“I don’t think I can live up to that,” Alex said as he got off his horse. Or that’s what he thought he said. What they heard was, “Ah dornt think Ah can bide up tae ’at,” so the two men just stared at him.
Cay dismounted and went to stand beside Alex. “What my brother meant to say is that he’s not sure he can live up to such an accolade as T.C. Connor has given him.” She put out her hand to shake. “I’m Cay. I—” As soon as she said the name, she halted. People usually thought her name was short for Kesia, a girl’s name.
Alex put his arm around her shoulders in a brotherly way. “It’s an abbreviation for Charles Albert . . .” He hesitated for a moment. “Yates.”
Cay gave him a sharp glance. She didn’t like being named for the man who’d called the sheriff on them. “And this is my brother . . .” She hesitated over his first name, but “Alex” was common enough. “Alex Yates.”
Obviously, Alex didn’t like the last name either, since he tightened his fingers on her shoulder, but she moved away from him. “All this belongs to Mr. Grady?”
“It does,” the older man said as he shook Cay’s hand. “I’m Elijah Payson, and everyone calls me Eli. And this young rascal is Tim Dawson. Where’s T.C.?”
“He fell and broke his leg,” Alex said. “He won’t be coming.” He spoke slowly as he tried to enunciate his words carefully so Eli could understand them.
“Mr. Grady won’t like that,” Eli said. “He wants us to go some places white people have never been before, and he wants it all recorded.”
“If we see plants that eat people, he’ll certainly want drawings of them,” Alex said.
Eli laughed. “I can tell you’ve heard some of T.C.’s yarns. If we do see any of those, we’ll have to throw young Tim in, so we need someone to draw a picture of him being eaten alive.”
Tim didn’t seem to like being the object of a joke. His face turned red with anger. “He’s smaller than me!” He nodded toward Cay.
“True enough,” Alex said, “but my brother isn’t going with us. He’s staying here while I’m away.” Alex turned back to Eli. “So show me what’s in the boxes.”
“Glad to,” Eli said, and the two of them walked away to start looking inside the crates.
Cay went down the pier toward the river and admired the beauty of it. When she was a child, she’d spent a lot of time sailing and rowing on the James River with her brothers. She hadn’t realized the expedition would be traveling by water, but that made sense. Over the last few days the roads had become more and more impenetrable, and what surrounded the settle
ment looked to be nothing but jungle.
“So you aren’t going with us?”
Turning, she saw the boy Tim. He was taller than she was, but younger, and he was so thin it was as though his body hadn’t caught up with his height. “No,” she said, smiling at him.
“Afraid, are you?”
“Why no, that’s not why I’m not going.”
“They have alligators. Ever hear of them?”
“Yes, I have.” She was still smiling, but his attitude was making it difficult. He was almost belligerent.
“Seen any?”
“No. If you’ll excuse me—”
He blocked her from leaving. “You gonna go cry to your big brother that I called you a scaredy cat?”
Cay drew herself up straight and stared at the boy. “I have no intention of mentioning you to my brother or to anyone else on this earth.” Her eyes let him know she didn’t consider him important enough to speak of.
“You think you won’t remember me?” he said, then in the flash of a second, he hit her hard on the shoulder.
Cay fell backward, tried to regain her balance, but couldn’t, and the next second she went into the river. She went down under the water, into the plants and rubbish people had thrown out. She saw several animal skulls as she fought her way up to the top. Alex was kneeling on the dock, his hand extended to pull her up, and she could tell that he was on the verge of jumping in after her. He was frowning deeply.
“What the bludy heel waur ye daein’?” His voice was angry and fearful. “Ah dornt hae enaw tae fash yerse abit withit ye drownin’?”
She answered him in the same dialect. “‘At worthless wee stumph gae me a stoatin skelp.”
“Did he noo?” Alex said, a smile twitching at the corners of his lips.