For the next six weeks, Rose continued her journey south, Tripper at her side. It was a dangerous journey under any circumstances, and even moreso for a woman alone, but she had Tripper to guard her, and her own knowledge of the wilderness and of ways to defend herself, and she arrived in Juneau unscathed.
The town hadn’t changed much in the past year. There were a few more buildings, a few more people, but it was still mostly the raw, edge-of-the-wilderness town that it had been when she and Robert had left the previous June.
It was late in June when she arrived, just past the summer solstice, and the days were long. Her fortunes were considerably better than when she had first arrived the year before, and she quickly found a place to stay, ignoring the stares of townspeople who wondered what a woman alone was doing there, dressed like a man and taking care of herself.
After she was rested, Rose found a store with a few women’s garments for sale and bought some civilized clothes. Most of the few garments she had taken with her had long since worn out, and the other items—the trousseau that Deborah had bought for her—were inappropriate to wear in public.
Women were still scarce, and more than one man stared at her as she walked along the streets. Rose paid them little attention. She wasn’t for sale and had no intention of encouraging them. By the end of the second day, she had booked passage in steerage on a ship heading for San Francisco. She had had to pay extra to bring Tripper along, but she wouldn’t leave the animal behind. He had been her only companion for a long time.
Three days later, Rose set sail towards San Francisco, her face turned south.