Page 35 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
Adam squinted into the sun.“No, Hannah. But he will come about.Surely thee doesn’t think that is the first time something like that has happened to him?”
Hannah shuddered and hung on to the tiller.“I think all I want to do now is get home toNantucket!”
Adam just grinned at her as they sailed into the harbor atTerceira. As they warped toward the dock, Andrew Lease’s boat right behind them, two launches pulled out from shore.
“Tally-ho, indeed,”Adam said under his breath. He handed the sheet to a wounded man who could sit up and scrambled back to take the tiller. Hannah handed it off gratefully and grasped the wounded man again. She looked back at theDissuadein time to see it sink in a maelstrom of whirling bubbles. Heads bobbedin the water as another launch,this one with a swivel gun mounted on the bow, moved toward them.
The launches sailing toward them bow abreast warped and then backed their sails beside each boatld of wounded. Hannah looked at the soldiers hopefully.“What uniforms are those?”she whispered to Adam, who was eyeing the deck gun swiveling about to face them. But then the man with the most gold braid spoketothem in French, and she knew it didn’t matter. Captain Spark had lost his gamble.
He leaned toward the boat, taking in thebloody bandages of the wounded,and goggling at her as she sat in the stem next to Adam, head high. He removed his hat,bowed—no easy feat in a bucking launch—and placed his hat over his heart.“Messieurs, mademoiselle, I must with regret place you under rest. Please follow me to the dock.”
His English was quaint at best, but his meaning wasunmistakable, as he pointed to the deck gun, then towardthe stone fortress that crowded the hill. Hannah smiled her sunniest greeting and nodded.
Adam looked on, amused.“Why doesn’t thee blow him a kiss, too?”he asked.
“I would if I thought it would help,”she whispered back. Hannah turned around for one last look at the launch loading on the survivors from theDissuade,then devoted her attention to the lieutenant in the French boat, who was still grinning at her.
Crowded by the French launches,Adam ran his gig up ontothe beach. Hannah hurried from the boat and helped one of the wounded men into the shallow water that lapped on the beach. Hesankonto the sand and lay there, covering his eyes with his hand for protection from the sun. In a few minutes when all the wounded were lying on the beach, she looked up at the soldiers whosurroundedthem, more curious than belligerent.“See here,”she began, her hands on her hips,“these menneedto be taken to hospital. Can one of you authorize that?”
The soldiers and fishermen who were gathering looked ateach other and shrugged. She turned to the officer with the gold braid who had hailed them from the harbor,but he only shrugged his shoulders, too. Obviously, his challenge at the bay’s entrance had exhausted both his English and his authority to respond.
Hannah repeated her entreaty as Andrew Lease approached, dragging his own wounded onto the beach. Adamturnedtohelp.“Sir, can you not get these men out of the sun at least?”she asked the Frenchman one more time.
The French lieutenant shook his head.“The colonel is coming,”he said.“We can wait with patience.”
“Save your breath,”murmuredthe surgeon.“The fun begins when Daniel hits the beach.”He took her by thearm.“Whatever they do to him,you are not to object. He told me to tell you that, and he did not make a bet this time.”
Hannah sighed and sat down on the sand, creating shade with her body for the wounded man who had no arms to protect his eyes. The sun was hot on her face,and she wished the captain’s straw hat hadn’t gone down with theDissuade.
The launch with theDissuadesurvivors was soon docked. As she watched, the captain, hands tied behind hisback,was hauled off the boat, followed by the sailors who hadjumped from the stem of the sinking ship. She looked for Mr. Futtrell,but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Stay here,Hannah;”Adam cautioned as she got to her feet, her eyes on the captain.“Oh, and look who’s coming.”
She gulped and looked away from Captain Spark, who was on his knees now in the sand,a pistol pointed directly at his head. It could only be the colonel,who was covered with gold braid and wearing a vastly ill-fitting wig stylish in the last century. Sweat streamed down his face, and he appeared to be in a foul humor, stalking on short legs toward the crowd of soldiers and fishermen.
“Did we interrupt his luncheon?”Adam whispered.“Well, here goes.”
Adam hurried forward, shouldering aside the French soldiers who triedtodrag Captain Spark to the colonel first. He stopped in front of the colonel.“Sir,”he began, shouting to be heard over the tumult of voices behind him.“My friend Hannah and I are American citizens and we demand the protection ofFrancefrom this monster who wears a British uniform.”
Hannah gasped and started forward, but Lease grabbed her hand.“Leave him alone,”he hissed.“He knows what he’s doing! Do you want to get out of this place with a whole skin, or not?”
She stood where she was, watching Adam speaking so earnestly to the colonel, who listened intently, then motioned her forward. She hurried past the captain, hesitating only when the soldier guarding Spark kicked him in the stomach and he flopped onto his side, gasping for breath.
Adam grabbed her and held her close to him.“Sir, we demand your protection!”
The colonel looked at her from her disheveled hair to her bare toes,interest replacing irritation.“It is truwhat he says? He was impressed by this scoundrel and your ship was blown from the water?”
Adam had apparently left off the finer point that it was a French ship which sank theMolly Claridge.She thought to correct the error, but as she was trying to figure out how to express this diplomatically, Captain Spark raised up on his knees again.“Yes, and I sank your damned frigateBergeron,”he shouted. I’d do it again in a minute!”He disappeared then in a crowd of soldiers.
Hannah cried out and tried to pull away from Adam, but he refused to let her go. Thecolonel, undone by her tears, patted her on the back.
“There, there,ma chère,I am certain we can do for you what you wish,”he consoled as his troops beat Captain Spark and the other sailors rescued from theDissuade.“We shall return you promptly to theUnited States, if that is your desire.”
“It certainly is mine,”Adam said fervently.
Hannah looked back at the captain, but he had sunk out of sight, obscured by the French troops surrounding him. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and clutched at the colonel, who was perspiring even more freely.“Oh, sir, we should go toLondon, I think! We have such a claim to lay before the Lords of the Admiralty.”
The colonel leaned forward, smelling of sweat and salt pork, and took her chin in his fat fingers.“Ma chère,did that beast lay a hand on you?”
