Where the Trail Ends: American Tapestries (29 page)

She shook her head, trying to erase the pleasantness of her Christmas memories with Alex. She admired the man’s commitment to his promise to marry a woman in London, but the thought of Alex married to another made her heart sad. She had hoped...well, it didn’t matter what she’d hoped.

She enjoyed their times together when he would escort her and Micah to church. Doctor McLoughlin and the other officers liked to do things here with decorum. All the ladies were escorted to services by their husbands, and McLoughlin thought she and Micah required an escort as well.

But Doctor McLoughlin had left yesterday to travel for several
weeks, checking on the operations at Fort Colville. She doubted Alex would come today, and she didn’t fault him for it. The church service was conducted but thirty paces from her room. She hardly needed someone to take her there.

She adjusted the tie around Micah’s neck and smoothed back his hair. “You look like a gentleman,” she said.

He puffed out his chest. “Like Alex?”

She sighed. “Exactly.”

“You can call me Lord Micah Waldron.”

She laughed. “All right, Lord Waldron.”

“I like Alex,” he informed her and then grinned. “I think you should marry him.”

“I can’t, Micah. He’s marrying someone else.”

“But he hasn’t married her yet.”

“You wouldn’t want him to break his promise, would you?”

He stood straighter, eyeing her with seriousness. “Yes, I would.”

She shook his head. “No honorable man breaks a promise.”

“I still wish he’d marry you.”

Someone knocked on the door.

“Hush,” she whispered to Micah before she opened the door.

Even with Doctor McLoughlin gone, Alex had come for them. He stared at her for a moment and then dropped his gaze. She thought he might comment on her new dress, but he only held out his arm for her. In his other arm was some sort of package.

No matter what Micah said, no matter how Madame McLoughlin hinted, Samantha had refused to entertain thoughts about a marriage to Lord Alexander Clarke. But as she took his arm this morning, she couldn’t seem to help herself from thinking about what it would be like to marry such a man.

There was no one else at the fort quite like him, with his strength of character and his confidence. He may not be able to teach children,
but his men followed him around like Micah did, as if he were the king of England. Everyone at the fort respected him and his leadership, and they even seemed to respect his decision to wait so many years to marry a lady back in London.

Perhaps one day another gentleman, a man like Alex, would arrive from the United States or even from Great Britain. A man who wasn’t married or engaged. Until then, Samantha would do what she’d come to love—teach the woman and children at Fort Vancouver how to speak and read English. Until she left for the Willamette, that is.

Her stomach clenched with a mixture of excitement and anxiety at the thought of leaving the fort. When the ship arrived from London, everything would change again.

She closed the door behind Micah, and the three of them stepped toward the dining room and the low din of voices traveling down the hall.

Micah rushed ahead of them, but Alex stopped in the hallway.

“I have something for you,” he said.

She eyed the brown paper package in his hand. “What is it?”

He held out the package. “I thought you might enjoy this.”

She carefully tore back the paper and found a copy of
The Pilgrim’s Progress
. She looked up at him, surprised. “Where did you get this?”

“I brought it with me from London,” he paused. “The night I—the night you arrived at the fort, you spoke about the Celestial City. I thought you might like it.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she tried to blink them back. “I do.”

He stepped forward, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate, immobilized first by shock and then by gratefulness for his gift. He had no idea what it meant to her.

He took her elbow as she regained her footing and then guided her quietly into the dining hall. She followed Alex toward a chair and sat between him and Micah, the gift clutched in her lap.

She didn’t want to marry any other man. She wanted this man.

She sang the first hymn softly, Alex’s voice strong beside her. Then he stood to read from the text in Philippians since Doctor McLoughlin was gone.

“‘Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’”

During the past year she had been hungry; she had been weak. She had suffered need, and yet God had provided for her. He’d strengthened her.

As the winter turned into spring, she needed His strength even more to say good-bye to the man that she knew in her heart she loved.

She brushed her fingers over the gift he’d given her. How could she possibly say good-bye to him?

The front door of the house banged open, and she heard footsteps pounding across the entryway. Everyone turned and looked as a messenger bolted into the room.

Alex scowled at the interruption. “What is it?”

“A courier has arrived, sir.”

He didn’t move. “What did he say?”

“The
Columbia
is in Baker Bay.”

Several of the men around them stood, but Alex sank to his seat instead.

She leaned over, whispering to him, “What’s the
Columbia
?”

His voice sounded hard. “The boat from England.”

Her heart fell. It was the boat that had come to take Alex home.

Alex wasn’t on the ship yet, but as he stood on the wharf, his stomach rolled.

His heart belonged in this wilderness, not in London.

And his heart belonged to a woman living here as well.

His mind wandered back to Miss Waldron’s light touch on his arm during church, of her inquiry about the
Columbia
. He’d seen the sorrow in her eyes—the same sorrow he’d felt at the thought of leaving this district, at the thought of leaving her and Micah.

He had learned in this wilderness how to be content, as the Scripture from Philippians directed, when he was abased and when he abounded. He had learned to be content up until that day on the river when he lifted Micah from the water and carried his sister to the fort.

Now he must learn to be content with or without Samantha Waldron. He desperately needed God’s peace, the peace that passeth all understanding.

Rain drizzled over his hat this afternoon, streaming down his cloak, as he waited on the landing with the other officers. He had to stop himself from entertaining thoughts about Miss Waldron. She was an American. She was leaving for the Willamette soon.

