveling to a wilderness? Do ye have family waiting to meet ye?”
That was it? No probing into just who her disrespectable father was? Relief waited just on the edge of her nerves. She clasped her hands in her lap.
“I have no one. I hope to find a place to make new memories.”
A faraway look carried Captain Taylor’s gaze from the room to some inward place. “Don’t we all Miss Sigridsdatter?”
She rolled her handkerchief between her fingers.
His eyes cleared as a small cough cleared his throat. “It is a dangerous trip, by all accounts. I think I will have to insist that ye find a man to assist ye in this endeavor.”
“What?” She nearly yelled at the man as she stood. “How dare ye come here and tell me—ye have no right to insist I marry in order to accommodate ye.”
Red flashed up the man’s neck. He stood, tricorn clenched in his fist. “I did not mean ye should marry.”
Beti crossed her arms.
“Just exactly what did ye mean then, Isaac.” Aggie stomped in the room to take a place at Beti’s side.
“Good morning, Aggie.”
She folded her arms and lifted her chin. “Ye’ll not be getting around the question that way, Isaac. What do ye mean she has to have a man to travel to Kentucky? I tell ye right now, I shall not have a man traveling with me.”
“Ye have us, Aggie.”
