Mysterious Signal (15 page)

Caleb lowered his voice even more. “As soon as our special freight is on the next train, we’ll find your aunt.”

“We?” Libby asked. “You’re going with me to meet her?”

Caleb grinned. “You bet I’m going with you.”

“Caleb, that’s really nice of you.”

“Well, I’m not sure about that. No big hero here.” In spite of his concern about Jordan, Caleb sounded like his old self. “If I’m honest, I wouldn’t miss your meeting with your aunt for anything.”

To reach Quincy, an Illinois city along the Mississippi River, they needed to make a short trip to the next junction north, then change trains two more times.

“I wonder if your pa realizes how hard it is to get to Quincy from here,” Caleb said as freight handlers started to unload the barrels from Chicago.

“Well,” Libby said, “knowing Pa—”

Caleb finished for her. “There must be some special reason why he wants a longer stop in Quincy. Maybe it has something to do with Avery Turner.”

“Avery Turner?” Libby asked.

“Asa Turner’s brother.”

“Oh yes.” Libby’s voice was dipped in sugar. “The pastor in Denmark, Iowa.” Months ago Caleb had told Libby that she would never live up to what Asa Turner said. He believed that pastors coming to the frontier should marry women who were proud of wearing a jean dress. Now Libby was not only wearing jean cloth. She even wore overalls, instead of a jean cloth skirt.

But Caleb talked on. “Avery Turner lives on a farm north of Quincy. He puts barrels along the river. Runaway slaves swim across and hide in the barrels till it’s safe to take the straight road to the Turner farm.”

Caleb leaned back against the depot wall, but Libby knew he was seeing everything. When men transferred freight onto another train, Caleb watched every twist and turn of the barrels.

“There!” he said at last. “Our special delivery is all set.”

Peter stayed with Annika, as if she could protect him from anything. Caleb followed Libby onto the train from Chicago.

As Libby boarded the passenger car, she had a deep-down secret wish. With all her heart, soul, and being she hoped that Auntie Vi had missed the train. In one swoop that would take care of all Libby’s worries.

But as she led the way down the aisle, Libby saw her aunt sitting next to the window at the end of the car. The window was open, and Libby knew that was unusual in itself. No matter how hot it was, her aunt never traveled with the window open. She hated the black cloud that spewed cinders and dust from the engine into the passenger cars.

Having the window open now meant only one thing. Auntie Vi didn’t want any ripples in the glass to blur her view of each person boarding the train.

In the middle of the aisle Libby stopped. Feeling as though a cold hand grasped her throat, she knew.
Auntie saw me. She saw me and didn’t recognize me
.

Dread so deep that Libby could not move threatened to overwhelm her. A certainty filled her.
This will be even worse than I thought
.

Scared right down to her toes, Libby started to pray.
What is that verse I was going to remember?

Then Caleb caught up with Libby. When he looked beyond her, Libby knew that he, too, recognized her aunt. But Caleb only said, “Keep going, Libby. I’m right behind you.”

When Libby made a face, he warned her, “If you look like that—”

Behind them the aisle was starting to fill up. Libby had no
choice but to move on. As she came alongside her aunt, Libby stopped and cleared her throat.

“Auntie?” Libby asked weakly.

When her Aunt Vi did not turn from the window, Libby spoke again. “Auntie?”

Still Aunt Vi did not turn. From behind Libby, Caleb whispered, “Speak up. She won’t bite.”

Libby scowled. It was bad enough to have to face her aunt. She didn’t want Caleb pushing her too.

Just then Auntie Vi looked away from the window. With a puzzled frown she stared at Libby. “Young man, a passenger train filled with respectable people isn’t a place for begging.”

Libby gasped. “For begging?”

Filled with the horror of it, she whirled around, ready to run from the car. But Caleb blocked her way.

“Stand up to her,” Caleb whispered.

“Stand up to Auntie?” Libby whispered back. Her throat felt dry with even the thought of it.

But Caleb took Libby’s elbow and turned her around. As weak as she felt, Libby knew she couldn’t get out of this one. If she ran away now, Caleb would never let her live it down.

This time Libby forced herself to use her strongest voice. “Auntie, it’s me—Libby.”

As though coming from a far country, Aunt Vi focused her gaze on Libby. For a long minute Vi studied her face. Then her gaze traveled down to Libby’s dirty, wrinkled shirt, short overalls, and shoes with the tongues pulled out. Finally Aunt Vi’s gaze returned to her face again.

