She’d talk to the headmaster. She’d offer to work at the school for the rest of the tuition. She could sweep up and wash dishes and make beds. When the headmaster saw how much she’d already earned, wouldn’t he let her in anyway? He would! He had to be nice; he was a friend of the Carstairses, wasn’t he? She had to go to Boston and talk to him.
The train, the ferry…She couldn’t use up all her money to get there, she’d need it. By boat…That was the answer! By boat! A lot of the fishermen sailed from Cape Light to Boston on Thursdays with the fresh catch. Friday was fish-eating day in the city. She would stow away. On Thursday, the day after tomorrow. Plenty of time to get ready. It was too late to write to the Carstairses—they’d never get the letter in time. They’d said she was welcome. She’d see them when she arrived. She could do this!
After school on Wednesday, Kat told her friends about her plan. Amanda and Lizabeth sat on the front steps of the schoolhouse. Kat saw them exchange glances as they listened.
“Now remember, you promised. You crossed your hearts. You can’t tell a soul about this.” Kat was too excited to sit.
“We won’t,” Amanda said. “But Kat, why can’t you just write a letter to the headmaster?”
“And see what he says,” Lizabeth added. “Instead of going off and—”
“Because talking in person is altogether different,” Kat said. “Anyway, I’ll be in Boston!”
“You can’t stow away,” Amanda protested.
“Sure I can. Early in the morning, I’ll sneak aboard and—”
“You’ll be in so much trouble if you get caught!” Amanda said. “A lot of sailors think a woman aboard is bad luck.”
“And I bet there are rats in the hold,” Lizabeth said.
“Boston’s a big city,” Amanda said. “You’ll get lost.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll have the school’s and the Carstairses’ address and I can always ask for directions. That’s not so hard.”
“I heard there are dangerous streets that a girl shouldn’t even walk on!” Lizabeth said.
Kat laughed. “Boston was still in the United States the last time I checked. I’m not exploring a foreign jungle.”
“Amanda!” Hannah called from the swing in the schoolyard. “When are you walking me home?”
“In a minute!” Amanda turned back to Kat. “You have the nicest parents in the world. Not the least bit strict.”
“I know, but they don’t understand. They’re not helping at all,” Kat said. “So it’s up to me to make my dreams come true.”
“They’ll be so upset,” Amanda said. “Just because you’re mad at them now—”
“I’m not that mad anymore. And I don’t want them to worry. I wrote a letter.” Kat handed it to Amanda. “Please give it to them on Thursday afternoon, when they expect me home from school. By then, I’ll already be safe in Boston. Thursday afternoon, not a minute earlier, or you’ll spoil everything. And not a word to anyone. Swear! On our friendship!”
Amanda and Lizabeth nodded unhappily.
“Say it out loud.”
“All right, we swear,” Lizabeth said slowly.
“On our friendship,” Kat prompted.
“On our friendship,” Amanda and Lizabeth repeated.
They read what Kat had written.
Dear Ma and Papa,
When you read this, I’ll already be in Boston. I’m going to talk to the headmaster of the Bartholomew School in person so that I can go to school there. And I have the Carstairses’ address with me and they did write that I’d be welcome at their home. So you see, there’s nothing at all to worry about. I love you both, and Todd and James. Please tell Todd to pay extra attention to Sunshine. I hope the things I do in Boston will make you proud.
Love,
Kat
“Kat, this is scary!” Amanda said. “Please, Kat. Let’s just go ice-skating after school tomorrow. Please?”
“No. I’m not staying.” Kat waited every winter for Mill Pond to finally freeze solid. Everyone would be there, slipping and sliding over the rough ruts in the ice…. She shook her head fiercely. “No, I’m going to Boston.”
“Well, I won’t say good-bye to you, Katherine Williams!” Amanda stood up with her hands on her hips. “I won’t! I’m going to pray for you to change your mind.”
“My mind is made up,” Kat said. “I’m leaving for Boston in the morning and nothing can stop me now!”
fourteen
That evening Kat found her father’s duffel bag in the back of the hall closet. Papa used to take it with him when he went to sea. No one would miss it now.
