The convoy made port in the Azores to take on water and wood for the cook stoves, a scene that Maddie observed from the poop deck with Edmund Powell tied to her like an anchor. If not for this disruption, she would be at her lessons, her every minute governed by a schedule as rigorous as the daily watch. Study filled the long days, with recreation limited to the start of the first watch when she played with the wardroom dog until three bells. At the end of each day she took the air with the Admiral, and she studied him like another subject to be learned. He answered her questions as best he could, although she stumped him when she asked why her mother had married a foreigner. It was one of life’s puzzles that could only be solved by falling in love, the Admiral said, a riddle of the heart and not the head.
By the time that the Intrepid sailed up the Solent, Maddie believed she had reached the source of his desire to remove her from Charleston. He loved Mama fiercely, with all his heart and soul. Her loss had broken him inside, in the same place where Maddie was broken. He was the first person she had met who understood what it felt like, to have a piece missing, but he had a bigger hole in his heart because he believed it was his fault that Mama had died. That was not to say that Mr. Ashford had taken her simply because Mama asked him to on her death bed. He wanted to be her father. It was difficult to grasp such an idea, that he would choose to be her father when he could have married again and had children of his own. She asked only once about the contracts he had signed with Grandfather, about what they meant. In six years time, he said, she would be free to do as she pleased, to go where she liked. The Admiral hoped that she might like to remember him when that time came. Maddie felt all fluttery inside when he shared his secret wish. For as naughty as she had been, he still wanted to keep her.