Through The Garden Gate Part 3
by Atonia
Chapter 1
The accommodations Jack and Dr. Maturin found were in a rooming house perched on the side of a hill overlooking the port. It was a tall gray weathered looking house, but set far enough back from the docks to be respectable. The steep narrow stairway led to a large room with a bed, dresser, table and a few odd chairs. Dr. Maturin also took a ‘single’ room in the same house. His room was much smaller and the view was of the back garden where clothes were draped over ropes and chickens lived and a privy occupied the far corner.
The landlady was a severe looking woman but she was friendly enough.
We moved in the morning after the big dinner on the Shannon. Did I say how strange it felt walking on solid ground again? I can well understand the distinctive gait men of the sea adapt. Jack complimented me on the way I carried off the dinner.
“I was afraid my being an American might be a problem for you.”
“Not for me. There may be those who suspect but I wouldn’t worry about them.”
“Suspect what?”
“That you are a spy. I have an idea Captain Ross was probing for a bit information.”
“You thought I was a spy when you met me. Now I understand why. I never thought about it, that I would cause problems for you with the navy.”
“You haven’t…you’re my wife and above suspicion.”
“Am I your wife…do you think of me that way?”
“Yes, I do.”
I moved over to the window and looked out on the busy port. “Will you get a ship?”
“Most certainly I will. I have a meeting this afternoon with Vice Admiral Sawyer.”
I turned toward him. “I wish you luck…I think. I understand this is what you do, this is your job in life. It’s just that it’s going to take you away from me and I’m sure that’s fine for you. At least you’ll get to sleep during the night.”
He turned away from me at that last little bit. I thought he was being absolutely absurd about the whole thing. I knew he had feelings for me and sometimes like now I wanted to shake him.
“I don’t think you understand-“
“Too right I don’t. You once said something about God or fate or spirit had brought me to you. Why do you think that happened? Could it be because you needed me and I needed you? Could it be something was missing in our lives? That something is love. Don’t you want me to love you?”
“No, no I don’t. I’ve lived 36 years without it…without anyone. I’m married to the sea.”
“Does she keep you warm at night, does she place wet kisses on your lips, does she touch you…run her fingers through your hair-“
“Stop. In the name of God…stop.”
“No, I won’t stop. You want me as much as I want you. I don’t want a divorce from you. It was your idea to marry me but I would have gone with you without a legal marriage. What is it that holds you back are you afraid to love?”
He took his coat off and tossed it on the bed and paced around for a moment. I stood my ground not moving. We’d just have it out here and now.
“I…I once was engaged to marry.” He looked over at me. “I was a young man without a commission but I thought I was in love. I went to see her one day without notice and found her with someone else.”
“So…you renounced love…gave up on it. Do you still love her?”
“No.”
I moved then to the back of a chair. “Don’t paint us all with the same paintbrush. I’m not like anyone you’ve ever met I can guarantee you that. I won’t leave you high and dry. I came across a wide divide to get to you. “
“I know you did.”
“Well, why are we wasting all this time? I’m not going to turn away from you no matter how much you ignore me. I love you, Jack Treadwell, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
He sat down on the side of the bed and put his head in his hands. “I don’t want to disappoint you, Ellie. You’ll be better off without me…I’ll be at sea for months on end.”
“Excuses,” I moved quickly and pushed him back on the bed and straddled him. The look on his face was priceless but I was relentless.
“I love you, Jack.” I kissed him and kissed him again until his arms went around me and he turned me over on the bed pressing his weight on me. He kissed me then…no gentle peck or brotherly brush. It was a kiss.
I felt boneless beneath him and then…I never wanted to kill someone so bad in my life as Killick at the door with our trunks and two burly looking seamen.
Jack jumped up and I slowly stood straightening my dress out and sent Killick a look that would have melted metal. How dare he grin! I turned my back on them until they left.
“Where do you want the trunks?” Jack asked.
I bit my tongue.
However, the moment had passed and he was retying his neck cloth. “I have to go.” He picked up his coat and came over to me and put his arms around me pressing my back to his chest. I turned in his arms and we kissed again.
“Good luck, Jack.” I walked to the door with him. At least the ice was broken between us. Maybe…just maybe.
I spent the afternoon emptying my trunk and arranging my clothes in the dresser. I set out my brushes and mirror and the few trinkets the women in Savannah had packed for me. I thought about emptying Jack’s things out but if he was really going to sea I’d better not.
Dinner as announced when we moved in to be promptly at 7:00. Promptly I was downstairs in the dining room and was glad to see Dr. Maturin there.
“He hasn’t come back?”
“No, he hasn’t and I’m a little worried over that.”
“He must have got a ship. I imagine he’s having a look.”
“Yes, that’s probably it. Will you go with him when he ships out?”
“Ah, yes I will if he’ll have me.”
“I suppose Killick will go too?”
