Dawn on a Distant Shore (45 page)

For a long time he
kept completely still. The bosun's whistle blew and the first watch started up from
the lower decks. The ship wouldn't settle down again until the men coming off
the last dog watch had made their way below and hung their hammocks: she moaned
and quaked, shuddered and whistled, groaned and murmured as she always did, a
woman who knew her work and did it well but would not be quiet about it.
Nathaniel had come to recognize all her voices, in storm and calm, and just now
there was nothing to alarm him.

The sounds from the
next room were just as unremarkable; Elizabeth and Curiosity were talking,
their voices low. The twins hummed and burbled and crowed. Lily yawned and
Daniel laughed as if he had never seen such a thing. And no sign of Hannah, who
would be with the doctor, as was her habit at this time of evening.

In the wardroom just
below them officers' voices rose and ebbed, interrupted by the rattle of dice and
an occasional curse or shout of laughter. Moncrieff was among them; Nathaniel
had not seen the man since the day he left the
Jackdaw
, but he heard his
voice every day.

Steps in the other
room; he sat up just as Elizabeth opened the door.

She leaned against the
frame, her hands busy at the nape of her neck as she plaited her hair. Nathaniel
watched her wrists flex, supple and strong; her raised arms pulled the fabric
of her gown tight against her breasts.

"You're
awake." She came to sit on the edge of the bed. "Come to table, then.
The food is here."

Nathaniel ran a thumb
over the line of her jaw. "You've got shadows under your eyes. Maybe you
should come back to bed, instead."

She took his hand and
kissed his knuckles, and then she stood. "I will admit that I haven't adjusted
very well to this daytime sleeping and nighttime waking, but I am looking
forward to walking on deck. Do come eat, Nathaniel."

Curiosity had already
dismantled the joint of beef when they sat down. Steam rose gently from bowls
of cabbage and beets. It had taken a sharpish note from Elizabeth to the
captain to get them plain food instead of the jellied eggs and partridge
stuffed with sausage, as he had first sent to them.

Nathaniel tucked Lily
into his left side and sat down to pour ale from the pitcher, keeping to
himself his longing for venison, red corn soup, and water from the spring at
Lake in the Clouds.

"Hannah?"

"I sent Charlie
for her," said Curiosity. "The child cain't keep track of time when
she all wound up with that microscope machine." Her tone was a cross
between irritation and something else Nathaniel couldn't quite put a name to,
something close to insult.

He could see Elizabeth
thinking the same thing. She said, "We are very fortunate to have the Hakim's
support and friendship."

Curiosity thumped her
knife down. "Did I say we wasn't?"

"No, of
course--"

"Then don't be
puttin' words in my mouth."

There was a sudden
silence while Elizabeth flushed, her chin up at an angle. Both babies began
craning their necks between Elizabeth and Curiosity, more alarmed at this silence
than they would have been at raised voices. Nathaniel put his free hand on his
wife's knee under the table.

Curiosity met his eye.
"You got somethin' to say to me, Nathaniel?"

"I suppose I
do," he said. "Maybe you should tell us what's on your mind about Hannah."

Elizabeth said,
"I wish you would."

There was a tic in
Curiosity's cheek. She tapped her spoon on the edge of her plate twice, and
then she put it down.

"It don't set
right, this whole business. Now you two do me a favor, and don' start tellin' me
again what kind of mess we're in. I guess I know that well enough myself. It
don' mean I got to like sendin' the child out to spy."

"That is a very
strong word," said Elizabeth testily. "I should not call what Hannah
does spying. She merely listens, and tells us what she hears."

Curiosity snorted
softly. "You call it what you want, but I'll tell you this: I ain't so
sure as you that she safe on this ship, runnin' around by herself. But it seem
like you happy to look the other way. And I hope that child don' have to pay
the price."

All the high color
drained from Elizabeth's face, leaving behind only the dark circles under her eyes.

"Has someone been
bothering her?" she asked. "Is there some threat?"

Curiosity frowned.
"I cain't say there is, but I can say this: there's something wrong. She don't
sleep well, and ain't you ever took note that she won't go up on deck without somebody
go along? Charlie or Mungo or the Hakim, or one of us."

Nathaniel said,
"She's never said anything to me about trouble."

"O' course she
ain't said nothing. She's a child. It don' take much to set her mind to
workin', somebody lookin' at her too hard, or sayin' something nasty about the
color of her skin. That might give her bad dreams, but she ain't goin' to come runnin'
to you to say so, Nathaniel Bonner. She's prideful."

Nathaniel said,
"I'll talk to her."

"Here she
is," said Curiosity as the door banged. "I'd like to hear you get
someplace with her, I surely would."

Hannah came flying
into the room, one plait hanging half undone over her shoulder and her arms full
of books, a covered basket, and a squirming bird. As she came to a halt the bird
got the better of her and flapped away through the room to come to a standstill
near the open transom windows. It stood upright to show off a white breast, its
dark wings folded into its body. There was a broad white mask on its face with eyes
almost human, and a large triangular beak banded in yellow, red, and blue.

"Lord
above," muttered Curiosity. "Do that creature call itself a
bird?"

"It's a
puffin," said Elizabeth, holding up Daniel so he could see it better.

"Puffed up, more
like." But Curiosity was grinning.

The bird gave them all
an indignant stare, turned, and seeing the open windows in the transom, began
to lift its wings.

"Oh, no!"
Hannah cried, and lurched toward the bird, dropping her basket and going down
in a tangle. Papers flew everywhere and the basket rolled, spitting out a
collection of small corked bottles.

The twins broke out in
deep belly laughs just as Curiosity got hold of the puffin. In the crook of
Nathaniel's arm Lily wiggled helplessly, her mouth spread wide to show her toothless
gums as she laughed.

