The other men chuckled at my innocence. “We’re able to get tea from all over,” Dobbs said with a smile. “Wait till you try the whiskey and rum.”
Dwyer shot him a surprised glance. “Girls don’t drink spirits, do they?”
Dobbs shrugged. “I think some of them do.”
They both looked at me expectantly. “I’ve had wine once, but never whiskey or rum,” I admitted.
“What about that fizzy wine that people have at weddings?” Dobbs chuckled as Cookie placed plates of food around the table. “That always looked fun.”
“Champagne,” Cookie sniffed. “I’ve tried it and didn’t much care for it. Ruining good wine with bubbles that make me sneeze.”
A long deep sigh rolled through me, causing all three men to look at me funny. “Sorry. I just realized that I really don’t have to get married to that terrible man, now that I’m gone. It’s a great relief.”
“Freedom probably tastes better than any champagne,” Dobbs chuckled.
“Did you not like the man?” Dwyer asked. He seemed to take everything quite seriously.
“There were two men interested in marrying me,” I explained, “but my father managed a much smaller dowry with Mr. Helsby, who was a nasty drunken lout.”
“What’s a dowry?” Dwyer asked.
“That’s the amount of money a father gives the prospective husband in order to marry his daughter,” Dobbs said.
Dwyer shook his head. “If the man is being given a nice lady, shouldn’t he be the one paying the father?” He looked at me in horror. “Not that anyone should be buying and selling women, miss.”
“That’s the way of those backward townsfolk,” Dobbs said. “Their ideas of freedom and justice are all twisted up.”
I’d never spoken with such different people before, and was fascinated to hear them all speaking their mind without reservation. In my hometown, people were always extremely careful of everything they uttered publicly, knowing that they would be judged. It seemed that out here, people could just speak their minds freely. I liked it.
The others came downstairs to join us, and I was thrilled that the Captain pulled up a crate to sit close beside me.
“Did you sleep well, Maggie?” he asked softly, leaning in close.
“Yes, thank you.”
I caught the way the others were pointedly looking anywhere but at us for a moment. I looked straight into his eyes. “Your mother’s chair is extremely comfortable to sleep in. Thank you.”
His lips tightened at the edges in a slight smirk. “That’s good, then.”
I’m not sure why I lied. I don’t even know if I’d ever spoken a lie in my life. But sleeping in the Captain’s bed felt…naughty. Not something I was prepared to be open about with the others.
Breakfast was absolutely delicious – a big fry up of vegetables and potatoes, with a bit of salt cured ham. The men all spoke excitedly about the town of Parrinport that we’d be reaching tomorrow afternoon.
I noticed that they only mentioned the wonderful bakery, the chatty, hilarious fishermen, and their favorite rum. There was no mention of what their business was there.
It might not just be at breakfast, I thought – their business was really none of mine. If I wanted to live here, I was going to have to earn my keep, and make them all trust me. Then perhaps one day they would open up to a stranger.
“Captain, what shall I do today?” I asked.
He nodded thoughtfully, that dark thick hair swishing around his head as he did so. “Good question, lass.”
“She was good help with breakfast already,” Cookie chimed in.
“Maybe for today you could just assist each of us,” the Captain said, looking around the table at each man in turn. “We’ll all start teaching you about the ship, and you can see how we run things.”
“Can you sew?” Willy asked.
“Yes. Quite well, actually. I made all of the clothing for my family.”