Dawn on a Distant Shore
Page 76
Hannah nodded, because she could not find the energy to disagree.
In the drowsy confusion of a warm, dim place, Hannah woke disoriented and with an aching head. For a moment she lay listening to the counterpoint of the babies' quiet breathing interwoven with women's voices: Curiosity and Elizabeth together at the hearth, waiting for her to join them and take up her part of the work and the conversation.
Then all around her the timber box that was the ship creaked and shifted, and she knew where she was--but the voices were there still. Hannah sat up with a little cry, rolled out of her hammock, and was at the door in two steps.
But it wasn't Elizabeth who looked around at her. Nor was it Mrs. MacKay, who might have come back in the end for the company of her own kind. Across from Curiosity sat Miss Giselle Somerville.
She seemed to have sprouted up out of the earthy colors of the surgery. Her gown glowed in the pale green of new grass, touched here and there with a pattern of winding roses; in the sunlight her hair was the gold of old cornsilk. This close Hannah could see the softening line of her jaw and the web of soft lines at the corners of her eyes that gave away her age, but she held herself like a much younger woman. For a long moment Hannah stared at Giselle Somerville and she looked back, neither smiling nor frowning. As if it were the most normal thing in the world for her to be here, come to call to pass the long afternoon with old friends. Hannah felt herself flushing with surprise and something else that made her fingers twitch.
"Come and say good day." Curiosity's voice had an unfamiliar tone: guarded, and grating faintly with the effort. Hannah might have turned back to the other cabin, to stay there in the warm dark where her little brother and sister slept. But Curiosity's expression said that she wanted Hannah here, and Hannah could not disobey her; she would not shame her before this woman.
Giselle Somerville said, "I suppose you have heard of me from your father. He and I were once good friends." Her tone was not warm, but there was a hidden kind of eagerness in her eyes.
She wants to win me over, thought Hannah. I am nothing more than another prize to her.
Hannah swallowed. "I don't think you could have ever been my father's friend."
Curiosity blinked, but Miss Somerville smiled.
"It was a long time ago. We were both very young."
It was a peace offering of a kind, but Hannah was not in the mood for peace. "You kept my uncle Otter in Montréal so that my grandfather had to come after him," she said. "If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened and we would be at home where we belong." She flushed with the power of speaking the truth to this white woman, and saw from the corner of her eye how Curiosity's back had straightened, whether in pride or alarm she could not tell.
But Giselle Somerville only raised one thin eyebrow in a surprised arch.
"I see little of your father in your face, but you are very much like him."
"She ain't much of a one for games, that's true," said Curiosity. "Maybe you better just tell us what you got on your mind."
"Very well." Giselle inspected an embroidered rose on her sleeve. When she raised her head she was all cool determination again. "I intend to slip away. If you like, you can join me."
In her surprise, Hannah looked to Curiosity, but the older woman's attention was focused on Giselle Somerville.
"Well, now," she said. "If you know Nathaniel Bonner as well as you say you do, then you'll know that he ain't far behind us--and his father and wife with him. No need for us to run off on our own."
A smile slid across the even features and then was gone. "Nathaniel and his father--yes, I suppose they will try to follow. And his wife, of course. What is the name that Otter had for her? Bone-in-Her-Back, I believe. From what I saw of her, a very determined type if not very pretty."
Curiosity put a cool hand on Hannah's wrist, as if to steady her, or quiet her. Hannah bit down hard and willed herself to stay calm.
Giselle smiled. "But there is little chance of it, after all. They have no ship and no prospects of finding one for such a long journey."
Because she could not stop herself, Hannah said, "Moncrieff says they are on their way."
Giselle had a way of blinking that put Hannah in mind of the white owl that sat in the rafters of the barn at Lake in the Clouds, always watching for those small creatures who put hunger or curiosity above caution. "Moncrieff is devious, is he not? Any lie to meet his end. But surely you must realize that his only task is to deliver an heir to Carryck. The child will be less trouble, and the same end will be achieved--the title and the estate will be safe from the Campbells and the Crown. That is all any of them care about-- they are Scots, after all, and cannot be trusted to be reasonable. If the Bonners are alive at all, it is certain that they are not on the Osiris."
Curiosity's hand on Hannah's arm tightened like a vise. She smiled, quite broadly. "Ain't nobody said a word about the Osiris."
There was a slight tensing around Giselle's mouth, and it made Hannah's breath come easier to see this, the first sign that she could not stand up to Curiosity. Few women could, after all, but for a moment she had been worried that this one with her jewels and silks and a knife blade of a smile might be as dangerous as she wanted to seem.
"It only makes sense that Moncrieff would have promised such a thing," Giselle said, utterly calm now. "What else might he say to keep you in your place, and acquiescent? You are, after all, nothing to him but a way to keep the boy in good health until he can turn him over to the earl. And of course Moncrieff likes to think of himself as irresistible."
