She felt her cheeks grow warm. “Nor I you.” For a moment she felt as if it would be impossible to move. Then Nick dropped his hold and turned to go.
“I’ll see you in the morning.”
She nodded and watched him saunter down the walkway and disappear around the side of the house. Looking out over the lake, Elise hugged her shawl around her arms and gazed up at the moon.
I’ve lost my heart to him, Lord. I’ve never felt so wonderful and yet so confused. I promised Mama I’d take care of Papa. I know Nick loves what he’s doing, but he’s not always going to be content to remain first mate. Not after having commandedhis own ship.
She paused in her prayer. She hoped he might trust her soon with the details of what had happened on thePolaris. She knew he blamed himself. He said it was his misjudgment. But she knew little else.
Help us, Lord. If we are meant for each other, then he will have to agree to remain on theMary Eliseand help Papa. He’ll have to forget about being a captain on his own ship.
She frowned. That wasn’t likely. Papa had often told her there was a certain type of man meant to lead and command, while others were equally designed to follow. Nick was a leader, and being put in the position of answering to her father for the rest of his life would be difficult, if not impossible.
Hugging her arms to her body, Elise prayed on. “You could make it work, Lord. I know you could. If it be your will.” The last few words seemed to echo back to her in the night skies.
If it be your will.
Chapter 13
Filled to capacity with Minnesota wheat, theMary Elisewas well on her way to the Soo Locks when Elise’s father sighted the bank of clouds building to the west-southwest and moving in fast. He ordered them to head for the safety of Whitefish Bay.
“The wind is churning up the lake,” he told Elise. “Ready the galley and stay put. I’m not sure how rough this is going to get.”
Elise wished she could lend a hand. Carrying grain was always a concern when storms came up. The load shifted back and forth with the ship’s rocking and often got out of balance and had to be trimmed. If not dealt with, the ship could capsize.
Elise knew the best thing she could do was stay out of the way. With the storm nearly upon them, she had let the stove go cold so as not to risk fire. She felt confident the storms would pass quickly. Papa had said nothing about expecting them to linger. He usually had an intuition for such things.
Earlier in the day, she had gathered the men’s laundry. She figured she might as well put it to soak. She went through the pieces, looking for any particularly bad stains or tears. Whenshe picked up one of Booker Duran’s shirts, she was startled to find blood splattered all over the front of it. She frowned. Had he hurt himself? That much blood surely would have required a doctor’s assistance. Then again, she recalled men receiving blows to the nose that caused an abundance of bleeding but needed no doctor. Booker seemed the perfect candidate to find himself in a fight.
She took the shirt to the table and wet it down, then smeared it with salt. Scrubbing salt against the stain would remove a good portion of the blood. She rinsed and repeated the action, even as the rocking of the ship increased. She wondered what kind of trouble Mr. Duran had gotten himself into. He always seemed to be looking for a fight.
The door opened, and a man pressed in with the wind at his back. “Miss Elise, your father says it’s lookin’ to be a bad one,” Sam declared. He battled the wind before pulling the door closed, then hurried down the galley steps. “Are the fires out?”
“All but the lamp.” Despite the lamps being secured, they took no chances on theMary Elise. Sam put out the lamp in quick order while Elise left Duran’s shirt to soak apart from the other laundry.
“I’ll let the captain know the galley is secure,” Sam said, then left as quickly as he’d arrived.
With very little light, Elise took herself to her cabin and decided it would serve her best to pray. She tried not to worry when the storms came upon them, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself. Ships were damaged or lost with nearly every storm. Whenever a bad storm came when she was growing up, she and her sister would pile into Elise’s narrow bunk and pull the coversover their heads. Mama always encouraged prayer, but Elise would often entertain her sister with stories from the Bible to keep her calm.
“Tell me about thosemen in the boat with Jesus,”Caroline would ask.“The one with the bad storm.”
It was something they could definitely relate to, and Elise loved the story.“They were out on the water when the storm cameup. Just like today. Jesus had decided to take anap.”
“Didn’t he know about the danger?”Caroline asked.
It was always the same question, and Elise would give the same answer.“Jesus knew, but He wasn’t afraid. He knew God would take care of everything.”
Elise stretched out on her bed and smiled at the memory. Caroline was always afraid and worried about the situation.
“But the men were afraid because the waves gotto be really high ... like now.”Caroline’s soft, frightened tone always melted Elise’s heart.
“Oh, these aren’t really high waves today.”Elise always said that, whether they were or not.“The waves that day withJesus were much higher, and the men were afraid they would capsize.”
“But they didn’t, did they?”
“No. Theygot really afraid and woke Jesus up. They said, ‘Master, carest thou not that we perish?’”
“They thought they weregoing to die.”Caroline’s voice was edged with fear.
