With Nan’s question, Bess suddenly realized that she had revealed all she knew without learning a thing. “Why, you double-dyed deceiver,” she said in a surprised tone, “I’ve told you everything I know, and you haven’t said a thing.”
Nan looked confused. “I couldn’t help it, Bess,” she confessed. “I had to know what had happened, and there seemed no other way of finding out. Now, let’s forget it all for the time being.”
“Just tell me one thing,” Bess begged, when she saw that Nan was not going to reveal all that she knew. “Do you know who the red-headed Scotchman is?”
Nan considered the question. “I’m not certain,” she said as though to herself.
“But you think—” Bess spoke quietly, hoping that Nan would finish her deliberations aloud. She was trying Nan’s own tactics now.
“That it is some distant member of my mother’s family,” Nan said slowly. “I saw the names and stateroom numbers, on a bulletin outside, of those who are disembarking at Glasgow. The man in cabin 846 is Robert Hugh Blake! ‘Hugh’ is an old family name on my mother’s side and ‘Blake’ is her maiden name.
“You remember the passenger list that was given us at the Captain’s dinner?”
Bess nodded her head. Hers was among the things she was saving for souvenirs.
“His name is on that, too. And it has his home listed as ‘Glasgow.’”
“You don’t know anything more about him. You’ve never heard your mother or anyone speak of him?” Bess followed up Nan’s revelation, hoping to hear more.