“Most certainly he will, he’s Jack’s steward.”
“Hmm, I don’t suppose I’ll go will I?”
“I wouldn’t think so, Mrs. Treadwell.”
“Why not call me Ella?”
“All right, then you must call me Stephen.”
“I’d like to think we’re friends.”
“You’re right to think that. We have Jack in common if nothing else.”
“Oh, I think we might have a lot in common. Has he said anything about me…about how we met?”
“He said he met you in his garden and that you somehow got separated from your friends.”
“We did meet in his garden but I wouldn’t call the group I was with friends. It was a tour group. We’d been touring up the coast of Georgia. They were ready to leave but I wanted a last look through his garden gate. I must have pushed on it and it opened. The tour left without me.” All true.
“You didn’t want to catch them up?”
“Well, Killick took me to where I left them but they were gone and a rather unsavory group of people were there so he took me back to Jack’s house.”
“And he decided to marry you?”
“Sorta, kinda,” I smiled.
“There has to be more to it than that. He’s not that impulsive had you known him before?”
“No, I’d never met him before.” I broke off a piece of bread and dipped it into my bowl of stew. “Stephen, do you think it is possible to step from one world into another? What I mean is…if there was such a thing as all time being one just laid out side by side and linked like sausages one after the other and it be possible that you could step from one link to the other or possibly skip a few links and go back in time?”
He put down his spoon, “What a strange thing to say.”
“I know it is a strange thing to say…never mind.”
“That’s a rather interesting idea. Do you mean physically move from say today to last year or last century?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Well, I can’t imagine how a thing like that could happen.”
“Say there was a window…or a door…or a garden gate and you stepped through it and found yourself back in time by…200 years.”
“It’s a fascinating thought. A person might be able to change the course of history.”
“Um hm, or change a person’s life.”
“I can see where it might be useful. If someone had stepped into Napoleon’s life at the right time he might not want to rule the world.” He helped himself to another spoonful of stew.
“Would it be a good thing if someone stepped into Jack’s life?”
“I’m not certain. I suppose it would depend on who it was.” He turned and looked at me for a minute. “You’re serious?”
“Yes, I am. Stephen, I was born in 1988. It was 2011 when I stepped through Jack’s garden gate. He knows…and that’s why he married me. I came back for him.”
Chapter 2
Jack’s entrance into the dining room went unnoticed by Stephen who was still in shock at my revelation.
“Jack.”
He was beaming so I knew he had his ship. He came around the table and dropped a kiss on my cheek. “Am I too late?”
“No, grab a spoon. You got it didn’t you?”
“I did indeed. A fifth rate frigate. She’s called the HMS Nymphe.”
Jack began spooning himself a plate of stew and looked up at Stephen. “You’ll be getting your stores in order tomorrow, Stephen.”
“What? Oh…yes.” He looked at me again, “It’s not possible.”
“I’m afraid it is or it was as you see I’m here.”
“What’s this?” Jack asked.
“She’s just told me the most extraordinary story. She’s traveled through time…”
Jack looked at me, “You told him?”
“Yes I did. We’ve decided we’re to be friends and I thought he should know.”
“It’s not a story, Stephen, I was there when she came through. Walked through my garden gate dressed as a boy.”
“I had on denim jeans. You won’t know about them but they’re pants.”
“It’s beyond imagination,” Stephen said.
“Well, you’d better get your mind around it.” Jack was digging into his stew.
“That explains her strange speech. I often wondered exactly where she was from.”
“She is a bit…strange.” Jack grinned around his hunk of bread. “Certainly different from women we’ve known.”
Stephen leaned an arm on the table. “You must tell me all about it, the sensations, the visions, the entire experience.”
“Not much to tell really. For two days in a row I stopped at his gate and looked through and both times my vision would blur slightly and the garden would change to black and white meaning there wasn’t color to anything. All shades of gray and I saw Jack moving about his garden. I thought he was a ghost. The gate was rusted shut and wouldn’t open but on the second day I leaned against it and spoke to him. I felt a little jolt kind of like an electrical shock which I will explain further some time but then the gate opened and I walked through. It closed behind me and when I tried to leave it was 1812 outside the gate.”
Stephen was shaking his head, “Extraordinary.”
“I thought she was mad at first and it was later at dinner I believe that she told me the truth. I had to believe her. As fate would have it my passage came through that afternoon and I went ahead and arranged for her as well. Knowing I could not have her aboard a naval ship without her being wed to me or some relation I arranged a marriage.”
“He could have left me behind in fact he offered his house to me but I was in a panic. I couldn’t possibly live there alone besides something told me I was there for him. He knows it’s so.”
“Well, I’m not half Irish for nothing. I know there are things that happen without any conceivable reason or explanation.”
“The wee people.” Jack grinned and patted my hand.
I smiled, “Tell us about the ship.”
