Dawn on a Distant Shore (52 page)

  Curiosity Freeman

  writ by her own poor
hand this 11th day of June, 1794

on board the Isis

My grandmother
Falling-Day,

Elizabeth says I might
write to you in our own tongue but there is not enough time for us to puzzle
out the sounds on paper. These letters must go to the packet Marianne. She is
bound for New-York on the evening tide. A courier will bring them up the Great
River to Paradise and Runs-from-Bears or Otter will carry them to Lake in the
Clouds. Many-Doves will read these words out loud before the fire, and you will
all be together when you hear them.

We are well in body.
My brother and sister are strong and healthy. But I am worried for Curiosity,
whose spirits are very low, and for my father, who walks the ship staring at
the shore, and for Bone-in-Her-Back, who is so distracted that she forgets to
eat, and most of all for my Grandfather Hawk-Eye and for Robbie, who are behind
us on another ship that hides itself in the fog.

I have many stories to
tell of this journey. I have learned much. Yesterday a boy called Mungo died of
a swelling that turned his belly as hard and hot as a boiling stone. He passed
into the shadowlands quietly. I have seen others cured of strange illnesses and
wounds. With a thin metal stick the doctor called Hakim reached into a sailor's
body and crushed a stone that was blocking his water. He screamed so loud that
he broke his voice but he is alive and will mend, now. The Hakim has given me
medicines from his homeland to bring to you.

Scotland is wet and
brown and green and yellow, but there are no trees only hills covered with
rough grass and brush called heather that the sailors laugh and weep to see.
They have been longer from their homes than I have been from mine, but I know
what is in their hearts. I would be very glad to see the fir with the broken
top that stands outside my window. Bone-in-Her-Back says that there are trees
here, but not many. They burned most of them long ago, and now they burn black rock
they dig out of the ground, or even the ground itself, cut into squares. I do
not wonder that my father's mother left this place.

Last night a woman
called Mrs. MacKay disappeared. The sailors have searched every corner of the
ship many times but she is nowhere to be found among the living. She mourned a
lost child, and I think she has gone to find it.

My father says that we
will finish our business here and sail for home soon. I know he wishes this to
be true, and so do I.

 
Your
Granddaughter called Squirrel

Dear Liam,

This ship has come to
rest in a wide water called a firth with England on one side and Scotland on
the other. Scotland is where my Grandmother Cora was born, and perhaps my
grandfather's people, but it is a very strange and lonely kind of place. We
were brought here against our wishes, and will stay only until we can find
another ship to bring us home.

In my Grandmother's
cornfield the bean plants will be winding up the young stalks toward the sun. I
think of this time a year ago when we came upon bears eating in the strawberry fields
under a fat moon, do you recall? And they chased us away, and we ran until we
fell and then we laughed.

Elizabeth bids me give
you her best greetings and to say she hopes you are keeping up with your
schoolwork. My father says he knows you will be strong, and patient. Curiosity
asks you to visit with Galileo when you might. She fears he must be melancholy.
She says too she hopes you never get it in your head to go to sea.

We never meant to be
so long away, but I will bring many stories with me, and you will tell me your stories,
too.

  Your true friend
Hannah Bonner,

  also called Squirrel
by the

  Kahnyen'kehâka of
the Wolf Longhouse, her mother's
people

Elizabeth shredded her
handkerchief into strips as she watched the packet
Marianne
slip out of
the Solway Firth on the first leg of her journey to New-York.

Now there was nothing
to do but wait. They waited for high tide, which would bring the excisemen.
They would come in the morning to examine the captain's papers and cargo and
collect their duties, and while the tide was high and the broad sand flats
covered, barges would move between ship and shore with agonizing slowness. When
the last bale of tobacco and last keg of spice were discharged, it would be
their turn to go to shore. And once on shore they would find quarters and wait
until Hawkeye and Robbie arrived on the
Jackdaw
.

If the
Jackdaw
arrived at all.

She paced to the other
side of the room, where the babies sat propped up in their baskets. Lily looked
up from mouthing her fist and smiled broadly. A little of the unhappiness went
out of Elizabeth as she sat down on the floor next to her children and pulled
Lily into her lap. The baby grabbed at her hair, and Daniel waved his hands in
the air wildly, shouting for his share of the diversion.

"Those children
will pull every hair out of your head before they weaned," Curiosity said
at the door.

"Hair will grow
back." But Elizabeth untangled Lily's fingers and blew a bubble against
her palm to distract her.

Curiosity sat down
heavily on the window seat to stare out the transom. The vague light and deep
shadows made her face seem almost unreal, carved from some dark and unyielding stone.
Her shoulders looked thin even under the heavy shawl she had wrapped around
herself.

"It don't look
like much."

Elizabeth got up and
put Lily on her hip. For a moment she was silent as she studied the vague shape
of Southerness lighthouse, a smudge of light in the slanting rain. "It is
rather bleak. But Scotland has its own charm, when the weather is fair."

Curiosity's expression
was so faraway that Elizabeth wondered if she had even heard. Concerned, she crossed
to the settee and sat down. Lily leaned toward Curiosity and put out her arms.

"We got to keep
our spirits up, for the children." Curiosity took Lily and settled her on
her lap. And then: "I cain't get that poor MacKay woman out of my
head."

Daniel squawked
loudly, and Elizabeth was glad of the excuse to get up again. She did not like to
think of Margreit MacKay, who had gone into the sea so quietly that no one--not
even her husband, who had been on watch--had noticed.

