The Stolen Heart Read online

  “Never fear. I’m not going to lure you to the demon drink, boy. I need to sign on some crew, and am just going to stick my head in to pass the word around. Then I’m heading to the hotel to take tea and get a hot meal. I'd be most pleased if you would join me.”

  The prospect of eating alone with the handsome captain filled her with quivering apprehension, but at the thought of a good hot meal, and the chance to ask him to recruit her as well, since he was looking for crew, Almira accepted.

  “Thank you, sir. That's very kind. I shall be only too pleased.”

  He strode down the street to the tavern, and did literally poke his head in and out. Several men immediately came running. He knew them all by name, and told them either no, or to come to see him at the Trident first thing in the morning.

  “So tell me,” he said when he was able to turn his attention to her once more, “how is your father?”

  She sighed. “I was hoping you might be able to tell me news of him, sir. He still hasn't returned to port, though it’s been more than four years.”

  Jared stopped in his tracks and stared at her in astonishment. “That can’t be. He left New Zealand before I did. Months before.”

  She nodded. “So far as we know, he gammed at the Bay of Islands with the Lyra and the Mermaid, and filled his hold. They threw their try works over board, and began to head for home almost a year ago with all possible speed. That’s the last that anyone's seen or heard of him.”

  He looked truly crestfallen. “I’m sorry to hear it. It’s a dreadful loss, and hard for you and your sisters.”

  “Yes, it has been,” she said hoarsely, barely holding back the tears.

  “Well, if there is anything I can do to help,” he said.

  He held the door open for her as they entered the hotel, and headed for the dining room.

  “Actually, there is,” Almira had the nerve to say once they were seated.

  He looked up from the elegantly-printed menu with a slight frown. “There is what?”

  “Something you can do to help. I wouldn't ask if I weren't desperate.”

  He looked mildly wary, but nodded. “I can try.”

  “I need a job. I want to ship on board with you.”

  He shook his head. “Very admirable, but you're so young and green, and small.” He grasped her thin forearm by way of illustrating his point.

  She blushed at the contact. “I know all the objections to my becoming a whaleman, and I'd never ask for myself. It’s for my sisters. I need some money to apprentice them with a good dressmaker. If you were to take me on, and pay me in advance, I could buy them their articles, and be sure they were looked after well while I’m away.

  "Then I could go off to look for my father and brother with a clear conscience. And at least if Father did happen to come home while I was gone, he would find Amy and Alice, and news of what had happened to me and my brother Adrian.”

  “He wasn't at sea with your father?” Jared asked, his brows knitting.

  “No, he shipped out on another whaler, for work, and to find Father once he was so overdue that we began to fear the worst.”

  “And so he left you in charge of your sisters? You're so young. How could he?”

  She shook her head. “He didn’t know Mother would fall ill and die. He thought he was helping, earning money and searching for Father himself. But I fear he might not take to the whaling life, and might be in trouble, miserable.”

  Jared shrugged. “Many greenhands suffer when they first ship out, but they soon settle down-”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. We were desperate for money at that point, so he took the first berth he could get. The shipping agent who signed him up told him a pack of lies. He shipped out on the Dolphin from New Bedford, with Captain Smith.”

  Jared was dumbstruck. When he finally found his voice, he gasped, “Good God, not Killer Smith! How long has he been gone?”

  “About three months.”

  He rubbed his jaw and did some quick mental calculations. “There might still be time to catch them, if they run into some whales, and make long stops in each port for a drinking binge. Knowing Smith, that's pretty likely.”

  He stared at the plate the waiter brought him as if he could not understand where it had appeared from.

  Then he glanced up at Almira, who was still looking at him pleadingly, her blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears. His own golden gaze met hers.

  He cleared his throat, and sat up straight. “Very well, I tell you what we're going to do, son. We're going to eat this fine meal, including dessert. I adore cake, and I’m sure your family do too. We’ll get them to wrap up some to take with us. Then we're going to go see your sisters and arrange for their apprenticeship.

  "Next we’re going to pack up the house and stow your gear aboard. I’m going to hire you on as cabin boy, at one-one-hundredth of a lay. The money from the apprenticeship will be deducted from that at the end of the voyage. We’re going to find out any news we can about you father, if I have to stop in every port and speak every ship from here to New Zealand. And you're going to learn everything you can about whaling, so that you can follow in his footsteps.”

  “I know navigation and sums," she said proudly. "I was born aboard ship, you know, and lived with my mother and father for many years.”

  “I know. My cousin Dare sails with his wife Samantha. A remarkable woman, that. A remarkable story. She shipped out with him disguised as a greenhand. Hah! He never even guessed she was a woman. Just imagine that!”

