Read Online Lightkeeper's Wife by Sarah Anne Johnson - Free Book Online
Authors: Sarah Anne Johnson
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he pulled away from her, they were both embarrassed and stared down the beach after the men.
âHave you really?â Hannah asked. âKilled someone, I mean.â
âI never have, but I wouldâve just then. I wouldâve cut his throat.â
She felt safe with him, with Johnâs best friend. He would look out for her. They never spoke of the kiss again.
5
Billy put himself to work stacking wood on the front porch and closing the storm windows. He carried wood inside and stoked the fire, put water on for coffee and swept the kitchen floor. If Hannah kicked him out, where would he go? He had no money, no strength. He felt trapped in her house as Annie had been trapped aboard the Intrepid . After losing the baby, Annie was no longer content to sit belowdecks mending or stitching samplers, reading or writing letters for Daniel. The confines of the captainâs quarters, the grief and loneliness that resided there, drove her mad. He remembered her frenzy as she fetched a bucket of hot water and lye soap and set to scrubbing the floors and walls of the small berth until there wasnât a particle of the cabin board she hadnât cleansed.
Heâd do the same for Hannah. He couldnât lie in bed knowing all his shipmates had perished. He couldnât rest. Why was he the one to survive? After everything heâd done. On his knees, he ran a wet rag over the floorboards, scrubbing at the dayâs grime while Annieâs faraway world drew him back.
During her years at sea with Daniel, Annie had collected small dolls from every port. It was customary to give a gift upon boarding another captainâs ship, and she usually brought small drawings she made of islands theyâd visited, or a handkerchief with a border of yellow daisies. She received gifts from other captainsâ wives in return.
She gathered her collection of dolls and dropped them into a canvas sack, and she remembered the dolls the island women had brought to her for luck, small wooden totems painted bright colors. With the sack over her shoulder she stepped up to the deck. At the shipâs transom, the wake rippled behind them, indicating their progress across the expanse of sea. Annie leaned against the aft rail and dumped the sack of dolls into the water. Then she watched them bob in the shipâs wake and drift like buoys. When she dropped the sack in after them, it caught the wind like a sail and drifted up and swirled before falling into the sea.
Day in and day out the sailors ran up the rigging to carry out the first mateâs order to trim the topsail, or raise the main to flatten the sails. They maneuvered rigging, spars, and sails in easy, fluid motions, bending their bodies into the work so that they became part of the system of wind, water, and sail. Annie watched one sailor make a halyard fast around a belaying pin with several quick flicks of his wrist. âWhatâs your name?â
âRobinson, maâam,â the sailor stuttered, surprised to find the captainâs wife speaking directly to him. He was no more than a boy, the stubble on his chin barely grown.
âRobinson, I want you to show me how to do that.â
âYes, maâam.â He responded as if given a direct order. The belaying pin was a large wooden peg stuck down through a hole in the shipâs rail so that there were two vertical sections of peg exposed. âOkay, maâam, you wrap the end of the line around the top part, like this, then take it down and cross it over and around behind the bottom part like this, then around front and cross over again to go behind the top part. You make figure eights around the pin like that,â he said, pulling on the loose end of rope to show how it held. âThere you have it.â
Annie waited while he unfastened the rope, then she made awkward figure eights around the peg as instructed and pulled on the rope to test her knot.
âIt only takes practice,
âHave you really?â Hannah asked. âKilled someone, I mean.â
âI never have, but I wouldâve just then. I wouldâve cut his throat.â
She felt safe with him, with Johnâs best friend. He would look out for her. They never spoke of the kiss again.
5
Billy put himself to work stacking wood on the front porch and closing the storm windows. He carried wood inside and stoked the fire, put water on for coffee and swept the kitchen floor. If Hannah kicked him out, where would he go? He had no money, no strength. He felt trapped in her house as Annie had been trapped aboard the Intrepid . After losing the baby, Annie was no longer content to sit belowdecks mending or stitching samplers, reading or writing letters for Daniel. The confines of the captainâs quarters, the grief and loneliness that resided there, drove her mad. He remembered her frenzy as she fetched a bucket of hot water and lye soap and set to scrubbing the floors and walls of the small berth until there wasnât a particle of the cabin board she hadnât cleansed.
Heâd do the same for Hannah. He couldnât lie in bed knowing all his shipmates had perished. He couldnât rest. Why was he the one to survive? After everything heâd done. On his knees, he ran a wet rag over the floorboards, scrubbing at the dayâs grime while Annieâs faraway world drew him back.
During her years at sea with Daniel, Annie had collected small dolls from every port. It was customary to give a gift upon boarding another captainâs ship, and she usually brought small drawings she made of islands theyâd visited, or a handkerchief with a border of yellow daisies. She received gifts from other captainsâ wives in return.
She gathered her collection of dolls and dropped them into a canvas sack, and she remembered the dolls the island women had brought to her for luck, small wooden totems painted bright colors. With the sack over her shoulder she stepped up to the deck. At the shipâs transom, the wake rippled behind them, indicating their progress across the expanse of sea. Annie leaned against the aft rail and dumped the sack of dolls into the water. Then she watched them bob in the shipâs wake and drift like buoys. When she dropped the sack in after them, it caught the wind like a sail and drifted up and swirled before falling into the sea.
Day in and day out the sailors ran up the rigging to carry out the first mateâs order to trim the topsail, or raise the main to flatten the sails. They maneuvered rigging, spars, and sails in easy, fluid motions, bending their bodies into the work so that they became part of the system of wind, water, and sail. Annie watched one sailor make a halyard fast around a belaying pin with several quick flicks of his wrist. âWhatâs your name?â
âRobinson, maâam,â the sailor stuttered, surprised to find the captainâs wife speaking directly to him. He was no more than a boy, the stubble on his chin barely grown.
âRobinson, I want you to show me how to do that.â
âYes, maâam.â He responded as if given a direct order. The belaying pin was a large wooden peg stuck down through a hole in the shipâs rail so that there were two vertical sections of peg exposed. âOkay, maâam, you wrap the end of the line around the top part, like this, then take it down and cross it over and around behind the bottom part like this, then around front and cross over again to go behind the top part. You make figure eights around the pin like that,â he said, pulling on the loose end of rope to show how it held. âThere you have it.â
Annie waited while he unfastened the rope, then she made awkward figure eights around the peg as instructed and pulled on the rope to test her knot.
âIt only takes practice,
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