Bailey’s chin quivered as she pushed the radio’s talk button. “Wow. That’s huge.”
The breakfast bell rang out from the inn, brassy clangs echoing off the farm buildings. She had a job to do. There was no way she could ignore this explosion of information, but somehow she had to focus so she could save the man who might be her biological father.
Her mind raced, every thought vying for attention. Each would have its turn, but for now she had to do the next thing. “I have to go.” As she walked toward the front of the building, Revel stopped ringing the bell. He lifted his chin at her and grinned. She hid her mouth with a cupped hand while she finished speaking to Tim. “I’m not ready to call you Dad or anything like that yet, but I’ll find you as quickly as I can.”
* * *
Revel let the bell ring out to announce breakfast, then he looped its rope through an iron ring beside the door. It had been a long time since he’d rung the kitchen’s bell. It had been a long time since he’d done much of anything for the inn… or his sisters. He needed to change that, but how could he without completely giving up the security team and moving back to be trapped at the inn for the rest of his life?
At the sound of the bell, Connor, Levi, and Everett walked out of the stables toward the inn, and Bailey came from the back of the stable block. She lifted her face to the morning sky as if she were searching the clouds for answers. Something seemed different about her. Maybe it was his imagination. She was still too far away for him to read whether her sour expression was her typical morning scowl or something worse.
He jumped down from the stoop and hurried to meet her in the yard. Her pace seemed unusually fast for this early in the day. After a few quick strides, he was walking beside her. “You must be hungry.”
“Not really.” She didn’t smile back but rarely did before breakfast. “I’m just ready to hit the road.”
He’d never heard that phrase before, but he agreed with its sentiment. The sooner they left the inn, the better for him too. “Did you sleep well last night?”
“Fine.” She kept marching toward the side door like a bull determined to be first to the haystack. “You?”
Despite the troubling conversation with his father last night, he’d slept better in the bunkhouse than he had in years. “Quite well, thank you.”
He slowed his pace hoping she would too, but she didn’t. She was gripping the radio in her hand so tightly her knuckles were white. Was she angry with him or had her sunrise call with Tim upset her? “Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
He wasn’t expecting the leisurely conversation they’d had on the front porch last night, but he wasn’t expecting her to be snippy either. “Is something wrong?”
“No.”
There was. If she didn’t want to talk about it, he would give her the same privacy she afforded him. It was rare for him to meet a woman who didn’t voluntarily talk about every discomfort or constantly ask questions in an effort to pry his innermost thoughts out of him. He had his secrets and so could she.
But, oh, how he wanted to know what she was thinking.
It was foolish. She wasn’t his sweetheart. Only a friend. He didn’t concern himself with his other friends’ moods.
For some reason, this friendship was different. He cared about her and enjoyed her company more than anyone else’s. Still, he couldn’t let himself forget they were here now because of his foolishness.
She probably was upset with him, but how could he know for certain if he didn’t ask? At present, he only had a hunch. He’d proven time and again in life that he couldn’t trust his feelings. He had felt he should stay away from the inn, and now his disappointed father’s mind was too far gone to have a decent conversation. He’d felt the outsiders who came ashore that night were violent invaders, and those feelings drove him to shoot when Connor ordered the team to wait. Now, he was hurrying to keep up with one of the persons he’d shot.
No, he could not trust his feelings. He had to find out what was the matter with her.
Men’s voices came from behind him. Connor, Levi, and Everett talked as they walked to the house. They weren’t in a rush like Bailey. When she reached the stoop, Revel touched her arm. “Bailey, what has happened? Whatever it is, I can help.”
She stopped walking long enough to flick a dour glance at him, her brow tightly furrowed. “Forget it.” She flung open the door and disappeared inside.
The screen door banged shut behind her. Revel backed down the stoop as the men approached behind him. Everett said something. Revel heard his friend’s voice but didn’t pay attention to his words. He wanted to rush into the house after Bailey and demand she tell him what had upset her, make her let him help her, force her to allow him to vindicate himself. Even though she wouldn’t even know why.
Everett gave him a stiff pat on the shoulder as he passed. “Nothing quite like arguing with a beautiful woman first thing in the morning, is there?”
Levi chuckled as he and Everett entered the house.
Revel tried to think of a witty retort but was too dazed by Bailey’s attitude, especially after the ease of their time together on the front porch last night. His care for her had grown more in those few minutes than it had in the past few weeks, his fondness of her surpassing his guilt over upsetting her life.
Connor halted a few feet from the stoop and waved Revel down to join him in the yard. He crossed his arms over his flight jacket. “What was that about?”
Revel sank his cold hands into his trouser pockets. “I honestly couldn’t say.”
Connor gave a quick glance over each shoulder, his eyes always scanning, always searching for threats. When he confirmed no one was within earshot, he looked Revel in the eye. “Before we left Good Springs, you said you weren’t going to let her distract you.”
“She is the reason I’m here.”
“Is she?”
“Of course. We’re on our way to rescue her friend, but it’s all for her.”
