“Perhaps ye fellas ought to organize ye own way to Kentucky?” Aggie quipped.
It was getting out of hand. Zeke put fingers to his lips and sent a shrill whistle through the crowd. Startled them right into shuffling and looking down at their feet. Except for the fancy dressed one in the back. Zeke recognized him as the pointy-faced man from a few nights ago.
“Pipe down. All of ye.” Zeke bellowed over the men pushing them back from the little table and Beti.
“Miss Sigridsdatter,” he emphasized for Toby’s benefit, “Will speak to each of ye one at a time. Now form a line. Once she has concluded the interviews, she will let ye know who she chose.”
The men stepped back in line. Now that they knew just who their employer would be, down the ranks he could see them running fingers through their hair and banging the dust out of their pants.
Beti stood in front of Zeke. It really was just a bit over the top, but for all highhandedness he displayed she was glad he stepped in when he did.
“Just as Mr. Smith said. If ye will please form a line, I will speak with each of ye.”
She felt Zeke stiffen behind her. Was he displeased that she’d asserted herself? Too bad. This was her journey and like it or not, she was going to have to work beside whomever it was she employed. That decision would be her own.
“As I was sayin’,” Toby continued, “Miss Sigriswotr—”
“Call me Miss Beti.”
Toby grinned. “Thank ye, Miss Beti. Anyways, I have spoken with Miss Polly. I shall be free to go escort ye to Kentucky.”
“Thank ye, Toby. I’ll listen to these men before I give ye an answer.”
“Don’t go too far,” Aggie said as Toby passed out of the line.
The pushy man behind Toby started talking before Beti finished with Toby.
“Like I told ye. I was a freighter during the recent war. I can fight them Indians out there, and I can build whatever ye need.”
“Thank ye for coming today, Mr.?”
“Not sure I cotton too much with working for a woman, but I have a hankering to see Kentucky,” he blazed on, “and I might as well go with ye.”
Beti nodded politely. If he couldn’t be quiet long enough for a welcome, he would likely run roughshod over her plans as well.
“What is yer name?” Aggie insisted.
“Bell. Tom Bell.”
“Thank ye, Mr. Bell.”
He blustered to the side.
She must have talked to twenty men before the last one approached. None of them except for Toby met her criteria. They were all strong, they all had building experience, but the only one she felt she could really trust stood behind her with his arms folded. She prayed for wisdom as the last man came up to the table. He wore the finest woolen suit Beti had seen in a long time. He hadn’t been in Virginia very long then, because one couldn’t get a suit like that in the colonies. Then he leaned in and rested his hands on either side of its short length. Beti stood up drew back. Zeke didn’t move.
Bright blue eyes pierced her own.
Zeke took a step closer. Heat from him radiated into her back.
“Good morning to ye, may I ask who the lady is that requests the services of a man to Kentucky?” The sing-song cadence of his voice reminded her of a sound she used to hear long ago.
“May I ask, where are ye from?” she replied.
“It is a small country in the north, ye will not have heard of it.”
A tendril of excitement buzzed her belly. He could have come from her mother’s kingdom. Why would someone from her mother’s kingdom come to America? Fjelloyricket was a seafaring nation, prosperous and cold on the northern shores of Scandinavia. She could think of two reasons. Mercenaries hired by the British to fight in the revolution much the same as the Germans, or the other thing they were notorious for, piracy. The man was tall enough to be the man she saw supervising the desecration of her father’s grave, but he was not one of the men from Dr. Campbell’s. The voice was all wrong.
“Ye are probably right, I doubt I have heard of it. I thank ye for ye inquiry today, but the position has been filled.”
“Filled?” He looked confused.
“Yes, I appreciate yer time, but I have already made my decision.”
“But I should like to ask—”
Zeke stepped up to her side and leaned across. “Move along, friend.” The man shot Zeke a grimace and stalked to the crowd.
Beti let go the breath she’d been holding and gazed up into the warm amber of Zeke’s eyes. “I am glad ye were here.”
“Have ye ever seen that man before?”
“Never, and I hope never to see him again.”
“That was one of the men I saw the other night.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist to ward off the shiver that ran down her spine.
