Ian’s face lit in a dazzling smile. He took her hand and they walked together to the stern. Ian knocked lightly on the captain’s door, and when bade enter, he led Anne within.
Lily and John Sutherland were seated at the captain’s table. Anne looked at them questioningly.
“We need two witnesses,” Ian explained. “I thought it would be all right….”
“We shall not tell a soul,” Lily said in her matter-of-fact way.
Anne nodded. “I’m pleased to have you here. Thank you.”
Captain Spiers led them through the ceremony. As he recited the final prayer, Ian leaned over to whisper in Anne’s ear, “You’ve got me into a lot of scrapes, Anne Grant. But this…”
She flashed him a quick grin, and he kissed her.
Captain Spiers shook Ian’s hand. He held Anne by the shoulders for a moment, looking into her eyes. Anne was afraid for a moment that he was going to scold her for her wanton deception. Instead, the captain said, “You are a brave lass. I wish you well.” Then he gave Anne a kiss on each cheek.
The Sutherlands gave their congratulations, and then the four settlers left the cabin. Not a word was said to any of the other travellers, sparing the young couple nasty gossip and reprimand.
The Hector passed St. John Island and beat its way toward Pictou Harbour. There was a buzz of excitement aboard. Land lay all about them. It was only a matter of hours now, and they would be at their destination.
In the morning, Anne sat in the hold with Katherine, watching as each breath laboured in and out of her chest.
“Dear merciful God,” Anne prayed, “please let Katherine live. Let her stand on the soil of Nova Scotia. Please let her help her girls and Hugh start their new life in the New World.”
Anne bathed Katherine’s fevered, pocked brow and hummed bits of hymns to her.
Anne’s heart skipped a beat when Katherine’s eyes blinked open. Anne whispered, “Katherine?”
Katherine slowly turned her face and focussed her eyes upon Anne. She swallowed loudly.
Anne eased her friend’s shoulders up and helped her to sip some water, then lay her gently down again.
Katherine croaked, “The girls.”
“Christina is better; she is doing fine now. Elspie has been caring for them all. She has been very good to them.”
Katherine gave a slight nod. Then she whispered huskily, “Do not let them throw me in the sea. I want to be buried. On land. Please.”
Anne’s eyes brimmed with tears. She cradled Katherine’s limp fingers in her hands. “Oh Katherine, you will get well now. You…”
Katherine closed her eyes and opened them again. “Nay. Tell Hugh… take good care… the girls. I tried.”
Anne squeezed Katherine’s frail fingers. “Aye. You are a grand mama to your girls.”
Katherine closed her eyes. She took a shuddering breath, then another. And then she breathed no more.
“No,” Anne whispered. “Oh no.” She lay her head in her arms and wept.
As Anne sobbed bitterly by Katherine’s deathbed, the Hector slipped into Pictou Harbour.
The great white sails folded like the wings of a giant bird settling; the anchor lowered with a resounding rattle. The longboat was hoisted from the deck and lowered to the Hector’s side.
The settlers on deck cried and laughed in relief. Men rushed to their packs and donned their kilts. They would enter the New World wearing their tartans.
After a time, Anne quietly pulled the blanket up over Katherine’s scarred face and shuffled to the ladder. She stared at the Hector’s miserable hold for a long moment, then stiffly climbed to the deck.
There was hardly room to walk among the passengers as they milled about, talking and gazing out over the rails. Anne wove through them like a leaf flowing down a stream, not fighting the current but merely edging around obstacles. She finally found Hugh at the starboard bow, with Alexander, Elspie, and their families.
Their animated faces fell when they saw Anne. Her grief was written clearly on her features. Hugh stepped forward and held her hands.
“She is gone?” he asked.
Anne nodded, too sorrowful to speak. Tears filled her eyes again.
Hugh looked to the heavens for a moment, then back at Anne, his eyes moist. “Thank you for caring for her,” he whispered. “You’re a good friend.”
Anne cried, “She spoke, just before she passed. She… she said that she wanted to be buried. On land. Not at sea.”
Hugh nodded. “It will be as she asked.”
