Passion's Tide (41 page)
Authors: Sarah West
The stars shone overhead as Anton l
ifted Amber’s trunks into the longboat, the crew standing back, uncertain how to approach her and say goodbye
.
There was an awkward silence hanging in the humid air.
Suddenly, Johnny and Henry pushed through the crowd and ran up to Amber
.
“Oh good, we didn’t miss you,” Henry exclaimed
,
as he thrust a
wooden box at her
.
“We wanted you to have Puck. We know how much you like him, and he seems to like you best anyway.” A frustrated meow came from inside the crate, and a pink nose tried to poke its way through the air holes that were c
arved into the wood
.
She thanked Henry and let Eli take the box from her as Pax approached with a canvas bundle
.
“I don’t know how much use you’ll have for these in your new life,” he said, lifting th
e corner to reveal her weapons,
sh
arpened
and polished
.
“But I want you to take them with you just in case
.
If anything, they’d look awful smart hanging above your fireplace.” She accepted the bundle
with a nod.
Next, Abe limped to the fron
t of the crowd
.
“Miss Amber, I made you your favorite ho
neycakes to take with you, and the boys helped me to write down the recipe so you can tell the cook at that fancy new house of yours that Abe says to make them for your breakfast.” The lump in her throat grew larger and larger as the crew members presented her with thoughtful gifts: a new lock for her trunks from Deacon, presented with a blush and an apology for breaking hers in the first place, a conch shell from Creed, a small wooden pirate that
Anton had painstakingly whittled
.
The figurine had long cu
rly hair.
“Is this me?” she asked in surprise, looking up and seeing Anton’s bandaged hands
.
Wringing them together now, he grinned and nodded.
“I worked real hard to make it as pretty as you, but this is as close as I could get
.
Went through a lot of w
ood, too.”
At last Johnny stepped forward, a homemade book with a crude leather binding in his hands. “I wrote this for you,” he said as he held it out to her, and dropped his voice so that o
nly she could hear him. “It ain
’
t much, but I wanted to thank you for making me to learn how to read and write.” Scrawled on the cover was the title:
The Adventures of Ruby Red and Puck
.
Beneath that was a drawing of a redheaded pirate and a buccaneer cat burying a treasure chest
.
Tears welled up behind her eyes as
she smiled
.
“It’s wonderful Johnny, thank you,” she said to the boy, who took her by surprise by throwing himself at her. She staggered backwards and wrapped her arms around him, holding him for a moment until he pulled away, wiping a dirty hand across h
is eyes and leaving a smudge.
“Amber, we need to leave soon,” Eli said quietly behind her
.
She squared her shoulders and blinked back tears
.
Anton got into the boat that he would help row, taking Puck’s box with him
.
She thanked everyone, received embr
aces and encouraging words from the crewmembers
.
Picking
up the skirts of her simple dress
, she
climbed into the longboat
.
Eli said a few words to the crew and followed her.
She lifted the box with Puck from the bench and sat,
scaring
the kitten into mewing again
.
She whispered soothing words
.
When that didn’t work, she pushed a finger into a hole and searched around until she found the animal’s chin, and began scratching
.
Puck quieted down and
issued
a low purr as Pax and Deacon sat down on the opposite bench and the boat was lowered into the water.
“You ready Amber?” Eli asked.
She gave a futile smile
.
“Of course.” The men began rowing and Amber watched as one by one the faces peering o
ver the side of the boat disappeared
.
Puck settled at the bottom of the box and fell asleep. It was the middle of the night and the water was calm, but Amber was wide-awake.
The ride was completed in silence, the one lantern in the center of the boat shining to guide their way until they reached the docks, at which point they blew it out
.
The flickering lights from the deserted harbor provided necessary illumination for them to steer the boat into an empty space.
“We’ll let you off here,” Eli whispered, turning in his seat to face her
.
“We can’t stay, but a magistrate should walk through here within the next half an hour, doing rounds
.
Tell him what I told you, and he’ll help you get home.” She bobbed her head once to show she understo
od.
Eli and Deacon rowed the boat closer to the dock, while Anton hopped onto the ladder and extended an arm for the first trunk that Pax hoisted up to him
.
The second trunk was exchanged in the same fashion, the third
—the one holding her books—requiring all four men to lift
it
onto the dock
.
Next, she handed the small wooden box to Anton, who took it with care and placed it beside her luggage. At last, she embraced each man for a final time and climbed out of the boat, standing by her trunks and wat
ching as the pirates rowed off into the early morning fog.
Feeling alone and scared, she took a seat on her trunk and pried the top from Puck’s crate
.
He blinked up at her, yawned and stretched in the small confines of the box, and allowed her to lift hi
m out
.
She slid the box to the ground and placed the kitten on her lap, stroking him until he fell asleep again.
That was how the magistrate found her, asleep with a black and white mound of fur in her arms.
H
e had seen some strange things in his years of walking the harbor, but this was a first
.
Glancing around him and seeing no one else in the vicinity of the girl, he cleared his throat.
