Page 48 of His Perfect Bride
She nodded gravely.
He had the strongest urge to pull her into his arms, hold her close, and simply embrace her. But he knew he couldn’t, not if he hoped to stay rational and level-headed.
She was quiet a moment before looking down the hallway past him. “Should we meet with the police and see if they’ve discovered any witnesses who saw her? They might have an idea of where the kidnapper took her.”
Where.Jackson looked at the charm dangling from the bracelet again.
Hope.
What if that was why Augusta had left the bracelet for them? Because she’d known the kidnapper was taking her to Hope which was on the mainland of British Columbia?
Was that it?
Maybe he was only imagining a connection. But it was worth exploring. “I have an idea of where she may have gone.”
“You do?” Sage lifted her beautiful wide eyes, and they practically pleaded with him to find Augusta.
“Hope is a little town up the Fraser River in the mountains.”
“Do you think that’s where her kidnapper took her?”
“It’s possible.” What if he was wrong? What if Augusta had left the bracelet as a gift for Sage and it wasn’t a clue?
“How far is Hope from here?”
“At least a day by steamboat.”
“Should we go look for her there?”
He wanted to say no, that he couldn’t do it, that it simply wasn’t possible for him. He hadn’t ventured up the river on the mainland since the accident. He hadn’t wanted to go back anyplace near the bridge, not until he had a solution to the engineering problem and could fix it.
Even as protest pulsed through his muscles, his love for Augusta pulsed harder. She was in trouble, and she’d possibly left the clue for them so that they would be able to help her. Although he wasn’t ready to return anywhere near the site of the accident, he had to do it for his sister’s sake.
With Sage watching him expectantly, he finally nodded. “Let us pack our bags, and we shall attempt to find a steamer that is leaving today.”
As it was Sunday, the task would be difficult, since most of the commerce was at a standstill on the day of rest. Perhaps he’d have to hire a captain to privately take them. If only Jonas was available for the job, but the young captain had probably already returned to Salt Spring Island.
Whatever the case, they would have to pray that they could rescue Augusta from danger before it was too late.
Sixteen
Sage couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible had happened to Augusta. Before leaving for Salt Spring Island, she’d known something was wrong. Why hadn’t she pushed for answers?
As she stood at the railing of the hurricane deck of their steamboat and let the evening breeze blow against her face, she hugged her cloak around her arms to ward off a chill that didn’t come from the wind.
Behind them in the west, the sun had already finished its descent, and now darkness was settling around her. After spending the day traveling up the Fraser River, she and Jackson would only make it to Centreville—not far enough, but the captain had informed them he would be stopping for the night and that they would continue to Hope in the morning.
She tried to quell her frustration that they hadn’t reached Hope today. But Jackson had warned her they might not since they’d gotten a late start leaving Victoria.
Jackson had done the best he could earlier in the day to find a steamboat captain who was available and didn’t already have other obligations. That task had been daunting, but the sizable payment Jackson offered had helped them secure passage on theWidower, a small but tidy steamboat whose captain claimed he’d made hundreds of trips up and down the Fraser River.
While waiting for the steamboat to be ready to leave, Jackson had investigated along the waterfront, trying to discover whether anyone had spotted Augusta yesterday. But he hadn’t found any information about her, and no one had seen a woman who matched her photograph. Without a definite sighting of Augusta, Jackson had questioned the wisdom of traveling all the way to Hope. But they hadn’t found any other clues, which left them with no other recourse but to visit Hope and pray she was there.
Finally, shortly after noon, she and Jackson, with their bags, had boarded theWidower. The trip across the Strait of Georgia and up the Fraser River had been uneventful, even peaceful. They’d spent most of the afternoon lounging in deck chairs, watching the scenery and talking.
They’d discussed every reason why Augusta was in trouble, and Sage had made a list of the possibilities, including unpaid debts, other financial problems, family enemies, a personal enemy, revenge, and greed.
Sage had even added the chance that the kidnapper had taken Augusta because he wanted a wife. In the colony where men outnumbered women, it was certainly an option, even though Jackson didn’t think so.
