Connor’s voice was the last she expected to hear. “How did you survive sailing all the way from Cape Town to the Land if you get seasick?”
She kept her face down. “I’m not seasick. This never has happened before.” The odor of the captain’s cabin still lingered in her nostrils. “I think it was the air in the sterncastle.”
Connor nodded. “The smell is worse down below. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” She motioned toward the sterncastle without looking at it. “I’m not going back in there. No way. I’ll sleep out here tonight.”
“The captain said he expects the temperature to be close to freezing by time we reach Southpoint in the morning.”
Being cold was better than being sick. “I don’t care.”
He pointed at her jeans. “You’ll have to double your layers.”
“I will.”
Connor scanned the busy crewmen who worked on the deck, cranking mechanisms, lighting lanterns, and yelling commands only they understood. “The crew won’t be above deck for long. We’ll be riding the current south, so only the pilot and a deckhand will be up here for the night.”
“I’ll stay out of their way, I promise. I can’t go back in there.”
He returned his gaze to her with care in his dark eyes. “Okay. I’ll have to clear it with the captain.”
She turned her back to the railing and let the cold southerly breeze hit her face, trying to make the lightheadedness go away. It helped some, but she didn’t want to leave the chest-high wall at the back of the ship. “I have to sit down.” She slowly lowered herself to the deck and leaned her back against the wall.
Connor studied her. “You need fluids. Where’s your water bottle?”
“In my backpack. In the cabin.”
He reached down and rubbed her shoulder. “Stay here. I’ll get it.”
His kindness surprised her. It shouldn’t have; she’d seen him with his family and with the men he led. It took more than a desire to protect a land to motivate a man to come all the way out here to find one lost person. It took the compassion of a good leader.
All at once, she was grateful he was in charge of this mission. “Thanks, Connor.”
“No problem.” He walked to the sterncastle door and knocked.
Sophia opened it and nodded as Connor explained what was happening. She pointed to Bailey’s backpack on the floor by the bunk. While he went inside to get it, she peered out at Bailey.
Bailey did her best to appear well and gave Sophia the okay hand sign before realizing the girl might not know what it meant.
Sophia responded with a sympathetic smile and leaned out of the cabin, still gripping the door frame. She raised her voice over the noise of the crew. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yes. Are you?”
Sophia’s gaze shot to the dark river. “I need to stay in here.”
“No worries. I need to stay out here.”
Sophia slinked back into the cabin as Connor stepped out holding Bailey’s backpack by one strap.
He set it against the wall beside her. “Figured I’d bring the whole bag since you’ll probably want to sneak a call to Tim again tonight.”
Before she could ask how he knew, a faint grin curved his lips. She scanned the deck for the only person she’d told about her extra radio contact with Tim. “Did Revel tell you?”
Connor shook his head once. “No one told me.” He sat beside her on the deck, leaving her backpack between them, and rested against the wooden wall. “And Revel would never snitch on you.”
She looked across the deck at Revel, who was helping a crewman crank a long wooden lever. He’d started the day by helping his youngest sister in the kitchen at the inn, then helping Bailey pack her horse. The other guys were near the ship’s stove waiting for the cook to ladle stew into their bowls, but Revel was helping a crewman.
Perhaps in the midst of her problems, she hadn’t given Revel the credit he deserved. “No, he wouldn’t snitch.”
Connor lifted his chin at the side pocket of her backpack where she kept the radio. “Contact Tim all you want. Just don’t say anything that could alert someone to the Land’s existence.”
She poked the radio through the backpack. “Our two-ways only have a hundred-mile range. Do you really think someone could be that close to the Land and only know it if they heard me and Tim talking?”
“Probably not.” His faint grin grew into a goofy smile. “I’m still going to destroy both of your radios as soon as we locate Tim.”
She felt like slugging him, but the look on his face made her laugh. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I am.” Still smiling, he stamped his heel as if grinding something into the deck planks. “I’m going to smash both radios to bits and enjoy every second of it.”
Why she was laughing with him instead of shoving him off the boat, she didn’t know. It felt good to laugh, especially after the intensity of her day… of her life. “Fine. Smash them. I don’t care about the radios. I just want to find my dad.”
Connor’s smile vanished. “Your dad?”
She immediately wished she could yank her words back from the air. Connor was the last person she meant to confide in. It was too late now. “When I talked to Tim this morning, he told me Justin Mercer gave him a hospital document from my mom’s prison record. She had written that Timothy Van Buskirk was my biological father. There was no father listed on my birth certificate. Tim never knew I was his kid until Justin sent him the file in March. That’s why Tim wanted to help me come to the Land. He said he didn’t get the chance to give me a good start in life, so he wanted to make sure I had a fresh start here.”
Connor leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. “How do you feel about that?”
Every emotion from delight to rage had flowed through her heart during the past twelve hours. Since Tim was never told he had a daughter, she couldn’t hold her upbringing against him. He was remorseful and she could mourn for their lost lifetime together too. But she’d always wanted a father, and since he was already the closest person to her, it seemed like destiny.