“It’s been refitted, 36 guns it has.”
“You’ll be in your element, Jack. I can hear it now…practice…practice…practice.” Stephen sighed.
“I met the crew today and a few old timers I remembered. We’ll have her up in no time at all.”
“Would it be possible for me to see it?”
“Yes, you may come with me tomorrow.”
Dinner passed on with more talk of the ship and the guns which he seemed particularly proud of. I was happy for him. Happy because he was happy.
At long last we retired to our room. I’d been especially waiting for this. I decided I wasn’t going to push him into anything but let him go at his own pace…up to a point. It was obvious he wasn’t going to run and hide on a ship for the night when he removed his boots.
“ A real bed tonight.” I remarked.
He glanced over at it and untied his neck cloth. I began unbuttoning my dress and pulled it over my head getting it tangled up in my hair but hands came to help. Nice.
For the first time he looked at me. Really looked at my shoulders, my chest and the outline of my breasts in the thin chemise. He began undoing the ribbons and pushed it from my shoulders exposing my breasts. I stood as still as I could while he touched me. Petticoats puddled on the floor around my feet and then…
“What the devil?” He stepped back and looked and then turned me around.
“Bikini panties…they’re all the rage.” I grinned.
“Scandalous,” he said and crushed me to him and kissed me. His hands were all over my back and came down cupping my bottom.
“Mmm, but I am scandalous don’t you know?”
“I’m beginning to know…and I like it.”
I ran my hands up his back and pulled his shirt from his pants. He pulled it over his head. Now only one thing remained between us and I ran my fingers around the waist of his pants. He took it from there and lifted me onto the bed. We came together as though we were made for each other and perhaps we were.
Finally after 25 days of marriage…we were husband and wife.
This newfound thing between us kept him abed in the morning until the sun was up and shining delightfully through the window. Then he remembered he had a ship and all was rush, rush to get to the docks.
Stephen had finished his breakfast and was in the front parlor with a newspaper while we hurriedly had ours. He called out bits of information to us.
“America officially declared war on England on 18 June. Another article says it was the 15th.”
“I don’t suppose it matters now.” Jack replied across the hallway.
“The Shannon’s gone out with a squadron. I thought you might be a part of that.”
“No, I’m a privateer.”
“You’re not part of the navy?” I asked.
“Oh, yes I am but this will allow me to operate on my own and there is more chance for prizes.”
“What will you do just cruise about for something to pillage and plunder?”
Jack laughed, “Not quite.”
“I think you said it well, Ella.” Stephen joined us in the dining room while we finished our breakfast.
I was glad I’d told Stephen about myself now I could be myself around him as well as Jack. I didn’t have to watch what I said or how I put it. I will say that these two men, one of whom I now knew intimately, were very modern for their time. Especially Stephen. I think it was because he’s a doctor and a naturalist and rather scientific in his approach to things. I think if he lived in modern times he would be a scientist involved in research of some sort.
We walked down the hill to the docks passing some rough areas. I was glad for my escorts. There was Jack’s ship rocking gently in the water. It was a double-decker but Jack explained the bottom row of gun ports had been sealed. They rode too near the surface and in rough seas her lower gun deck was useless. It was painted a dark blue with gold trim.
All over the ship men were busy as we climbed aboard. A tall slender young officer came running to us apologizing for the state of things. Jack brushed him off and said inspection at noon tomorrow. The officer looked relieved and he greeted Dr. Maturin. Jack introduced me to him as Lieutenant Pullings. I was taken to Jack’s cabin and he left me there to wander about.
As cabin’s go it was large and light filled owing to a row of windows above wooden lockers. This was Jack’s space and I inspected all of it. He had a swinging bed, like the one we’d briefly had on the Bream, hidden in an alcove. I sized it up…yes it was possible to sleep two, but Stephen had already told me I would not be sailing with Jack. I knew it was a war ship and what action I’d already seen caused a worry around my heart. There were unlit hanging lanterns about and a sizable table in the middle of the room. A small writing desk and chair. All spare but uncrowded and neat looking. It smelled of paint and tar.
There was a clatter outside of the cabin and I opened the door. Killick and a large black man were manhandling a trunk into a little room. Killick saw me and said it was Captain’s tableware. Tableware?
Indeed it was. Tea pots, coffee service, china plates and silver knives and serving pieces. Wow, he traveled in style. Then I remembered the dinners I’d experienced at other captain’s tables. All was as perfect as if you were sitting down to dinner on Main Street.
I went back to Jack’s cabin and thought about Main Street. I shook my head, that was in another life and I wouldn’t trade mine now for anything. I put up with the inconveniences, no plumbing of any kind, lack of hot water except for coffee or tea. No shopping centers…wait a minute.
“Killick, if I wanted some fabric, where would I find it?”
“Let me know what you want and I’ll get it for you. Captain Treadwell’s name will get you anything.”