Kat packed her Sunday dress and pinafore, and Lizabeth’s green dress. She’d need her very best things for tea and the theater. She chose one shirtwaist and skirt for school. More of her things could be sent to her once she was settled. She packed a flannel nightgown. Kat put in one of her best seascapes, something to show the headmaster that she was talented.
It was hard to leave her art supplies behind, but if Ma or Papa noticed them missing from the tower during their watches tonight, they’d know something was wrong. And there wasn’t enough room in the duffel. Anyway, the school would have plenty of supplies and probably better ones, too!
She put the school’s brochure and address and the envelope with the Carstairses’ address right on top, easy to reach. She tucked the bundle of money on the side. She was all packed up and suddenly she had to swallow hard to get rid of the lump in her throat. She slid the duffel bag under her bed.
Before she went up to the tower for her evening shift, she stopped in the kitchen.
“Ma, I can’t walk to school with Todd and James tomorrow morning,” Kat said. “I have to leave before they do.”
“Oh?” Ma didn’t look up from the pan she was scraping.
“I have to go extra early.” The boats would leave at dawn.
“Why is that?”
“For a special project. A special school project I’m doing.” Kat blushed. She wasn’t used to lying and it didn’t feel good.
“I’ll tell the boys.” Ma nodded, without turning around, without asking any questions. Ma didn’t have the slightest suspicion and that made Kat feel even more guilty. Kat paused in the doorway for an extra moment, her eyes on Ma’s back. She wanted to say something. It was hard to tear herself away but there was nothing she could say without giving away too much.
Kat stood watch for the last time and gazed out at the sea. “Good-bye, Durham Point,” she whispered. “Good-bye, Cape Light.”
That night, Kat kept waking up to check the clock. At this time tomorrow, she’d be in Boston and starting a new life!
At dawn, Kat pulled on a heavy sweater, a warm wool skirt, and a knit cap. The hold of a ship would be cold and she’d have to sit in it for hours. She had to decide right now: her heavy, warm everyday coat or the good navy blue princess-style coat she wore to church? The princess coat. She needed her best things for Boston! She added mittens and tied a woolly scarf around her neck.
She hoisted the duffel bag on her shoulder and tiptoed out of her room. Sunshine raised his head but thankfully didn’t bark. Ma would have left the tower at first light; she would have dropped off to sleep as soon as she got back into bed. Kat waited, listening. All was quiet. She waited another moment, just to be sure. She went down the stairs, skipping the second one from the bottom that creaked. She opened the front door slowly and inched it shut behind her so it wouldn’t slam.
Then she was running along Lighthouse Lane. She hardly felt the weight of the bag. Her excitement propelled her forward and made her fly!
It was good sailing weather, cold and windy but sunny; a cloudless blue sky, nothing at all to keep the boats from heading out. Perfect. The brisk wind reddened Kat’s cheeks and shocked her wide awake. She made a right turn off Lighthouse Lane onto the short dirt path of Wharf Way. The docks were spread out in front of her.
Even at this early hour the noise and activity at the docks was amazing. K
at looked in all directions at once. Men and boys were moving back and forth among ships of all sizes. “Hoist it up, come on, this way…” There was the sound of grinding chains being pulled by thick ropes. A faint ringing as a buoy stirred in the water. “Let’s go, easy does it!”
Pick a boat, Kat thought, quick, before anyone notices me.
Heavy footsteps pounded on the gnarled boards of the dock nearby. “On the starboard side!” someone called out. Several men were leaning back against huge wooden barrels banded with metal; their pipe smoke curled into the air.
Hurry, Kat thought, find a boat. The ones with empty lobster traps and nets being loaded on deck had to be going out for a day’s fishing. Her eyes darted to the boats where crates of fish and blocks of ice were being carried below deck, along with squirming, clawing lobsters piled up in huge cages. “Hose them down, Buddy,” someone shouted. The catch had to be kept cold and wet to stay fresh for a trip. The night’s catch, for delivery to Boston. She’d have to share a dark hold with dead fish and scrabbling lobsters! She could handle it. She could! The trip wouldn’t be that long.
