Zoe examined Jane’s dear face, noting the pallor, sunken eyes, and sharp angles. Gone was the robust young woman Zoe had met the first day she’d started at the factory when she’d filled in for her mum in the cardroom.
Jane hadn’t questioned Zoe’s presence or given away her true identity and as a result had won Zoe’s gratitude. When Jane had quietly shown her each step of the carding process of combing and cleaning the cotton fibers, she’d won Zoe’s admiration. And when Jane had pretended not to notice Zoe’s tears when her mum had died, she’d won Zoe’s everlasting devotion. The overlooker hadn’t realized Zoe had replaced her mum until weeks later. By then she’d learned to do the job so efficiently that he’d kept her on.
Zoe swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. Jane’s body might be a shell of what it used to be, but her friend’s sweet spirit hadn’t changed.
“Don’t be thinking you can get rid of me so easily.” Zoe wrapped Jane’s rainbow scarf around her neck. Zoe had knitted the colorful creation during the voyage using cast-off yarn. If only she’d had more material to knit Jane a thick sweater. “I’ll be visiting you every chance I get.”
“Nah,” Jane said with a wavering smile, “you’ll be busy fightin’ away all the men who want you.”
Zoe forced a return smile. “I’ll be sure to save one for you.”
Jane nodded but then began coughing. She stumbled and would have fallen if Dr. Ash hadn’t caught her. Gently, he led her away while their chaperone, Mr. Reece, and his wife guided Dora, the other ill woman, toward starboard.
The lump lodged in Zoe’s throat again, and her mind flashed with images of her father leading Mum down the street to visit the dispensary. Her mum’s shoulders had been hunched with coughing. It was the last time Zoe had seen her alive.
Several of the other women patted Zoe’s arm or offered a kind word. But their eyes held a resignation that only made Zoe angry. Jane was going to be just fine. After everything they’d been through over the months of unemployment and then during the months at sea, Zoe would make certain Jane had the chance at having something good happen.
When the Grappler began to turn the last bend leading into James Bay, the captain ordered the women to go belowdecks to wait until Jane and Dora were taken away by a Royal Navy tender. Zoe supposed the captain wanted to give the appearance that the ill women had been kept separate from the rest. But the truth was, they’d all lived together in cramped third-class cabins for the duration of the trip. They’d already been exposed to the illness, and there was no changing that now.
The steamship’s engine finally silenced, and Zoe was surprised along with the other women to hear cheers and whistling.
“Are them the men a-waiting for us?” asked one of the women, her wide eyes revealing both excitement and fear.
“Heard Capt’n Verney saying there’s hundreds of fellas on the shore,” said another.
“All I need is one,” Zoe chimed in. “The right one.”
“Handsome?”
“Aye, a handsome fella and a good kisser.”
The women giggled at Zoe’s brash declaration.
“How you gonna tell if he’s a good kisser?”
“I’ll have to test him out.”
Her comment earned more laughter.
She grinned. “’Course, he’s gotta be rich. And willing to take me up into the mountains so I can find Zeke.”
“You planning to put up a sign with your requirements?” teased someone.
“I might,” she teased back. At nineteen, Zoe wasn’t the youngest woman in the group, but neither was she the oldest. With her long raven hair and bright green eyes, everyone had always said she looked just like her mum, who’d been considered one of the prettiest women in Manchester. Even wasting away on her deathbed, Mum had still been beautiful.
Zoe supposed that’s why Father had taken Mum’s death so hard. His wife had been his source of beauty amid the bleakness and hardships of life. Truthfully, she’d been the beauty for all of them, both in body and spirit. And when she’d gone, they’d lost the goodness that had been holding them together. Without her, their family had frayed into a thousand threads.
“You’ll find a handsome fella in no time,” said Kate from her spot next to Zoe on the bottom step of the deck as they waited to go above.
“You will too.” Zoe tugged the girl’s long blond braid, which earned her a smile. A year younger, Kate Millington had grown up with Zoe in the same neighborhood and had always been like a little sister. It was hard to believe the pretty young woman was old enough to take a husband.
“Too bad Jeremiah wasn’t richer and better looking,” Kate continued. “You could have married him, and then you wouldn’t have had to leave home.”
Kate’s older brother Jeremiah had been a good man, one of Zeke’s best friends. But Zoe had never paid him or any other man much heed. At first she’d been too busy working at the mill. Then after she’d been let go with all the other women, she’d filled her days taking care of Eve, her sister Meg’s babe, and trying to survive the hunger along with her father’s drunken rages.
“Time to go ashore!” came a call from above deck. Within minutes, the women congregated at the main railing, taking in the scene before them—the small but sprawling town of Victoria along the harbor with more of the thick forests of stately pines that seemed to cover everything that hadn’t been cleared to make room for the new colony.
Zoe’s gaze frantically searched the boats and ships that filled the busy harbor until she found a Royal Navy tender rowing away toward the east with two women inside, both with heads bent and shoulders slouched.
“Jane,” she called, even though her friend wouldn’t be able to hear her amid the clamor of the people lining the shore.
A dull ache throbbed in one of Zoe’s temples. She took a deep breath and started kneading the spot. She didn’t have time for a headache. Not today. Not when she had to find a way to get to the hospital and do her best to save her friend. She couldn’t lose Jane. Not when she’d already lost so much.
two
Abe Merivale wasn’t a blushing man, but a hot flush had worked its way up his body, into his neck, and all the way to the roots of his fair hair. He averted his attention away from Pete kissing his new bride and focused instead on the layered chocolate cake sitting atop the center worktable.
Little good it did to look away. Abe could still picture Pete’s hand splayed across Arabella’s lower back, crushing her body into his. And he could still hear the eager melding of their lips and their heavy breathing.
At a soft moan from one of them, a fresh dose of heat shot through Abe along with keen desire for Lizzy. How long had it been since he’d seen her?
He mentally tallied the years he’d been ministering in British Columbia, from 1860 to the present. Had he really been away from Lizzy for close to three years?
The time had gone quickly, and most oft he was too busy to think about Lizzy, much less physically desire her. But here. Now. With Pete and Arabella’s passion radiating through the bakeshop with more heat than the ovens, Abe tugged at his collar and tried not to think of how much he wanted Lizzy.