Convictions (16 page)

Jennie felt nothing, no pain, no fear, no hope, no future. Small laps of water washed over her. Cold seeped into her body. Distant voices faded as, once more, she drifted into oblivion while the dreary mist settled around her in the fading light.

Chapter Thirteen

“Jennie!”

Thud! Splash!

“Jen-nie!”

Something hard struck Jennie’s arm with another splash. Groggily she opened her eyes to bright sunlight. She clasped a hand over her face, squinting from the glare. Water rushed around her as she tilted. She immediately recalled she was on a chunk of wood in the middle of the ocean.
Shipwrecked.

Lifting her head carefully, she saw Alice and Sarah a few yards away, sitting on a portion of the bow. Alice had a short piece of wood in her hands, which was aimed Jennie’s way.

“We roused you, at last!”

Blinking in disbelief, Jennie croaked, “You’re alive! Thank God!” Her mouth was so dry, she couldn’t swallow.

Cautiously, Jennie sat up. The sun was warm, but she was chilled right through and couldn’t stop shivering. At least she wasn’t alone any more.

“We’re so happy we found you!” Sarah shouted.

“Are you both all right?” Jennie took in the dark gash that had opened up again down Sarah’s cheek.

“A few bumps and bruises, but fine,” Sarah shouted again. “We were afraid you were a goner. Good thing this young miss was persistent. She’s been whacking her stick and calling you for ever so long.”

“I prayed we’d find you safe and here you are,” called Alice, beaming.

“Safe as any of us are,” said Jennie wryly. She looked for some kind of debris to use as a paddle so she could draw nearer to them.

As if reading her thoughts, Sarah yelled, “Stay put for a bit, pet. We can’t have you falling in. We’ll wait for Nate to give us a hand.” She pointed to a tight group of makeshift rafts dotting the waves.

“Nate?” Jennie craned to see several odd-shaped chunks of ship joined together with bedraggled women balancing on them. Among them she made out a lone male figure in the jolly boat, lashing two chunks together with a rope. Happiness surged through Jennie.

“He’s tying us together to prevent us from tipping so easily,” Alice called out. “He found pieces of rope and sails among the bigger parts of the ship that got wedged in the rocks. We’re gathering whatever we find as we go too, but almost everything sank.”

Sarah added, “Nate is still rescuing people and then he’ll see about how to transport us all to the rocks.”

“Not many can fit on the jolly boat,” Jennie noted.

“No. He’ll have to take a few at a time. Right now, he needs to be sure he has found all the living,” said Sarah.

Jennie studied the small pile of rope on Sarah and Alice’s raft.

“Sarah, could you tie a few pieces of rope together and throw them to me?” yelled Jennie. “Maybe we can pull ourselves closer.”

Without a word, the pair quickly knotted a few segments together. Sarah coiled the rope in her hand.

“I can do this,” Alice said, taking it from the older woman. “I know you won’t admit it but your arm is badly banged up. Let me try.”

She threw with all her strength, tipping off balance. The rope fell a few feet short and trailed into the water.

“Try again,” Jennie encouraged.

This time Alice wound up, gathering momentum, then hurled the rope as hard as she could.

It was closer than the first pitch. Jennie automatically reached out to catch it but leaned too far. She landed in the water with a resounding splash and swallowed a mouthful of salty water. She finally righted herself and twisted the rope around an elbow. Jennie swam back to her board and managed to clamber up. She raised the end of the rope in triumph as Alice and Sarah cheered.

They braced themselves on their knees and on the count of three, began pulling gently but steadily so as not to slide into the sea again. Their floating platforms nudged forward.

Jennie grinned as they came closer and closer together.

“Easy does it, now,” said Sarah, as their makeshift rafts butted together and wobbled dangerously.

“We did it!” Alice clapped. She found a splinter on their side and wedged the rope into the crack in the wood. It wasn’t terribly secure but it would hold long enough if they were careful not to put too much strain on it.

Jennie had trouble finding anywhere to tie her end of rope. One board jutted out and was quite narrow. She leaned over the edge as far as she dared and wound the rope around it as tightly as she could. She suspected it would slip off before long, but for now she was happy to be close to her friends.

Her thoughts turned to the horrors of the shipwreck. Jennie looked anxiously for other shipmates she’d been close to, but from this distance she couldn’t identify anyone.

“Have you seen Kate?” she asked.

Sarah shook her head and turned away.

“She saved our lives,” said Alice, “but a big wave took her under, and we couldn’t find her. Sarah tried really hard, even with her sore arm.”

Sarah pulled Alice tighter to her. “And Lizzie?” she asked.

Tears welled in Jennie’s eyes, and she couldn’t speak.

“You tried hard to save her too,” Alice filled in solemnly.

“She ended up saving me,” Jennie croaked out at last. “I tried to –”

Sarah nodded her understanding, and there was a long pause before Jenny could speak again.

“Is Nate the only surviving guard?”

“He’s the only one we’ve seen so far,” said Alice. “We did see Meadows and Coombs, but that’s it so far for the crew. They’re searching for people over there.” She pointed behind them. “Oh, look! Nate’s headed for us.”

Nate handled the jolly boat confidently. Jennie had thought he was meant for the land, yet here he was skilfully manoeuvring in the water.

“We figure Walt and Red Bull went down with the ship,” Sarah said. “Otherwise, they’d be helping.”

“Probably Red Bull wouldn’t help,” said Jennie. She couldn’t help feeling some relief that Red Bull was gone.

“Nate was really brave,” Alice said. “He helped us onto these boards.”

Jennie watched Nate coming toward them, poking at floating debris along the way. He reached into the water and pulled out another long stick, then continued on.

