sister had been granted her heart’s desire. What else could Jess ask for?
Andy dropped out of the rigging beside her. He only had a moment to spare, before he was needed aloft again, where they would soon begin taking in the sails.
“Captain Hedley’s going to pay me off tomorrow,” he announced.
“What? You haven’t got the sack? You’ve been too cheeky, Andrew Davison,” Jess accused.
“No, no,” Andy laughed. “He’s letting me go because I asked him to. Without passengers he can work the ship with fewer crew for the homeward leg. There’ll likely be others waiting to sign on anyway. There usually are. I’ve spent enough of my life at sea.”
“But what will you do?”
“Kevin Mabon and Dougal MacKenzie have offered me a partnership in their forge,” he explained. “I work for three years without any pay, just my keep, and then they’ll make me a full partner. I’ll be sixteen by then. There’s not many have shares in a business by sixteen.”
“I’m glad for you, Andy,” Jess told him. “Will I see you ashore?”
“Often,” he smiled. “The forge will be just down the road a piece from Gil Inkster’s school.”
With the ship turning into the anchorage, he had to leave her there. He winked, and leapt away up the ratlines. Jess hugged herself contentedly, and turned to look for Sarah among the passengers milling excitedly all around the decks.
When the last sails were released, and brailed, there was only the pressure of the wind on the hull and rigging to carry the ship the last few feet up to the wharf, where the customs officers, and a welcoming crowd of people were waiting. She touched gently, shuddered, came to a stop. Men on the wharf caught the lines thrown down to them, and hitched them over the bollards. They had arrived.
Together the Gordon sisters looked up at the houses ranked row above row up the hillsides surrounding the harbour. While green grass clothed the spurs, trees clustered in the valleys, and the sun shone on sparkling green water. It was a beautiful place.
They were glad now that they had come.
* * *
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