“What do you mean, removed? Please, sir, look again.”
“We have five passengers. No Talbot. Spencer was registered as ‘gentleman and wife’ here but fare is rescinded. Have ye the fare?”
“How much is it?”
“Fifteen pounds ten will get you there without starving.”
I gasped. I had less than a third of it in coin. I thought of the pearls. The brooch. Home. “I could get it if you will wait for me. I will find a jeweler.”
“We sail with the tide, come hell or high water.”
“Would you buy pearls? Trade them for the fare?”
“Mayhap. I’d have to see ’em. Who’s going with you?”
“No one.”
“No unescorted women. If you wasn’t a whore afore you got here, you’d be one by time you made the bay in Kingston. This is no place for you. Go on home now.” He proceeded to go down his list and call orders to people who could not have heard him, ignoring me as if I were just another plank of wood before him.
I dashed toward the office. There I spied my trunk outside the door. A paper tag fluttered from one of the locks. I took it up to see my name there, with Aegean under it, a black waxy X marked through the entire thing. My pleas to the harbormaster to take my pearls brought me nothing. I turned from him in tears.
An hour later calls of “Away! Away!” came through the doors and windows, and the whole human population of the docks rushed to see the Aegean depart. Her sheets fluttered with the sound of a flock of thousands of birds. They caught the slightest breeze and filled, making a wake in the harbor. “No!” I called. “Oh, Wallace, where are you? Our ship is leaving without us!” None could hear my cries over the din of voices. My life was shattered. Where was my beloved? He must have been set upon by vagabonds or highwaymen, or perhaps his horse stumbled in the dark, leaving him dying in a field. I felt almost aswoon with panic. Where was he? I watched the Aegean until she vanished in the mist. Land across the harbor made all ships turn to meet the open sea and for a moment I saw sails reappear. When they faded from view, so did all my hopes. I sat upon the trunk and fought away tears.
After a time, I straightened my shoulders and told the man in the office I would return for the trunk. I meant to go to Wallace’s home and make sure he had not perished. I stopped a coachman. “How much to get me to Boston?”
“Where is your husband?”
I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t one, yet.”
He whipped his team and moved away with a clatter.
I hugged my parcels and walked, getting away from the docks being my only thought. I walked past buildings which hours before seemed sweet with promise. Now they were filthy dungeons full of vile people. Not at all sure I was going the right direction, I made my way through the streets of Boston until I turned down a narrow lane and saw the familiar sign of Foulke and Harrison. As my hand touched the door, I knew that without Wallace, I would still find a way to get home. I opened the door sheepishly, to find the crippled young man there at his desk, writing something in a beautiful hand, copied from a terribly scratched note.
He looked up and smiled, saying, “Good morning, Miss Talbot.”
“Hello, sir. I am sorry; I know not your name.”
“Daniel Charlesworth, Miss Talbot. At your service.”
“Mr. Charlesworth, is Lawyer Foulke in?”
“No, I’m sorry. At court, probably all day.”
“Oh, that is unfortunate. For me.”
“Is there something I might help with? I am reading law, and I understand confidentiality. Of course, I am but a clerk, and if you’d wish to—”
“Oh, would you?” I pulled the letter addressed to Mr. Roberts, unfolded it, smoothed it. Wallace had left it crumpled on the floor when he left. “You see, I wanted to get home. Home to my father’s plantation, that is. Something has just occurred.” There, I paused, fighting tears. “Please tell me what this means, this word here.” I pointed to “escheat” and watched him move his lips as he read and reread the paragraph.
“‘Escheat’ means it moves to a former claimant. Essentially, the king has withdrawn ownership of the plantation from your family and has taken it back in his possession, to do with as he wishes. Your father, being deceased, has no further claim.”
“What about my mother? She is alive. What about me?”
“It does not recognize heirs. If your mother was not in possession of it when the solicitor arrived, she has no claim, either.”
“I have a brother.”
“Where is he?” Mr. Charlesworth’s face brightened.