“Libby?” she asked, as though not believing her eyes. “Child! What have you done to yourself?”

In that moment Libby remembered every nightmare sentence her aunt had ever spoken.
“I just can’t seem to change Libby into what she should be,”
Aunt Vi had told Pa.
“She can’t do anything right!”

Now Aunt Vi lifted the glasses hanging on a chain around her neck. “Just as I thought,” she announced. “Not only are you wearing shocking clothes. They are dirty besides!”

“Yes, Auntie—” Libby began.

“Don’t ‘yes, Auntie’ me. I cannot imagine why you came to see me looking like this. Every day during four long years I taught you to be a proper lady. Look what your father has managed to do in five months!”

Angry now, Libby rushed to the aid of her father. “It’s not his fault! I’m the one who decided to dress like this. He doesn’t know—”

“He doesn’t
know
?” Horrified now, Aunt Vi’s face flushed with anger. “Do you mean to tell me that my brother-in-law, your father, your poor dead mother’s husband, doesn’t know you’re running around like this?”

“Auntie,” Libby blurted out. “I am trying to protect my friend!”

“Protect your friend?”

Libby swallowed hard.
Protect my friend from a man who escaped from jail
, she had planned to say. Just in time she remembered,
Pa will be glad for what I did. But if Auntie has even one hint
—Libby didn’t want to think about what would happen.

If Libby could have managed it, she would have disappeared forever. Forever would she run from the wrath of her aunt. Forever would she hide from the words she knew were coming.

“A proper young lady would never look the way you look!”

“Yes, Auntie,” Libby answered politely.

Trying to get as far from her aunt as possible, she stepped back.

“Ow!” Caleb exclaimed when Libby landed on his foot. Instantly Caleb clamped his mouth shut, as though not wanting to make things worse.

Suddenly Libby remembered. “Aunt Vi, Pa said I should find you and help you transfer to another train. We’re supposed to meet him in Quincy.”

With Caleb’s help, Libby led her aunt up the aisle. As they boarded the next train, Peter and Annika followed them.

To Libby’s relief her aunt chose a seat with other empty seats around it. As her aunt settled herself next to a window, Libby stood in the aisle. By now she remembered that a proper young lady always made introductions. She would begin.

“Auntie, I would like to have you meet my friends.”

Standing aside, Libby motioned to Caleb. In the heat of the August day, his blond hair hung down on his forehead. Streaks of sweat lined his face, but as far as Libby was concerned, he had never looked better.

“This is Caleb Whitney,” Libby said proudly. “Caleb is a cabin boy on the
Christina
.”

But Libby got no further.

“A friend?” Aunt Vi demanded. “A cabin boy is your friend?”

Libby stared at her. She had forgotten that Aunt Vi always insisted on choosing Libby’s friends. More often than not, those friends were dull and uninteresting—even stiff-acting with their desire to please Aunt Vi’s mysterious sense of who was worthy to be Libby’s friend.

Angry now, Libby straightened to her full height. “Yes, Auntie, Caleb is my friend. Caleb is Pa’s friend too. Pa says he would trust Caleb with his life.”

Libby turned. “Caleb, this is my aunt, Mrs. Alexander Thornton.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Caleb answered, even more politely than Libby.

Linking her arm with Peter’s, Libby drew him forward. Hopefully her aunt would at least be courteous to him.

“This is my friend Peter Christopherson,” Libby said. She refused to give even a hint that on their trip down the Mississippi Peter also worked on the boat.

Libby took the slate from Peter’s bag. “This is my aunt, Mrs. Thornton,” she wrote, though she had no doubt that Peter already knew.

When Peter gave his polite “How do you do?” Aunt Vi nodded back. For the first time in Libby’s memory, her aunt seemed to have run out of things to say.

Then Annika stepped forward. With her quick glance, Aunt Vi looked over the young woman from head to toe. Annika stood Aunt Vi’s gaze without flinching. Instead, she smiled.

“I’m Annika Berg,” she said when Libby’s tongue failed her. “I understand you are Libby’s aunt.”

As Aunt Vi daintily offered her hand, Libby knew that at last here was someone who could please her aunt. Gentle and warm, Annika was every bit the lady that Aunt Vi liked.