"Hannah,"
Elizabeth said. "Where did you get a puffin, of all things?"

"Mr. Brown gave
her to me to keep for a while," she explained, picking up her papers. "He
raised her from a chick. Her name is Sally."

Daniel's laughter had
taken on a familiar note, one that meant his mood was about to turn for the
worse. Elizabeth got up with him. "I'll have to hear about Sally
later," she said, taking Lily from Nathaniel. "I fear it may take
some time to settle these two for the night."

"You ain't
finished your plate yet," Curiosity called after her, but Elizabeth was already
closing the door firmly behind her.

"Don' nobody eat
enough these days," she said, eyeing the bird that sat placidly in her
arms. "Maybe this Sally'll come in handy, roasted crisp."

Hannah frowned.
"That would hurt Mr. Brown's feelings, I think."

Nathaniel picked a
feather out of Hannah's hair. "Who is this Mr. Brown? You haven't told us
about him yet."

A wide smile broke
across the girl's face. "He grew up in Carryck. His father ran the farm
for the earl, and now his older brother is the head gardener."

"Ah," said
Nathaniel. "Now, that is good news." Any source of information about
Carryck was welcome.

Curiosity seemed less
impressed. "At least he ain't another one of them "mac" kind of
folk. Don't these Scots got no imagination? MacIver, MacIntosh, MacLeish,
MacKenzie, MacLachlan. Tell me, do he talk your ear off like that Mungo, or is
he like old Jake MacGregor back home. The kind that cain't spare a word unless
his hair on fire and you the only one with a bucket."

Nathaniel laughed, but
Hannah seemed to consider carefully. "Once he found out I speak Scots, he
got curious and he wanted to know all about Granny Cora. I think he'll be talkative."

Curiosity thrust the
puffin toward Hannah. "Go tie it up out on the gallery, child. We don't
need the stink. Appetites poor enough as it is."

The few hours after
sunset were the best of the day, as far as Nathaniel was concerned. It was the
time they all sat together before Hannah and Curiosity went off to bed and he
and Elizabeth began their night watch.

Every day they were at
sea they faced real dangers --storms, pirates, privateers, a hungry French
Navy--but what worried him enough to keep him awake was Carryck. He had fought
in more than one kind of war, but he had never walked into a battle blind, with
women and children at his back. It wasn't so much the lack of weapons that sat
wrong --the ship was full of them, and he could put his hands on what he wanted
without a lot of trouble.

What he needed most,
and what was hardest to come by, was information.

Nathaniel stood at the
transom windows. Somewhere behind them was the
Jackdaw
, and he scanned the
darkened waters for a glimpse of her.

Curiosity came up
beside him. Nathaniel was surprised, as he always was, at how slight she seemed
when she was nearby, as if the sea were drawing the marrow from her bones.

"I saw them three
times today," she said. "A few miles off. No sign of trouble."

The truth was, the
Jackdaw
had stayed close so far, but she might disappear without warning or explanation
and never show herself again. And what Moncrieff would do then--if they would
turn back to find her, or push on--that was a question Nathaniel didn't want answered.
But Curiosity knew this and so he kept his worries to himself.

"Three
times?" Elizabeth opened the little journal she had sewn out of paper
provided by the Hakim. It was divided into sections with colored threads, and
she found the page headed "
Jackdaw
." There were paragraphs
about the ship, her crew and weapons, and Nathaniel's drawings, as well as a
column for sightings. She noted the date and Curiosity's report and then she
turned to another chart. Nathaniel leaned over her shoulder and read the last
three entries.

Fraser, Peter.
45-50 years of age. Of
Dumfries.

Navigator.

His whole life in this
service. Multiple times to the East and West Indies. A wife and two grown
children at home. Fond of pippins. Called the best navigator in the company by
his mates.

Hamilton, Alex.
Of Dumfries. Captain's
cabin boy. In service on this ship since age 10. His father a textile merchant.

Jones, Ron.
Of Cardiff. Ordinary seaman.
Flogged for repeated drunkenness and an assault on another seaman. His wounds treated
by Hakim Ibrahim.

"Now about Mr.
Brown," Elizabeth said.

Hannah's brow creased
in concentration. "I don't know his first name. He is Curiosity's age, I
think."

Curiosity said,
"You cain't tell with these sailors. Could be a hundred from the face on him."

Elizabeth entered
Carryck as his place of birth. The quill hesitated. "His work?"

"He keeps the
chickens and such. They call him the duck-fucker."

Nathaniel would have
laughed out loud if it weren't for Curiosity's strangled cough and the color that
flooded Elizabeth's face.

Hannah looked directly
at Nathaniel, raising a shoulder in confusion. "That's what the men call
him," she insisted.

Elizabeth hiccuped.
"I have never heard the term. I expect that you were not meant to hear it,
either."

"Oh," said
Hannah with an easy shrug. "The sailors talk freely around me."

"So it
seems," said Curiosity. She gave Nathaniel a pointed look.

He said, "Call
him the fowlkeeper, then. What else do you know of him?"

She knew quite a lot.
Elizabeth's quill scratched as Hannah told them what she had noticed of his
work, his character, his likes and dislikes, and most important, the little she
had learned about the brother who was Carryck's head gardener.

"Let's hope Brown
likes to talk about home," Nathaniel said when Elizabeth had put down her
quill.

Hannah yawned.
"I'll go by and see him tomorrow. He'll be butchering some capons and he
said I could help."

Elizabeth caught
Nathaniel's eye but she spoke to Hannah. "I haven't seen capons on
deck."

"He keeps them
below, in the pens." And then seeing the doubtful look on her father's
face, she said: "The Hakim said Charlie could go with me."