If I Wait For You (2 page)

Sara shook her head wildly. “They
won’t,” she said through chattering teeth. “You didn’t hear those
people. They are convinced I am the one who set the fire and they
half believe I killed that young man. When I ran away, I sealed my
fate,” she said, clenching her fists upon her lap, fresh tears
coursing down her face. “I know it was stupid, but I was
frightened. They way they looked at me, it was as if they wanted to
kill me then and there.”

“
Sara, calm yourself. Our
neighbors know you. Certainly they don’t believe you killed our
parents,” he swallowed past his own grief, “…and another man. It’s
ridiculous. Anyone who knows you knows you are not capable of such
a deed.”

“
But they do. The crowd was
mad. If they had caught me…” She shuddered. “I don’t know what they
would have done,” she finished on an agonized whisper.

Zachary was clearly skeptical of the
seriousness of his sister’s position. “Sara, would it make you feel
better if I found out whether you are seriously suspected of the
crimes? I’m certain that calmer minds have taken over and that you
are no longer in danger of arrest.”

“
Perhaps you are right.
Last night seems like a nightmare. It doesn’t seem possible they
are dead. But I saw them, Zachary. I saw their bodies.” Sara buried
her face against his neck. Zachary sat next to her for a long
moment, one arm about her shaking shoulders, giving and taking
comfort.

When her tears subsided, she spoke,
measuring her words carefully. “Someone may be able to help. Last
night, I saw a man who looked like Nathan Wright walk by our house.
I called out his name, but he pretended not to see me though I’m
certain he did. He was with two other men. Something about the way
they were walking and looking around made me think they were up to
no good. I suppose I stupidly thought they had something to do with
that man’s murder, so I followed them.”

“
You didn’t.”

She nodded. “I did. I couldn’t
understand why Nathan would pretend not to know me, and you know
how Papa always fueled my imagination with those gory stories of
his. I thought I could follow them and tell the police corps my
suspicions. I lost them, though. And when I got back to our street,
I saw the fire. You know the rest. What am I going to
do?”

“
I’m going into town.
You’ll see, Sara. Our neighbors are good people. By now, they are
worried about you and have captured whoever did set that
fire.”

But Zachary instead found just the
opposite. Warrants had been issued for the arrest of Sara Dawes on
charges that she killed not only her parents but the young man
murdered near their home. In a small tavern, the murders were all
anyone could talk of—that and the five hundred dollar reward for
her capture. It was an outrageous sum and it seemed as if everyone
in town were hungry to get it. One look in her brother’s eyes when
he returned, and Sara knew the situation was far worse than even
she’d suspected.

“
You’re wanted for murder,”
he said, his voice tinged with disbelief. “My God, Sara. This seems
impossible. There’s even a bounty on your head.”

Sara’s eyes grew wide and she placed
loosely balled fists against her mouth. “What am I going to do?”
she repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“
First, we shall find
Nathan Wright and question him. Are you certain it was him you saw
walking by our house last night?”

Sara reluctantly shook her head. “I
cannot swear it, but I am fairly certain. Do you really think he
could have done such a thing? I like Nathan. He’s always been kind
to me.”

“
I don’t know. If he didn’t
do it, perhaps he saw something last night that can help. I’ll be
back,” Zachary said, and left again.

Sara’s eyes burned from exhaustion and
the unrelenting tears that continued to fall. She tried to drive
the image of the fire, of those sheet-shrouded bodies from her
mind, but sitting alone in Zachary’s barren little cabin with
nothing to look at but his tiny writing desk and bunk, she could
not still her thoughts. She lay down, curling into a ball, and
closed her eyes praying for the oblivion of sleep. It came,
wonderful nothingness, heavy and deep. She awoke, dragged from a
fathomless sleep, by her brother’s insistent prodding.

“
Nathan Wright is gone,” he
said, as she rubbed the sleep from her swollen eyes. “He sailed
this morning on the
Fortune
. There’s only one thing left
to do.”

Sara sat up feeling slightly
disoriented. “I’ll not turn myself in, Zachary,” she said, her hand
clutching his arm. “Do not ask it of me.”

“
No, Sara. I fear you would
not be treated fairly, not given what I’m seeing in town. I will
ask Captain Mitchell to assist us.”

Sara’s eyes grew wide, her
grasp on his arm tightening, her panic growing at the thought of
Zachary telling the
Julia’s
captain anything. “No, Zachary. He will turn me
in. He will feel bound to do so.”

“
He will not. He knows he
has a good and loyal mate in me, and he would never betray me. I am
certain of it.” He grabbed the hand that clutched his arm and
dragged her toward the door.

“
Zachary, no. What can he
do that you have not done?”

“
He can let you come with
us, Sara. We leave in three days and will be gone for at least
three years, and when we return, this frenzy for your blood will
have gone. Then we can find the real killers. I’ve thought this
out, Sara. It is the only thing to do. Trust me.”

Sara shook her head, her tangled hair
falling into her face. “Surely if I leave everyone will think me
guilty.”

“
Let them think what they
will, Sara,” he said heatedly. “At least you will be safe.” He put
a hand on each of her shoulders. “It is dangerous out there for
you, Sara. If you are found, I fear you will not be treated
fairly.”

Sara searched her brother’s
brown eyes and saw the truth of what he said. She hung her head in
defeat, no longer willing to fight the urge to run away. Her
brother was right. She must sail on the
Julia
when it departed in three
days.

“
Bring me to him,” Sara
whispered.

As her brother led her down the narrow
passage, she was painfully aware of her disheveled state. Her hair
was a tangled mess, her feet dirty and bare, her dress wrinkled and
smudged. The thought of being presented before West Mitchell in her
present state was humiliating. Captain Mitchell was one of the most
respected men in New Bedford, and the object of many a girl’s
dreams—including hers.