I thought of all the plunder the ships brought in and wondered where it went. Killick said it went to England…unless some was, um, lost.
I put in my order for silks, cottons, linens, paper if it was available and pen and ink and any trims that might be. He suggested lace trims. I also asked for hairpins.
About an hour later Jack came to collect me. “Well, what do you think?”
“I like it, I like this cabin with the windows that open. You’ve got plenty of space here.” He was all smiles and clearly pleased with himself.
I told him about my shopping order and he grinned, “There should be some good stuffs about Halifax.”
Chapter 3
My good stuffs didn’t arrive until the next morning but I was busy keeping up with Jack. He took me everywhere with him even down to the gun yard where he was replacing some guns on the Nymphe. Men looked surprised to see me in such places but I looked around with interest at their wares as if I was window shopping.
I sat quietly in his cabin out of the way when he met with his purser, man in charge of gunnery, sailmaster, etc. I forget all the fellows that were in and out of his cabin all afternoon. I was more interested in him and how he handled his men. There was no doubt at all who was in charge of things.
Killick, having got his captain’s galley in order, brought us coffee in the new cups and saucers. I noticed Jack hardly noticed what he drank out of only that it was there when he wanted it. It was Killick who kept the captain’s table.
Stephen was gone from the ship until late as we were getting ready to leave. He had his loblolly boy to assist getting his medical supplies in order. He’d also found a surgical assistant.
It was all coming together in an organized way. I tried not to think what it all meant. Jack was going to war. It lay there in the back of my mind like a dark cloud…a storm waiting to come ashore. I was determined to keep it at bay at least until he was gone. For now I lived in the moment.
I went up on deck to see barrels of water, crates of goods, live animals being brought aboard.
“Jack, how long will you be gone?”
“I cannot say.” He looked up from his table where he was entering something in a book for a young boy. “In all honesty I do not know, Ellie”
A chill took me and I went for my seat on the lockers wrapping my shawl around me.
He sent the boy on his way and moved over and sat by me. “You do see now why I was so hesitant to…this is my life. This is what I do and do well. This is how it will be if you choose to stay with me.”
“If I choose to stay with you? I’m in, Jack, for whatever it is I’m in for the long haul. You’re all I have.”
He kissed me softly and rose to answer another call from someone at his door. I suppose I knew but didn’t want to know. I did understand a little better why he was so hesitant to make me his. He threw out the lost love but I think this was the reason. Long absences and me alone somewhere waiting for him. Waiting…waiting for him to walk through the door or someone from the admiralty with a letter of condolences. Oh, God, I had to get out of there.
I went up on deck again, up to the poop deck and looked out toward the docks at the other ships being readied for battle. Some with new masts and sails still white. I took a deep breath. For better or worse I took him.
A young lad came up to me, “Are you all right, Mum?”
“Yes, thank you I’m fine. What’s your name?”
“Charlie Coombs, Midshipman.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m going fourteen this July.”
“Fourteen…how long have you been at sea?”
“Oh, two years. I haven’t sailed with Captain Treadwell before but I hear he’s a good and fair master.”
“Master…I ‘m sure he is.”
“Well,” he touched the brim of his hat. “I must leave you.”
I watched him walk with some importance down the deck. Fourteen years old and there were other boys some looked even younger. All of them…the boys and the men they were all under his wing. I believe he said 211 men and boys what a lot of responsibility. It all rested on his broad shoulders.
I straightened myself up…the least I could do was stand tall beside him for as long as I could.
I did not go down to the ship with him the next day. He staged an inspection at 12 and after that he was going to take the ship out of the bay and ‘rattle’ her guns.
I decided to open the trunk of goodies Killick had procured for me. I was amazed. Not only was it full of any kind of fabric I could want but a tea set, a coffee pot, spoons, buttons, beautiful hair combs and lace so fine I could hardly bear to touch it. This had to be the spoils of war and how he obtained it all I didn’t want to know. I lifted it all out of the trunk piling the fabric on the bed and setting my new things out on the dresser and table. A silver candlestick…well, the old wooden one would be put away. I might even make curtains for our windows. If I knew how to sew that is. Oh, I could turn up the hem in a pair of jeans but this work would require some fine hand stitching and I didn’t have a fine hand.
However, there was inspiration to be found. A French book of fashions. How convenient. I lay across the bed and turned the pages looking at the old fashioned fashion ideas except they weren’t old fashioned they were the latest thing from Paris. Such a lot of detail and I’d always leaned more or less toward classics. Clean lines without a lot of frou frou. I thought briefly of the comfortable boots I’d left behind in Columbia, the warm down coat and then I didn’t . None of that had any place in my life now. I was still wearing the same boots Salt had found for me in Savannah. I really needed shoes but had no idea how to get them nor did I have any money to purchase them.