She was not the woman he had promised to marry.

The
Columbia
had been stuck out at Baker Bay for almost a week now, at the mouth of the Columbia River, but the waters had calmed enough for them to travel upstream. Another courier had arrived by canoe this morning to say that the ship would finally arrive at Fort Vancouver today.

Rain continued to soak his hat and cloak, but he stood tall with the rest of the men. Officers and laborers alike had toiled hard all week, cleaning and baling the remaining pelts. They had prepared 185 bales for this trip, each one weighing about 300 pounds. The total weight was 54,000—not as much to transport back as in previous
years, but still a respectable amount. Once his uncle understood the increasing difficulty of finding and trapping animals in this district, he would be pleased with their harvest.

Alex knew he should care more about what the shortage of animals meant for the future of Hudson’s Bay Company, but at this moment, all he could think about was the fact that he was leaving this beautiful country...and a beautiful woman.

Grosvenor Square would be his home now, Judith his wife.

For the rest of his life.

The years ahead would be planned out for him in the precise way of every true gentleman. In the Columbia District, life was unpredictable and messy, but in London, there would be little unpredictability. After four years in the wilderness, he should be glad of it, but the truth was, he would miss being here more than he ever imagined.

A weathered mass of sails appeared around the bend, and the crowd of men around Alex cheered at the sight of
Columbia
. The ship sailed toward them, and the sailors waved as she anchored by the landing.

A door opened, and the gangplank stretched between the wharf and boat. A dozen men poured out of the ship, many of them pale and thin. One of them knelt and kissed the wooden planks on the landing. Alex scanned the men as he greeted them, wondering if one of these was the new schoolteacher.

The clerk beside Alex gasped, and he turned to see the profile of a woman in the doorway, her blond hair a wiry mess. At first, Alex thought one of the passengers—perhaps the new schoolteacher—had brought his wife.

His mouth dropped open.

This wasn’t just any Englishwoman.

Lady Judith Heggs had arrived at Fort Vancouver.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Samantha turned the page of her book, seeing words on the page but not reading the story. She thought of Alex’s face when he heard the news of the
Columbia
’s arrival. Instead of excitement, she’d seen disappointment.

Perhaps he didn’t want to go home. Perhaps he felt as if he didn’t have a choice. Perhaps a letter might arrive on this ship with news that his betrothed had married another. She hoped beyond hope that it meant he wouldn’t be on the ship when it left.

Sighing, she turned another page.

Just because her heart longed for Alex didn’t mean that his longed for her. The proposals from the other men had dwindled with her rejections, but a few of them still persisted in asking for her hand. She didn’t want to marry any of the other men. She wanted Alex.

The ship was coming today; the bales of fur were ready to transport. Madame said it would take only three days at the most for the men to load them. Soon Samantha would have to say good-bye.

Her stomach turned.

She glanced out the window of the parlor and saw Alex walking toward the house alongside three drenched gentlewomen and a gentleman.

Had the new teacher brought a wife? And who were the other two ladies?

Samantha closed her book and smoothed her skirt. The women
would certainly want a bath and a good meal after their long journey. Perhaps she could keep herself busy by helping Cook.

The door opened, and Micah stood to his feet, scattering the animals from his Noah’s Ark collection around him.

Alex’s gaze found hers, and she’d never seen such a distraught look on his face. He looked lost, as the boy long ago must have felt when his mother died. She wished she could rescue him this time.

She glanced at the ladies and gentlemen with concern and then looked back at him.

He took a step toward her. “Miss Waldron, I would like to introduce you to the woman I’m to marry, Lady Judith Heggs.”

Samantha opened her mouth to respond, but the shock seemed to paralyze her. No words came out.

Micah reached for her hand. “But my sister is supposed to—”

“Micah,” she said, stopping him, “will you please fetch Madame McLoughlin?”

He groaned but left the room without another word.

Alex’s future wife was no longer waiting for him in London. Nor had she changed her mind. She was here, right in this room, coming for the man she would marry. And even though she was soaked, she was still quite beautiful in her bright blue day gown with its pointed waist and bell-shaped skirt molded over layers of petticoats. Her blond hair hung drenched over her narrow shoulders, but her skin was a smooth ivory, and her blue eyes matched her dress.

Samantha glanced down at her plain burgundy dress and wished she could hide in her room. There was no comparison between her, an American schoolteacher with a small store credit to her name, and this wealthy English lady, the picture of nobility and fashion.

“It’s nice to meet you, Lady Judith,” Samantha managed, bending her knee in what she hoped was an acceptable curtsy.

The woman nodded, shivering.

The older gentleman beside Lady Judith held his top hat in his hands, and the white-haired woman next to him wore a brown cape over her gray dress.

Alex motioned them forward. “This is Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby, and his wife, Lady Stanley. They are friends of my aunt and uncle, and they have graciously escorted Lady Judith here.”

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she replied, hoping she had responded like a lady.

“And this is Miriam, their ladies’ maid.”

Samantha greeted the maid before her gaze found Alex. He glanced over his shoulder as if to see whether there was anyone else he was supposed to introduce.

“Would you kindly guide us to the bath?” Lady Stanley asked.

Samantha nodded, stepping away. She would do just about anything to get out of this room. “Let me draw baths for all of you in the washhouse.”