Aggie placed a gentle hand on her arm. “Just tell them what ye told me, it will be all right.”
Beti rebelled. She didn’t owe these people an explanation about her life. She raised her chin and scanned the room. Reverend Edwards stood in front of a small group of hardened faces. Captain Taylor stood in the middle of the room with everyone else.
“Miss Sigridsdatter.” Captain Taylor bowed. “It appears that Reverend Edwards has heard some disturbing news and would like to have it clarified.”
She straightened her back and crossed the room to her work basket. “I am sorry to hear that the reverend is disturbed. I am unclear as to how I may help.” She picked up her basket adjusted her loom and crossed the room once more. Aggie raised an eyebrow with a half-smile.
“Are ye the daughter of the infamous pirate Red the Black?” Edwards shouted.
Beti turned to Captain Taylor. Behind him Moses and Gordon stood with arms crossed. These men who claimed to be her friends. The kindness in the captain’s eyes spurred her on. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt. That was a first. They may not like what she had to say, but at least she was permitted to have a say.
The twinkle from her father's eye as he pointed to the book and said “the treasure is here” further stiffened her resolve. She must not lie. Indeed, she was proud of her father. It had not occurred to her until that very moment that she would no more deny her own father than she would her Father in heaven. Whatever the outcome of this encounter, she had gotten a fair shake from her friends. What more could she ask for? She would be content with that.
“May I be permitted to speak?” Beti asked Captain Taylor.
The captain nodded his answer, casting his silent order around the room. Quiet settled through the room leaving a void waiting to be filled with her explanation. Beti’s nerves bounced up and down in the empty space.
She took a deep breath, wishing she held her father’s Bible rather than the handle of her worn work basket.
“First, I should thank you. Each one of you has allowed me to travel with you this far toward my dream of settling in Kentucky.” She glanced around the room. Irritation rustled through it. “Since I was a small girl, I wished to see the west. My mother told wonderful stories of traveling through the mountains of Virginia when she was a young bride. My father settled us near the sea after she died, and somehow her dream became my own.”
Beti look down at her hands and unclenched her fingers from the handle of her basket. “Yes. My father was Billy Boatman—"
Chatter erupted in the room. Captain Taylor swung around and let out an earsplitting whistle. He was greeted with wide eyed stunned silence. “Let the woman speak.”
“I have only two things to say. I should be leaving this wagon train in the morning. You will no longer need to worry about traveling with me. The second thing I wish to leave you with a thought. After my father repented and received his pardon from our eternal King, he applied to and was granted a pardon from our earthly King George.
Beti scanned the room one more time and saw that nothing had changed. She hadn't really expected it to, but she had hoped. “I offer you my sincere apology for not telling you my real name. I thought at the time it would be expedient. I understand now that I was wrong. I also offer you my apology should my father have done anything to harm any of you. He is no longer here to offer you his own remonstrance, but I know he would have offered it with a heart full of the love of God. I can do no more. I go in peace, and I pray that should our paths cross again we may meet in peace.”
Beti turned from the crowd and headed to the door.
Thomas Swift met her halfway there. “Miss Beti, I should like to offer you my escort back to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There you shall find no animosity and people filled with the love of God.”
Alice arrived at her elbow before Thomas finished speaking. “Do you say you’ll join us.” She laid a hand on Beti's forearm, her knowing eyes soft and welcoming.
Aggie slipped a hand into the crook of Beti's arm. “That will shut them up.” Tears filled Beti’s eyes, and tilted her chin to keep them from falling. “Let's get you outside,” Aggie continued.
They were exiting the main chamber of the tavern when a tall distinguished man wearing a fine thick woolen cloak approached them. He wore his gray hair longer than the current fashion. He was a barrel of a man who if not careful would fill a doorway. He spoke to her in soft lilting tones. “Miss Behethlan Boatman.”
It was a statement and question at the same time. Beti stopped. His eyes were the palest blue she had ever seen. It reminded her of tales of the great ice flows in the north where her mother came from. He was tall and bear-chested. A graying beard hid the laugh lines she felt must be there around his mouth to match the squinting lines around his eyes, for a kindness and gentleness emanated from the man toward her the type of which she’d not felt in a long time. She would wager that his children called him “Papa” rather than the more formal “Father”, and she imagined he had a large family full of children clambering into his lap. Behind him stood the man who had tried to speak with her at the tavern the day she hired Toby.
Equally as tall, but he was not as trustworthy as his leader. He was too young to be comfortable. He had a hawklike face that lacked the kindness more gentle curves invoked.
“Who is asking?"
“I am Hagbard emissary to King Anders of Fjelloyricket.”
Beti remain glued to the floor. Were these people from her mother's kingdom?
“I should very much like to speak with ye, milady.” His voice was gruff but not threatening.
“Now is not a good time.” Aggie whispered into her ear. “Haven't you been through enough today?”
She couldn't disagree with that. She took another deep breath as her thoughts swirled around her. She handed her work basket to Aggie, and brought her rifle around to the front.
“What do you wish to speak with me about?”
“Let us find a table and sit down, or perhaps you would rather speak outside near your wagon?”
“Absolutely not.” Aggie stood up to her full height, her grip tightening on Beti's arm.
“I will hear what you have to say. But let us find a table in this chamber.” Beti scanned the room and approached an empty table near the bar. She took the chair that allowed her to face the room. No more surprises for this day. Aggie took the seat next to her. The big man, who said his name was Hagbard sat down across from her with the man from the yard next to him.
Toby crossed the room and headed out the front door. Immediately Zeke entered the room.
“Nellie?” She whispered as he neared.
“Toby,” he answered.
A calm rippled through the anxiety that troubled Beti's insides for the better part of an hour, and she turned to Hagbard.
“Now what did you wish to see me about?”
“Miss Boatman,” Hagbard began. “King Anders has sent me to speak with you about your intentions for the throne. He grows old and his son…”
“Ye need to come home with us milady.” The other stranger broke in in the lilting tones she associated with her mother, but from him they had a dangerous sound with an edge of threat.
“She is not going anywhere with you.” Zeke took up the space on the wall to Beti’s right.
