“You must trust me, Tenneh. Sneaking around is not what people who love each other do.” As soon as the warning was out of her mouth, she realized that was exactly what she and Christopher had done that afternoon. Being a teacher was hard. She vowed to be a better example to her students in the future.
She took both of Tenneh’s hands in her own. “You must go to my father and tell him everything. He’ll know what to do. Who is this young man you want to be with?”
“Quassir.”
A chill skittered down her spine. That was the same name Mrs Chelly had revealed. “Are you sure he’s a student at the school?”
“He wears school uniform, and he speaks the English.”
Rachel thought for a moment. “Was he at the picnic today?”
Tenneh hung her head. “No. He said he had to work at the farm outside Freetown where he lives.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll let my father figure out who this man is. Until then, no more sneaking around.” When Tenneh kept her head lowered and didn’t answer, Rachel insisted, “Promise me.”
“I promise.” The girl’s agreement came out as nearly a squeak, and Rachel worried at just how sincere her acquiescence might be.
Chris finishedthe message he’d been writing and sanded off the wet ink so he could hand the letter to his First Lieutenant Mathias. “Could you make sure the Vicar Berry gets this as soon as possible?”
“Of course, sir. Anything else?”
Chris pushed away from his desk, stood, and stretched. “Actually, there is. Could you have the cook find some time this afternoon to talk to my man Drake about a special dinner Wednesday night here in my cabin?”
“How many guests?”
Chris gazed up at the beams in his cabin and counted off in his head. “Let me see. It’s in honor of Vicar Berry and his daughter. And then of course, we should invite Captain Bellingham and his Marine Lieutenant Bourne, and if you and Lieutenant Jenkins would like to join us as well, that would be seven, including myself.”
“Anything special you’d like the cook to prepare?”
“He knows what I like. He and Drake can put their heads together and come up with something special.”
“May I ask the occasion for celebration, sir?”
“You’ll just have to wait along with everyone else, Mathias, to find out.” With that he ushered him out the cabin door past the Marine guards to get on with his day.
Chris leaned out to ask one of his guards to summon his navigator Nebe to join him for a session with the charts to plot their upcoming trip down to patrol off Sherbro Island. He wanted to get the man’s input on how much the sandbars might have shifted along the coast and estuaries since their last expedition to that area.
He’d no more than spread out the charts than there was a tap at the door. That was odd, because the Marines would have let Nebe in. When Drake answered the tap, a tall man in regimentals filled the doorway. Chris turned his head. “What is it, Drake?”
The soldier retreated and Drake handed him a letter with the governor’s seal. “I think you’ve been summoned.”
When Chris tore open the letter and read the short message, his stomach took a queasy flip. “Drake, get my best uniform jacket and hat. I have to see the governor.”
“Yes, sir.” Drake ducked back into the cabin where Chris’s sleeping cot swung and his sea chests were stored.
The governor, Chris thought.What a nasty waste of time.
A few minutes later he headed out the door and turned to one of the Marines. “Belay that order for Nebe. Tell him I’ll be back in a few hours.” The other Marine fell into step behind him and shouted for the Bos’un to ready the shore boat.
Rachel heldthe heavy vellum paper in her hand and read the invitation a second time. She and her father were invited to a formal dinner aboard Christopher’s ship. Now not only would their friends at the mission look for her to one day become his wife, but Christopher’s fellow officers would expect them to marry as well. What a puzzle her father had thrown at their feet.
If anything, the invitation was another stark reminder that the time she had left to find out about her mother’s family before she left Africa was steadily dwindling. Since she’d come to live at the mission with her parents more than twenty years earlier, she had no idea where the group of slaves she’d arrived with had settled. Miriam Berry had made sure they had no further contact with Rachel, because they’d been abusing her when the Berrys had decided to adopt her.
She wondered if Dr. Peregrine would have any idea where her family came from. She resolved to slip away to his apothecary as soon as she was finished with the boys’ English class the following afternoon. He’d served many years as a surgeon on slave ships before he settled in Freetown. He had to be familiar with all the tribes who traded in slaves along the West African coast. Perhaps she could get him to help her find her family.
Her father sat savoring his breakfast tea and peered at her over his spectacles. “You’ve been staring at Captain Halloren’s invitation for an awfully long time. What say you? Shall we accept?”
“Of course, Father. We should meet Christopher’s fellow officers.”
