Page 47 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
He clapped his hands together, his mind made up.“Very well, then, since the American consulate had probably alerted the waterfront, Miss Whittier, we will have to be a bit smarter. I would like to avoid an international incident, if I can, so would you mind terribly dressing as a cabin boy?”
Hannah and Adam looked at each other, their eyes merry.“Sir, that was what she did on theDissuade,and do you know, Captain Spark even sent her into the lookout to spy for French cruisers?”
Wellingtonshook his head and lifted the reins from off the flowerpot. He mountedCopenhagen.“I am continually amazed at the resourcefulness of theRoyalNavy, MissWhittier. I recommend that you remain here until Adamcanfind you some suitable kit.Then I expect to see the two of you—and that infamous dispatch——at the H.M.S.Dauntlessin an hour or less. The navy is dashed particular about wind and tides.”
He wheeledCopenhagenaround and held his hand out for Adam to mount behind him. The other officers found their horses and mounted while she stood on the steps of All Saints.“I must make a flying nip toLondonand a conference with the smallbrains atWhitehall. You can be my cabin boy, Miss Whittier, since you are so good at it. See you soon. And don’t murder anyone until Adam returns.”
She watched them leave, then returned to the chapel, where she sat in a shadowycorneruntil Adam returned anhourlater with clothes draped over hisarm. He held them out to her.
“Wellingtonis a great gun, Hannah, for all that he is Brit,”he whispered.“Hurry now. We have to catch the tide.”
She took the clothes and ducked into the narrow stairway leading up to the bell tower. It was only a moment’s work to pull off her dress and petticoat and get into sailor’s canvas pants and shirt, wool this time. She balled up the dress and petticoat and wedged them under the lowest step, wondering what the priests of All Saints would think when a housecleaning eventually uncovered them.
Adam knocked on the door to hurry her along.“I’m coming!”she hissed, and rebraided her hair down her back. Someday I will wear my own clothes again, she thought as she hurried from the chapel with Adam and ran with him, hand in hand, down the steps.
Wellingtonstood on the dock waiting. She ran toward him, out of breath, and he thrust his valise into her hands, commanding her to follow closely by his side.“The American consul has been stalking up and down the docks for the past hour and more, Miss Whittier,”he whispered under his breath as they strode along to the jolly boat.“And I have been perjuring my soul and assuring him that the British would never be party to any deception regarding an American female of tender years.”
He lifted her into the boat, luggage and all, and hurried to sit beside her, obscuring her from any view from the waterfront.Adam scrambled in behind them as thehelmsmancast off the rope and raised the sail for theDauntless.
“Of course,we couldhave simply given thee the dispatch to take to the Admiralty,”Adam said as the boatskimmed over the water, outlined by the setting sun.
Wellingtonnodded.“You could have tried, my youngfriend,”he said,“but whydo I have the feeling that wouldnot have been good enough for Miss Whittier here?”
“Because she is a totty-headed female,”he replied.“Ihave known her for years as a sensibleNantucketgirl, andnow see what happens when she gets one ocean voyage!”
Yes, indeed, Hannah thought as the jolly boat swungaround to meet theDauntless.I do not know that I wouldrecognize myself if I saw me on the street. I used to be biddable, like Mama, never sayingbooto a goose,and hereIsit beside the Viscount of Wellington, one of the great menofEurope. She rested her chin in her hand. And somewhereDaniel Spark needs me.
Hannah spent the voyage from Lisbon to London inthegreat cabin that the captain had vacated for Wellington,listening to rain scour the deck of the cruiser, and working herway through a great pile of darning.“Thee does not haveapair of socks without holes,”she grumbled to the viscount as he sat day after day in the cabin, bringing his journal up todate and writing reports.
“My dear, that is yet another unglamorousconsequenceof war,”he murmured as he wrote.“Does‘attrition’haveone‘t’or two?”
“It has three,”she replied, and he threw down his pen.“Well, it does.”
He shook his head, smiled at her, and picked up the penagain.“Captain Spark must be a man of considerable patience to tolerate you,”he said, his eyes on the reportspread before him.
“Oh, he has no patience at all,”she said, cutting thethread with her teeth and picking up another sock,quite unruffled by his jest.“He calls me dreadful things like‘sharkchum,’and blasphemes and uses expressions thatwouldmake my mother go into spasms.”
“And he has no qualms about impressing Americans,”Adam added from hiscornerby the stem galley.
“Has the man any good qualities?”Wellingtonasked, putting down his pen at last and rubbing his eyes.
Hannah was silent as she bent over her darning. He loves me, she thought, and that shows right good sense. He kisses most excellently, and that is nothing to tell the Viscount of Wellington.“He is fearless in a fight,”she said at last.“And... and when I am afraid of something, like climbing the rigging, he makes me face down my fear until it does not scare me any longer.”
“Excellent man,”Wellingtonsaid. He rested his head in his hand.“I could use him when I visit Whitehall next week and try to explain to thearmchair generals why I lost so many men at Vimeiro and why we struggle now to hang on to Lisbon.”He was silent then, his sharp features shadowed and then revealed by the swaying lamp.
Hannahput down her darning.“Captain Spark would say that once thee has faced the guns, nothing can frighten thee,”she said, her voice soft.
Wellingtonlooked at her and nodded.“You are right, of course.”He reached across the table and touched her cheek.“And I think I understand why Captain Spark tolerates you.”
She blushed and picked up the sock again.“Sir, I think if thee would cut thy toenails more regularly, thee would have better socks.”
“Hannah!”Adam groaned.“Won’t thee ever be still?”
She grew quieter as they reached the coast ofEnglandand sailed intoPortsmouthHarbor, wondering why she hadnot justgiven the dispatch toWellington, as Adam had suggested. We could be on our way home, and I would eventually forget Daniel Spark, she thought as she stared out the stem gallery windows to the gray ocean, rising and falling on oily swells. As the anchor chain ran out of the hawser hole and the sailors furled the sails inPortsmouthHarbor,she told herself that once she knew for certain that he was well, she would have no trouble leaving. Not a bit.
The further benefit of being pressed into the service of Arthur Wellesley, Viscount of Wellington, showed itself as soon as they drew up to the wharf, where a post chaise waited.Wellingtonflipped a coin to the helmsman while Adam lifted Hannah onto the dock. He bundled them inside the post chaise and nodded to the coachman.“These are good horses?”he asked the coachman.
The man grinned and bowed.“Oh,yes, my lord.”
