hand clamp about her elbow. ‘And my only luggage is this valise. I won’t need anything stored.’
‘Now that I see him closer, the fellow does look like a charlatan.’
‘Oh, he is—and how much closer?’
Swiftly, he wrote out a ticket and slid it towards her. ‘I’ve got a couple of dollars in my pocket.’
‘You are too kind, sir.’ She would have kissed his cheek, but there were bars across the window. Instead, she pressed her lips to her fingertips, then reached past the barrier and touched them to his cheek. ‘Thank you.’
‘Hurry now,’ he urged. ‘I’ll tell him you are taking the Sea Minnow.’
In spinning about she noticed that his name was Fenwick Stewart. She tucked the name in her memory because, somehow, she would repay the kind gentleman ten times over.
Now, she need only board the ship without having her rejected suitor know it.
All of a sudden, a gust of cold wind hit her back. It blew her skirts about and propelled her forward. She tucked her small valise securely into the crook of her arm. It would not do to lose the few possessions she had left in this world.
She dared a glance over her shoulder. Bertrand was at the ticket window. With his eyes off her for an instant, she ducked behind a stack of wood crates and crouched into a shadow. From here it would be a quick dash up the gangplank.
Footsteps tapped rapidly on the dock, coming in her direction. All at once, a young girl rounded the corner of her hiding place and crouched down. The poor child was crying, her face buried in her knees.
‘Hello,’ Madeline said because she could hardly ignore her presence. ‘Are you hiding, too? This is a rather nice spot for it.’
‘Please don’t give me away, miss.’
‘I’ll try not to, but who are you hiding from?’
‘Papa.’
This was tricky business. She could not keep the child’s whereabouts a secret from her parent.
‘I see. I’m hiding from a fortune hunter, just until I can get on the Edwina.’
As she suspected, that bit of information caught the child’s attention. Hopefully the fact that they were both hiding would form a bond between them and give Madeline some indication of how to proceed with this turn of events.
‘I’m supposed to get on the ship, too.’
Madeline scooted closer. ‘We are both in a bit of a pickle, it seems. Why don’t you want to go with your father?’
She hadn’t said so—quite—but it seemed clear that she did not want to.
‘I do.’ She turned red-rimmed eyes up at her, dabbed her nose on her sleeve. ‘But Mama isn’t going to Liverpool and I want to stay here with her.’
That was understandable. Had Madeline been lucky enough to have a mother, she would have done anything to remain with her. While Grandfather had done a loving job of raising both her and her cousin, Clementine, she had always longed for her mother. It didn’t matter that she had no clear memory of her.
‘Why isn’t your mother going with you?’
‘There wasn’t enough money for her ticket. Papa is going to send for her once he starts his new job in London. But I want to stay with Mama.’
‘Clara Lee Adelbackmore!’ a man’s voice shouted.
‘Clara!’ a woman’s voice echoed, but it sounded worried rather than stern.
‘You must be Clara?’
‘Yes, miss.’
‘Your parents are frightened. They don’t know you are only feet away. Surely they must be fearing all manner of horrid things to have happened to you.’
The same as Grandfather must be fearing for her. Shame for what she had done to that wonderful man made Madeline want to weep right along with Clara.
It would have been right and good to send Grandfather a wire letting him know she was safe, but she was not quite sure where to send it. He was no longer in Los Angeles, she did know that. London was where he might be. She could only guess that Clementine had been forced to marry the Earl of Fencroft in Madeline’s place. As desperately as she needed Grandfather’s forgiveness, she needed her cousin’s, as well.
In this case, a wire would not do. The magnitude of her misdeed called for an apology in the flesh. Had the prodigal son sent a note to his father, well, it would not have been right.
‘I’ll come out of hiding after Papa sails with my brothers.’
‘I doubt they will go, not with you missing. You should go along with what your father and mother planned. They purchased a ticket for you. You must use it.’
‘I won’t go without Mama.’
Of course, they could all make the trip together. And Madeline had a perfectly valid ticket gripped in her fist.
She could give it to the girl’s mother. It would mean remaining in New York until she earned enough money for another fare. It might take a very long time since she hadn’t many skills and she would also need funds to live on.
She desperately needed this ticket and should not part with it. But standing by when a child and her mother were about to be separated and knowing she could prevent it—that was a bit too much guilt to carry.
Madeline’s heart was far too heavy with regret as it was.
‘Come along.’ She stood up and reached her hand down to Clara. ‘Your parents are growing quite frantic. In a moment it will be the police looking for you.’
She shook her head. Her hat slipped off her mop of dark-brown curls.
‘It’s all right,’ she said with a smile which would appear sincere even though Madeline felt like weeping. ‘Your mother can have my ticket.’
‘But the fortune hunter!’ She sprang to her feet. ‘Won’t he catch you?’
‘No.’ She straightened the girl’s hat, adjusted the ribbons under the small, trembling chin. ‘I’m a good bit smarter than he is.’
Rees Dalton stood beside the Captain of the Edwina, smelling like coal, soot and sweat while silently observing passengers coming aboard over the wide gangplank.
‘Is there anything more specific you can tell me about what would constitute lax behaviour in the fire room, Captain Collier?’ All activity aboard the ship he had recently purchased was of vital importance to him, but the furnace area was critical when it came to the safety of everyone on board. ‘Anything at all that you might have forgotten to mention?’
‘No, my lord.’ The Captain rocked back slightly
