“You want a ride?” the old man asked as they passed a walnut tree that dropped nuts to the ground with every slight gust of wind.
Sapphire picked some nuts off the road and dropped them into her bag as she contemplated what her response should be. She didn’t know the man. How did she know she would be safe with him? But he did think she was a boy, and it was an open wagon. She could jump out of it if she had to. And though she could probably walk all the way to New York City, it was a long way, especially for Stowe and his short legs.
“I’d be much obliged,” she said.
He pulled back on the reins, speaking beneath his breath to the two dapple mares.
“Do you mind my dog?” she asked, scooping Stowe up into her arms.
“Nope. I like dogs. Got me two when my wife left me. Good riddance, I say.” He laughed at his own joke. “Dogs don’t put up a fuss when a man smokes a pipe in his own kitchen.”
Sapphire put Stowe on the buckboard seat and pulled herself up to sit beside him. “Do you want him in the back?” she asked.
The man looked at the dog and the dog stared back.
“His name is Stowe,” she explained.
“Nice to meet you, Stowe.” He took one hand off the reins to lift the dog’s paw. “Name’s Petrosky.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Sapphire gripped the rough side of the wagon as it jerked forward. “I’m…”
It wasn’t until that moment that she realized she needed to have a boy’s name. “Sam,” she said quickly.
“Nice to make your acquaintance, Sam.” He offered his hand.
She shook it. “And yours, Mr. Petrosky.”
His forehead wrinkled beneath the straw hat. “Nope. Not mister, just Petrosky.”
She nodded. “Petrosky.” She opened her bag. “Biscuit?” She held out one of the fresh ones she’d bought that morning. “I’ve got cheese, too, and apples and nuts.”
“Don’t mind if I do. And I know the perfect place to stop tonight. Best fishin’ around these parts.” He glanced at Sapphire. “You know how to fry a fish on an open fire, boy?”
“I can learn.”
Sapphire and Stowe traveled with Petrosky for the next day and a half. True to his word, they stayed the night in a secluded cove where the old man, who she learned was close to seventy, caught two fat fish, and she fried them in a pan he’d brought along. The next day, the countryside began to change, getting rockier, hillier, and she became more and more thankful that Petrosky had come along.
The old man was good company. He didn’t ask a lot of questions and seemed content to rattle on about people he knew, things he’d done in his lifetime, things he wished he’d done. The best thing about Petrosky was that he liked Stowe and the little hound liked him.
“I’ll almost be sorry to see you go when we reach the city,” Petrosky told Sapphire. The sun was beginning to set and the air had grown cooler. They were riding along a beautiful river he said was called the Hudson. “You sure the two you don’t want to go into the ladder-makin’ business with me?”
Sapphire laughed. “Thank you, but no. We got our hearts set on New York City.”
“And seein’ this aunt of yours,” Petrosky offered.
“Yes.” She smiled.
He was quiet for a minute, then looked at Sapphire from beneath the brim of his hat. “You got no aunt, do you?”
She didn’t answer.
“Run away from home, haven’t you?”
She wrapped an arm around Stowe, but still she said nothing.
“Eyesight’s bad, but it ain’t so bad that I can’t see you got rough hands. Your mama make you work hard? Woman’s work? Cleanin’, scrubbin’?” He cackled. “Was the same way with me, only I was younger than you first time I took off. It’s what young boys do.”
“No, I don’t have an aunt,” she said quietly.