Jack’s financial situation had never been discussed. I did know he’d sold his father’s shares in the silk business and other of his possessions but what he had or was worth I had no idea. If he was going to be gone for months I’d need a little money. I put it on my list of things to ask him about when he got back that night.
One of the things I missed most was something to read. I read the newspaper that was printed in Halifax whenever there was news to print. Mrs. Chambers, the landlady would lay it out in the parlor for guests to read. Right now aside from Stephen there was only one other gentleman boarder. I asked at the midday meal about reading material. Mrs. Chambers kept what few books she had locked in a cupboard in the parlor. Books were dear and not many people had them according to her. She didn’t offer them to me.
As I waited out the long afternoon for Jack to come home I could see what my life was going to be without him…bleak. Today was the first day not spent with him since we were married.
I lost count of the times I’d been to the window looking for Jack’s ship to come in and when it did I missed it. I didn’t miss his blond head coming up the road with Killick and Stephen. I ran down the stairs and met him at the door flinging myself into his arms. His face turned red but I didn’t care. This was our last night together and I meant to make the most of it.
“Are you all right?” he asked setting me away from him.
“I’m okay now.” I slipped an arm around him as we went inside.
He noticed my new additions immediately in the sparsely furnished room I told him Killick had brought me a trunk full of things, lots of fabrics that I couldn’t sew.
“You don’t stitch?” he asked.
“Not one of my accomplishments.”
“Well, you’ll have to find a dressmaker.”
“And a shoemaker too I suppose,” I added. “If I can find one…um, how will I pay her?”
“Ah yes, you will need some money and unfortunately I have spent the greater part of what I had about me on readying my ship.”
“You have to pay out of pocket for your ships supplies?” I couldn’t believe it.
“I am allowed certain things, my dear, but if I want anything else I must pay for it myself.”
“I suppose I could find work of some kind if you’re going to be gone for a long time I will have to have some money to keep myself up. I have a coffee pot and no coffee, a tea pot and no tea.”
He frowned at me, “Work? Do not be ridiculous, Ellie. You are my lady, my wife, I will not hear of such a thing. I will leave money to take care of your needs while I am away. I’ll also leave you a bank draft to use should some emergency arise.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend you but I have no way of knowing exactly how we are fixed for money and as for myself I’m flat broke. I came to you with nothing that will spend here.”
He went over to his sea chest and brought out a small purse handing it to me. “That should see you through but take someone with you if you shop.”
I opened it up to see it full of gold coins. “Is this a lot or…I’m sorry I’m so stupid.”
He let out a breath and drew me to him, “You really do need a keeper, Ellie, and I am so sorry that I am not going to be here to be that keeper. I’ll have a word with Mrs. Chambers and see if someone can be found to help you”
“I feel like a small child.”
“You are,” he lifted my chin and looked into my eyes, “and you are my child, my lover, my wife.”
The kiss that followed melted my face, my body, my mind. I swayed against him and he picked me up, arms crossed under my rear and turned me around looking up at me.
“I love you, Ellie.” He buried his face in my breasts. It was the first time he’d said it and I was undone. I rested my cheek on his head and let tears wet his hair. I wasn’t going to cry until after he left, I had it all planned…but oh…
He could be so tender with me and yet hot with passion. Seven o’clock came and went, dinner bell ignored. I fed on love and was full up. Sometime later there was a discreet knock on the door. Jack pulled his night shirt on and opened it. Killick had brought us a tray from the kitchen, a pot of coffee and a decanter of wine. I was going to miss Killick.
Jack spoke to him at the door before bringing the tray in himself.
“I’ve asked Killick to inquire of Mrs. Chambers for a maid for you.”
“I’ve never had a maid.”
“I gathered that, however, you will have servants for the rest of your life.”
“You spoil me.”
“No, Ellie, I love you.”
Chapter 4
Jack had the ability to fall asleep by closing his eyes. He went out like a light but not me. I knew he was leaving before dawn and I couldn’t waste time sleeping beside him. I lay watching him sleep and listening to him breathe feeling his warmth beside me. I’ve never in my life loved anyone like I love him. Whatever I had with Tom Shealy in my other life wasn’t love…not like this.
He stirs in his sleep turning his head slightly and the moonlight bathes him turning his hair white in it’s cool light. How can I bear for him to leave?
But leave he must and at 3:00 in the morning Killick knocked on the door. I eased out of the bed and pulled on my dressing gown.
“He’s still asleep.” I whispered.
“He’s got to get up.” Killick woke him and he sat up rubbing his eyes and looking around.
I lit the whale oil lamp on the table. Jack sat on the side of the bed with the sheet pulled across him and Killick laid out his clothes and fastened his sea chest hauling it toward the door.
“Is Stephen up?” Jack asked and Killick nodded in the affirmative.
Once Killick was out the door I went to Jack and sat beside him holding his hand. He drew me to him and we fell back on the bed for a deep kiss.