Kat headed toward the Mary Lee, freshly painted and trim. She loitered on the dock next to it but there were too many people nearby. Sneaking aboard would be the hard part! Kat moved over to the Second Chance. It was a smaller vessel, but it looked almost new. And they had just finished loading cages of lobster. The men were on deck, adjusting the sails. They had their backs to her. Now, Kat thought. Move fast and be invisible. Now! She kept her eyes on the backs of the men, busy, no one turning around; she took a quick step and—
“Hey there, Katherine!”
Kat gasped and jumped a mile at the sound of the voice behind her. Mr. Fiering, a friend of Papa’s! One more step and she would have been caught!
Her heart was thumping so hard, she was sure it showed through her coat! It took a moment before she could speak. “Hello, Mr. Fiering.” She tried to sound normal.
“What are you up to so early?” he asked.
“A project. For school. About the harbor. A harbor project.” That made no sense at all! Kat pressed her shaking lips together to keep them from more nervous babbling.
Luckily, Mr. Fiering was too busy to listen. He was already walking away as he spoke to Kat. “Tell your father hello from me,” he said as he boarded the Second Chance.
Her heart was still hammering. She had to pull herself together! Kat drew in a long, shaky breath. All right. She needed to get away from the center of activity. And she had to get on board, quick, before they all set sail for Boston!
Kat hurried to the far end of the dock, where there were fewer people around. The Evangeline. The berths on both sides of it were empty. She could see the men taking full crates of fish below. All right. This was it…Go! Then she hesitated. The Evangeline’s paint was peeling, it looked old. But she wasn’t buying it, just hitching a ride. She saw Mr. Gardner on deck giving orders. So he was the captain. She knew him by sight, a heavyset man with a grizzled beard, one of the regular Cape Light fishermen. Surely none of them would go out on a boat that wasn’t shipshape. Anyway, good maintenance didn’t always show on the outside. Here, at the end of the dock, was her best chance of getting aboard unseen. And she was running out of time.
Kat took a look behind her. No one. She checked the men on the deck of the Evangeline. They were busy, their backs to her, wrestling with a full lobster cage.
All right, now or never. Go! She clambered aboard and dove down the steps into the hold. Oh, no, they were still loading lobsters! The open hatch let in shafts of light. They’d see her. Footsteps thundered on the metal rungs down to the hold. Kat scrambled to a far, dark corner. She squeezed against a damp crate. In the dim light she could see men bent over in the cramped space and intent on the job. If they looked this way…A pulse in her forehead was drumming. No, they couldn’t hear that! They couldn’t! Kat didn’t move a muscle. She held her breath and waited. Finally the men went up again. The hatch slammed shut, plunging the hold into darkness.
Kat exhaled and her body went limp. Everything around her was black. Slowly her eyes adjusted. She could just make out some vague shapes. She heard footsteps over her head. She heard awful scrabbling sounds. The lobsters in the cages. Right next to her! Well, she could move over. She started to stand up and banged her head. Ow! Her forehead throbbed and she sank down again and found another place to sit. She tried shifting into a comfortable position.
She felt the boat lurch as the anchor was pulled up. Then there was a rocking motion. The boat was just getting under way! It felt like she’d been down here for hours already. There was an awful smell. Fresh fish, Papa always said, had no odor at all. This was a pungent smell of rotting wood and decay. She’d never been seasick in her life…but that smell! Don’t think of getting sick, think of something else, anything else!
Kat’s body swayed with the boat but her arms and legs were tight and tense. She adjusted the duffel bag behind her back and leaned against it. She was trapped in a small, dark space, sailing miles away from her family and friends. What had she done? Stop, don’t be a baby. It was only for a few hours. And then she’d be in Boston.
Time dragged by.
