She began to feel slightly panicky, and started rowing her pirogue quickly toward the shore. When she got out of the canebrake and could clearly see the old worn path into the woods, she thought she would feel relieved. She did, after a fashion, but still she urgently felt the need to get back to camp. Gathering her rather scant bundle of reeds, she almost ran up the slight hill into the forest. As she hurried along the familiar path that she had treaded since she had been a small child, she abruptly stopped and threw down the reeds.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered.
I’ve never been like this before, I’ve never been afraid of the canebrake or the forest . . . or of being alone. Is this . . . is this because of him? That Yargee? It is, isn’t it! I’m actually frightened, and it’s because of what he did to me! How dare he ruin my life like this!
Nadyha suddenly felt herself full of rage. She was angry with Frank Yargee for what he had done. She was angry with God for letting it happen to her. Obscurely, she felt anger against Gage Kennon. Although he could never be compared to a man like Yargee, he had been intruding on her thoughts too much, and somehow she felt that it was his fault, not hers.
Suddenly weary, Nadyha sat down on a fallen pine tree that blocked the path. Dully she thought that she needed to tell Niçu to come cut up the tree and clear the path.
Reluctantly she returned to her previous thoughts. Dear God, why, why! How could You punish me like this! How could You let that man make me so afraid?
She listened for an answer. But the heavens might as well have been one of Niçu’s sturdy tin pots; smooth, unbreakable, and dead.
Nadyha sat still and silent for a long time, staring out into the deep, quiet woods. Gradually she became aware that she wasn’t afraid any more. She realized that she didn’t have to be afraid. She could choose to let the fear overwhelm her, as it had done in the canebrake, or she could choose not to give it place, as she had just done, here, in this solitude. She could make a conscious decision that Frank Yargee would not affect her life.
Nadyha realized that God had given her an answer.
THAT NIGHT THEY SANG again after supper, and Nadyha and Boldo danced. The others applauded and laughed long at their antics, for Nadyha was as playful as the bear.
Mirella made chicory tea with lemon and they all settled down companionably by the dying campfire. “Niçu and I have something to tell you,” she said to Simza and Nadyha. Her face was glowing, and her eyes were as starry as the night sky, while Niçu’s face was wreathed in a proud smile. “I’m expecting a child.”
“Nais tuke, deary Dovvel,” Baba Simza said with satisfaction. “It’s early yet, hai?”
“Yes, only six weeks,” Mirella answered. “But I’m sure.”
“This is wonderful, te’ sorthene,” Nadyha said happily. “I’m so glad for you, Phral.”
“Me too,” he said rather nonsensically.
Nadyha grew sober. “So—this changes things, doesn’t it? I mean, are you two still thinking of going back on the Queen? Or do you think that maybe we should just stay here?”
Niçu answered, “We’ve talked about it, of course, but we really feel we need to ask you, Baba Simza. After all, you are our chivani, our Phuri Dae.”
Simza sat for a long time, staring at the dying campfire. Nadyha, Mirella, and Niçu sat crosslegged around her chaise, waiting in silence.
“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps,” she said quietly. “You will ask me what that means, and I will tell you a lil that miry deary Dovvel has taught me today.
“Our lives are like this, the tatting of the lace,” she said, holding up the intricate fall of lace she had been working on. “I decide on the thread I use, and I decide what I want the lace to look like, the design. Now, tatting lace is not like sewing, it’s really just making the knots, over and over again. And I say that I might decide on the thread, and what I want it to look like when I’m done. But none of that does me any good if the knots aren’t tied right.”
She gestured around the campfire. “We decided, three years ago, to stay here, in this place, instead of leaving and traveling with our vitsi. That was our choice, and I believe it was the right one. It is a good thread, and we make good knots, with our garden and herbs and remedies and baskets and goods at French Market.
“And then, suddenly, like lightning, boom! there is a wolf trap, and there is my ankle, and this was surely not my choice. Then there is Gage Kennon and there is Dennis Wainwright, and that was surely not our choice. But they became part of the design, some of the knots that make up the whole.
