Read Online Eutopia by David Nickle - Free Book Online Page B

fellow.”
    Jason looked. There was a moustachioed man in a black coat and a bowler hat standing very straight at the far end of the platform. He held an umbrella in one hand and a sign in the other, which had painted on it neatly “Eliada.”
    “Oh,” said Jason as Aunt Germaine waved.
    As the fellow drew closer, Jason saw that he had more umbrellas rolled up under his arm: four of them altogether. He juggled the sign into the crook of his arm, pulled out two umbrellas and handed one to Aunt Germaine and one to Jason. Then he tipped his hat. “Sam Green,” he said.
    Aunt Germaine introduced herself and Jason, at the same time as she expertly popped open the umbrella and swung it over her head. Jason watched to see how she’d done it, but she was too fast for him to see exactly, so he had to fiddle with his. He did not get far, though. Sam Green reached down and found the catch, and a second later Jason was dry under his own black dome, still not sure of the trick to it.
    “How soon may we be off?” asked Aunt Germaine.
    “Presently,” said Sam Green. “Mr. Harper’s new boat is waiting at dock. But I must first gather the rest of our party.”
    “The rest of our party?”
    Sam Green tipped his hat once more. “Please stay here, Ma’am. I shall return.” And he strode off toward the train.
    “So there’s a boat waiting for us? A new one?” said Jason. He set Aunt Germaine’s carpet bag down. “I thought it would be a barge. Maybe that is what it is and Mr. Green simply misstated.”
    Aunt Germaine smiled. “Mr. Harper is a wealthy man—becoming wealthier by the day. If he has a new boat, it will be a fine one. It was not so long ago that a trip to Eliada meant a long and hazardous march or a horseback ride through wilderness. Not now, though. It seems that Mr. Harper’s investments are paying off, and civilization draws northward.”
    “Who is Mr. Harper, anyhow? Aside from a rich man getting richer.”
    “Garrison Harper?” Aunt Germaine began. “Why—”
    “Why, he is my father.”
    Jason turned. He found himself staring into a smile that was all too familiar. The girl it belonged to curtsied, her own black umbrella tilting to one side and a wash of rainwater splashing off it.
    And that was when Jason Thistledown learned the thing he thought he never would.
    “I am Ruth Harper,” said the girl. “May I introduce my companion, Miss Louise Butler of Evanston, Illinois.” The other lady—a little taller, with darker hair, a longer forehead and thin, half-smiling lips—likewise curtsied. “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she said.
    Ruth Harper glanced behind her, where Sam Green was supervising two porters who were each hauling a large steamer trunk. “Mr. Green informs me that we will all be travelling together—” and she turned back to Jason, her smile fading and her eye catching his directly “—for a short while longer.”
    Jason nodded and blinked. Aunt Germaine smiled.
    “He is cross with us,” she continued. “Mr. Green is, I should say—because we dismissed his associate in Chicago. Vulgar man. He smelled so. I believe—” she leaned forward and whispered to Aunt Germaine: “—he drank .”
    “Ruth!” said Miss Butler.
    “Mr. Green will overcome it,” said Ruth. “We are after all here in one piece. Two pieces.” Then she turned and looked at Jason in a direct and discomforting way.
    “Well?” she said at length. “I believe, sir, that you have the advantage.”
    “Thank you, Miss Harper,” Jason managed at last. “But I don’t see it that way at all.”
    Ruth Harper’s laughter was the prettiest sound that Jason had ever heard. He did not know how he felt about having it directed his way, but he sure did like how it fell on his ears. So he grinned and joined in.
    “I am Germaine Frost,” said Aunt Germaine when they had quieted down. “This is my nephew.”
    “Jason Thistledown,” said Jason.
    “Really,” said Ruth. “ Thistledown. ”
    Her