By The Sea, Book Three: Laura by Antoinette Stockenberg Page B

the
wall above the hot plate and coffee station.
    She shook her head. "It's not what you're
saying, but how you're saying it. You sound pretty happy to
me."
    Smiling, Amanda said, "You know what? I am.
But don't tell Geoff; I like to keep him guessing."
    "Our little secret."
    Here was a woman that Laura would have liked
to know more: unpretentious, genuine, full of good will … and
obviously in love with her husband. "In a lot of ways, I envy you,"
she blurted.
    "I could say the same!" Amanda returned. She
was irrepressible.
    "Thanks for the coffee," Laura said,
reluctant to leave. "But I have a hungry crew to feed—as it
happens, I'm captain and cook—and we have a full day
ahead."
    She hurried back to the boat, feeling oddly
wistful. It was true that Neil had no friends … but then, neither
had she.
    ****
    Before long, the Virginia's crew had
eaten and begun the grueling work of loading the heaviest cargo
down into the hold. First the flagstone was carefully lowered,
stone by stone and packed between layers of hay for safekeeping.
Granite slabs were put down next, with the help of the
donkey-engine and the boom tackle. Next came the bathtubs, which
got filled with sacks of cement, and eight-foot sections of a
heavy, intricate, wrought iron fence. The Virginia, a heavy
vessel in her own right, inched down slowly on her lines.
    At eleven the dockhands disappeared for
lunch and Colin climbed up out of the hold, his face a grimy,
sweaty mockery of the dry and windy weather on deck. Laura went
over and took a seat next to him on a pile of lumber waiting to be
loaded.
    "I've been thinking," she began, surprised
to see fatigue in his eyes. Her husband had always seemed tireless
during loading; but then, it was his boat. "This is a very safe
cargo; the boat is nicely ballasted; we could go directly offshore
instead of along the coast. We'd save a week of time each way."
    Durant wiped his dripping brow into a
sleeve. "And what will we load into the hold for ballast on the
return trip? Bahamian slaves?"
    That got her Midwestern hackles up. "Mr.
Durant, I don't think—"
    "It was a joke, skipper."
    "There is nothing funny about
slavery. I know quite a lot about Newport's infamous Triangle
Trade. I read about its ships running slaves from Africa to the
Caribbean, and sugar cane from the islands to New England, and
processed rum from New England back to Africa. And I didn't laugh
once."
    "Sorry. And anyway," he added with a tired
smile, "I got the Triangle wrong, didn't I?"
    She searched his face. "Don't you take
anything seriously?"
    He stood up, winging his shoulders back with
a grimace. "Yes. Lunch. Are we having any?"
    Laura served the crew dried kippers and
bread, aware all over again that she was one of very few to wear a
cook's cap and a captain's hat at the same time. She stayed aloof
from the three, bored by her son's pesky, nonstop adoration of
Colin Durant. It was a childhood disease, like chicken pox; it
would have to run its course. After lunch she went up to Durant and
announced her decision: they were going to sail directly offshore
to the Bahamas. On the return trip they would load up with rocks
for ballast, if worst came to worst.
    She finished her little speech and he said,
"I signed on for a coastal trip."
    "I've changed my mind. We sail the rhumb
line," she replied firmly.
    "Have you telephoned the old man for his
permission?"
    "How? And besides, I don't need to,"
answered Laura. Then she added, "You can walk away if you want
to."
    "And leave you with them for crew."
    "It's been done that way for hundreds of
years."
    "Then you won't mind my tagging along to see
how you pull it off."
    "Fine." She had no idea whether that meant
he was coming as first mate or as an observer for the National
Geographic, but at least he was still with them. For one
panicky moment she thought he wouldn't be coming at all.
    They split up and went back to work. By
early evening the last of the lumber was lashed down and the cargo
hatch