Taking the Reins by Dayle Campbell Gaetz Page A

early morning. Was it true then? Was it out there, waiting for her the very second she opened her eyes? Was her beautiful dream over and the nightmare of real life returned?
    Emma half opened one eye, no more than a crack, but the room was solid black around her. She opened both eyes wide and listened in the darkness for the terrifying wheeze of her mother’s breathing. Nothing. Not a sound but the distant rumble of a steam engine.
    She allowed herself to hope now, allowed her body to curl into the big, soft mattress. The fear in her belly eased, the quick pounding of her heart slowed to normal. But a stink of coal still hung in the air, and an icy draft from the window made her shiver. She felt around in the dark, found the heavy Hudson’s Bay blanket crumpled beside her on the bed, pulled it over her head and snuggled deep beneath it.
    Emma smiled in her dark cocoon because her dream was still alive. She was still here, in this brand new little city, safe in the Douglas family home, where there was always food enough for everyone, even a servant-girl such as herself. Wouldn’t she just love to lie here all morning, so deliciously warm now under her blanket? So content.
    So lazy! That annoying little voice piped up inside her head. Lie here all day and see if you don’t lose your job. Mrs. Douglas, kind as she is, would tell you to pack your things and be off. Could be she’d make you leave behind those dresses she altered to fit your tall, scrawny frame. Those few dresses Alice Douglas never did manage to smuggle out before she ran off and got herself married at seventeen.
    Lose this job and where will you go then?
    Emma stuck her head out from beneath the warm blanket. She would have no choice but to move in with Joe Bentley. Maybe Tall Joe really was her father, like he said, but that didn’t mean she had to move into his house. Emma knew all about fathers. Fathers made you follow a whole string of rules made only to suit their own selves. One mistake and they kicked you out the door and pretended they never did have a daughter at all.
    That’s what happened to her mam and would happen to her too if she didn’t watch out. Come spring, and all goes well, she still planned on going off with Tall Joe and his cousin to start that farm in British Columbia he was forever going on about. She told him she would, and that’s a fact. But she never did promise. If that Tall Joe started telling her what to do, she still might change her mind, and that’s for certain-sure. Beneath the blanket she touched her fingertips to her ring, felt the smooth roundness of it. Usually the ring brought comfort. Today it only made her angry.
    Emma tossed off the blanket and slid out of bed. The cold floor was a shock to her bare feet. A gust of icy wind blew through the wide open window and she hurried over to close it. She paused there, hands on the sash. High above the bare and twisted twigs of Garry oaks a million stars glittered in an ink-black sky. A fresh blast of frigid air chilled her face and arms.
    It was the stink that woke her up, the same thick, choking coal smell that filled every drop of air in Manchester. Not near so bad here, Emma thought. Here it was no more than a hint of coal dust on a clean, crisp breeze. The smell would be blowing this way from the harbour, with all the steamers anchored there. She slammed the window down and locked it tight.
    She felt around the dressing table, found her candle and lit it. Its pale glow chased all the shadows into dark corners of her attic bedroom. Emma dressed quickly by its light. So long as she kept her job with Governor and Mrs. Douglas, she would have a room of her own and never go hungry again.
    Emma wound her long, dark braids around the top of her head and pinned them in place. She paused to study her pale, narrow face in the tiny hand mirror. She would be fourteen years old next spring and didn’t need some father looking after her, as Tall