“And she said,” Anne choked, “that she tried. And to please take good care of the girls.”
Hugh nodded again. He glanced at his girls, playing nearby with their cousins. He lifted both of his hands and swept the tears off his face with his palms.
Alexander stood at his side and said, “They will want for nothing, Hugh.”
“That’s right,” Elspie agreed, coming to his other side and taking Hugh’s elbow. “We will help you with the girls. Never fear.”
“Thank you. I suppose… I must tell them.”
“I will speak to the captain, about arrangements to take her ashore,” Alexander said.
Hugh nodded, then took a shuddering breath and made for the children, his shoulders bent. Elspie trailed along to give support.
Anne turned and made for the rail. She slumped against it and gazed out. Having land about seemed foreign after so many weeks of the vastness of the sea. The beach was rocky, and great trees grew down to the shore. Autumn shades of gold and crimson smudged the jade green forest. The air was alive with wheeling birds, squawking and calling to each other. Dark shapes flitted amongst the trees, too quick to make out whether they were human or animal.
John MacKay tuned up his bagpipes and began to play. Master Orr shouted orders to the crew. Passengers gathered their few belongings and waited in hushed anticipation for the longboat to be loaded.
They had arrived. After two and a half months of grueling sea travel, storms, disease, and food shortages, they were here.
Anne hugged her arms about herself. They had gained this shore. But the price!
She gazed mournfully about the deck, her eyes pausing on those who had lost kin during the voyage. Eighteen brave souls died on the Hector. How many families would have embarked upon this venture if they could have known?
Hugh sat with Christina and Janet in his lap. Their soft words and sobs carried across the deck. Anne turned her face away.
Anne’s gaze paused on Isabel and Jean Fraser, standing by the main mast, their scarred faces hidden in the hoods of their cloaks. They would live out their lives in painful disfigurement. Some of the passengers blamed them for the smallpox deaths, and had shunned them throughout the voyage. Anne pitied them. Surely they couldn’t have known they had the illness when they boarded the ship?
Then she spied Janet Fraser, with baby Jane in her arms. She was the breath of new life in all the heartache and death they had suffered. She was like a promise of a future, of something better.
Ian found Anne. He looked very proud, wearing his MacLeod tartan. He took her hand and held it tightly.
They surveyed the shore. Anne thought it did not look so very different from Scotland, except it was wilder, freer, full of possibilities and challenges.
Ian gave her fingers a little squeeze. Anne looked up into his face.
“Well, lass, now it’s up to us. To make a life for ourselves here.”
Anne took a deep breath of the pine-scented air. “I’m ready, Ian,” she said.
OTHER QUATTRO FICTION
Texas by Claudio Gaudio
Abundance of the Infinite by Christopher Canniff
The Proxy Bride by Terri Favro
Tea with the Tiger by Nathan Unsworth
A Certain Grace by Binnie Brennan
Life Without by Ken Klonsky
Romancing the Buzzard by Leah Murray
The Lebanese Dishwasher by Sonia Saikaley
Against God
by Patrick Senécal
The Ballad of Martin B. by Michael Mirolla
Mahler’s Lament by Deborah Kirshner
Surrender by Peter Learn
Constance, Across by Richard Cumyn
In the Mind’s Eye by Barbara Ponomareff
The Panic Button by Koom Kankesan
Shrinking Violets by Heidi Greco
Grace by Vanessa Smith
Break Me by Tom Reynolds
Retina Green by Reinhard Filter
Gaze by Keith Cadieux
Tobacco Wars by Paul Seesequasis
The Sea by Amela Marin
Real Gone by Jim Christy
A Gardener on the Moon by Carole Giangrande
Good Evening, Central Laundromat by Jason Heroux
Of All the Ways To Die by Brenda Niskala
The Cousin by John Calabro
Harbour View by Binnie Brennan
The Extraordinary Event of Pia H. by Nicola Vulpe
A Pleasant Vertigo by Egidio Coccimiglio
Wit in Love by Sky Gilbert
The Adventures of Micah Mushmelon by Michael Wex
Room Tone by Gale Zoë Garnett
Oatcakes and Courage Page 12