Jamestown (The Keepers of the Ring) (30 page)

“
The child lives in England,” Numees said simply, knowing the chief would understand her feelings.

Pain flooded his face then, for Powhatan loved children, and the tough, snakelike artery in his neck throbbed with unspoken grief.
If John Rolfe had chosen to walk into the hut at that moment—

From the gloom in a corner of the hut, an elder raised his hand to speak.
Numees bowed her head in respect, and was startled to hear the powerful voice of Opechancanough. “This, my chief, is yet another insult to store away, to keep until our chest of wrongs is full. We dare not attack the clothed men for this injustice.”

“
The child belongs to me,” Powhatan said, pressing his thin lips together.

“
Even so,” Opechancanough answered, and Numees felt his eyes sweep over her face as if he weighed her intentions and thoughts,

“
We must exercise patience.”

Powhatan pondered his brother
’s words for a moment, then turned to the elder at his left hand. This man sat with his withered legs spread uselessly before him, and Numees recognized him as Itopatin, another of Powhatan’s brothers.

“
What do you say? Powhatan asked.

Itopatin slowly moistened his underlip with the point of his tongue, then nodded toward Opechancanough.
“My elder brother speaks wisely,” he said, his eyes large and timid before Opechancanough’s steadfast gaze. “My heart is in agreement.”

Powhatan looked back to Numees.
“What is it you ask of us?” he asked, his voice again heavy with ceremony.

“
To be welcomed back into the clan of my sister Matoaka,” she whispered, hoping she had not overestimated the chief’s loyalty.

The chief lifted his hand toward her in blessing.
“Go, find a place among your people,” he said, closing his eyes as if her homecoming and her news had left him blind with exhaustion.

Twenty-four

T
he Eighteenth of May,

In the Year of Our Lord Sixteen hundred and seventeen

To Fallon Bailie, Greetings in the Name of our Lord:

We of the church council do accept your resignation as headmaster of the Royal Academy for Homeless Orphans, and we likewise accept and commend your desire to accompany our first expedition of children bound for the Virginia colony.

On a personal note, Master Bailie, we do not understand what forces compel you to travel to such a harsh and heathen land, but we stand firm in the faith that you are pursuing the path to which God has directed you.
As you go, know that our prayers for your success and health follow, for though some have described that land as flowing with milk and honey, more truthful tongues have related the sickness and divers dangers that do dwell there.

Enclosed is a note for one thousand pounds with which you are to furnish yourself and the one hundred boys who will travel with you to the Virginia Plantation next spring upon the ship
Mary Elizabeth
. Please keep one hundred pounds for yourself as fitting wages for your labor. If you have need of aught, send word in a letter to my attention. I remain faithfully yours in God’s service,

Reverend Stephen Archer

The months passed in a flurry of preparation. Fallon’s spirits rose in anticipation of the coming journey as he continued to run the Academy. He had almost given up hope of ever returning to Virginia, but because a divine opportunity had presented itself, he believed God would eventually lead him to fulfill his childhood vow.

Now that he had signed on for the voyage, his mind filled with goals and dreams.
He wanted to be a faithful guardian and able protector for the boys he would escort to the colony by seeing that they were installed in good situations with fair and honest masters. Once that task was accomplished, he planned to visit Ocanahonan and see what evidence remained of that colony. In each endeavor, he would search for Gilda and Noshi until he found and reunited them.

While Fallon labored through the final weeks of preparation, three other orphanages in London emptied themselves of select boys aged twelve years and older and sent them to the Royal Academy.
Fallon housed the new boys in the dining hall, apologizing that he did not have decent beds to offer them, and interviewed each of them as to their health, age, name, and training.

With his own students Fallon shared the news of Virginia he had gleaned from his reading, and he was not surprised that practically all the older boys wanted desperately to discover the new continent for themselves. He paused, however, when Wart Clarence entered the headmaster’s office to volunteer for indenture in Virginia. Though he was of age, the boy was still very small, and Fallon doubted if he possessed the stamina necessary for such an arduous journey.

“
Wart, can’t I convince you to stay in school a while longer?” Fallon asked, putting down his pen. “You can go to Virginia next year if you like, or the year after that.”

“
Nay,” Wart replied stubbornly, thrusting out his lower lip. “I’ll go with you, Master Bailie, or I’ll not go at all.”

“
Then mayhap you should remain here,” Fallon said, smiling. “England needs men, too.”

“
Nay,” Wart insisted, blowing out his cheeks.

“
You’ll what?” Fallon asked, smothering the grin that wanted to creep onto his face.

“
I’ll be miserable,” Wart finished. His voice took on a frank note of pleading, and Fallon feared the boy would soon drop onto one knee and begin begging. “Please, I pray you, Master Bailie, let me go with you. I have naught to hold me in England, and my only friends will be on the ship with you—”

“‘
Tis a dangerous journey,” Fallon said, lowering his voice as he studied the young boy who had earned a solid place in his affections. “Only the strong can survive in Virginia, Wart, and I have my doubts—”

“
I’m strong,” Wart said, pulling himself up to his full height. “You’ll never find a boy who works harder or longer. I can do whatever the big boys do, only don’t leave me behind here, Master Fallon, I couldn’t stand to lose you, too.”

