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As long as Mia was there to care for her, Georgina’s world was secure. But now? Oh, Lord, where was Georgina, and who…?
She looked quickly at Tiny and found him awake and gazing at her with a strange look of triumph.
“You…!” Mia cried, awakening her father with her outburst of anger. “Tiny! You did this. You carried the cage outside and opened the door. How did you get Georgina from it? I know she wouldn’t fly through that door, for the cage was a safe haven to her!”
She stomped over to where Tiny was sitting up on his blanket, his eyes squinting into Mia’s with a mischievous glint.
“How could you do this?” she cried, then slapped him hard on the face.
Tiny yelped and reached a hand to his face. He glared at Mia. “You little…” he began, but didn’t finish what he’d started to say. He knew better, for her father was now sitting up on his blanket, giving Tiny a cold stare.
“To hell with you both,” Tiny blurted out. He threw the blanket that he had slept under aside, and still fully clothed, rushed from the cabin.
Mia stared blankly at the open door, then the cage, and then at her father.
“I told you, Papa, that he was a horrible man, and now look at what he has done,” she sobbed. “My sweet Georgina. Surely she did not survive the night in the forest.”
“Darlin’, I’ll buy you another bird when we get back home,” Harry said. He groaned with the effort it took to get to his feet.
“There could never be a bird like Georgina,” Mia said, hurrying to his assistance when she saw that his knees almost buckled beneath him. “Papa, please lie back down. Rest while I fix us something to eat. You need to eat to keep your strength.”
Suddenly the air was split with the sound of Tiny’s yells.
“Did he say that the scow is missing?” her father asked, gripping Mia’s arm as he turned and gazed toward the open door. “Mia, did…I…hear right?”
“Oh, Papa, you did,” Mia cried. “You did. Please lie down and I’ll go and see about it.”
“Help me outside,” Harry said, his voice drawn. “Mia, help…me…outside.”
“Papa, please…” she softly pleaded.
“Mia, do as you are told,” Harry snapped in a tone that Mia was not used to hearing from her father.
She was afraid that this latest turn of events m
ight cause him to have another heart attack!
“Papa, please settle down,” Mia softly encouraged when she turned toward him and saw his face.
Earlier it had been ashen. Now she saw flushed cheeks and purplish, quivering lips.
“I’ve got to see for myself,” Harry said, a sudden sob catching in his throat. “That scow. It’s our only way home, Mia. And it’s been…everything to me. I’ll never forget our adventures on it. Your mother, ah, what memories we shared on that scow.”
“I know, Papa, but please don’t get any more upset than you already are when you see that the scow is gone,” Mia said, gently taking her father by the elbow and ushering him slowly to the door.
When they both stepped outside and went to the gate of the fort, there was no sign of the scow. They both gasped with horror at the same time.
“Someone came and took it,” Harry said dispiritedly.
He leaned on Mia, his full weight almost pulling her down to the ground. “Oh, Lord, Mia, what are we to do?” he asked, his voice full of despair.
Tiny came to them.
For the first time since Mia had known him, he seemed sympathetic…and afraid.
“What are we to do now?” he asked, gazing intently into Harry’s eyes. “We’re stranded. We’re damn stranded.”
“Tiny, go and stand beside the river. Flag down the first boat you see working its way up or down the river,” Harry said, his voice even weaker than moments earlier.