“I shall miss you. I’ll write every day and send mail when I can get it out.”
“I don’t know how to write you?”
“Just address it to me c/o The HMS Nympthe and I’ll get it.” He sat up and went to the wash bowl splashing water on his face. He was awake now and began dressing. Out in the hallway I could hear bumping about and loud whispers. Killick had help getting Jack and Stephen’s trunks down the narrow steps.
I began pulling on my own clothes and Jack looked up from his vest, “What are you doing you should go back to bed.”
“I wanted to see you off.”
“You are not coming to the docks.”
“Jack…”
“No, Ellie, we’ll say our good bye here. Don’t ever go out alone at night. Don’t ever go out at night unless you have a very large man with you…me.”
I smiled and moved over to him finishing up his buttons. “You’d better take care of you. I want you back all of a piece but even if you lose a piece I still want you back.”
He stilled my hands with his and met my eyes, “You’ll have me back.” He kissed me and held me so tightly the breath went out of me.
It was all happening too fast. He was dressed and Stephen came into our room bringing me a few things he wouldn’t be taking with him. Books I spied and thanked him. I hugged Stephen and told him he’d better look after Jack for me.
“That is my most important job to make sure the Captain is healthy. You take care too.”
I thought I’d have little else to do. My eyes were on Jack buckling on his cutlass. Next came the coat and he started to pick up his hat but turned to me and I went into his arms. Stephen stepped out into the hall. One last lip bruising kiss and he picked up his hat and left. I thought for a moment I was going to faint and grabbed the bedpost.
Ella, you can do better than this, I told myself. I ran to the window to watch the two dark shapes walking down the hill. There went my heart…my reason for living. Well, I sobbed and I cried and I knotted up my skirts and cried some more. I brought the glass Jack had given me over to the window so I could see his ship pulling out. It took some time for them to move but I knew the sails that appeared were his. I watched it until it was out of sight and then completely spent I fell across the bed and went to sleep.
I saw no reason to get up and still half dressed in petticoats and my dressing gown I lay about until the little clock Killick had found for me said 10:00. I probably would have stayed there if Mrs. Chambers hadn’t knocked on my door.
“Mrs. Treadwell, Mrs. Treadwell?”
I drug myself to the door, “Yes?”
She looked me up and down and her face surprisingly softened. “It’s allus bad when they leave. I’ve been in your place many a time.”
“Is your husband at sea?”
“He is but he won’t be coming back. I reckon he’s at the bottom of it. He was killed two year ago.”
“I’m so sorry.” A sob caught in my throat.
“Your Captain’s man said you wanted a maid. I’ve got a wretch down in the kitchen might be suitable. She’s an American like you but she’s got a boy with her. I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Should I come down?”
“Suit yourself, I can send her up if you’d like.”
“Would you please.” I shut the door and found my dress and pulled it on. I pulled my hair back with a ribbon and barefoot I met Molly Hutchins.
I have seen beggars and street people in most places I’d been in my other life but I had never seen such a wretched woman and child. The boy looked to be about eight years old and her age was undeterminable. Pale and filthy dressed in all they possessed she looked at me with steady gray eyes and introduced herself and her son, William.
“Come in.”
Her eyes darted around the room and she pulled her boy close and sat in one of the wooden chairs at the table.
“I’m Ella Treadwell. Mrs. Chambers says you’re American, where are you from?”
“Boston.”
I knew in my heart that Jack would have closed the door on them and said what was Mrs. Chambers thinking but I was curious how a woman could get in this condition. She was little more than skin and bones and her boy not much better.
“How do you come to be here in Halifax?”
“I come to find my husband but I was too late.”
“I’m sorry, where was he?”
“Over at Marsden Island he was a prisoner of war. They killed him over there…the British.” She clamped her mouth down tight.
“I’m very sorry for your loss. Do you know how it happened or when?”
“He died of sickness. Flux they called it. Died two weeks ago.”
“How did you get here and where have you been since then?”
“Come on a wagon part way and walked and come with a fisherman and walked some more. We’ve been staying where we could.” She put her arm around her round eyed boy.
“You’re stranded here with no way home aren’t you?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
I took a breath, “Have you ever worked as a maid?”
“No but I’m not afraid of hard work and William here is a strong lad though he be small.”
“Well, I’m not sure how hard the work would be. My husband has just gone to sea…just this morning.” I bit my lip. “He said I needed someone to help me. You see I’m not…I’m not familiar with Halifax or how one goes about shopping or finding dressmakers or shoemakers.” My eyes fell to the boy’s shoes. The toes had been cut out to allow room for his feet. “Oh, dear.”
I looked up and met her steady gaze. “Can you sew a dress?”
“Yes, Ma’am I’m right good with a needle.”
“All right…you’re hired.” I hoped I wouldn’t live to regret it.
