Page 20 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
Hannah smiled and tapped her biscuit on the table.“As to that, inNantucketMama tells us of her day, and Papa usually complains about the high price of everything.”
Lease laughed.“I like that,”he said, and then went back to eating.
“What did you talk about at table, Captain?”should/span>she asked when the surgeon seemed no more forthcoming.
The captain rested his elbow on the table.“I almost don’t remember. I was ten when I went to sea, after all. I suppose my mother asked about my lessons, when she was there.”
“And your father?”she prompted.
“He was seldom there, either,”was the captain’s short reply. He addressed his attention to the salt beef again.
How sad, she thought, remembering the lively conversations around theWhittiertable.“We argued politics, made fun of our neighbors, and Papa generally wished James Madison to the devil. Papa is a Federalist.”
The captain laughed and pushed away his plate.“Do you care about politics, my dear Lady Amber?”
“I think it is the duty of all Americans,”she replied, taking another bite of the biscuit and wondering at his endearment.
“Even those females who don’t vote?”he asked, twinkling his pale eyes in her direction.
She entered into his banter with no qualms.“Especially so, sir. Mama insists that someday Iwillbe quite influential in helping some man casthisballot!”
The captain nodded.“Idon’t doubt that for a minute, Miss Whittier. How is it that you have escaped parson’s mousetrap thus far?”
“Sir, have a heart! I am just seventeen!”
The captain winced.“I had thought you older,”he said, and poured another, deeper glass ofMadeira.“What, then, was a tender Quaker lass of seventeen doing traveling unescorted toCharleston? Excuse me if I am nosy, but we don’t get much good gossip on ship,and I don’t care to discuss President Madison myself, although my political leanings are Whiggish.”
She smiled and held out her glass. He paused a moment, then poured theMadeira.“You’re too young for very much of this,”he warned.
Shedrank. “That’s good.”
“It should be. We picked that up from a Spanish coasting sloop out ofJamaica,didn’t we Lease?”
The surgeon nodded.“Really, Daniel, this lady will think we are little better than pirates.”
“You don’t want to know what Ithinkof you, sir!”she said, regretting her words the moment she said them, but forced into honesty by her nature.
“No, I suppose we do not,”the captain murmured.“But for the sake of improving our dinner table manners, dotellus why you were bound forCharleston.”
She told them of Hosea and his bride and theexpectedbaby.“Which I am sure is born by now. I would like to havebeenthere to help out.”
Spark shuddered.“Children are a nuisance, Miss Whittier. I am grateful that to my knowledge, ave none. Always mewling and puking, I wonder that anyone tolerates them.”
Hannah thought of her list and smiled to herself as she crossed him off it yet again.“Perhaps if you had your own, they would not seem so troublesome.”She sighed.“And I suppose that was my other reason forCharleston. Papa and Hosea mean to find me a husband; someone steady with sufficient income.”
Spoken like that, it sounded so bald. She stared into theMadeira. Perhaps it is good to lay one’s cards on the table, she thought. It wouldbehard to do otherwise withpresent company.
“Is that whata woman wants?”Spark asked, leaning forward with both elbows on the table now, his eyes intense.“Sufficient income and a male—any male—as long as he breathes?”
She thought of her list again, weighed the probability of ever seeing this man again once they reachedPortsmouth, and sailed ahead fearlessly.“Do you know, Captain, I once assembled a list of the qualities I wanted in a husband?”She blushed when he chuckled.“Silly, wasn’t I?”
“That would depend on what the list contained. You don’tstrikeme as an empty-headed chit.Irritating, I own, but not slow of wit, Lady Amber.”
As she looked into his disconcerting eyes, Hannah wished he would not call her that.“Onething was that he love me enough to place my welfare before his own.”
surgeon uttered a sudden exclamation, pushed his chair away from the table, and left theroomwithout further comment. Hannah felt her cheeks burn,and absurd tears rushed to her eyes.
“Did I say something terrible?”she asked, her eyes wide with distress.“Oh. I meant no offense. I would not for the world hurt him.”