So far, excitement had carried Kat forward; she’d been in action. Now she had nothing to do but sit still and think. Was Boston’s harbor right in the city or far away on the outskirts? How far was it from the Bartholomew School and the Carstairses’ home? Where did you get trolleys and what was the fare? What if the school was closed by the time she arrived and the Carstairses weren’t at home? Where would she spend the night? She should have written to the Carstairses and told them she was coming!
The awful smell filled her nose and clung to her clothing. Her legs were cramped. She started to stand up to stretch—no, not straight up! She tried half-stretching, bent over. Sitting again, she pushed her legs out in front of her. She flexed her toes and her feet.
Kat rocked with the boat and had no sense of how long they’d been under way. It seemed like hours. Maybe it was hours. She wanted to get up and escape this tight, dark space! She hoped they were at least halfway to Boston.
Maybe it was already afternoon. Amanda and Lizabeth might be skating on Mill Pond this very minute.
She missed them already. And her family—she could imagine their shocked faces when they read her letter. Oh, what had she done?…Cape Light, where she knew everyone, where you could always count on neighbors for a kind word or a barn raising…She’d never run into that boy Michael again, she’d never find out if he liked her or not….
She listened to the swishing sounds of the waves against the sides. She’d have to wait it out.
Suddenly she heard a different noise, scratchy, coming from another direction. Chills raced up her back. Scratchy noises of little claws against the old wooden boards, coming closer to her. She couldn’t see anything in the dark. It’s nothing, she told herself, just the men working above me, sounds carrying down from the deck.
Something furry crossed her hand! Kat smothered her scream. A rat? Her whole body jumped in panic. She crawled away frantically, not knowing where she was going. She wanted to escape to the deck! Please, God, she prayed, give me courage.
Kat huddled into a small, miserable ball. Please, God, let us reach Boston soon. Or anywhere.
Her legs were aching and cramped. Her skin crawled. She’d die if something furry touched her again!
She was afraid to move. The scratchy sound had stopped—but was something sitting on its haunches with beady little eyes watching her? Kat shuddered.
She had to stretch again, she just had to! Cautiously, she shifted position and moved her legs out from under her. There, that was better. But—her ankles felt wet! She felt around with her hands. There was water at the bottom of the hold! Was that normal? It had been dry before. Stop. This awful trip was making her panic. It had to be normal for some seawater to seep through the boards during the journey. That sounded right. How would she know—she’d never s
ailed in a hold before.
Now the back of her coat was wet. Oh, her good coat! Water had soaked through to her skirt and petticoat, too! Bent over, she moved to find a dry place to sit. Would a rat be looking for a dry place, too? She didn’t want to think about that. She couldn’t find a dry place!
Wait! Stop and think. She couldn’t see where the water was coming from. Maybe it was just leaking from the fish crates that had been hosed down. That was perfectly possible, wasn’t it? She shifted uncertainly. She was damp and cold.
Soon she was sopping wet, up to her knees. Her skirt had become heavy, weighting her down. And her feet were now sloshing in water! Kat shivered. This wasn’t from any fish crates. This wasn’t normal. But maybe it was. Please, let it be normal. She had to stay put or else she’d be in big trouble. She couldn’t let them know she was here—or should she?
The water was rising!
Kat heard the hull start creaking and then the terrible sound of water rushing in….
fifteen
Kat crawled to the hatch. She couldn’t fool herself any longer. The boat was in trouble! She banged and banged on the hatch until it opened. Dripping and frightened, she climbed onto the deck.
“Who—What are you—?” A sailor’s jaw dropped with astonishment.
“There’s water in the hold! Please! Do something!”
“Wait a minute. Captain Gardner!” he shouted. “Look what we’ve got here!”
“What is this? What’s going on?” The captain came over. The other men gathered around Kat and stared. “Where in blazes did you come from?”
“There’s no time to explain!” Kat said desperately. “There’s water in the hold! I think something is awfully wrong.”
“What are you doing on my boat?” Captain Gardner yelled. Kat shrank under his angry stare. “I don’t take kindly to stowaways!”
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