Nan Ryan by Kathleens Surrender Page A

me.” The blue eyes blazed and she flung the door open and ran out into the cold night.
    “Daniel,” Louis was shaking with wrath. “Hurry, you must go with her!”
    “Yes, suh, Mistah Beauregard, I go with that chile,” and he followed Kathleen down the steps without stopping to get a coat.
    “Why did you let her go, Louis?” Abigail was crying softly as her husband closed the heavy front doors.
    “There, there, dear. Don’t worry. Come back in by the fire,” he coaxed her.
    “But, Louis, what if …”
    “I’ve taken care of everything, I assure you. Dawson’s probably already gone, but even if he hasn’t, he’ll be gone by tomorrow and he won’t be marrying our daughter. If Kathleen finds him, he will turn her away and in a few weeks she’ll forget all about the scoundrel, so don’t worry your pretty head about it.” He kissed her and smiled, “Now, why don’t we go in and have our dinner. I’m quite hungry, aren’t you?”
    Kathleen sat in the back of the carriage, fear clutching her heart, her mind totally confused, tears streaming down her cheeks. “What is happening? Why is Dawson leaving? He loves me, I know he does. It’s a mistake, it can’t be true.” But the fear refused to leave and she knew something was very wrong.
    The carriage had hardly come to a stop on the wharf near the Diana Mine before Kathleen jumped down and ran for the gangplank. Sam heard the footsteps and came to investigate. “Miz Kathleen, what is you doin …?”
    “Sam, Sam,” she said, taking his big hand. “Where’s Dawson? Is he here?”
    Sam looked very grim and answered, “Miz Kathleen, he be here, but sompin be wrong with the cap’n. He be in terrible black mood and he shout at me, say we leaving tonight. He starts drinkin and he throw things and he cuss and he …”
    “Where is he, Sam? I must go to him.”
    “Oh, please, Miz Kathleen, I don’t think you better, he not be hisself, he be real mean. He might hurt you.”
    “Sam, is he in his cabin?”
    “Yes’um, but I don’t thinks you …”
    Kathleen dropped Sam’s hand and ran across the hurricane deck and down the steps to Dawson’s cabin. Hurriedly wiping tears from her eyes, she knocked loudly on the door.
    “Go away, Sam!” Dawson shouted from inside.
    Kathleen took a deep breath and pushed the door open. She stepped inside and closed the door, leaning back against it, breathing shallowly. There was one dim light aglow on the big desk and it cast an eerie pattern of shadows over the spacious room. Steamer trunks and suitcases were scattered around, some half open. Dawson sat behind his desk, his face in the shadows, his big hands on the desk, clutching a glass and a half empty bottle of whiskey. Kathleen looked at him for what seemed an eternity and slowly he leaned up to the desk and into the dim light. His face was hard and cold, his black hair disheveled and falling over his forehead. His white ruffled shirt was wrinkled and open to the waist, exposing his hard brown chest matted with thick black hair. He looked at her coldly and wearily rose from his chair. Dawson came around the desk and stood in front of it. He looked at her as though he had never seen her before.
    Finally, he spoke. “What do you want, Kathleen?” he said coldly.
    Kathleen took off her cape and threw it to the leather couch, then took one step forward and said, “What do I want ? I want to know what’s going on! Why are you doing this to me, Dawson?”
    “I was not aware I was doing anything to you, Kathleen. I’ve just been here in my cabin on my own boat. I’ve bothered no one.”
    “Dawson, what is wrong? Please tell me.” She was crying again. She came to him and put her hands up to the open white shirt. “Darling, what has happened? You must tell me.”
    “Nothing has happened; I just decided I’d like to get away, there’s no law against it, is there?”
    “Dawson, you’re not making sense. You love me, we’re going to be married. You