Not wanting to dwell on it, she turned away from him, missing the warm weight of his arm about her waist. “I’ll fetch it.”
She handed it to him, then went to the gallery lavatory, giving Loveday’s closed cabin door a fretful glance. When Juliet came out, she knocked and, hearing nothing, opened her sister’s door to find the cabin empty.
36
Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.
Benjamin Franklin
Loveday washed overboard?
Juliet dressed hurriedly, and her fanciful fear was discarded as she emerged from below to find her sister at the quarterdeck railing near the stairs, talking with an officer. Leith was not far behind, though he moved slowly as if still getting his bearings. Nothing short of a miracle there. To further allay Juliet’s fears, Loveday turned toward her with the brightest smile she’d had since leaving Virginia.
“We survived what the captain is calling a near hurricane. I took a sleeping draught myself and missed most of it.” Loveday gestured to the feline curled up with Jezebel atop a barrel. “Hobbes is none the worse for wear either. Nor is Mr. Buchanan, I see. Wonders never cease!”
Juliet’s gaze shifted to Leith, who stood near the ship’s wheel talking to the captain while sailors darted about thedecks, returning all to rights. Fully dressed but still unshaven, he brought to mind their light morning banter all over again.
“What’s this?” Loveday’s gaze sharpened. “Your neck is bruised.”
“I fell during the height of the storm.”
“Oh, Sister. Are you well?”
“Quite.” For the first time in her life, she’d experienced something with someone else that she couldn’t share with Loveday. Leith’s words and actions remained a secret. Juliet faced the wind as her skirts whirled about her ankles and threatened to fling back her cape hood. “Were you flirting with the navigator a moment ago?”
“Ha! I admit he’s rather dashing, but I was merely trying to orient myself and ask directions.”
“What did you learn?”
“That the storm may have blown us closer to Britain rather than off course. Scotland’s southern Hebrides should appear soon—the isles of Islay and Arran and Bute and all else.”
Juliet nodded, amazement rivaling her happiness, and turned to look out at the sea.
In the coming days Leith’s improvement was rapid, yet at the same time he seemed to distance himself. He spent more time on deck by day and returned to his hammock by night. Glad as she was he was recovering his health, Juliet felt a subtle sadness that he seemed to need her less, as if the crisis that had flung them together with all its odd intimacies was naught but a fluke or a dream.
Fair weather held and the seas continued smooth. Within days, land was sighted. Seagulls resembling white paper kites began their noisy careening overhead as if welcoming them in.
When they finally docked in Greenock for a few hours, Leith leapt overboard to swim around the ship and take an honest bath, so he said, astonishing both Juliet and Lovedayif not the crew. His wordless joy at returning home was contagious, and when they left Greenock for Port Glasgow, the entire ship seemed to rejoice.
It took time for them to navigate the Lang Dyke in the River Clyde to Broomielaw, the heart of Glasgow. Tidesmen and naval officers boarded the vessel to manage the cargo before unloading. Arriving at high tide, they stepped onto a private jetty marked with the Buchanan name. Juliet tried hard to hide her curiosity lest she be a gaping fool amid the coal-streaked skies and sheer chaos of the city. Colonial Williamsburg seemed a homespun speck in comparison, and York Town a shabby relation.
Leith paid her and Loveday’s bewilderment scant attention, busy with the details of luggage and acquiring a sedan that would take them to the Virginia Street mansion. Twilight fell, turning the waterfront and burgh ethereal, even ghostly, as fog snuck in from the sea and whitened the tangle of wynds and closes.
“A wee smirr of rain,” Leith told them with his rolling Glaswegianr’s as they grew more damp. “Spring is not far off.”
Candlemas had passed. Juliet had tried to keep track of time at sea, but the days blurred. Perhaps in spring the city wouldn’t seem so many shades of silver but green.
Leith secured three sedan chairs, something they’d heard about but never seen.
“Never did I believe I’d ride in one,” Loveday exclaimed as she stepped into the small, wheelless conveyance and sat down upon a plushly upholstered seat.
Hobbes was handed to her in his carrier, oddly quiet. It had taken some coercion to get the feline to forsake Jezebel and abandon ship.
Juliet climbed into her own sedan chair, as did Leith, their baggage coming by wagon. The chairmen—Highlanders—shut each door, then gripped poles and hoisted them aloft, hastening them to Virginia Street. When they turned down a lane and hurried toward a massive iron gate, Juliet gaped.
First to arrive at the residence ahead of Leith, Loveday emerged from the sedan with a gasp. “A townhouse? This is a palace!”
Juliet had no words.