She was tall for a woman, off-putting
for many men who liked to feel strong and protective over their
wife, or so her mother had told her. Sara would be lucky to find a
man—any man. Certainly her dreams of marriage could not include
someone as grand as Captain Mitchell. It was absurd. Her mother had
caught her staring dreamily at the good captain not two years
before and had quickly set her straight about how completely
undesirable she would be to a paragon like the good captain. Over
the years, she’d driven thoughts of Captain Mitchell from her mind
when she’d read about his engagement, telling herself she was not
disappointed. Surely a man such as he would want someone more like
her mother, someone pretty and delicate, like the girl he would
marry, Elizabeth Smithers. The fact she’d harbored such thoughts
about a man as unattainable as West Mitchell was mortifying—even if
no one now knew but her.

Before they reached the door, Sara
pulled back.

“
Zachary, let me fix
myself. Perhaps Mr. Mitchell would be more willing to help if I
were more presentable.”

Zachary smiled at his younger sister.
“No, Sara. Mr. Mitchell has a soft heart, though he tries to hide
it. He will take but a single look at you and want to save you. It
can only go in your favor to look so…” and he took in her rumpled
state, “…very unpresentable.”

Sara threw him a skeptical glance, but
was too numbed by grief to argue, and she let Zachary lead her like
a child. Bright sunshine streamed through the dining room’s
skylights, forcing Sara to squint. Zachary paused before an
ornately carved door, giving his sister a fortifying smile before
knocking.

“
Enter.”

Sara’s breath caught at the sound of
the captain’s deep voice beckoning them. Sara entered just behind
Zachary, purposefully huddling behind her tall, lanky sibling. She
suddenly felt ashamed, small, and oddly meek, a lowly surf
presented before a king.

“
Sir, I’ve come to ask a
favor of you,” Zachary said, and Sara cringed at the humble tone of
her brother’s voice. No longer was he the forceful hero he’d been
in his own cabin.

The captain’s eyes flickered from his
new third mate to Sara standing half-hidden behind him, and he
seemed to brace himself against whatever it was Zachary was about
to ask. Sara looked at him through the curling tangle of her hair.
He sat behind a gleaming walnut table, its top scattered with
papers, looking impatient, almost surly, and Sara’s stomach
clenched. For all his handsome looks, West Mitchell was not someone
she wanted to be beholden to. As much as she admired him, a part of
her feared him, too. He seemed too stern, too tall, too dark,
too…everything. Wearing a white shirt under a plain gray waistcoat,
he leaned back in his chair, looking at his mate through half
closed eyes.

“
I believe the answer is
going to be ‘no’,” the captain said without a hint of a
smile.

West watched curiously as the girl put
a hand gently upon the mate’s shoulder as if giving him courage,
when clearly the girl needed the comforting hand, not his
mate.

“
My sister is in terrible
trouble,” Zachary said. “She must leave New Bedford immediately and
I am requesting, sir, that she be given permission to sail with us
Tuesday when we depart.”

“
Your sister is in
trouble,” West said.

“
Sir,” Zachary said, “She
has falsely been accused of murdering three people.”

West raised one eyebrow, an
expression of disbelief. “
Three
?”

“
Yes, sir. A young man and
my mother and father.”

West narrowed his eyes at the real
grief he saw in his mate’s eyes. “Your parents are
dead?”

Mr. Dawes swallowed. “Yes sir. Last
night in a fire. There is a bounty on my sister’s head and the
people in town are rabid to find her, sir. They are convinced she
is guilty, and I must say the evidence is damning. Sara was not in
the house at the time of the fire, even though it was quite late.
And the body of a young man was found in our very
alley.”

It seemed like some fantastical story,
but his mate was sincere. He’d never known the solid young man to
lie and thought him a level-headed lad, which was one reason he’d
made him his third mate. His eyes went from his sincere mate to the
disheveled young woman standing just behind him, her head
down.

“
Did you kill your parents
and this young man?”

Her head snapped up. “No, sir, I did
not.”

West looked at the two of them, more
amused than concerned by their earnest plea. It was impossible for
him to bring a woman on board who was not his wife. Surely at least
his mate understood this.

“
You know this is not
possible, Mr. Dawes. While I sympathize with your predicament, I am
quite certain your situation is not as bad as it seems at the
moment. Surely you can turn yourself into the police and give them
your story.”

His mate took a step forward. “You do
not understand the mood of the people, sir, else you would never
send her out alone to face her fate.”

“
Regardless of what I
believe, Mr. Dawes, you know it is impossible for me to have a
female on board this ship,” he said, exasperation entering his
tone.

“
Not if that female were
your wife.”

West’s gaze took in Sara’s shocked
expression as she looked at her brother and his bemusement
grew.

“
What did you say?” she
asked.

Zachary shrugged. “’Tis the only way,
Sara.”

“
And is impossible,” West
said flatly. “I’ll not have a wife aboard the
Julia
, and certainly not one who has
walked off the street and is unknown to me. And I do not think my
fiancée would approve.” The girl’s cheeks flamed red and her eyes
flashed.

“
She’s a good girl, sir,”
Zachary persisted.

“
Zachary,” she said, a plea
and a command. “No more.”

“
Mr. Dawes. Good day.” It
was a clear dismissal, one that neither ignored.

“
How could you propose such
a thing? Without even consulting me?” Sara said when they’d
returned to Zachary’s cabin. She would have paced about the room
angrily had there been enough room. Instead, Sara glared blindly
out the only porthole in the tiny cabin.

“
I knew you would have
objected,” Zachary said on a sigh. “I knew it was the only way to
keep you aboard the
Julia
. Honestly, Sara, I didn’t
think you’d find the idea that objectionable.”