“And then there is the Queen of Bohemia, and I think this was a very good thing. You may say that such was our choice, but I tell you now that we wouldn’t have had that choice to make if this narkri wolf trap had not gotten my ankle, and if Gage Kennon hadn’t met Dennis Wainwright on that dusty road so far away, and if Dennis hadn’t had the measles and pneumonia, and if Gage hadn’t been at the spring that day. All of those things are steps that the Lord directed. He tied those knots Himself.
“And so you see my lil? As before, Niçu, Mirella, I won’t tell you what to do; it is for your hearts to devise your way, to choose your design. But I say that I see that deary Dovvel has directed our steps, and those steps led us to Gage and Dennis and the great river and the Queen.”
MIRELLA AND NIÇU DECIDED to think on Baba Simza’s lil for awhile, and they went to bed. The dew had long fallen, and Nadyha’s skirt was wet, so she pulled up another chair to sit with Simza. “I need to think about your lil, too, Puridaia,” she said. “I never thought of this before.”
“Neither have I,” she said impishly. “God thinks of this.”
“And so you think it was God’s will for us to have Gage Kennon in our lives?” Nadyha asked abruptly.
“Hai. You don’t?”
“I don’t know, but I wonder why? Why did all of this happen to us? Just so we can have baro pias on the Queen of Bohemia, and make money?”
Simza chuckled. “Maybe, maybe not. God said He’ll direct our steps, but does He say He’ll always tell us why? No, no. I ask Him why the trap closed on my ankle, and for awhile it seems He doesn’t answer me. Then finally I know that He does answer me.” She gave Nadyha time to absorb this, then said lightly, “I think you wonder about Gage Kennon much more than you say.”
“I do,” Nadyha said in a low voice. “I wish I didn’t. I try very hard not to.”
“Why?”
Nadyha stared at her incredulously. “Because he’s gaje.”
“Yes, and five years ago I would have been very angry to think that my chaveske chikni was thinking so much about a gajo. But today there is a baro cat and a bitti cat in my camp, and there are two jooks in my camp, and today I’m remembering that we found out on the Queen that not all gajes are wicked and not all of them despise us. Things change, and people change, even hard-hearted people like Mrs. St. Amant—and an old cranky Phuri Dae like me.”
Nadyha merely stared at her in bewilderment, so Simza went on, “Nadyha, he is a good man. And he’s handsome, isn’t he? For a gaje, I mean. Why shouldn’t you think about him?”
“But—I never thought—I didn’t think that I would ever—he’s a gaje!”
“You said that already.”
Darkly Nadyha said, “It’s just not possible. And I’m angry with myself for wasting my time worrying about it. It doesn’t matter anyway. Gage is to me just like he is to everyone. He’s nice and kind and thoughtful. He doesn’t treat me any differently than he does Cara, or Mirella, or you. Why, he was just as nice to that Dobard dilo gaji as he is to me!”
And here Baba Simza’s wisdom failed her. She knew very little about gaje relationships between men and women, and she knew nothing at all about their courtship. Pondering, she reflected that there did seem to be truth in what Nadyha said. Gage was a well-mannered man who treated all women with special courtesy.
But hadn’t she seen the warmth, the happiness on Ga
ge Kennon’s face when he was with Nadyha? Didn’t he seem to esteem her in a way different from the respect, and even affection that he gave to her and Mirella and Cara? As for the Dobard woman, Simza knew a flirt when she saw one, and she knew good manners in a man when he dealt with a flirt. But Nadyha’s tone of voice had told her much; she hadn’t realized the depth of Nadyha’s feelings toward Gage, and now she was very unsure about Gage’s feelings toward her granddaughter.
Simza just had a feeling, deep down, that Gage was in love with Nadyha. But she wasn’t sure enough of this vague belief to give Nadyha any very strong encouragement. If she was wrong about Gage, and she gave Nadyha a false hope, she now realized it would be very bad for Nadyha.
Nadyha was waiting, with a hint of anxiety, for her to respond. Simza reached over and patted her hand. “Bitti chavi, all I will say to you is what I do know. God directs Gage Kennon’s steps, and if you will let Him, He will direct yours. And then you’ll be happy.”