Ambe
r sleepily opened her eyes, and upon seeing the magistrate in front of her, she smiled
.
“Hello, I was ho
ping you could help me find my family.”
Amber was seated in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection and fiddling with the gold ring around her neck when there was a knock at the door
.
She
quickly
tucked the ring
back into the bodice of her chemise
.
The door opened and Olivia James, her nineteen-year-old cousin, entered in a buzz of excitement
.
“Are you nervous
about
this evening?” she asked, scooping up the sleeping Puck and depositing him on her lap
.
“I kn
ow I would be, if it
were
my first London party
.
Lord, I would be a bundle of nerves!”
Amber smiled
.
She had taken a genuine liking to her vivacious cousin, who, along with the rest of her extended family, had accepted her the minute she crossed the
threshold a week
ago.
They had expressed their sympathy for the passing of Molly, and while her aunt Elinor and uncle Alfred, her father’s brother, reminisced about Amber’s parents, Olivia took Amber under her wing
.
In just seven days Amber fe
lt
she knew everything about everyone who was worth mentioning, thanks to her cousin’s gossip, even though she hadn’t yet been int
roduced to anyone outside the family
.
But tonight the James
e
s had accepted an invitation to the Whitmore’s annual gala. And word about the beautiful American stranger had spread quickly, eliciting a large number of RSVPs for the party.
“Georgie says her mother had to hire extra help from town to
help with
all of the guests,” Olivia informed her, referring to her best friend, Georgina Whitmore, who
m
Amber had met earlier that week
.
“Not that you should be scared,” she added.
“I’m not scared, but perhaps I am a little apprehensive
.
This is the largest party I have ever been to, and the fi
rst one outside the
S
tates
.
I hope my etiquette lessons were enough preparation.”
“You’ll probably do better than I will,” Olivia said with a
chuckle
. “Mother says I’m always making mistakes
.
But if you’re at a loss, just look at the person beside
you and copy what they are doing
.
That’s what I do.”
Another knock sounded at the door and Anne, the lady’s maid the James
e
s had supplied Amber with, poked her head in
.
“Are you all finished bathing,
M
iss?” Amber replied that she was, and Anne hurried
over and picked up the ivory-handled brush that lay on the table
.
Amber was finding it difficult to readjust herself to being looked after. After so long at sea, it was strange to have someone brush her hair again.
As Anne began pinning her curls on top of her head,
A
unt Elinor entered with a large bundle in her arms
.
“Here is your dress dear, just in time
.
I’m so glad we could get the alterations finished before tonight.” She laid it beside Olivia on the bed and turned to her daughter
.
“Sh
ouldn’t you be getting ready as well? I believe I saw Mary wandering the halls, looking for you.” As Olivia flounced from the room,
Elinor called after her: “No dawdling, I do not want to be late again!”
Her daughter out of sight, she turned to her niece, who was quietly regarding her own reflection
.
“I hope Olivia has not been saying anything to make you nervous, Amber
.
I assure you, you’ll do splendidly.”
“Thank you,
A
unt Elinor,” Amber replied, meeting her aunt’s smile in the mirror
.
Sh
e winced as a hairpin was jabbed into her scalp.
“Sorry
M
iss, but that was the final one
.
If you could hand me that comb—” she watched Anne’s eyes widen as her fingers brushed Amber’s skin, and she pulled back her hands with an embarrassed flush.
“I apologize, my hands became quite rough while I was…aboard the ship.”
Her aunt glanced at the clock mounted
about the mantle and stopped Anne from going to fetch a bowl of water
.
“There is not enough time to soak them before we leave
.
I suppose you’ll just have to keep your gloves on while you dance.” She leaned over to give Amber a small hug
.
“Do not fret, the gentlemen will not care that your hands are callused
.
T
hey will be far too distracted by your beauty
.
Now finish getting ready, while I
get dressed and round up my family.”
With her hair finished, Amber stood and allowed herself to be laced
into her corset, gripping the bedpost as the laces were pulled tight
.
Next, the
pannier
-supported petticoat was tied about her hips
.
On top of that went he
r ivory silk petticoat, adorned with pale yellow roses, and her matching embroidered stomacher was pinned to her corset. Finally, with the help
of
a second maid, she was sewn into the French-blue silk gown, edged in lace and embroidered with the same yellow roses
.
The gown had been made by Madam Lorelei and shipped by Maxwell in a separate trunk
.
Her aunt had declared it suitable, if
a little
outdated
, and sent it off to her seamstress to have the sides let out to allow for the whalebone hoop frame that had become popular in England a few years before.
Now
, with a double strand of pearls tied about her neck
—
her own necklace hidden beneath her chemise
—
and a pair of white gloves on her hands, she was ready
.
“We can’t d
o anything to hide your freckles, but don’t forget to pinch your cheeks for a nice flush,” Anne instructed as she handed Amber a matching silk fan
.
She thanked the maid and hurried downstairs, where her uncle and cousin
Dominic
were waiting for Elinor and Olivia
.
