Olive quickly gathers up her brother and flees.
“You’re right, Lee,” the Major says softly. “It was a thoughtless thing for me to say.”
I overreacted, and I’m fixing to apologize, but Jefferson says, “Once Hardwick leaves California, we can’t touch him. The minute he sets sail on the Argos, our chance to stop him is gone.”
“The auction is Tuesday,” the Major says. “How can we stop him before then?”
“I wish I knew.” I stand abruptly, gather my dirty dishes, and carry them to the washtub, where I stack them loudly.
Jefferson brings his dishes over. “Do you want to talk about it?” he whispers.
Guilt twinges in my chest. I’m being rude. “No, I want to think. But thank you.” I should scrape and wash my own dishes, but I leave them and flee down to the hold to see Peony.
It’s neat and tidy, with four separate stalls and space to store the wagon. The stalls have fresh straw, and somebody has mucked them out recently, so it smells familiar—like the clean barn my family always kept. The last time I set foot in that barn, I was hiding from Hiram, waiting for my chance to escape.
And once again, it only serves to remind me that this is not home. Not really. Not yet. No place can be home until we’re safe from Hardwick and people like him.
Peony snorts when she sees me, shuffling eagerly. I imagine she’s tired of being cooped up in here. I find a brush and groom her.
“Sorry I’m not taking you out for fresh air,” I say. “You deserve better. We all deserve better.” She nuzzles my hand for the treat I didn’t bring, so I spend extra time cleaning her coat, especially the little swirl of hair on her withers she likes brushed just so.
Thumps on the ramp signal someone stepping down into the hold, and I have the urge to hide, but within a split second I realize that hiding will not stop Hardwick or solve any of my problems.
Melancthon approaches with that peculiar rolling gait of his, like he’s compensating for waves that aren’t there anymore. He pauses when he sees me.
“You did a good job down here,” I tell him. “The horses seem as comfortable as can be expected.”
He nods. “Thank you. It’s been a long time since I was around any kind of creature that couldn’t swim.”
“Peony swims just fine. Most horses do.”
“Huh. Haven’t worked with horses since my canal-digging days. Would rather be on the water, though.”
“Weren’t you ever afraid?” I ask.
“Of horses?”
“No, of sinking, when you were sailing the ocean.” I touch the smooth, curved hull with my fingertips, thinking of the ship Hardwick will sail to New York. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he won’t make it that far. Which I recognize for a bit of meanness, considering all the other people aboard. “This doesn’t look like much to keep between you and the bottom of the sea.”
He grins, pounding the hull with his fist. “Those are three-inch planks, and the hull is double planked, so that’s six inches of solid oak between us and the water. We needed it, the one time we took her around Cape Horn.”
“So it’s hard to break the hull of a ship like this.”
He rubs the back of his neck thoughtfully. “Not if you drive it onto rocks, or get rammed by another ship, I suppose. But that takes a particular kind of bad luck. Although I once had the misfortune to be aboard a ship that capsized, so I figure I’ve used up my bad luck for a spell.”
“Capsized?”
“Another whaling ship, the Salem—got caught in swells in the North Atlantic. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but we only had half a hold full of cargo, and a new cargo master who didn’t know better, and the barrels broke loose in the waves. Shifted from one side to the other, before we could stop them, making the ship roll more with every wave until it rolled right over.”
I stare at him in horror. “I hope all your crewmates survived.”
“We got safely into the ship’s boats, not a soul lost. But the ship and all the cargo sank to the bottom of the ocean. Lost everything except the clothes on our backs.”
I rub Peony’s nose, and she nuzzles my face. I lost everything once, everything except this horse and Mama’s locket. “That sounds awful. I’m so glad you—”
“Lee?” A familiar female voice shouts down into the hold. Peony’s ears flick with recognition. “Lee?”
I drop the brush and run to answer. “Mary?”
Chapter Fourteen
My friend stands at the stable door, and even though she’s supposed to be back in Glory, taking care of the Worst Tavern, I’m so glad to see her. She’s wearing a printed wool challis dress, with beautiful patterns in swirling red and purple. I throw my arms around her and hug tight, before remembering she doesn’t much like to be hugged.
I step away sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m just really glad to see you.”
“I forgive you.”
“What are you doing here?”
“About a week after you left Glory, I missed you and decided to come to San Francisco to find you.”
I study her face. “That sounds like a bunch of hogwash.”
She frowns.
“Mary? What happened?”
She becomes fascinated by the bridle hanging beside Peony’s stall. “Nothing. I mean, I left before something could happen.”
“Mary! Tell me!”
Her frown deepens. “It wasn’t safe for me, all right? Once my friends left, everyone expected me to . . . be like I was before. Some of the men were . . . demanding. They just assumed that because I’m a girl from China, I’m in a certain line of work. So I left.”
“Oh. I see.” And I do. Mary was a prostitute before she joined up with us in Glory. At barely seventeen years old.
“This town is even bigger than when I was here last,” she says, but I won’t let her change the subject just yet.
“What about the Worst Tavern? Becky left you in charge.” She glares, and I hold up my hands in protest. “Not judging. Just asking.”
She sighs. “Old Tug and some of his Buckeyes are working the place in shifts—when they’re not working claims. They’re terrible cooks, but no worse than Becky.”
“And how is Tug? Wait . . . is he one of the fellows who—”
“No! He’s the best man in Glory, if you ask me. Kept an eye on me as best he could, but he couldn’t be there every waking moment. Even Wilhelm could only loom so much. But you and Becky and the Major—you’re the leaders in our town. And once you left . . . one of the Buckeyes’ claims was jumped. And a group came down from Rough and Ready trying to make trouble. Almost had our very own gunfight, but Tug talked them down. It’s just not the same without you all there.”
“So you set off for San Francisco. All on your own. Mary, that was dangerous! You could have—”