“That’s not why we’re here. I have a teaching position, and you are getting married.”
Amanda fiddled with the clasp of her nearly empty bag. “I’m not so certain about that any longer.”
Pearl understood her friend’s jitters. Getting married to a man she’d never met must be terrifying. “I’m sure Garrett Decker will be even more charming and handsome than that man.”
“How can you know? We only have the advertisement.” Amanda slipped the newspaper clipping from her bag. After two weeks of agonized second-guessing, it was frayed and creased to the point of falling apart. “‘Widower with handsome inheritance seeks wife in booming town soon to rival Chicago. Well-furnished, comfortable house. Inquire at mercantile for Mr. Garrett Decker. Singapore, Michigan,’” she said. “It says nothing of his appearance.” Her hand trembled. “Or his temperament.”
Pearl squeezed her friend’s arm. “If he doesn’t suit, then we shall get along together. My wages ought to support two frugal women.” She gave Amanda an encouraging smile. “No one knows better how to stretch a penny.”
Amanda answered with a shake of her ebony curls. “You have always done much better than I.” She fingered the satin ribbons on her hat. “Is it wrong to be fond of pretty things?”
“Not for someone as lovely as you.”
Amanda lifted her violet eyes, which abruptly widened. “Don’t look now, but your gentleman has noticed you.”
“More likely you. After all, you are the pretty one.”
Amanda blushed. “But I am practically spoken for. At least as soon as we arrive in Singapore. This gentleman should be for you.”
“You know that I cannot marry. The terms of my teaching contract were quite specific on that point.”
“But it’s not fair.”
Pearl had thought that at first, but upon reflection she could understand their point. “They do not wish to hire a teacher only to lose her shortly afterward. It is no hardship for me to postpone any thoughts of marriage for a year. I have no prospects at present, and a true gentleman would wait as long as necessary. Even if someone should profess undying love, I will be too busy with the school to consider courting, least of all marriage.”
“I don’t know how you can dismiss romance so easily. If that fine-looking gentleman asked to get acquainted, you couldn’t possibly deny him.”
“I can, and I will.” Yet even as Pearl spoke, she could see her friend’s attention drawn down the railing.
“He’s looking the other way now. We must do something to attract his interest. Perhaps a stroll in his direction. You could inquire about the weather.”
Pearl groaned. “Absolutely not. He is already deep in conversation. It would not be polite to interrupt.”
“It’s always acceptable for a lady...oh, dear!” Her exclamation was accompanied by a tight grip on Pearl’s arm. “He’s walking away. You must do something, or you’ll lose him.”
“I am not chasing after a man.”
“If you won’t act, then I will.” She waved her fan briskly and exclaimed loudly, “The sun is too hot. I feel faint.”
“Stop this,” Pearl hissed.
Amanda clutched Pearl’s arm again. “It worked. He looked our way.” She raised her voice again. “I can’t seem to draw a breath.” She started to slump.
“If you faint, I’ll...I’ll...” Pearl couldn’t think of a thing she would do to the friend who’d grown up with her in the orphanage. They’d stayed close even after Amanda had been placed with a family, while Pearl stayed unclaimed. When Amanda’s fiancé jilted her, she turned to Pearl, who convinced her to answer the advertisement that would place Amanda in the very same town as Pearl’s schoolhouse. Now Amanda’s well-being fell on Pearl’s shoulders. But it did not give her friend license to play matchmaker.
“Mr. Decker might not like women who swoon,” Pearl pointed out.
“Mr. Decker? Mr. Garrett Decker?” A redhead in an emerald-green silk gown halted beside them. “I could not help but overhear, but I must warn you that that particular gentleman is already spoken for.”
“What?” Pearl and Amanda said at the same time.
After days on a cramped, hot train and spending all but a few of their coins on this last passage, Pearl’s plan for Amanda could not come to naught.
“It can’t be,” Amanda whispered, her complexion so pale that Pearl feared she was about to genuinely faint. “The advertisement is only two weeks old.”
Two weeks was plenty of time for a man to wed. However, this woman sailed on the same ship as them. If she was already married to him, why wasn’t she with her husband?
Pearl thrust back her shoulders, prepared to battle for her friend. “Then you are his wife?”
“Not yet.” The woman tossed her head, which was topped by a hat bursting with ribbon and feathers. “But I soon will be.”
Pearl could have kicked herself for never considering that other women might respond to the advertisement. “Have you corresponded with him?”
“There wasn’t an address to write him,” the redhead admitted, “but I intend to win his heart the moment we land in Singapore.” She assessed Pearl and finished with a tight smile.
Apparently she felt Pearl was no competition, which she wasn’t. Amanda, on the other hand, could surpass any woman in the virtues that counted most. Kind and gentle of spirit, Amanda was also skilled with the needle and an above average housekeeper. Her cooking might suffer from lack of instruction, but then what would a man living in such an outpost expect? Certainly not the finely dressed redhead standing before him, nor the mousy woman who poked her head into the small group.
“Are you talking about Mr. Decker?” the mouse squeaked. Her hands clutched a book so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Oh, dear. Not another. How many women aboard the Milwaukee were traveling to Singapore in answer to the same advertisement? At least three. Amanda had competition. Worse, the handsome gentleman had drawn closer and caught her gaze. Pearl swallowed the flutter in her stomach and tried to concentrate on the trouble at hand.
“How many could there be?” Amanda whispered, her voice shaking.
“It doesn’t matter if there are a hundred. Mr. Decker will choose the one who would make the best wife, and that is clearly—”
“A hundred!” Amanda paled. “There couldn’t possibly be a hundred.”
Why had Amanda seized on that small exaggeration?
“But I’ve placed all my hopes in him.” The mousy bookworm looked close to tears. “I hope he’s good and kind.”
Pearl felt Amanda tremble. Hugh Bellchamp had not been a kind man. Not only had he betrayed his engagement to Amanda, but he had also done so to elope with the daughter of the family that had taken in Amanda. His note, delivered the morning of the wedding, had spared no cruelty, citing her unknown parentage as the deciding factor. Amanda was not good enough to become a Bellchamp, not when the Chatsworth money was taken into account.
The redhead snorted. “I want a strong man, not some weakling who spends his time writing love poems.”
Pearl cringed, for Hugh had written Amanda dozens of poems during their courtship. She felt her friend sway. Amanda’s fan dropped from her hand and plopped into the water far below. “This is useless speculation, ladies. We won’t know the man’s character until we meet him.”
The ship turned just enough to cut off the breeze. The thick August air could make any woman perspire, but drops poured off Amanda’s forehead.