By week’s end, we had discussed my traveling to Jamaica at least nine times, and seeing I was determined, nothing would do but that Mr. Roberts and his wife would accompany me to Boston to find a ship. I had to hide my disappointment when Mr. Roberts answered that he could not leave for at least five more days, yet the weather was increasingly bitter and I feared he had been correct about not sailing until spring.
On the day we were to leave, the girls burst into my room, chattering like a flock of chickens. Serenity, the eldest, looked upon my form for a moment, and then shook her head. “But you are so lithe! And that old gray wool! Too plain. You wouldn’t want to be taken for a Quaker, would you? Oh, to have a waist as small as yours. Come with us, Miss Talbot.” She pulled me by the hand and led me to her room, clucked and riffled through the gowns and petticoats hanging from the walls. “Try this. Take it with you, if it fits. It fit me two years past, but Betsy has already outgrown it, too, and by the time Tipsie can wear it, it will be out of fashion.”
Under my weak protest, they pulled the pale blue satin and silk over my head, laced up the back, adjusted the shoulders just off the curve so that it made a cunning frame for a modest décolletage. Serenity pushed me before the glass. “Look at yourself now, Miss Talbot. Oh, my. None did this gown justice until today.”
I saw myself in the mirror and stared longer than the nuns would have allowed, shivered with the sheer joy of wearing something lovely and light. It was the color Ma dressed me in for any nice dinner. I turned to Serenity. “You are kind. It is very fine.”
“Let us do something to your hair. Come here, Betsy, and bring us a comb.”
They fretted and fiddled, and finding my hair’s nature as dismaying as I found it, they managed to get a chignon on the crown and pull out some curls at the temples and sides. The curls would not line up and fall “like good little soldiers” as Betsy said, but dangled by their own device, all askew and frothy. I smiled at Betsy and told her, “The more I trouble my hair, the more unruly it becomes. Please let us say it is finished, for it only will get worse.” Once they were indeed finished, I admired my hair in the mirror and felt a swelling of what I may only look back on as vanity and selfish pride. At the doorway, I donned my black priest’s robe over the gown, tucked my bundled clothing under one arm, and bade them all farewell.
I called to the boys, Herbert and Henry, “I shall not be pleased at all if you kissed me good-bye. I hate being kissed by boys.” As I had expected, they both ran to kiss my cheeks and put their grimy hands about my neck for a caress. Herbert pressed a glossy, almost clear crystal stone into my palm, said it was a gift for my journey and not to lose it, as it contained magical powers. “Thank you kindly,” I said.
As we rode in the barouche, Mistress Roberts said, “We shall miss you, Miss Talbot, for you have been a dear guest. If your travels ever take you this way again, do make our acquaintance anew.”
“I shall, madam. You have been ever kind to me in my distress. I shall speak of your warmth and care to my mother and I am sure she will think you are splendid for it. Mr. Roberts, may I ask something of a business nature?” When he assented, I continued. “In preparation for some ill occurrence, my mother concealed some valuables which I have been provided in order to seek a way to return home. Is there a place in this Boston town to which we go, of a nature where I might sell or trade for coins for my passage?”
“You have them with you now?” he asked.
“I do, sir.”
“Let no one know of it by any gesture or query until we are within a safe institution. We will go to the Seaman’s Mercantile. Instead of going to the harbor at Mistick we shall ride up the Neck and into Boston proper.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Not at all. It gives me a chance to see to my investments without worrying about boring both my lovely female companions, eh, my dear?” He winked boldly at his wife, who blushed and waved her fan at him. “Of course, you will have to let me handle the exchange for you. I will do my utmost to secure the right price.”
“May I accompany you, sir? That way I could see how it is done, and be the more educated by your guidance.” This played to his pride in a greater way than I had expected, and the man beamed as we rode the rest of the way.