Free Cold April by Phyllis A. Humphrey Page B

you all a pleasant voyage.” Smiling broadly again, Palmer made a low bow to Beth. “I hope I shall be seeing you again soon, Miss Shallcross.”
    He blew a kiss toward Kathleen, turned and ambled off.
    Beth looked up at Richard, but Richard watched Palmer’s departure with a frown. One thought came instantly to her mind. Richard was jealous.
     

Chapter 8
     
    After Palmer left, Richard turned to Beth. “Now tell me about Kathleen. Where was she?”
    “ It’s as Mr. Palmer said. She apparently took an unexpected ride in the lift and then saw some children, so she joined them.”
    “ And then?”
    “ They went to the general room where Mr. Palmer was performing magic tricks.”
    Kathleen tugged at her father’s coat and looked up at him. “He does lots of funny tricks, and he can dance on wooden poles.”
    “ He’s both a magician and acrobat,” Beth explained, “and was wise enough to realize that Kathleen had come by mistake and to ask her to wait until he could find a first-class steward.”
    “ What a lucky thing.” Richard, apparently only then getting over his fright at her disappearance, smiled at Kathleen again. “I’ll have to reward him. Do you think five pounds ...?”
    Beth raised a hand. “I don’t think you ought to offer him money. He might take the gesture as an insult.”
    Richard paused a moment. “You may be right. After his kindness, I wouldn’t want to offend him.”
    After Richard closed the door to the corridor, Beth took Kathleen’s hand and led her to the sofa in the sitting room. The child, as if knowing she was about to be chastised, kept her head down and moved slowly to the place Beth pointed out.
    “ I’m sorry, Miss Beth.” She looked up. “I’m sorry, Pa-pa. I didn’t mean to do something wrong.”
    “ I know that.” Beth sat down on the sofa next to her. “You just made a mistake by leaving without telling your father.”
    Richard took a chair nearby and leaned toward his daughter. “Is Miss Beth right? You just got on the elevator without realizing it would take you somewhere else?”
    “ Yes, sir.”
    “ But you’d been on the elevator before. You knew that it went up or down to different places. Had you forgotten?”
    “ I thought it would go to the place where we got on and then come back.”
    “ Was Mr. Palmer right,” Beth asked, “and when it stopped you saw children and joined them?”
    “ Yes. I know you have to be invited before you can go with people, but a girl told me to come with them, so I did.” She looked at Beth and her voice rose in pitch. “There were lots of children. I couldn’t count them all, maybe twenty-leven.”
    Kathleen turned to her father next. “It was fun. We all went into this room where the man did magic tricks. He pulled a shilling out of my ear.” She laughed and touched her right ear.
    “ Didn’t you know you shouldn’t have gone off without telling me?” Richard asked.
    She hung her head again. “I didn’t think of that. I just wanted to find some children to play with.” She looked up at her father. “I was going to come right back. I knew the way.”
    “ Of course you did,” Beth said, “but you stayed too long and made your father and me worry.”
    “ I wasn’t losted.”
    Beth laughed. “A little bit lost.”
    “ But you must not do that again,” Richard said. “This is a very big ship. You might have thought you knew the way back, but you could have been mistaken. Even the stewards get lost sometimes, they tell me.”
    Kathleen laughed at that. “But I didn’t. If Miss Beth hadn’t found me, I’d have come back all by myself.”
    “ Mr. Palmer would have brought you back, but you can’t always count on others. There are over a thousand people on this ship, and some might not have been so helpful.”
    Kathleen squirmed and swung her legs. “I like Mr. Palmer. He’s very clever and kind. I like to see him do his tricks. He’s better than a Punch and Judy show.”
    “ Yes, he is,