An empty seat faced the one Aunt Vi had chosen. Annika gracefully dropped down opposite Libby’s aunt. As though facing a coiled serpent, Libby sat down next to Annika. Caleb and Peter took a seat across the aisle.

As the train chugged out of the depot, Libby desperately tried to think what she could say to her aunt.

“Uncle Alex?” Libby asked. “How is he?”

That was enough for Aunt Vi. For the next twenty minutes she filled the air with news of Uncle Alex. His business had taken him to Europe, and Aunt Vi spoke proudly of his many accomplishments. But only one thought filled Libby’s mind.
Auntie isn’t lonesome for me. It’s Uncle Alex she’s missing
. Though Libby hadn’t wanted to see her aunt, it hurt to believe that she was just filling time until Uncle Alex returned.

The train ride across western Illinois to the river seemed endless. As though trying to protect Libby, Annika stayed next to her when they changed trains again. When they passed through Peoria, Aunt Vi asked Annika about her husband.

“My husband?” Annika asked.

Guessing what might be ahead, Libby dreaded her aunt’s answer.

“Surely a young woman your age is married.”

“My age?” Again Annika sounded polite, but Libby saw the sparks in her eyes. It was one thing for someone Libby’s age to make a mistake in Annika’s marital status. It was quite another for Aunt Vi to do so.

“If you are asking, I am twenty-six,” Annika said. Without giving Aunt Vi time to answer, Annika stood up and left for the women’s room.

“Twenty-six!” Vi sniffed as soon as Annika was out of hearing. “She must have a really terrible attitude if she’s that pretty and an old maid.”

This time Libby refused to answer. As she stared out the window, words went around and around in her mind, joining
the
clickety-clack
of the wheels.
An old maid, an old maid, an old maid
.

The words hurt Libby. Because Annika had chosen not to be married did not make her an old maid. Instead, she was someone very special with a full, interesting life. With her whole heart Libby longed for the endless ride to be over.

Each time they changed trains, Libby, Peter, and Annika kept Aunt Vi busy while Caleb saw to the transfer of Jordan’s barrel. At each stop Libby also looked for Dexter and his friend.

At first she felt relieved that she caught no sight of either. Then it worried her.
Dexter knows we need to return to the
Christina.
Has he gone ahead, knowing Jordan and Peter will come there?
With three hundred people on the
Christina
plus freight, it would be an easy matter for Dexter to slip on board and do his worst to Pa.

Near Quincy Annika left them again. As the train crossed fields north of the city, Libby watched from her window. “Oh look!” she exclaimed as they drew close to the edge of a high bluff. From there Libby could see for miles up and down the Mississippi River. The beauty of what she saw lifted her spirits.

Then her aunt asked, “Your father is meeting us here?”

Hot, tired, and miserable, Libby only nodded. Throughout the trip she had watched Aunt Vi, then Annika, then Aunt Vi again.
When I grow up, I know who I want to be like
, Libby thought.
It’s not hard to figure out
.

Aunt Vi looked down at Libby’s overalls one more time. “I’m warning you. I’m not going to let your father get by with having you act like this!”

Libby’s stomach flipped over. She had no doubt where this was headed. Twisting the cloth of Peter’s overalls between her
fingers, she stared at her hands without speaking.

But her aunt talked on. “If you’re ever going to turn out right, you need to live with a woman of quality like me.”

After learning how good it was to live with Pa, Libby couldn’t imagine anything worse. Deep inside, Libby felt like crying. As the tears started to blur her sight, she pushed them down. She was too proud to show anyone, let alone her aunt, how much she hurt.

When Libby finally looked up, she realized that Annika was standing in the aisle, listening. Knowing that the teacher had heard Aunt Vi embarrassed Libby even more. As if her life depended on it, she stared out the window.

As Annika sat down next to Libby, the engine slowed to a crawl to pass down a steep grade. Directly ahead, the Mississippi River stretched a mile wide. Coming into the thriving city of Quincy, the train passed between a limestone bluff and the river. Libby could only feel glad that the trip was finally over.

With a squeal of brakes and clanking of cars, the train came to a stop next to a wooden platform. As Caleb and Peter headed for the door, Aunt Vi gathered up her belongings and started after them. But Annika stayed in the seat next to Libby.

When Libby started to stand up, Annika stopped her. “Just a minute. I want to talk with you.”