  “Er, yes, just imagine,” Almira said weakly.

  She tried to swallow her roast beef, but it had suddenly been rendered as tasteless as sawdust as she thought of her own masquerade, and her deceiving this fine man.

  “I suppose there are a lot of advantages to having her on board, but I wouldn't want any wife of mine in such danger," he said emphatically.

  “Does she enjoy it, sir?” she asked curiously in a more normal tone.

  “She does. She loves it. But then, she loves him. And he loves her. So it suits them. I can’t imagine it myself, but then, I'd never be fooled in that way. Or want my wife to see me at sea in such appalling conditions. Your mother was a very brave woman.”

  At those words, Al had smiled wanly and thought to give up the whole scheme at once. She would try to find another way to get the money. But she'd got that far, far enough to trick him despite his confident assertions. It had taken on the dimensions almost of a dare. And there was something about the handsome and kind Captain which reassured her, told her that she could trust her life to him.

  Jared Starbuck had been the soul of kindness. Almira had soon decided she had nothing to lose and everything to gain by going ahead with her scheme to ship out with him on the Trident. He was certainly a wonderful man, and she grew more fascinated with him with every passing moment.

  They had finished the meal just as he had said they would, and then he had escorted her home. Jared had taken one look at her empty cupboards and come back with a crate full of essentials. He had also sent out to the local pie shop for dinner and to a bakery for fresh bread and even more cake. He was wonderful with her sisters and Mrs. Jenkins, and had his crew come from the ship to help move all their household effects.

  He had kitted out Almira with clothes for the journey, though she had all to do to prevent him from insisting that he go with her to buy the things.

  She managed to figure out the men’s sizes for herself, and got some study shoes and boots for the trip, and a nice warm coat and a rain slicker she had been advised to purchase by an old salt, who told her that she would never regret having it.

  She'd said a tearful farewell to her sisters, and shipped out on the Trident with the dashing Jared Starbuck within three days.

  She had been more than eager to head off on the adventure. She just prayed it wouldn't be the biggest mistake of her life.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Now, six weeks later, Al was still managing
to keep her identity a secret from Jared. She was always conscious of her deception, and rather ashamed of it. For despite their disparity in rank and position, they had become friends. There was no other word for it so far as she could tell, though she was beginning to suspect it might be growing into love on her part.

  He was certainly the most marvellous man she had ever met, even more remarkable than her own father. Jared had gone out of his way to take her under his wing and teach her everything he thought she needed to know about the world of whaling.

  They had become closer with every passing day, but despite their increasing intimacy, no time had ever seemed the right one to tell him the truth. Now weeks later, despite all of her arduous duties, no one was yet aware of her true gender.

  If she was being completely honest, she didn't want to tell Jared, because she didn't wish her role aboard the ship to change.

  She had earned acceptance and friendship from almost everyone. To tell the captain that he had been sharing his cabin, eating, sleeping, bathing, dressing and undressing in front of a woman all this time was probably more than he could ever accept or forgive.

  And the last thing she wanted was to be put off at the next port, when she was so desperate to catch up to her brother and find her father.

  It had certainly opened her eyes living in such close quarters with him, but she was sure there could never be a finer man in the world than Jared Starbuck. Handsome, magnetic, patient, intelligent, she was sure he was an even more admirable man than her own father.

  She wept into her pillow at night to think what her brother was suffering at the hands of Captain "Killer" Smith on The Dolphin due to her beloved father's disappearance.

  She was sure he was alive. She just had to find him. And she would endure whatever it took, travel to the ends of the earth a hundred times over, to find him, or at least know of his ultimate fate. Then she could go back home to her sisters, and face her future one way or the other.

  As Almira staggered onto the deck now, utterly worn out by the whaleboat practice, Jared came closer, and gave her a sympathetic look.

  “Come on, lad, get yourself changed out of your wet things, and let’s have an evening in my cabin. Invite all the boys, and we'll get out the game boards and have a tournament.”

  “Aye, Captain.” She grimaced as she pulled the stiff white duck fabric encrusted with sea water away from her neck where it was chafing.

  She clung onto the rail and propelled herself forward with sheer willpower alone. She was exhausted, and the last thing she wanted was the crowd of greenhands around.

  But she loved being with Jared. Even if he had to share his company, it was better than being on her own without him.

  In fact she was rather looking forward to beating him at cards. Her father had taught her everything she needed to know, and she seemed to have an uncanny knack for keeping track of the game.

  She ran down to the large cabin and began to lay out the cards, scrimshawed cribbage boards, checkers, chess, and books. She also took out her slate and chalk. He could give her a few more navigational problems while she played chess with him or one of the other boys.