I found my slippers and asked them to wait there and I ran downstairs to find Mrs. Chambers.
“I’ve hired her…I’ve never seen anyone so in need of employment. Have you a room where she could stay with her boy?”
“I thought you’d hire her…she being an American.”
“That had nothing to do with it. The woman is starving. Have you a room or not?”
“Up in the attic but it’ll cost you extra.”
“You can take that up with Captain Treadwell when he returns. It’s not a room you’d normally rent out is it? Well then.” We squared off.
“Mrs. Treadwell, they are crawling with vermin.”
“We’ll do something about that won’t we. No woman should be in that condition I don’t care where she’s from.”
She looked at me for a minute. “Aye, we can agree on that.”
“Will you help me?”
She let out a big sigh but agreed. She sent her girl up to the attic to make it a room a woman and boy could use. I followed her up there and it wasn’t a bad space. One window looking over the back and one on the end of the house so there would be good air movement. A single bed and an old dresser would do. A bed would have to be found for the little boy. It had been Killick’s room but I didn’t know that until later.
I went back to my room and told her she had a room but before she and the boy could enter it they had to be deloused. She burst into tears.
I don’t know but I could see myself in her position if, God forbid, something happened to Jack. Where would I go and what would I do… do you see?
Chapter 5
Two days after Jack left the following appeared in the newspaper:
The British frigate Belvidera was involved in a fight with the American squadron consisting of the President and the Congress. On or about 600 am on the morning of 23 June, 1812 the Belvidera sighted three large American frigates and tries to turn away. The American’s make sail and close quickly having the weather gage. Captain Bryon of the Belevidera clears the decks for battle. And a battle began. Nine men were wounded or killed aboard the Belvidera and it looked like the worst had come when the President’s main-deck gun blew up killing or wounding six men including Commodore Rogers. The Belvidera then opened up with stern guns and the President responded with a port broadside but did little damage to the Belvidera’s rigging. The President moved closer and fired her bow-chasers damaging the main top mast and cross-jack yard of the Belvidera. The President’s bow-chasers fired again further damaging the Belvidera. The excellent crew of the Belvidera worked quickly to repair the damage. Damage to their sails allowed the Congress to move in and open fire. Their shots fell short and the Belvidera changed course and was able to escape. She lies now in our harbor at Halifax safely home.
I leaned heavily back in the chair…that could have been Jack’s ship. I worried night and day because I couldn’t talk to him. No phones or text messaging in 1812. The only thing I could do was wait on the mail…and it didn’t come. I know he’d only been gone for two days…still.
“Wasn’t a fair fight was it?” Mrs. Chambers came into the dining room seeing I was reading at the table.
“No it wasn’t but thank God they made it back. That ship was alone out there why wasn’t he with the Shannon?”
“Ah, who knows. They don’t always hunt in packs and that’s where the trouble comes.”
“Jack’s alone as far as I know.”
Mrs. Chambers and I have come to some sort of a compromise. She’s still stern and sometimes cold but we do communicate. I have sympathy for her loss and who knows she may have been a sweet happy woman before her husband went to the bottom of the sea. Is that what happens to you? Could that be me?
My maid, Molly, now cleaned up and dressed properly from Mrs. Chamber’s housemaid’s closet was upstairs cutting out bloomers for me and I told her to cut some for herself. She at first refused and I told her I’d make dishcloths from the scraps if she didn’t. She was a quiet woman who’d endured many hardships. Mrs. Chambers found work for her son. He feeds the chickens.
Through ‘connections’ we were able to find him some proper boots with toes in. ‘Connections’ being one housemaid to another to another until the boots appeared. They were used but not abused.
I really did not know how things were done here and coming upon the laundry boiling away in a copper pot in the back garden one day I asked what sort of things went in there.
“Everything,” Doris the housemaid said. They also came out the same color of dingy gray.
The sheets on my bed were newish and not yet gray. I resolved to do my own laundry until Molly found out about it and took that job from me. I had nothing to do. Mrs. Chambers taught me to crochet and I made yards of an indiscriminate pattern of trim. Molly sewed it onto my new pillow cases. Wouldn’t Jack be proud of me.
Mrs. Chambers gave me a table cloth for my table upstairs. I was slowly but surely making myself a nest up there. Slowly because everything had to be handmade…there was no running out to Bed Bath and Beyond for new towels.
It was now past the middle of July and I’d yet to get a letter from Jack. I’d written him , as best I could with a feather and bottle of ink…read blotch, blotch. I’m sure William Hutchins could have done a better job and I’m not sure he can write. I tended to print most of it for it was easier than scratching across the page trying to write script.
The newspaper had this to report:
Captain Phillip Vere Broke’s had some success with his blockade of American ports. 16 July, 1812 he captured the 16 gun American brig Nautilus off Sandy Hook. The Nautilus had been on a cruise from New York.