Connor glanced at the inn, then the stables, then returned his gaze to Revel. “You are a member of the Land’s security team and we’re on a mission to locate an outsider. Though he is reportedly not a threat, we don’t know what we will encounter out there. We’re going into possibly hazardous territory and—”
“To rescue Bailey’s friend.”
A glint of warning sparked in Connor’s eyes whenever anyone interrupted him. He didn’t allow it to change his expression, but it upped the authority in his tone. “Yes, this is mainly a rescue mission, and that’s even more reason to stay focused. And to stay honest, especially with yourself.”
Revel broke Connor’s knowing gaze and looked across the property that he was supposed to inherit. Between his problems with his family and the shame of causing this whole tragedy with Bailey and her friends, he didn’t have the mental capacity to sort out whatever Connor was trying to get at.
The rising sun disappeared behind the blanket of cloud cover. It changed the light from a burning orange to a dull gray, taking all chance of warmth with it.
It was going to be one of those days.
He looked back at Connor and drew his hands out of his pockets. “I am being honest with myself. It’s Bailey I’m trying to…”
Connor came a half step closer. “Trying to what?”
“To keep in the dark.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Is there something going on between you?”
He didn’t need to be questioned and wouldn’t have stood there taking it from anyone else, but he’d seen how necessary complete honesty was among men who fought together. He slid his hands back into his pockets. “Bailey and I are friends. That’s all. At least I thought we were,” he glanced back at the rickety door she’d slammed, “but something is wrong with her this morning.”
“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with you.” The flare of suspicion left Connor’s eyes. It was replaced with the wisdom of a concerned friend. “You
have a connection with her the rest of us don’t. That’s good. I want her to make friends here. Just watch yourself. She has gone through a lot and the last thing she needs is to have a guy she trusts wanting more than friendship from her.”
“I don’t want anything more from her.”
Connor raised one black eyebrow. It was a look he only had to give most people once and they backed down. Except Bailey. She never backed down from Connor no matter what look he gave her. She never backed down from anyone. And Revel liked that about her.
He liked a lot of things about her.
His own thoughts kicked him in the gut. He took a half step back. “Maybe you’re right.”
“She needs you now and she might need you even more, depending on what condition Tim is in when we locate him. But she needs you as a friend. That’s all. And remember, your job on this mission is to protect her.”
He put a hand on Revel’s shoulder. “Keep your feelings in check—about her,” he glanced at the house behind Revel, “and about the inn. The closer we get to the mountains, the more you have to stay focused, and your focus must be on protecting Bailey. Nothing else.”
Chapter Six
Late in the day, Bailey followed Connor and Revel toward the dock in Riverside. Both men dismounted their horses, as did Sophia beside her and Everett and Levi behind her. Bailey swung down from the saddle as if she’d been riding her whole life too. Her feet landed on the ground with the perfection of an Olympic gymnast.
Connor slung his leather satchel’s strap over his shoulder and looked back at Levi and Everett. “Stay here with the girls.”
Bailey hated being one of the girls. She needed the guys—not because they were men but because with every mile of this journey she had a growing sense of how necessary having the group would be once they left the southernmost village and traveled into unsettled land to find Tim.
Connor and Revel looped their horses’ reins to hitching posts then walked toward four men who stood by a plank that led to a ship docked by the river’s steep bank. A lanky middle-aged man with a booming voice broke away from the group and met Connor with an outstretched hand. After vivaciously shaking Connor’s hand, the man greeted Revel with the same enthusiasm.
Bailey glanced back at Levi. “Who is he?”
“Captain Arnold Roberts.”
“Roberts? Is he related to Revel’s family?”
“I don’t know.” Levi lifted his chin at the big, wooden ship. “That’s his schooner.”
She wasn’t sure what made a boat a schooner or a brigantine or a clipper. This two-masted ship looked primitive but still sturdy enough to get them to Southpoint. It also looked like it belonged in a pirate-inspired theme park. Knowing its old-world charm wasn’t fake stirred her imagination.
She glanced back at Levi again and started to ask him about the ship but was struck by how much he resembled John. Same features and mannerisms as his dad. Different eye color. Levi’s were golden brown like Lydia’s, whereas John’s crystalline blue eyes had a way of seeing into her soul. At least that was how it felt when he would talk things out with her at the kitchen table.
She missed John Colburn and the big house in Good Springs, which was odd considering she had only been there a few weeks. Still, he was a kind counselor and she could use his advice right now.
If Tim had told her about being her father sooner, she probably would have talked to John about it before she left Good Springs. Maybe he could have prepared her for seeing Tim as her father for the first time. As it was, she had to keep pushing forward to find Tim, to save him, to hope the gray leaf would heal him. If she succeeded, she would finally have a dad.
She asked Levi, “How will we get the horses on the ship?”
He pointed at an iron mechanism with chains on the ship’s deck. “The crewmen will use the winch to lower a sling. We will strap one horse into it at a time. The animal will be raised to the deck, lowered through an opening in the floor, and crated in the hold.”
She petted Gee’s neck, wishing there was a better way. “That sounds scary for the horses.”
Levi looked away from her when the ship’s captain waved at him. The captain called out, smiling. “Levi Colburn! I do hope you have something better than dirty shoelaces to trade me this time.”
