Madame Durand came in soon with water, which she set by each cot. She stood longest by Joel, shaking her head and saying, ‘A hopeless case.’ She must have spoken too loudly, because Joel flinched. Whether he heard her meanness, or just the loud sound, Anne could not tell, but she stroked his arm and he seemed to relax.
‘Patience, I was hoping you would come.’
God in heaven, give me courage.
‘Certainly, I did,’ she said softly.
‘You always do,’ he replied sleepily.
‘Just rest, my dear,’ she said. ‘Would you like some water?’
She put her arm behind his head and raised him slightly. He sipped, but most of the water ran out the sides of his mouth.
‘So good,’ he told her as she blotted his face. ‘Patience, you’re a wonder.’
He slept then, to her relief. Madame Durand was long gone, and Anna knew the Marine was watchful.I can do this, she told herself.
Later, she heard the front door open and knew the children were home from the parish school. Hector must have warned them, because they came into the sitting room quietly, hesitantly, looking for her. She beckoned them closer.
‘Papa and Captain Tyler want us to tend these men,’ she said. ‘Madame has luncheon for you. When you finish, come back to me.’
Allan nodded. Anna sighed to see his eyes so apprehensive, much like the first time she’d seen him.
Pru must have noticed. She put her hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ll take care of you,’ she told him. ‘Missy is busy, but she is here and she will never leave us.’
He nodded and hurried from the sitting room, that pleasant place where they had spent recent evenings reading and playing jackstraws and cat’s cradle, while Anna mended and darned.
Pru took her time. ‘What is his name?’ she whispered, knowing far better than Madame Durand about keeping a quiet voice around the wounded.
‘Joel Watt,’ she whispered back. ‘Pru, he thinks I am his wife, Patience. He has two daughters, Grace and Charity.’
Pru did something she had never done before; she kissed her cheek. ‘When you are tired, Mama, I can sit here and be Grace.’ She kissed her again. ‘Or Charity, but now I am hungry. I’ll be back.’
You called me Mama again.Anna closed her eyes in gratitude, touched to her soul at the resilience of the child. She felt gratitude for even this terrible war, which had brought her a husband she knew she adored now, and a son and daughter she’d never thought to have.
‘I can manage anything,’ she whispered, her lips barely moving. ‘I will never be alone.’ She looked down at the gravely wounded man whose hand she held. ‘You will not be alone either, Joel Watt. Your family is here from America.’
For two long days and nights, Anna kept her vigil beside the dying man. She wiped his face and read to him fromPsalms, because one midnight during his agony he gasped, ‘…my shepherd I shall not want,’ and she knew exactly what to say. There were moments when she wished him dead, not for her relief, but to liberate him from one more second of pain she could not subdue.
Joel rallied again and again, speaking to her in a nearly normal voice about good times he remembered, and reminding Patience, sitting beside him now, of their courting days. WhenPru joined her after parish school, he called her Grace. Pru read to him so Anna could curl up on the floor beside the cot for a moment of sleep, and even weep because the real Patience wasn’t there to hear her husband’s declarations of love in a voice growing ever fainter.
Lying there but watchful, Billy Whitlow,Hartford’s injured foretopman, requested a length of rope for Allan to learn his knots. They all listened to stories from a wistful man who missed a rocky place called Maine, where winters were long and cold, and many boys went to sea because they heard of warm tropic lands with mermaids, if you knew where to look.
In his own way, the Royal Marine watched over them, reminding Anna to eat when Madame Durand, subdued now and nearly as silent as her husband, brought cream soups and puddings for them.
Pru even worked up the courage to ask Private Bartleby if he wanted her to change his dressing. ‘Your bandage looks so bloody,’ she said. ‘If Mama teaches me, I could make it better.’ He kindly assured her that it wasn’t so bad.
When Allan and Pru went to their own beds, Private Bartleby assured Anna that his arm was perfectly fine, the bandage ‘borrowed’ from a sailor who didn’t need it any more. ‘Never think for a moment, dear lady, that I cannot protect you all.’
On the fourth day, even the Royal Marine couldn’t protect Joel Watt, first mate on theHartford, husband of Patience Watt, father to two fine daughters. Death came calling. It came gently, though, almost apologetically.
Joel had been silent all morning, after a long, long night of speaking to Patience, even urging her to remarry if she found another good man. ‘Just remember, dear lass, that I will be waiting for you in a far better place than this one.’ He pressed Anna’s hand with surprising force. ‘Never doubt that,’ he said quite distinctly. ‘You are my dearly beloved.’
He said no more. Weary beyond belief, Anna rested her head on Joel’s chest.
To her everlasting gratitude, the Marine knelt beside her and put Joel’s hand on her head. ‘There now,’ he said. ‘It will only be a moment. I’ve seen this before.’
Joel’s slow breathing stopped, then started again. There was one last breath that when released like a long sigh took theHartford’s first mate with it. Done. Peace.