Such comfort really didn’t make Nadyha very happy.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
On Friday morning Gage and Denny were just leaving the hotel for breakfast when Niçu came riding up at a reckless gallop on Cayenne. Nimbly hopping off the horse, he came to them, grinning. “You look surprised to see me.”
Denny said, “I am! I know you all said you’d come back, but after you melted away on your vardos into your mysterious woods, I was beginning to think I had imagined the whole Gypsy thing. What are you doing here?”
Anxiously Gage asked, “There’s nothing wrong, is there?”
“Huh? No, nothing’s wrong,” Niçu said. “Nothing at all. No, Dennis, we’re not imaginary Gypsies, we’re coming back to the Queen. That’s why I’m here. This time we need to make some other arrangements for carting the whole Gypsy zoo back and forth.”
“Sure, we can do that. We’re just going for breakfast at Tujague’s, Niçu, won’t you join us?” Denny asked.
“I’ve already had breakfast, but the ride’s made me hungry again, so I’ll be glad to. Are you on foot?”
“He never goes anywhere on foot,” Gage said dryly. “I’m just glad they don’t have hacks small enough to fit in the hotel halls.”
“Aw, shut your trap,” Denny said. “Just ’cause you Johnny Rebs can march a million miles doesn’t mean you have to all the time. Here, Niçu, give Cayenne to the attendant and we’ll take a cab.” They piled into the hackney.
Niçu was curious; it was the first time he’d ever been in a gaje carriage. “Vardos are much better,” he said disdainfully. “This is really rickety and uncomfortable. Anyway, the vardos are what I wanted to talk to you about. We’ve decided that this time, when we get back here, we don’t want to have to do that whole thing with us riding out to camp and getting them and then bringing them back to pick up Baba Simza and Anca and Boldo and Baro and Bitti—”
“Who are Baro and Bitti?” Denny asked.
Niçu grinned. Gage noticed that he seemed to be in particularly good spirits this morning. “That’s what Nadyha finally decided to name the dogs. She says, I’ll name him this, and I’ll name him that, but no, that won’t do, so this won’t do, and on for days. We all were just calling them the baro one and the bitti one, so she finally gave up and just named them that. She’s more dinili over those dogs than I’ve ever seen her, Gage. You did good.”
“Thanks. Baro and Bitti, Big and Little. I like those names.”
“Anyway, back to carting us all around. We can make it fine into town with the two vardos, but this time I don’t want to have to take them back to camp and then have all of that back-and-forth when we get home. So, Dennis, do you think we can store them here somewhere?”
“There’s only about five hundred warehouses here. When we finish breakfast we can go take a look at a couple of them and see if they would do.”
“Good,” Niçu said with what seemed to Gage an almost overwhelming relief.
Niçu had gotten angry with Mirella over their ride back from the Queen to the camp. At that time she hadn’t told him then that she suspected, in fact was very sure, that she was pregnant. Niçu—and Gypsies in general—didn’t believe that expectant mothers should be treated as if they were fine delicate pieces of porcelain that might break if they moved around too much. Even though Mirella had lost two children, Niçu never thought that it was because she had lived much as she had always lived, working, sewing, cooking, weaving, even dancing, in the early months. But, sensibly, he did believe that she shouldn’t be lifting heavy loads, and she shouldn’t be horseback riding.
“How could you do such a foolish thing, Mirella?” he had demanded when it occurred to him about their long horseback ride.
“Because it was the only way that we could help Nadyha,” she replied softly. “Don’t you see, Niçu? She had to get here, and just with us.”
“Yes . . . yes. You’re right, I see. But you’re not doing it again,” he said forcefully. And so he had ridden in this morning.
He had no intention, however, of telling Denny and Gage the real reason for his concerns. Niçu had come to regard them as friends, but they were still gaje. The centuries-long habit of keeping all personal things secret from the gaje was deeply ingrained in him.
They reached Tujague’s, which was packed, as usual. After ordering from a red-cheeked, harried waitress, Gage asked with elaborate casualness, “How is everyone?”