“It’s complicated.” She picked at her boot laces to avoid Connor’s gaze. “I couldn’t dream up a better man than Tim to be my dad. He is already like a father to me, so in a way it feels natural. At the same time, I finally have a father and he’s out there alone and dying.”
“We’ll find him, Jeans.”
His nickname for her no longer irritated her. “Right. Absolutely. And knowing he is my dad makes me want to hurry to him even more.”
Connor let out a long breath. “This explains why you were extra moody today.”
She glanced at Connor out of the corner of her eye. He was grinning again.
“Does my situation amuse you?”
“Not at all. But your attitude does.”
“What attitude?”
He pointed his chin at Revel who was at the bow of the ship, coiling a chain. “Revel thought he upset you this morning. He beat himself up all day about it. You were snippy with him and you’d actually just received good news.”
She remembered trying to hurry to the house for breakfast so they could eat and leave the inn, but Revel had wanted to chat. “I was overwhelmed. Bad timing, that’s all.”
Connor stretched his long legs out along the deck planks. “Yeah well, try to be cool with the guy. He’s been through a lot too. We all have. You and I have more in common than you know.” He lowered his voice. “I grew up without a dad too, so I get it.”
She studied Connor’s profile. His military demeanor had once revolted her because of her past, but it didn’t anymore. He wasn’t like those men. That didn’t mean she completely trusted him, but she liked him enough now to joke with him. “So the hot-shot-pilot-turned-horse-riding-family-man didn’t have an ideal childhood, huh?”
“Oh, now my situation amuses you?”
“No.” She thought about it for a minute. Maybe some things were never distant
enough to joke about. “I just don’t see you as having any reason to complain. You have a great life here.”
“And you will too.” He pointed across the deck at Revel who was joining Levi and Everett near the stove. “It’s like I’m always telling the guys: don’t make things complicated or you’ll lose focus.” He turned his pointing finger to her. “You think like a warrior, Bailey. That’s why you’re here—not only on this journey to save your dad but here in the Land. You’re so close to getting what you came here for. Don’t give up now.”
* * *
Bailey sat on her bedroll in the dark corner between the ship’s sterncastle and back wall. Connor and the guys had gone below deck with the captain and his men hours ago. Only the pilot and a crewman remained on deck, and they were sitting at the wheel near the front of the ship.
After being with a group for days on end, being alone felt lonely. The more people she connected with, the more she wanted to be with them. Back when she was alone, she never felt lonely. Or perhaps she didn’t slow down long enough to feel it.
She powered on her compact flashlight to check the clock on the radio. Why didn’t such a high-tech device have a back-lit clock? Well, maybe a two-way wasn’t so high-tech for the twenty-first century, but the radio certainly felt futuristic after living in the Land for several weeks.
The clock said it was half past ten, and Tim hadn’t answered her calls all evening. She lifted her face to the dark sky, closed her eyes, and begged God to keep Tim alive until they found him. She pulled the pocket-sized New Testament out of her backpack and pointed her flashlight at the tiny print. As she read, a supernatural sense of peace calmed her heart, and the warmth of gratitude replaced her fear.
She thanked God for keeping Tim in her life, for letting her find out he was her father, and for bringing them to the Land. Connor was right when he said she had a chance for a good life here. And Tim had made this possible. No matter what happened, she would honor her dad by making the most of her new life in the Land.
When she opened her eyes, Revel stood in front of her holding a lantern at arm’s length. His riding coat was buttoned from waist to chin. He wore a wool cap and thick scarf and had a folded blanket tucked under one elbow. His low voice sounded sleepy. “You’re still awake.”
She almost jumped to her feet, happy for his company. She managed to keep her enthusiasm in check. “Ten-thirty isn’t really that late.”
“The sun has been down for hours. After a full day, you must be exhausted. And cold.”
“It isn’t that bad out here.” She patted the space beside her in the blanketed cubby she’d made between the side of the sterncastle and the ship’s back wall. “Care to join me?”
His eyes widened. “May I?”
“Be my guest.” She spoke as nonchalantly as possible as she moved over to give him room to sit with her on her bedroll. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Not knowing you were up here exposed to the elements.” He set his lantern on a plank near his feet and shook open his blanket, offering half to her. “Want under?”
She was tightly bundled with two layers of clothes, her coat and hat, plus her own quilt from the Colburns’ house. Another layer would simply be extra weight, but his thoughtfulness touched her. “Sure.”
He covered her with half of his blanket then leaned back against the wall in the same way she’d been reclining. “At least you’re out of the wind. It’s not too bad back here.”
“I told you so.” Though she wasn’t cold, she pulled his blanket up to her chin. It smelled like caramel and brown sugar. She hummed in delight. “Sybil gave this to you this morning, didn’t she?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
She pointed to the knit cap on her head. “It smells like the hat she gave me.”
He grinned. “Syb had the blanket in the kitchen for me when she was baking this morning. It must have absorbed the aromas of her famous breakfast cakes.”
“Her food is amazing.” A growing part of her was eager to return to the inn, but she didn’t want to say so to Revel seeing as how he struggled with the place. She changed the subject. “Not that Captain Arnold’s cook doesn’t make a fine stew, of course.”