  Then she headed into the captain’s stateroom, which was also her own. It was fitted with a bunk and a hanging bed for herself, and a bathtub and two chests for his clothes and linens, and one cupboard for her own things.

  The large main cabin, with a huge leather sofa which stretched from one side of the ship to the other, was well used as an area for the men to congregate. The officers came in one night, the boatsteerers another, and the greenhands on another, each twice a week, with Sundays a special day when the crew all got together for a spot of socializing, such as a square dance or sing-song.

  The fact the he had told her to call the greenhands, commonly referred to as greenies, even though it was Sunday, seemed to her to be a special consideration intended for her in particular.

  Almira hastily stripped off her soaking clothes and unwrapped her bosom, allowing herself the luxury of leaving off the strapping for just a little while as she donned clean trousers and a shirt.

  She buttoned the top two buttons, and tied the tails around her waist as she wrung out the clothes in the tub and then hung them on a line to dry. She pulled the rope which opened up the sluice to the rain barrel situated above on deck, and washed her face and hands in the fresh rainwater, before drying herself with a towel and hanging it back up. She was more than grateful for the primitive plumbing. Sun and salt water wreaked havoc on the skin. At least the rainwater and Jared's fine milled soap he insisted on sharing did something to mitigate the harsh conditions at sea. Her mother had always been most particular about her complexion. Poor mother, what would she think of her eldest daughter's plight now…

  She looked around the confined space of the cabin, and once again thought her fate could have been a lot worse. But it was hard to believe how close the quarters were in the ship. Sometimes she thought the idea of living there for three years would drive her mad.

  Then she remembered Amy and Alice back home, and knew that she had made the right decision. At some point, when she found her father and brother, she told herself, she could go home and have a room all of her own for her books and things, and would only have to share with people she loved. For now, she simply had to endure.

  She was just completing her ablutions when she heard the outer door scrape inwards. She gasped as the Captain entered the room.

  Realizing she had not strapped her ample bosom back down, she slouched her shoulders forward so he would not notice them protruding.

  “Your back must hurt like mad. You’re standing there like a hunchback. If you take your shirt off, I can rub some ointment on it.”

  “No! No, thank you, Captain. I’m fine.”

  “Listen, I’m sorry if you had a hard time today-”

  “I’m part of the crew. I have to pull my weight,” she said with a proud lift of her dainty chin.

  He shook his head. “You’re the cabin boy. I should never have told the first mate to treat you like one of the greenhands.”

  “It’s all right. Most of it I enjoy. The rigging, for example,” she said truthfully.

  “Still, Mate can be a harsh taskmaster at times, I do admit it.” He came over and rubbed her back, sending a shudder of warmth coursing through her.

  “Cold?” he asked, when he noticed her shivering.

  “Still a bit damp after the soaking in the boat.”

  He took his coat off and draped it around her. It was still warm from the heat of his body, and she felt a glow within at the intimacy.

  “No, really, sir, not your coat, I'll ruin it,” she said, trying to give it back. He had already been more than kind to her.

  “Nonsense, just a bit of damp, is all, and besides, its only cotton, not wool. Hold on to it for me. I’m roasting. But then I haven’t been soaked to the skin for hours.”

  He opened the door to the main cabin, and strode over to the desk that he kept in one corner by the sofa.

  “Shall I do the log, or would you like to do it?”

  “I’ll be happy to take your dictation,” she said.

  "Wonderful. Your hand is so much better than mine." He sat beside her, their knees just touching, sending a strange tingling up and down her spine.

  She noted down his words carefully in her best penmanship, important details like the latitude and longitude, and the weather.

  “Wind calm, whaleboat practice again today for two hours,” he said, and then nodded. “And let's hope the rest of the day remains relatively uneventful. Though if a whale is sighted, I think I might just send us out. I don't normally whale on a Sabbath, but our oil is getting low, and I don’t fancy running out before we get around the Horn.”

  “I’m sure we'll find some. We just have to pray, as my father always said.”

  Jared nodded, and sighed. “He's a good man, that’s for certain.”

  She sighed heavily, and suddenly the cabin seemed far too sm
all and confined with the both of them there. “If you'll excuse me, sir, I’ll just rouse the greenies for the evening, and get you some food?”

  “I just had something, actually. Bread and cheese. You get something hot for yourself though. I’ll set up the chess board and see you in a little while.”

  “Can you give me more navigational problems too? My slate is there. Oh, and I'd love to have another star chart test of the constellations when you have time.”

  Jared smiled at Al fondly. “You do have the most remarkably agile mind. Mate calls you a monkey, you know.”

  “I love the rigging. I just hate the whaleboat.”

  “At least you don't suffer from malde mer.”