In the drowsy confusion of a warm, dim place, Hannah woke disoriented and with an aching head. For a moment she lay listening to the counterpoint of the babies' quiet breathing interwoven with women's voices: Curiosity and Elizabeth together at the hearth, waiting for her to join them and take up her part of the work and the conversation.
Then all around her the timber box that was the ship creaked and shifted, and she knew where she was--but the voices were there still. Hannah sat up with a little cry, rolled out of her hammock, and was at the door in two steps.
But it wasn't Elizabeth who looked around at her. Nor was it Mrs. MacKay, who might have come back in the end for the company of her own kind. Across from Curiosity sat Miss Giselle Somerville.
She seemed to have sprouted up out of the earthy colors of the surgery. Her gown glowed in the pale green of new grass, touched here and there with a pattern of winding roses; in the sunlight her hair was the gold of old cornsilk. This close Hannah could see the softening line of her jaw and the web of soft lines at the corners of her eyes that gave away her age, but she held herself like a much younger woman. For a long moment Hannah stared at Giselle Somerville and she looked back, neither smiling nor frowning. As if it were the most normal thing in the world for her to be here, come to call to pass the long afternoon with old friends. Hannah felt herself flushing with surprise and something else that made her fingers twitch.
"Come and say good day." Curiosity's voice had an unfamiliar tone: guarded, and grating faintly with the effort. Hannah might have turned back to the other cabin, to stay there in the warm dark where her little brother and sister slept. But Curiosity's expression said that she wanted Hannah here, and Hannah could not disobey her; she would not shame her before this woman.
Giselle Somerville said, "I suppose you have heard of me from your father. He and I were once good friends." Her tone was not warm, but there was a hidden kind of eagerness in her eyes.
She wants to win me over, thought Hannah. I am nothing more than another prize to her.
Hannah swallowed. "I don't think you could have ever been my father's friend."
Curiosity blinked, but Miss Somerville smiled.
"It was a long time ago. We were both very young."
It was a peace offering of a kind, but Hannah was not in the mood for peace. "You kept my uncle Otter in Montréal so that my grandfather had to come after him," she said. "If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened and we would be at home where we belong." She flushed with the power of speaking the truth to this white woman, and saw from the corner of her eye how Curiosity's back had straightened, whether in pride or alarm she could not tell.
But Giselle Somerville only raised one thin eyebrow in a surprised arch.
"I see little of your father in your face, but you are very much like him."
"She ain't much of a one for games, that's true," said Curiosity. "Maybe you better just tell us what you got on your mind."
"Very well." Giselle inspected an embroidered rose on her sleeve. When she raised her head she was all cool determination again. "I intend to slip away. If you like, you can join me."
In her surprise, Hannah looked to Curiosity, but the older woman's attention was focused on Giselle Somerville.
"Well, now," she said. "If you know Nathaniel Bonner as well as you say you do, then you'll know that he ain't far behind us--and his father and wife with him. No need for us to run off on our own."
A smile slid across the even features and then was gone. "Nathaniel and his father--yes, I suppose they will try to follow. And his wife, of course. What is the name that Otter had for her? Bone-in-Her-Back, I believe. From what I saw of her, a very determined type if not very pretty."
Curiosity put a cool hand on Hannah's wrist, as if to steady her, or quiet her. Hannah bit down hard and willed herself to stay calm.
Giselle smiled. "But there is little chance of it, after all. They have no ship and no prospects of finding one for such a long journey."
Because she could not stop herself, Hannah said, "Moncrieff says they are on their way."
Giselle had a way of blinking that put Hannah in mind of the white owl that sat in the rafters of the barn at Lake in the Clouds, always watching for those small creatures who put hunger or curiosity above caution. "Moncrieff is devious, is he not? Any lie to meet his end. But surely you must realize that his only task is to deliver an heir to Carryck. The child will be less trouble, and the same end will be achieved--the title and the estate will be safe from the Campbells and the Crown. That is all any of them care about-- they are Scots, after all, and cannot be trusted to be reasonable. If the Bonners are alive at all, it is certain that they are not on the Osiris."
Curiosity's hand on Hannah's arm tightened like a vise. She smiled, quite broadly. "Ain't nobody said a word about the Osiris."
There was a slight tensing around Giselle's mouth, and it made Hannah's breath come easier to see this, the first sign that she could not stand up to Curiosity. Few women could, after all, but for a moment she had been worried that this one with her jewels and silks and a knife blade of a smile might be as dangerous as she wanted to seem.
"It only makes sense that Moncrieff would have promised such a thing," Giselle said, utterly calm now. "What else might he say to keep you in your place, and acquiescent? You are, after all, nothing to him but a way to keep the boy in good health until he can turn him over to the earl. And of course Moncrieff likes to think of himself as irresistible."
