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“You aren’t the sort of man who would enjoy the lovely music that my canary serenades us all with,” Mia said, frowning at Tiny. “She is a piece of heaven on earth. But someone like you doesn’t recognize goodness when you see it. You’re too full of spiteful meanness.”
She glanced down at her father, who had fallen asleep, then frowned at Tiny again. “As soon as we reach the next town, you’re history, Tiny,” she said smugly. “We’ll find someone who’ll be willing to help us get back to St. Louis without constant griping. It’s a city of opportunity. Everyone wants to experience it.”
“Oh, jist shut up,” Tiny growled out. “You’ll never be able to replace me, so just relax and enjoy my company.”
Mia visibly shuddered. She was so w
orn out and dispirited, and his spiteful tongue wasn’t helping one iota.
She was beginning to feel that they would never reach St. Louis while her father was still alive. It seemed so far away now that her father was ill.
She glanced down at him again. She felt tears burning at the corners of her eyes as she saw just how weak he suddenly seemed to be. She was afraid that he might die if she couldn’t get him some help, but she had no idea how far they were from the next town along the Rush River.
For now, finding a good resting place seemed the most important thing to do.
He was so pale.
And his breathing seemed so shallow.
Perhaps if she could get him on dry land, away from the constant rocking of the scow, he might be able to get enough rest that on the morrow he would feel as good as new.
But in her heart of hearts she doubted that. She had never seen him this sick before.
Now she had only Tiny to depend on. Thank heavens he had made no sexual overtures toward her, for had he done that, her father would have taken his last ounce of energy and shot Tiny, leaving them truly alone on the river.
But now that her father was so ill, Mia couldn’t help fearing for her safety. She planned to keep an eye on Tiny’s each and every movement once they settled down for the night on dry land.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the bottom of the river with the tip of her oar. They were close enough now for Tiny to jump off and pull the scow to shore, as her father had always done before he began having these spells. Tiny had been doing it now for the past week.
She looked over her shoulder at her father when the scow was finally secured against the embankment. Tiny had just finished tying up to a sturdy tree.
Her father was sound asleep. She hated to disturb him.
But she knew that he would be better off once he was on dry land and away from the constant movement of the scow. He would rest much more comfortably.
And she was sure that rest was the most important thing now for her father. She just wished she knew how far they were from a doctor.
She would not rest until she heard a physician say that her father wasn’t in any immediate danger, that all he needed was plenty of rest, that which he had not had since the journey back to St. Louis had begun.
She knelt down beside her father and eyed the abandoned fort, then looked over at Tiny. “Tiny, I think it’s best that you go and investigate the fort before we help Father there,” she said. “I don’t see any sign of life, but we should just make sure.”
“Probably only a coon or two makin’ their home there,” Tiny said over his shoulder as he began walking toward the fort.
He laughed throatily and went onward, soon disappearing behind the dilapidated walls.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked, awakening with a start. He was so used to the constant movement of the scow, that when it was stopped, he knew it even in his sleep. “Where are we?”
“Papa, we’re tied up now,” Mia murmured. She placed a gentle hand on his cheek and cringed at its cold wetness, the sort of perspiration that came only when one was ill.
“Tiny is inspecting the old fort that we’ve seen before,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure no one else is living there, although I doubt anyone is. I see no smoke, which means no one has a fire made to prepare food, and I hear no sounds coming from that direction.”
At that moment, Georgina suddenly broke into song again, breaking the stillness of only moments ago.
Mia looked quickly at her bird, for the first time wishing she would be quiet. She wanted to be able to hear if someone was living at the fort, or making camp nearby.
Mia knew that Indians lived somewhere along this stretch of the river, and she had no wish to encounter them.
She hadn’t caught sight of any Indians since she had seen the one who took her mother’s life with his bow and arrow. Since then she had seen only deer and other forest animals through the brush and trees.