Levi laughed and lifted a surrendering hand as if guilty of whatever past incident they were joking about. Connor and the men by the plank all laughed. Levi turned to Everett and starting talking quietly, but Bailey couldn’t hear what they were saying.
She left Gee nibbling the sparse grass and walked closer to Sophia. “Do you have any idea what that was about?”
Sophia rubbed the skin under the bracelet her boyfriend had given her. “No idea.”
The longer the men stood there chatting, the longer it would take to reach Tim. Bailey touched the side pocket of her backpack, making sure the two-way radio was still in its place. “I wish they would hurry up and make a deal so we can board the ship. I’m ready to sail down the river.”
Sophia passed her horse’s rope between her shaking hands. “I’m not.”
Bailey hadn’t realized how this trip might be affecting Sophia. The young woman was quiet most of the time and never complained. Bailey lowered her volume so Levi and Everett wouldn’t hear. “Don’t like boats, huh?”
Sophia forced a polite smile. “I’ve never been on one. It isn’t the boat that scares me.” She looked at the river and shuddered. “It’s the possibility of ending up in the water.”
The naive medical assistant had volunteered for this journey out of human kindness, not because she was a daring adventurer. She had ridden a horse, slept in a cold tent, and eaten dry bread and venison jerky for days, all to help an outsider. Now she trembled for fear of drowning. Bailey wished all of these people hadn’t been caught up in her problems. She gently squeezed Sophia’s vibrating hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”
Sophia drew her lips into her mouth and nodded bravely. She needed Bailey’s strength as much as Tim needed the medicine she carried.
Connor shook the captain’s hand once more, then he and Revel came back for the group. Once they all boarded the ship and the horses had been lowered into the hold, the captain showed Bailey and Sophia to a Hobbit–sized door in the ship’s sterncastle.
“We don’t often have women aboard, but when we do, they get the best accommodations we have.” He opened the cabin door and stooped for the low ceiling. “The ship’s pilot and I share these quarters, but we’ll sleep down below while you’re here.”
Sophia was short enough she didn’t have to hunch as she stepped into the dark space. “Thank you, Captain. It’s lovely.”
It wasn’t.
Bailey ducked through the doorway and followed Sophia inside. A set of basic but neatly made bunk beds were on her left and a rolltop writing desk was on the right. An oil lamp hung from the low ceiling near a curtained window. The room smelled like a sweaty gym sock stuffed with yesterday’s catch.
The captain grinned, revealing a missing bottom tooth. “Our cook has a beef stew simmering. I’ll get one of your men to bring you a bowl after we shove off. Enjoy your evening, ladies.”
After he closed them inside the cramped cabin, Bailey checked the door for a lock. The oil lamp that swung with the rocking of the ship didn’t provide enough light. She ran her hand along the door’s edge and only found a short piece of thick rope. “Not sure how this is supposed to protect us. I’ll just have to sleep with one eye open.”
Sophia sat on the bottom bunk, scratching her wrist beneath her leather bracelet. “Do you believe we are in danger here?”
“I always believe I’m in danger.”
“That must be tiring.”
She’d never thought of it that way. “Yeah, I guess it is. But it was necessary where I came from.”
The cabin’s stench brought the flash of a horrid childhood memory. Suddenly, she was a little girl locked in a stinky closet while a foster
mom had a boyfriend over. Her heart hammered against the wall of her chest. She yanked the rope, opening the door a crack.
Fresh air seeped into the cabin, but it wasn’t enough. She lowered her backpack to the floor then lifted the stiff burlap curtain that covered the room’s only window. The overcast sky beyond the dinner-plate-sized glass grew dark with the coming night. The room started to shrink, and the back of her neck burned. “Is it hot in here?”
Sophia shook her head. “It’s quite cool, actually.”
She fanned her burning face. “Okay, so it isn’t hot but stuffy. It’s stuffy in here, right?”
“A little stale, I suppose.” Sophia cocked her head to the side. “Are you unwell?”
A horse’s muffled whinny rose from the hold. The animals were stuck down there just like she was stuck in here. Just like she’d been stuck for hours in that rancid coat closet with all the old shoes while the grown-ups partied.
A long groan creaked deep within the ship followed by the clink of chains and the crank of an anchor lifting. The boat’s rocking increased. “I think we’re leaving.”
“Must be.”
The planks beneath her seemed to sway and her stomach sank. She leaned a hand against the top bunk. “I need air. Want to go out on the deck with me?”
Sophia’s eyes widened. “Heavens, no. I’m afraid of falling overboard. Are you seasick?”
“No, I’m fine. Just a little claustrophobic.” The room’s stench hit her throat. “I have to go.” The words barely escaped her lips before her stomach heaved. She staggered out of the sterncastle and made it to the rail at the back of the ship in time to vomit.
After a few minutes in the cool air, her stomach settled. She willed her fingers to release their grip on the wooden rail but her head still hung over the back wall of the ship as she spit into the river below.
Someone approached from behind and laid a hand on the middle of her back. It had to be either Revel or Sophia. She didn’t have the strength to move away from their touch.
Uncharted Destiny (The Uncharted Series Book 7) Page 7