Page 2 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
The ocean breeze snatched at her hair immediately, and whirled her curls about her face. She turned to face the sun, and took a deep breath, celebrating her release from the murky soup that passed for air below deck. She looked up at the sails bulging with the wind, squinting against the brightness of sail and the deep blue of the sky.
“Thee is among the land of the living, eh?”
She turned around and curtsied to Captain Aaron Winslow.“Oh, yes, sir,”she replied, dimpling up nicely.“And I do apologize for my indiscretion at table two days ago.”She leaned forward with the familiarity of one addressing an adult friend since childhood.“And don’t tell Papa.”
Captain Winslow laughed and led her to the railing, where he rested his elbows, and gazed out at the water.“Now, now, Hannah. Thee knows I cannot tell a lie.”He grinned at her.“But what David Whittier doesn’t know will not hurthim.”
She smiled her gratitude at Captain Winslow, father of her dearestNantucketfriend, and looked at the water.“Where are we now?”she asked.“Are we close toCharleston?”
“We’re getting there,”he said, and turned back to squint up at the mainsails and bark an order to his first mate, who shouted something that sent two seamen into the riggings.“We’re close toChesapeake Bay. I’ll feel better when we’re around the Outer Banks."+0">”
“Pirates, CaptainWinslow?”Hannah teased.
“Very like, Hannah,”he replied, his voice serious.“If theMollydoesn’t mind her manners, she could be overtaken by a British man-o’-war, and I could find half my crew impressed.”He looked down into her eyes, and chucked her under the chin.“And then I would be soshorthandedI would have to send thee into the riggings to help us toCharleston!”
“I think that is perfectly beastly of the British,”she said indignantly.
He nodded.“Aye, lass. Someone forgot to tell them that we won the War forIndependence. I losttwoable-bodied seamen to the British on my last coasting voyage.”
He was silent then, gazing across the water. He looked back at her after a moment,and noticed the frown on her own face.“But never thee mind, Hannah Whittier! I do not mean to frighten thee. Two days more, and thee will be greeting thy brother Hosea.”He tugged at her curls.“And wearing thy bonnet again?”
She blushed.“The sun tempted me, Captain Winslow. Don’t....”
“... tell Papa!”he finished and they laughed together.
The noon meal, eaten below deck in the officers’mess, stayed safely in her stomach where it belonged. The pork was too salty for her complete satisfaction, but Captain Winslow assured her that at least the biscuit was not weevily yet.
“I could tell thee of voyages where the weevils turned our biscuit to powder,”he said, and then raised his quart mug of tea to his lips.
Hannah began some reply, what, she couldn’t remember, even seconds later. As she sat there with her mouth open to speak, thebosun’swhistle, urgent and shrill, sounded down the companionway. Captain Winslow slammed his mug of tea to the table and half rose to his feet as a cannon roared.
Her heart in her mouth, Hannah leaped to her feet. Already at the door, Captain Winslow turned back to her, even as he motioned to his first mate to follow.“Stay here, Hannah!”he ordered as he pounded along the companionway, the mate at his heels.
Hannah ran to theportholeand looked out. She could see nothing but ocean, beautiful and blue green. TheMollycontinued as before, serenely cutting through the water. Hannah lookeddown, expectingto find seawater rushing in from a hole below the waterline. There was nothing. And then she heard men running onto the deck.
Bother this, she thought to herself. She hurried into the companionway and climbed the ladder that led to the deck. She crouched there, not quite on deck, then sucked in her breath and covered her ears with her hands as a cannon roared again.
“Don’t think for a minute that I will not board you, you ignorant Yankee.”
The voice came from far away, shouted across the water as if through a speaking device. All was silent on deck, and then she heard Captain Winslow’s voice, sounding weary beyond his years and with an urgency that she could not mistake.“Back the sails, lads, smartly now.”
She ventured further onto the deck andseated herself on the grating of the cargo hatch, her eyes wide with wonder at the sight before her.
A ship bore down on theMolly Claridge,a ship with gunports open and cannon pointed at the little brig that was backing to a stop, the sails luffing overhead. As she watched, sailors on the other deck reloaded the deck gun, a carronade pointed directly at the brig. The acrid smell of powder sent a shiver down her back, as a man on the opposite quarterdeck raised his speaking trumpet again, this time directed at his own crew.
“Prepare to board!Ready with the grapples!”
Captain Winslow turned away in disgust, unable to bear the sight, as the sailors on the other vessel swung out with their grappling hooks and dug them into theMolly’srailing. Hannah tried to make herself small on the grating, but the captain did not order her below. Instead, he came across the deck and sat down beside her.
“Thee does not need to fear,”he said to her in a low voice as he watched the ships swing together, and then motioned his own crew down from the riggings.“Think of this as something to tell thy brother when we pull intoCharleston,”
“What is happening?”she asked.
“My dear, thee is about to see His Majesty’s Royal Navy impress my crew.”
Chapter Two
Captain Winslow gave her shoulder areassuring pat,then stood up and straightened his coat asthecaptain of the other vessel leaped gracefully onto the deck of theMolly Claridge,followed by other sailors and a lieutenant of Marines. She watched in dumbfounded amazement as other Marines in red coats climbed into the riggings of their own vessel and trained their muskets down onto the deck of theMolly,which bobbed below them in the water.
