Page 58 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
She nodded, her eyes closed, and rested against him, wondering how it was that someone as hard and unyielding as Captain Spark on hisquarterdeckcould be so soft to lean upon.
“Do you suppose we can find a Quaker preacher to marry us?”he asked.
She shook her head.“Thee does not perfectly understand, Daniel. When I said I would marry thee, that also means that I am severing ties with my church. They will read me out of Meeting at home when my parents learn of this.”
Her quiet words hung in the silent room. Daniel got up and set her back in the chair, sitting on the edge of the desk so he could look at her,his face serious.“I had no idea, my love. You’re giving up everything you hold dear for me, aren’t you?”
She nodded,unable to speak for a moment.She composed herself, but could not look at him.“Now,if thee was to become a Friend someday, then we could be welcomed into Meeting again.”
He shook his head.“I do not think the Friends would have much patience with a man who deals in death.”He took her hand and kissed it.“I hope I am worth all this.”
“So do I,”she said and picked up the quill again.
The invitations were mailed the following morning. Spark braved his mother’s threats to take Hannah with him in the gig to the village to post the letters.
“I promise to return her promptly,”he said as he dumped the invitations in Hannah’s lap and gathered up the reins.
“You had better,”Lady Spark insisted.“If we are to sit thirty at dinner tomorrow night, I need Hannah more than you do!”
“Thirty? Do I have that many friends inDorset?”he teased.“Very well, Mama. If I had known what a lot of trouble this was going to be, we would haveelopedtoScotlandand married over the anvil!”
Lady Spark delivered such a stem lookather son that he shuddered elaborately when she was out of sight.“You’ll need to take a look in my bedroom and tell me what you want changed,”he said as they rode along.“I have an even better view of the sea, and the bed is wider.”
She blushed.“Does this mean I cannot keep my little room?”
“I was thinking it would make an excellent nursery.”Eyes on the narrow lane, he lifted her hand to his lips.“I donot planto come home from sea and find you down the hall from my bed. God knows, as it is, I’ll be away from you too much to suit me without having to knock on your door when the mood strikes. There would be a regular trough the wood to your door.”
Thee needn’t be away from me at all, she thought as she settled against his shoulder. She looked at him to speak, but he shook his head.“I know what you’re going to say,”he said.“It doesn’t bear thinking on, because I will not leave the sea.”
The day passed quickly enough, following Lady Spark’s orders as she polished silver with Mrs. Paige,arrangedautumn bouquets in vases, and accepted the replies that poured back from the invitations. Who are these people, she thought as she fingered the notes with their unfamiliar names. Will they like me? Will I be too quaintfor them? If, as Daniel suspects, our countries will soon be at war, will they turn their backs on me? She gazed at the notes, a frown on her face, until Lady Spark dragged her away to another task.
It wasn’t until the house was quiet and the dowager was in bed with a headache that she found solace in Daniel’sarms. How is it, she thought as he held her close, that thee can kiss away my fears and leave me so shaky with love? She clung to him, knowing that the smallest gesture from him would send her over the top and into his bed without a single regard for everything she had been taught since childhood.
She spent a restless night more agitated than the one before and woke long before dawn, bleary-eyed and discontent.She sighed and tried to return to sleep, burrowing deep into the mattress and knowing that it was hopeless. She would only toss and turn, filled with desire and worry, until Daniel came into her room with tea and confidence enough for them both. She firmly resolved to be sitting in the window seat when he came in. The pleasure in his eyes on seeing her in the morning had been replaced by something much more intense now. There was a hunger in his gaze that made her gulp and hope the chancery writ would not be long in coming.
She heard a carriage on the gravel drive and got up, hurrying to the window to look out. It was the Spark carriage, and not the gig used for everyday trips into the village. As she watched out of curiosity, Mr. Paige carried out the new sea chest Daniel had bought the day before, and on which she had stenciled SPARK in large letters only last night.
“No,”she said out loud. Hardly darg to breathe, she threw on her clothes, ran a comb through her curly hair tousled from a night’s agitation, then hurried down the stairs without her shoes or stockings.“No,”she said again, louder thistime, as she ran to the open door.
Daniel, dressed in his uniform, stood by the carriage, speaking to Mr. Futtrell. He looked at her with realdelight and grasped her by the shoulders, nearly lifting her off the ground.
“My love, this is too famous! Mr. Futtrell brought such news last night after you went to bed.”
Futtrell, fully uniformed, tipped his tallhat to her.“We have a ship, Miss Whittier! A ship!”
She could think of nothing to say, but it did not matter. Sparkwas not listening or even looking at her. He spoke over her shoulder to Mrs. Paige.“When my otheruniformscome from their alterations in the village, have them posted to the H.M.S.ClarioninPortsmouthharbor.”He picked Hannah up off the ground.“My darling, it is a commerce raider of the newFalmouthclass!”
“There is apartytonight,”she reminded him, her voice subdued.
He set her down and grinned at her.“My orders say to report at once to oversee refitting, Hannah.”He turned away, his voice impatient with command.“Mr. Futtrell, do you have any idea how she handles under all sail?”
“Surely tomorrow would be soon enough,”she said, her back straight, her hands twisted tightly in front of her. He was not listening, and she repeated herse
“I couldn’t possibly wait that long, my dear,”hesaid and nodded to the coachman,who climbed into the box.
She stood insilence for a long moment, taking in the coach ready to travel, and the sun only just now coming over the horizon.“Daniel, you were goingto leave without saying goodbye,weren’t you?”
“I left a note in the front hallway,”he replied as he opened the carriage door.“I’llbe back in a couple of weeks, when things are in order. We’ll have a few days before we sail for the blockade to get married.”