“We’re all just fine. It was really great to get back home, but after four days the women are already all looking forward to getting back to the Queen.”
“Even Nadyha?” Gage asked intently.
“Especially Nadyha. I admit, with what happened, I wondered, too, if she’d really want to come back. And for the first couple of days she was moody and distracted, and I think maybe we’re back at camp again,” he said philosophically. “But then she got more like the old Nadyha, and I can see she’s excited now.”
“That’s good,” Gage breathed. “That’s very, very good.”
“As a matter of fact, she’s the one who says now that we’re coming in on Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday morning, like you tried to tell us, Dennis, and Nadyha said no, but now she says yes. She says it’ll be much easier to get everyone settled in on the night before we leave.”
“I’m really glad about that,” Denny said. “And my uncle will be too. We just want you all to have a really good, easy, baro pias time of it this trip.”
“So, what about that Yargee mokadi jook? Is he still in the hospital?”
Denny told him about Yargee’s surgery. “He’s still unconscious, they can’t get him to wake up and they don’t know if he ever will. Those other two little worms are still in jail in St. Louis, and if they just kinda get forgotten about, well, that’s just too bad.”
Darkly Niçu said, “I just don’t understand men like that. And to tell the truth, I don’t want to understand, I just want to forget it. I sure hope my phei can, too.” Brightening, he went on, “So, I have a whole list of things the women say I have to ask you, like they aren’t going to see for themselves in three days. What about Countess Cara? What’s her situation?”
“That whole thing has died down so much that I arranged for Cara to go visit her family,” Denny replied. “It sounds like this lady, this Mrs. Tabb that Cara worked for, had a lot to do with it blowing over. Apparently at first Mrs. Tabb was as loud as everyone else in denouncing Cara. Then she must have come to her senses, because suddenly she started saying that Cara wasn’t the kind of girl to have a liaison with a married man, and that she—Mrs. Tabb—had particularly noted that this captain had been drinking heavily that night. She told everyone, from the commanding general of Fort Butler down to the streetsweeper, that this captain must have fallen off the stage in a drunken stupor, and Cara must have gotten scared and run.”
Niçu nodded thoughtfully. “We know that’s not the whole story. But I guess Cara’s like my sister. She doesn’t want to drag the whole thing out and make a big lil out of it.
That’s kind of a shame, isn’t it? I mean, men like them should be publicly exposed, at the least.”
“I know, I feel the same way,” Gage said. “But I think we ought to let the women decide what’s best in their situation. Kinda makes you feel like a big bumbling idiot, trying to help them.”
“No. You helped, Gage. You helped both Cara and Nadyha. And for Nadyha’s sake I’ll always be grateful to you,” Niçu said soberly. “Now, how about these warehouses?”
GAGE HAD THOUGHT THAT the week of waiting to see Nadyha again would crawl by painfully slowly. But it really didn’t. He stayed very busy, because after the business meeting, both Denny and his uncle started consulting him on all kinds of things about the Queen. He and Denny went to the boat every day. Gage spent long hours with the Chief Purser and his four assistants, combing over their bookkeeping system and making suggestions on how to streamline it, and helping them to get some bottom line figures on the last voyage.
He and Denny also did a complete check of the sets for the play, coming up with new ideas that required some carpentry work, which Gage supervised. Also, because of Gage’s natural curiosity, he often went down to the engine room and boiler room to ask more questions of the crew. He got the Chief Engineer to give him a tour of the holy pilothouse, which he had never seen. He really was interested in everything about steamboats.
So Gage was vaguely surprised when he realized that it was already Sunday night, and Nadyha was coming in the next day. He went down to Denny’s room and banged on the door. Denny answered wearing a burgundy satin dressing gown, holding one of his uncle’s cigars and a crystal tumbler filled with brandy. When Gage saw his finery, he said, “For a working man, you still dress like a posh.”
“Is that why you’re here? To make fun of my apparel? This, from a fellow who wears all black like an undertaker and a gunbelt with two Colts. What’s going on?”
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