Elizabeth placed her hand on my arm to stop my tapping. I looked into her serious face. “He will. And until he does, please don’t worry about me. We may care for each other, but I believe I’m honorable enough not to fall in love with a man who is betrothed to another. You’ve traveled across the world for him; he is aware of that and feels responsible for it.”
Several knots formed in my gut. She certainly was more honorable than me. I had to force the memory of kissing Mr. Ashby from my mind. I nodded and we both scooped silently for several minutes. A man came to stand behind us. “How is it looking, Eliza?” he asked in a deep, smooth voice.
“You’re the expert, Dan. What do you think?”
Dan came to the copper next to me, where we’d been pouring the thick syrup. He dipped his elbow in the hot liquid and I gasped. “You’ll burn yourself!” I exclaimed.
He looked at me with a laugh and took the syrup between two fingers, testing its thickness. He nodded. “I think it’s ready.” He motioned for two men to take the copper and pour it into a hogshead. He supervised them and when the task was done, he looked at me curiously. “Who’s this, Eliza?” He took a rag and wiped his fingers and elbow as he waited for an answer.
“This is Elsie Findlay. She’s engaged to Slate,” she introduced us. “Miss Findlay, this is Dan Daniels, the head boyler. He’s the most important man on the estate. Without him, we would never make any profit.”
Dan laughed. “It’s true, you’d all be doomed without me.”
Just then, a scream sounded near the machine. Dan burst into a run toward it.
Elizabeth dropped the ladle and touched my shoulder. “Come on,” she said. We joined the crowd gathered near the rollers and saw awoman lying on the floor, several men with machetes surrounding her.
“Did she get caught?” someone asked.
I looked at Elizabeth with wide eyes. “Do people get caught in that machine?”
She nodded. “It happens frequently in other mills, but is rare here.” She pushed through the group. “Dan, did they get her out fast enough?”
The boyler nodded and lifted the woman into his arms. “She’s unhurt. It was close, though.” He nodded to the men surrounding her. “Good work, men. You prevented another tragedy.”
A cheer sounded in the mill, celebrating her safety. Dan carried the woman outside. I looked at the men with the machetes and Elizabeth rejoined me. “Why are they carrying weapons?” I asked.
“As a safety measure. If someone gets a hand caught in the roller, they use their machetes to make sure a life is not lost.” She pointed to her wrist, suggesting the men would cut someone’s hand off.
“That's…awful.” I shivered at the visual. Thank goodness it hadn’t come to that today.
“As I said, it’s a dangerous place.”
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t believed her, but seeing the proof right in front of me made it real. The farm was not a utopia, no matter how much Mrs. Bowers had taken pains to make it so. I wondered how else one could make money here in order to escape such grim realities.
As we continued our work at the coppers, I started thinking about this journey I’d been on. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d be in a sugar mill, working alongside an amazing woman such as Elizabeth, who happened to be my rival in love. Never would I have expected to be trying to help my betrothed remember me, or that I’d be stricken with guilt after getting too close with his businesspartner…it could be a cautionary tale to keep children from running away from home.
“What are you thinking?” Elizabeth asked me.
“Just about the strangeness of life. I’m wondering how I got here from where I started. All of this is beyond anything I could’ve imagined.” I looked at her with a bewildered expression.
She laughed, then spoke wisely. “I was told once that one of two things are always certain to happen in life: nothing, or anything.”
Chapter 27
Ithadbeenalong day in the mill. Having to handle the syrup carefully for hours to avoid burns had made my back and arms ache. My worries had lessened, however, after speaking to Eliza—she asked me to call her so after our heart-to-heart. Despite the underlying tension in our relationship, I admitted that I’d love to be her friend. If not for Graham standing between us, we would be already.
Patrice had a bath ready for me when I arrived. She could always predict my needs better than I could. After getting clean, I dressed and went down for dinner. Everyone was in the same spot as yesterday, so I sat next to Mr. Ashby again.
“How did it go?” he asked, watching me expectantly. Seeing his blue eyes after a long day brought me a sense of comfort, along with another emotion I wasn’t expecting. I had missed him.
I glanced down the table at Graham’s empty seat. Eliza hadn’t arrived yet, either. My eyes met Mr. Ashby’s again. “It was strange, but productive.” I straightened my silverware as something to occupy my hands. “Did you have an enjoyable time bookkeeping?” I smiled to myself as I recalled the excitement he’d displayed on theKatarina.
“Indeed. It was most invigorating,” he said. His voice held a smile and I looked up to confirm he was grinning.
“How peculiar,” I commented, narrowing my eyes.
“I know, I’m strange.” He looked at me with mirth.
