Just before he leaves me to my studies, he leans back in his chair and fixes me with his gaze. Then he lobs the bomb. "You are to be enrolled in a girls' school in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Mr. Tilden has connections there and will make the necessary arrangements. You are to receive a midshipman's share of the prize money, and that will be placed on your account at the school. Upon completion of your studies, you will receive the balance, if any. We all thought this would be best, and you should thank God for this opportunity to better yourself. Good day, Miss."
He leaves me with the wind knocked out of me and I just sit there for a while in thought. Then I get out one of the books that Mr. Lawrence has lent me and I go up on deck and before Johnny can say no I fly up to the mizzentop and Johnny says, "Please come down," and I put my head over the side of the top and says, "C'mon, Johnny, I'm right here, I can't get away and a girl needs some time to herself, like," and I put my back against the mast and let my mind race on.
Johnny stands guard below.
I take my dinners with Deacon Dunne in the gun room and they are pretty joyless affairs. The first time I tucked into my horse, he said, "Oh my, we'll have to do something about that," and so I'm being taught table manners and etiquette and how a fork is used and what goes where in setting a table and where to put my hands, which is all right because it gives us something to talk about. After dinner, I take a turn about the deck and then am taken to my kip and locked in. The Marine on night duty doesn't stand outside the door all night, as I'm not considered all that dangerous, but instead he beds down on a cot in the passageway.
I hear Henry Marine's snores coming through the bars not long after we have a bit of a talk and he goes off to turn in. Henry was the easiest of the Marines to crack, him having a mother and sisters at home and used to talking to females. I had him blubbering over "The Cruel Sister" in no time.
I light my candle and look over at my Bible but pick up instead Moll Flanders, which I borrowed from the midshipmen's berth and say to myself I'll only read a little and then I'll do the Bible assignment. The middies got some pretty interesting books, the naughty boys. I'm settling in but then I hear a tap on the bars of the little window. What...
It's Davy. I blow out the candle.
"Shushh ... talk real low," I says, getting up and standing under the grating. "What's happened ... how's Jaimy ... what's—"
"Back in jail again, Jacky? My, my," says Davy, all full of himself for having snuck on the ship undetected and so full of news that he can barely contain himself. "Seems you've spent more time in here than any of us. It's proper, though, you bein' a connivin' deceiver and liar and all."
"Davy...," I hisses.
"All right, Jacky, calm yerself." He clears his throat. "Well, right after you got hung and we all charged up the beach, yellin' like banshees and swingin' our cutlasses and bangin' our guns with Jaimy in the lead—or I should say Mr. Fletcher, him bein' made midshipman about the same time you was but he didn't get to enjoy it none, you bein' dead and all—and anyways, Jaimy runs straight through the pirates' line and cuts you down with one swipe of his sword and you crumpled on down to the ground, all loose-jointed like you didn't have no bones, and you know the rest of that part, but you don't know that the pirates were all killed, LeFievre, too, except for a few who were real happy to tell us where their loot was stashed. There's tons and tons of it, Jacky, all gold and silver and jewels, and we're rich again, Jacky. The Captain is so happy, he's forgivin' you for bein' a girl and you're to get a full midshipman's share o' the plunder."
He pauses. "You did hear what they're gonna do with you?" I reply that I had.
"Sorry, Jack. Anyway there's more. After the pirates are buried—'cept for LeFievre's head, which we're goin' to hang from the bowsprit when we go into port as a warnin' to other pirates, neat, hey?—well, right after that, Jaimy goes up to Bliffil and slaps him across the face and calls him out! Right! He challenges him to a duel with swords to avenge the beatin' o' you. I guess the Captain's rule about no duelling amongst the midshipmen don't apply when the ship is far away and anyway he don't say nothin' against it. Calm down, Jacky, he's all right. Anyways, Bliffil weasels out and won't fight and ever'one sees that he won't and the Captain is going to put him off at the next port 'cause the Captain found out that Bliffil hung back by the boat when the fight was going on and he's to receive no share of the loot! How's that for justice!
"The fixin' o' the ship is goin' real fast, and they expect to be done in a few days. Everyone's comin' back now 'cause we've got enough wood, so Jaimy'll be here tomorrow, and Tink and I are now rated Ordinary, and didn't I have the best time in your camp!"
Chapter 45
So it is to be Boston. After all this time of wondering where I would finally be put off, it is to be there, the home of the bean and the cod. Well, it is a seafaring town and maybe I'll be able to find my little ship there, after I'm finished off at the finishing school, which is the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. So maybe I'll get to be one after all. A lady, that is.
Not that I have much say in the matter. When Tilly comes back on board, I go to see him and say, "Why do I have to go to this school? I have money now and I want to marry James Fletcher and he wants to marry me and why can't we?
He says, "Because you're too young. The Doctor says you're probably about fifteen years old at the outside and therefore have not reached your majority and have no rights, and furthermore, you are female, which means you have even fewer rights. Besides, the Captain has obligations to Mr. Fletcher's parents and marriage to you is not in it."
"But Mr. Tilden, why can't I just be given my prize money and be put off? I've been looking after myself for my whole life now and I believe I'm qualified to continue doing it."
"I'm afraid the matter is settled, Miss," he says, primly. I think I make him nervous in my new femaleness. He looks over his spectacles at me. "The Schoolmistress is personally known to me. She is a fine upstanding Puritan lady. You and your money will be safe there. I will convey you to the school when we arrive in Boston."
End of matter.
Everyone came back aboard today. I will not be closeted away, and I browbeat the poor helpless George Marine and Johnny Marine to escort me down to the gangway. I have them stand on either side of me, all beautiful in their uniforms and me in the middle with my new black midshipman's kerchief and my dress whites. I have a Bo'sun's pipe, which I use to pipe everyone aboard, saluting smartly like a proper middie. There's Mr. Lawrence and Liam and the Master and ... there's Jaimy.
He comes towards me and I go towards him, but the Marines step between us.
"Sorry, Miss Faber, but specific orders on this one."
The Captain is the last one to come on board. He returns my salute and orders me below. I think my midshipmanship is over.
It takes some doing, but the Dolphin is off on the tide.
Chapter 46
Bliffil was put off the ship without ceremony in Charleston. Before he left he laid his curse upon Jaimy and me and promised to see us both in Hell.
My poor dear Marines have been replaced with a trio of older men. Major Piggott, the commander of the Marine unit, apparently wasn't pleased with the level of discipline that the former dear boys were able to maintain in the force of my charms. No matter. I found that two of my new grizzled veterans have daughters of my age, so...