"She must have
been very distraught," she said finally.

"Maybe if we
wasn't all so worried about Mungo--" Curiosity cleared her throat. "It's
sorry times when a woman got no safe place to go but the other side."

Elizabeth buried her
face in Daniel's neck. When she could speak again she said, "You have told
me to keep faith so often," she said. "Now I will say the same to
you. I know in my heart that we will get home."

Curiosity gave her a
vacant smile, but before she could answer, Nathaniel had come through the door.

There were shadows beneath
his eyes, but there was something bright and alive in his expression.

He looked from
Elizabeth to Curiosity and back again.

"What is
it?" Elizabeth's voice wavered.

"There's a ship
you should know about," he said, and closed the door behind himself.

They sat around the
table and listened to Nathaniel's story. The whole coast was alive with
smugglers, it seemed, and there was one in particular that a talkative sailor
had spoken of, called the
Black Prince
. If they could slip away once on
shore and keep themselves hidden for even a day, it might be possible to make contact
with its captain. He looked Elizabeth directly in the eye.

"It's a long
shot," he said. "We may not get very far."

Curiosity grunted, an
impatient sound. "Ain't nothin' gained if we don't try. If they catch
us--"

She broke off, her
brow creased as she studied Lily. Her mouth settled hard. "I say we should
try."

Elizabeth heard
herself sigh. Nathaniel reached over and took Daniel from her to settle the baby
on his own lap. "Tell me what's on your mind, Boots."

But she could not.
Looking into his face, alive now with hope, she could not ask all the questions
that came to mind, or lay out for him the fears that would not rest, no matter
what kind of logic she brought to bear on them.

Curiosity rose
suddenly. "Give me that boy. I believe these children could use a little
fresh air. We'll just go and see how your big sister is gettin' on with that
Hakim fellow."

"There is no
need," said Elizabeth, but Curiosity gave her a hard look.

"You turnin' down
a little privacy when it's offered to you? Seem to me you two got some talkin' to
do."

Elizabeth felt
Nathaniel waiting behind her. She nodded. "Thank you."

"Just talk,"
said Curiosity gruffly. "That's all the thanks I need."

When she had closed the
door behind herself, Elizabeth got up from the table and went to the windows.
The shifting storm let the last of the evening light seep through the cloud
cover, rough bars of gold against the hard lines of the coast. A two-masted
schooner hugged the shore, bobbing about like a toy. If she went up on deck and
turned in the other direction she would see England again. The very thought
made her tired.

"Here I am back
where I began," she said. There was a tremor in her voice she could not help.

Nathaniel's arms came
around her from the back, and he leaned down to rest his chin on her shoulder.

"Does it look
like Oakmere?" His tone was calm and even, and she was thankful for it.

"No, this is
nothing like the Devon countryside. But I can smell England in the air."

He smiled; she could
feel it.

"You do not
believe me."

"I believe you,
Boots. I was just thinking about your Green Man."

Elizabeth turned in
his arms until she was facing him. "The Green Man? What brings that old
tale to mind?"

He pointed with his
chin toward the shore. "My mother told me about Scotland, what it looked
like, but I never had much of a picture in my mind. Now that I've seen it, I
wonder if that Green Man that comes and scratches at windows is all that's left
of the trees."

Elizabeth jerked a
little in surprise. "The spirit of the lost forests, you mean?" She
put her head against his shoulder. "Of course," she said softly. "That's
exactly what he must be."

"Boots,"
said Nathaniel, tightening his grip on her. "Listen to me."

She waited.

"I know you hate
the idea of going off on a smuggler--wait, let me finish. There's no denying
that it scares you. But we've survived this far, haven't we?"

"We have."

"What is it,
then?"

She pulled away from
him gently to walk to the far wall. There she stopped in front of Carryck's
intricately carved coat of arms. A white elk, a lion, shield and crown.
In
tenebris lux
: light in the darkness.

"I fear you will
be angry at me if I say what I am thinking."

She had startled him;
she felt it in the hand he put on her shoulder. In sudden resolution she spoke.

"Nathaniel, if we
should get away, all of us--do you think that they will leave us alone? The
earl will not rest until he speaks to your father, or to you--" She
wavered, seeing his expression darken.

"So I think we
should see this out. You see, I knew you would be angry."

Nathaniel inclined his
head. "I'm surprised, is all."

"But don't you
see, if we just spoke to him--"

"Are you hoping
he'll change his mind, or I'll change mine?"

She threw up both
hands in a gesture of surrender. "I knew we could not talk about
this."

Nathaniel let out a
long sigh. "So you think we should spend another week or two weeks or however
long it takes, go see the man and let him have his say. Is that it? And what
makes you think he won't try to keep us?"

Elizabeth shrugged.
"He cannot be completely blind to propriety, Nathaniel. To keep a whole
family captive indefinitely--"

"I wouldn't put
it past him."

She wrapped her arms
around herself. "Even if you are right, you mustn't forget my aunt Merriweather.
She knows where we are by now--Will is certain to have told her about Carryck
when she came to Québec. She may be at Oakmere already, waiting for word. If
she does not soon hear from me, she will take things into her own hands. She
has an army of solicitors and lawyers at her disposal, you must realize."

He grinned sourly.
"I don't doubt it."

Elizabeth ran her
finger over the coat of arms and traced the elaborate gilded curls on the
lion's tail. "There is another reason to at least let the earl have his
say."