Braeland

Chapter 18. Riverman George goes for Gold

   They landed near the front of Rula's hut and saw immediately that something had gone dreadfully wrong because the door was blasted away.  Prudence was the first to run inside and exclaimed, after looking around, "There's no sign of him!"

They scoured the back of the hut and the surrounding bush but there was no trace that could be found there.  Walking with great trepidation they went down to the side of the river but, similarly, no evidence of Martin having been there could they see.  All of them wondered, who could have broken the door?  Priscilla?  Soldiers? Riverman George?  Had this happened after Martin set off on his quest or before?

"What can we do?" cried Prudence.

"I am afraid we have no choice but to hope for the best and head back as your father asked," said Rula.

"I have an idea," said Charlotte.  She said they could go by the shoreline and take the closest boat, go out on the water and row past Rivertown, close to shore but well out of immediate reach.  She was likely to know any of the residents who might be near the shoreline and she could hail them to ask for news.  If there were soldiers or if they saw her father she could row them fast enough away to where they could disembark and go in a circle to disappear.  She was the fastest at sculling in her village. 

"It is dangerous, nevertheless, and I should go myself and join you two back here if I run into problems," added Charlotte.

"Count me in.  I'm coming," said Prudence.

"Depending on who it is, you will need me to do the talking," Rula said, as she started off down the shoreline.  They had little difficulty in getting a boat even though it leaked and had a rotten smell about it.

Rivertown, with its sprawled collection of run-down shacks, scraggy trees and rotting piers, was a miserable sight even in the early morning sunlight.  No one seemed to be outside although they could hear some talking, a man cursing someone, perhaps his wife or child, and they could smell the smoke of wood stoves.  Charlotte rowed slowly, not wishing to draw attention from those onshore but still hoping to see an acquaintance. 

"Here we come now," Rula said quietly when they were nearly over to the other side of the village.

"What's that?" asked Prudence.

"She knows, Charlotte does.  We're just by her home," Rula answered.

Charlotte merely nodded and let the boat drift for a time before saying, "Home.  What a word that is."  Just then the door of the Riverman's shack creaked open and Anne came out with a water bucket.  She headed towards a well but had only gone a few steps when she looked out on the water, leaned down and shaded her eyes with her hands.  Charlotte made no sign.  Anne dropped the bucket and ran to the shore.  She signaled them to come nearer land. Charlotte moved the boat in closer.

"Come ashore!" shouted Anne.

"Why should we?  I have that little woman who you called 'witch' with me," answered Charlotte.

"Well then I will tell you there and you can feel guilty.  Father's dead."

"What!  How?"

"Drowned four days ago.  He fell out of the boat.  He'd be alive today if you were here Charlotte," Anne bawled.

Charlotte turned to look at Rula and Prudence.  Clearly the same thought was going through all their heads: Anne had betrayed her sister before and was not likely to be trusted this time.  Rula nodded.  Charlotte said to Prudence, "I want to go ashore to see my mother.  It may be dangerous.  I would understand if you want me to take you away from here before I go."  Prudence shook her head.

The Riverman's shack was as rickety inside as it looked outside but it was quite clean.  Charlotte's mother hugged her and cried.  Then she said, "He usually took to his drink after he came back from the river but this time he went out with three quarts down his hatch.  Anne was with him but he was just too wild.  He told her he saw something golden out there, maybe a ring on the hand of a drowned person.  Who knows how he got all those things out of the water.  But this time he was greedy, leaned out too far.  You couldn't have saved him, dear.  Take no mind of what your sister says contrary." 

"Come back to us, Charlie, your family needs you now," the mother added.

"Hhmmph, needed her before," Anne scoffed.

"Quiet you.  Didn't you hear your mother?" Rula said.

They all looked at Charlotte who was clearly deep in thought.  Her brow was wrinkled. At last she said, "How can we survive here?  Even with the little father brought in, there was not enough food on the table."

"We have to move on. At first I thought we could go to the country where I was raised.  My brother would give us work on his farm but then I learned he has been burned out. So, what's left is the city.  We may find work there in some humble capacity."

"You are going go to Ixoria?  Wouldn't that be dangerous for you?" asked Prudence.

"It certainly would.  Newcomers are questioned before they can enter the gates of the city.  If you tell them you come from Rivertown their suspicions will be raised because of strange happenings here, such as my disappearance and the suspects that soldiers let pass on the road.  You have seen patrols passing through here," Rula interceded, looking at Prudence who knew that Rula was thinking of the trek she had with her grandfather. 

"There have been soldiers.  Some of them are young and, when I admire their horses, they talk to me sometimes and smile," Anne said.

"My daughter insists on playing dangerous games.  But where are we to go?  Ixoria seems our only choice.  It is the only place now where women may get work," Mrs. George said.  

"I am not from here but you may have another option.  Would you like to go on a vacation?" Prudence asked. 

"A what?  I have never heard of such a word.  What does it mean?"

"It means a holiday."

"Never heard of that either."

"We can take you with us for a time, until things are better here, to a place where you will be safe and we can all be together," Prudence enthused.  

"But my sister . . ." interceded Charlotte.

"There you go Charlotte.  Keep the fun all to yourself and let little sister freeze and starve!" shouted Anne.

Charlotte ignored her.  She drew Prudence a short distance away and whispered in her ear, "What I meant was that Anne never learned the mindspeak when she was a girl.  My mother knows it and taught me but Anne was always distracted by too many other things.  If you get her to Earth, how will she come back here?  It is better that I stay here with my family instead."

"She can learn like the others.  Charlotte, we need you.  All of us see you as part of our family.  There is nothing wrong with having a few more members in the family," Prudence whispered back.  They talked longer until Charlotte nodded her head.  Then they came back to the other women.   

"This is how we go on a vacation.  We all join hands and think goodbye to Rivertown and hello to a new world that is very far away.  Now we turn in a circle," said Prudence.

"What fun!" exclaimed Anne.

"Shush little sister, and close your eyes" said Charlotte.

When they woke Jim was in the living room reading the morning paper and he immediately exclaimed before setting it down, "You're two hours late!" and then he saw that the room was now filled with people, two of which he did not know, and he began to think that an extension to the house was probably not going to suffice for the large family of which he was the nominal head