“He’s looking for firewood,” Alice offered. “He says we can dry it out and it will burn so we can send out signals to another ship that might be in the area.”

“But drying it could take days.” Jennie’s teeth chattered; she trembled with the cold
–
and with fear. What if they were never rescued?

Puzzled, Jennie asked, “If Nate helped you onto this piece of the ship, and you know what he’s planning, why are you here and not tied with the others?”

“He spent most of the night pulling people out of the sea. He didn’t start the platform until this morning where several rafts were already close together,” said Sarah. “We told him we could wait. He just took one near us. It looks like we’re next.”

Jennie shifted to watch Nate’s approach, and her boards dipped just enough to allow the lapping water to rush over and soak her backside once again. Startled, she realized they could yet sink into the dark depths before someone came to their rescue. If anyone came.

“What about the longboat?” she suddenly remembered.

“Smashed,” Alice told her.

“When we’re together with the others, we’ll come up with a plan,” Sarah called with false brightness.

Jennie twigged that Nate had already discovered there was no place to land on the island of rocks and that Sarah was only keeping up Alice’s hope.

“Here’s Nate now,” shouted Alice. She stood up to watch him arrive.

“Easy, ducky,” Sarah called to Nate. Fear darted across her features as their inadequate raft jiggled with the movement caused by his arrival. “You know how much I hate being in the water.”

As Nate drew closer they heard clanks and rattles that came from a wooden bucket. Dishes, utensils, tools and other bits and bobs poked out of the bucket, along with a battered spyglass from the captain’s cabin. Nate had also gathered a pile of rope and sails, and there was a wooden barrel of some kind.

“How on earth did he get all that stuff?” asked Jennie in amazement.

“He gathered it all night as he searched
for the survivors,” said Sarah. “More of the ship was floating then. Now most everything that might be useful has sunk.”

The jolly boat bumped gently up to them.

“Ahoy.” Nate smiled when he saw Jennie.

“Hello,” Jennie answered.

“I see you’ve been busy.” He studied their tethering. “Instead of towing you,” he said, “I’ll help you into the boat. There are plenty of other platforms already gathered for you to settle on.”

With great care, Nate supported the edge of Jenny’s raft as best he could, and she stepped gingerly into the jolly boat, using Nate’s shoulders to keep her balance.

“I’m glad you’re all right and back.” His voice was low.

“You too,” she answered as he helped her get seated.

Before she could say anything more, he drew closer to Sarah and Alice. He helped them into the boat, then untied the rope that had held them together and stowed it.

“We’ll get you to the main group before you know it,” he said.

Jennie was relieved they’d be with the others, and what Nate said about them being together
would
make them safer to some degree. On the other hand, they had no food, no drinking water and no protection from the elements – never mind that there was no sight of land in any direction, except for the small group of craggy rocks that were useless to them.

As if in answer to her unspoken thoughts, Nate said, “Meadows and Coombs are gathering women together in other spots.” Looking at Jennie, he added, “Chilcott is searching for provisions.”

“It’s good news that a few more have survived,” said Sarah, though her face was grim. “We’ve lost so many strong women.”

Jennie’s eyes widened. Fear crept up her spine. Of all the people who could have died, why was Red Bull not one of them? How could that have happened? Instead sweet, good Kate had perished. There was no justice.

She blamed him too, for Lizzie’s dying – not because of the shipwreck. Except for his cruel treatment of her, Lizzie would have been strong enough to have lived. Red Bull was a vile man, and now he was here to plague her. How was she ever going to be able to endure him? She felt even colder than before.

Chapter Fourteen

Jennie shook herself
back to the present
as Nate stopped to poke at something floating nearby. He discarded it, and dipped with strong strokes, headed straight on target for the network of linked, floating boards.

Jennie watched him row. His mouth firmly set, his muscles rippled with each confident tug at the water. Jennie wondered what they would feel like if she touched them. She glanced away before he could catch her staring at him.

She looked toward the horizon. As far as Jennie could see in every direction, wreckage drifted on the dull grey water. She shuddered and kept her eyes averted from the already bloated livestock and floating corpses.

The sun rose higher and warmed her a little. And she felt safer now that she and her friends were in the jolly boat.

Nate called out toward a chunk of ship floating a half a furlong away. “Need any help?” he shouted.

Jennie was relieved to see Coombs with a couple of the Marys.

“Still more over there.” Coombs pointed over his right shoulder where two women frantically waved in the distance.

“Can you go for them?” Nate yelled to Coombs.

The sandy-haired man waved acknowledgement and turned back to the women in his ragtag group.

It took a few minutes to reach the larger group, but when they did, Nate helped Alice and Sarah alight. They made their way to spots where they could balance with the others.

Jennie hesitated. “Could I help you search?”

Nate tilted his head to one side in thought. “Perhaps it would be good to have an extra pair of eyes.” He nodded and they set off toward the rocks.

“We’ll do another sweep around what’s left of the ship,” said Nate.

“What’s that?” asked Jennie. She’d spied a corner chunk of what was once part of the ship. As they rowed closer she realized it was part of the captain’s cabin. “There might be something useful there.”

As they drew nearer, they heard thumping.

“Someone must be trapped,” said Jennie.

Nate slowed his strokes as they rounded to the open side of the broken structure.

Jennie drew in a sharp breath. A man was trapped between the wall and the heavy overturned captain’s desk. With his face turned away, she couldn’t tell who it was. His one free hand continued slapping against the wall. He was pinned at the waist, his legs dangling below the water line.

“Ahoy!” Nate called.

The man turned his head slowly toward them. Jennie’s gall rose when she saw it was Red Bull.