That same day later in the evening his squadron spotted and gave chase to the USS Constitution as she sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New York. The chase lasted some 65 hours during which both pursued and pursuers had to tow and warp. Belvidera eventually managed to come with gunshot of the Constitution on the afternoon of 17 July but a lucky breeze blew up and the Constitution’s clean bottom allowed her to make good her escape.
I was glad to see that the Belvidera was back in the water. I wondered if Jack was blockading along the coast. How would I know the man doesn’t write, doesn’t call…
Having nothing else to do I decided to spend some of Jack’s money. I learned from Mrs. Chambers where I might have some boots made…made. Molly and William and I set off for the cobbler. Mine were second hand when I got them and they never fit properly so I was looking forward to something that might.
A wizened little man measured my foot and I chose the leather. Slippers or what we’d call flats in my other life were usually made of cloth and made to be worn indoors. I ordered a pair of leather ones choosing soft black leather. While we were there I had him measure Molly’s foot and William’s too and she chose a serviceable brown leather.
As I’ve said she was a quiet woman but I found she had a sense of humor and we laughed over the boots and flats and the little old man. There was something else I wanted too. One day finding the wash pot empty I managed to climb in it and sit down. I couldn’t stretch out in it like a proper tub but the thought of actually sitting down in a warm bath…ohhh. You must remember that baths were not considered healthy back in the day but I knew better. I bought myself a wash tub and Molly and I each took a handle and carried it home.
There was a cistern in the back garden and Mrs. Chambers used the rainwater to water her garden but I thought if it rained she didn’t need to be dipping it out of the cistern. I was going to bathe in rainwater heated over the fire in my bedroom.
Mrs. Chambers immediately began complaining to me about doing laundry in my room. There was a perfectly good grate out back that could be fired up to boiling. I told her I wasn’t doing laundry I was bathing. Of course she already thought I was strange.
I managed to keep myself occupied and busy during the days but the nights in my room were lonely without Jack. When the letter finally came on August 1, I cried so hard I had to look at it in stages. It was like a book for he’d written me almost daily and in the most beautiful calligraphy I’d ever seen. I couldn’t make it out. Molly couldn’t read and I wasn’t about to ask Mrs. Chambers. I had a new project and it took me three days to decipher it all.
He’d written a lot about the weather about ships that had been sighted and I thought glossed over the battles he’d fought. The best news of all was that he was on his way back with prizes in tow. He’d been down off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas.
The best part of his letter aside from the information that he was on his way back, was the love letter part. Here’s some of what he wrote and I’ve cherry picked it from several entries.
“You once asked me if I thought of you as my wife. I answered yes but I am not sure I knew exactly what that meant. I do now, my darling. You have become a part of me and that part is missed.”
“I think of you often but most strongly at night when on watch, when the sea is dark and still. I draw from my memories and hold them dear.”
“My dearest Ella you are strong in me today.”
“I received your letter today and it gave me much happiness. I think I should have sharpened your quill before I left.”
I had to laugh at that. I can imagine he might have been embarrassed to find I couldn’t write a legible hand.
He says he’s joined the Shannon’s squadron escorting a convoy back from Jamaica and the West Indies. That gave me some comfort there being safety in numbers.
However the news reported that the Shannon left the convoy after escorting them past the Great Banks and returned to the American coast. She might have stayed with them a bit longer and not lost the Guerriere. This is what was reported on 20 August:
On 19 August, 1812 the Guerriere sighted a sail on the weather beam bearing down on them. She was made out to be a man of war and the Guerriere prepared for action mustering 244 men and 19 boys at quarters. When the enemy hoisted it’s American colors, Captain Dacres permitted the Americans in his crew to quit their guns. The ship was made out to be the USS Constitution.
The two ships exchanged fire half an hour before the American ship closed her starboard beam and sent HMS Guerriere’s mizzen mast overboard. Switching to the other bow the American ship raked HMS Guerriere and swept her decks with grapeshot and musket fire before attempting to board.
Wounded were Samuel Grant, master’s mate commanding the forecastle, Robert Scott, master. Captain Dacres also wounded now ordered Lieutenant Bartholomew Kent to lead the marines and boarders from the main deck towards the forecastle but the two ships parting at that time allowed them to bring their bow guns to bear on the Constitution. William Snow, master’s mate commanded the fore-most main deck guns and John Garby, acting purser, the quarter deck guns.
The two ships were clear of each other when the Guerriere’s fore and main-masts went over the side leaving her an unmanageable wreck. They managed to clear the wreckage but while they were rolling with the main deck guns under water the American ship came within pistol range to rake them. At this point Captain Dacres called his remaining officers together and they agreed to strike their colors to avoid further loss of life. Fifteen men were killed and six mortally wounded.
The Guerriere too badly damaged to take in was set fire by her captors and burnt.
This was off the coast of Nova Scotia and Jack had yet to come into port.