He chuckled lightly. “Of course.”
When she’d traveled for martial arts competitions in high school, occasionally on the long road trip home, she would nestle against a teammate in the van. It wasn’t out of flirtation but a platonic intimacy formed in the battle. They understood each other.
Tonight, she felt the same connection to Revel.
She scooted closer to him, and he raised his arm for her to lean against his side. Neither said a word, nor needed to. It had been a long time since she’d been around someone close to her age who was comfortable being quiet. The warmth from his body made her forget the frigid air that surrounded them.
She scanned the darkness above the ship. The cloud cover blocked any hope of moonlight. Two large lanterns burned at the bow of the ship, but everything in front of the boat looked as black as the sky to Bailey. She was in the middle of a long, tiring trip, desperate to rescue Tim before it was too late, and unsure of what life held for her after this journey was over, yet she was content on a cold ship deck, snuggled up to the suspenders-wearing native who was quickly becoming her closest friend. “I’m sorry about this morning.”
Revel’s content voice was close to her ear. “I believe our friendship can withstand such moments.”
His words were perhaps the sweetest she’d ever heard. “So you forgive me?”
“Always.”
He didn’t ask for an explanation for her behavior earlier in the day, but this might be her last chance to talk to him alone before they found Tim. She laid her cheek against his shoulder. “Tim told me something kind of huge over the radio this morning, something that shocked me. I needed time to process it.”
His body moved gently with slow, rhythmic breaths. “What did he say?”
“There’s a good chance he’s my biological father.”
Revel didn’t speak, but the muscles in his shoulder stiffened.
She could almost hear the gears turning in his mind and decided to take the guesswork out of it for him. “There isn’t anyone else I would want for a father. It shocked me at first, but now I’m glad. Tim is the best.”
He rubbed her coat sleeve with his thumb. “Then I’m glad for you too. You deserve the best.”
His tenderness surprised her. It shouldn’t have, considering he’d treated her with gentle kindness ever since the dark moment Connor had told him to escort her away from the shore. Usually when any man touched her—whether tenderly or not—she moved away, assuming his desire was for her body and not her heart.
But nothing in her told her to pull away from Revel. She was safe with him. It wasn’t simply because he was from the Land and mannerly. There was more to him than old-world honor. And there was more to her when she was with him.
Chapter Seven
Bailey petted Gee’s velvety neck while Levi and Everett unbuckled the sling from beneath the horse’s barrel. Gee shuffled to the side when Levi signaled the captain to crank the winch and raise the empty sling back up to the ship’s deck. Bailey stroked the horse she was beginning to think of as her own. “I’m not sure which of us is happier to be off that ship.”
Gee nudged her with her white and pink nose.
“Right, girl. You are. I won’t pretend to know what it was like for you in the hold. Sorry you had to sleep down there.” She slid a curry comb out of one of the saddlebags piled on the rocks by Southpoint’s dock and gently brushed Gee. “We will find Tim soon, and then we can all go home together. When we get back to Good Springs, I’ll tell John you deserve a big bag of oats for your hard work.”
The mid-morning sun melted the frost on the ground along the coast as the group rode away from Southpoint, the last village before they reached the mountains. By afternoon, the sky cleared to the kind of crisp blue reserved for delightful autumn days
. Everyone had said once they made it to Southpoint the temperature would drop, but so far, Bailey felt the warmest she had in days.
Maybe it wasn’t just the weather.
She had a father and she had friends here in the Land. With a quick glance, she memorized the profile of each person in the group as they rode along the Land’s grassy southern coastline. This was how she wanted to remember them.
Connor rode in front of her, wearing a black flight jacket that matched his horse. He kept his shoulders squared and his chin up as if he took horseback riding as seriously as he took the Land’s security. The former jet jockey led the group with a confidence that was becoming easier for Bailey to believe. She could picture him being the overseer of Good Springs one day. Maybe even the church’s pastor. Not that she would blindly accept every word that came out of his mouth, but she could see how most people would.
Revel rode next to Connor and in front of Sophia. He’d shaved his whiskers when they were at the inn, and his brown scruff was already shadowing his jaw and neck. He held Blaze’s reins loosely in one hand, as relaxed in the saddle as he’d been sitting beside her on the ship’s deck last night.
He looked at her and she didn’t avert her eyes. Last night had solidified their friendship. She’d felt comfortable enough to fall asleep sitting beside him on the ship and had awoken at twilight with her head pressed against his chest. Thank goodness he was still asleep when she moved away.
During this whole journey, he frequently glanced back at her while they rode. At first, it annoyed her. She didn’t need any protection, but he seemed to take Tim’s circumstances personally, so she let it go. Now, she was grateful he was here with her—not as a protector but as a companion—while they advanced toward the narrow river where Tim said he’d floated into the Land from the ocean.
Beside her, Sophia rode a gray mare with a dark blond mane that matched the medical assistant’s puffy bun. With the weather being warm enough not to need a hat today, Sophia looked the same as she had in Lydia’s office, all demure and princess-like. When she met Bailey’s gaze and smiled, long dimples added a childlike cuteness that made Bailey want to protect her.
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