Fallon picked up his pen and tapped it on the desk.
Despite his misgivings, ‘twouldn’t do to have children waiting for him in the New World and the Old. “So be it, then,” he said, writing Wart’s name on the roster. “We’ll be off together, you and I.”

One month before the
Mary Elizabeth
was to sail, Fallon met the man who had been selected to replace him as headmaster of the Royal Academy for Homeless Orphans. Very much in the mold of Delbert Crompton, Cranston Warner was a tall man whose dark, hawkish face seemed never to have known a smile. For a moment Fallon wavered in his willingness to depart England. He had worked so hard to bring a touch of love and warmth back into the lives of these fatherless boys; how could he entrust them to the severe-looking man who stood before him?

From behind his desk, Fallon stood.
“I am pleased to meet you, Master Warner,” Fallon said, offering his hand. “The reverend Archer told me to expect you.”

“
The pleasure is all mine,” Warner replied, taking Fallon’s hand in a firm grip. But Fallon scarcely heard the words, for a lovely woman with golden hair slipped into the room and slid her graceful hand through the crook of Warner’s arm. Cranston Warner melted visibly at her touch, and at the sight of her Fallon found his emotions agreeable.

The lady beamed a smile upon Fallon, and he lost himself in the aura of irresistible femininity that surrounded her.
Rosy-cheeked and fresh, she was well-formed with curves in all the proper places. Fallon felt as though his tongue had thickened, so speechless was he in her presence. How long had it been since he had been in the company of a lovely woman? ‘Twas no wonder she affected him so, for he lived and worked only with men and boys.

He found himself bowing before the lady.
“A very great honor to meet you, madam,” he said, his unwilling tongue stammering over the words. “The boys here will not know what to make of you.”

Her fine, silky eyebrows rose a trifle.
“If God wills, they will consider me a mother,” she said, her voice warm and husky. “I count it a privilege to join my husband in this endeavor.”

Fallon smiled in relief.
She would be the source of softness behind the granite strength of this schoolmaster. She would provide the touch of grace with which the headmaster measured and dispensed discipline.

He tore his eyes from the sight of her loveliness and nodded to Master Warner.
“Then I am pleased to leave the school in your care and in God’s hands.”

As the vicious and cold winds of March quieted into the gentle breezes of April, Fallon and his company of boys climbed into carts for transport to the dock at the river Thames.
The boys’ cries of excitement rang over the riverfront as they trooped from the carts to the dock and waited to board the ship which would carry them to new homes in the colony of Virginia.

The pitiful orphans had no personal possessions save for the clothes on their backs, so they brought nothing aboard the ship with them.
The thousand pounds provided by the London Company had purchased barrels of provisions and goods for the journey. Fallon went aboard and checked his manifest to make certain that everything had been loaded onto the
Mary Elizabeth
. Barrels filled with seeds from English plants which might do well in Virginia had been stacked in the belly of the ship, and he nodded in approval to see that the seamen had not forgotten to load the chests of armor, bolts of cloth, bars of iron, hornbooks, writing materials, paper, books, and Bibles. Fallon was fascinated to note that several trunks bulged with bells, ribbons, pieces of colored cloth, and bright beads—frivolous trinkets destined to be used in trade with the Indians.

Once the boys had filed aboard the
Mary Elizabeth
, Fallon found that he and his students were little more than cargo. The ship had four levels, each more crowded and filthy than the one above it. The uppermost deck was reserved for the crew of twenty-four seamen who worked the sails. The captain, a one-eyed, dark-haired rogue who blustered continually, did not take kindly to human cargo upon his upper deck.

The second deck, into which Fallon and his company of one hundred boys were crowded, had only six open windows, three on each side. The windows did not permit the free circulation of air, though, for each was partially blocked by the mouth of a heavy cannon, necessary in case the ship met with Spanish raiders or pirates upon the open sea.

Below the boys, the third deck housed the livestock as well as the unfortunate
“bilge rats,” homeless boys relegated to the lower levels for cooking and the ship’s maintenance. This deck, with its preponderance of animal life, crawled with vermin. Fallon found that he could not even descend the narrow companionway without finding his doublet covered in a fine layer of fleas, lice, and other parasites.

At the deep belly of the ship lay the orlop deck, where the heavy cargo barrels and a layer of sand provided ballast.
The stinking refuse of the animals, crew, and passengers eventually filtered its way through to the orlop deck, and the stench that rose from it never failed to gag even the most seasoned seaman who dared to peer into its murky depths.

The captain alone had a private cabin aboard ship, and his quarters were barely large enough to accommodate his bed and a table for his compass and navigational charts.
Fallon remembered little of his first voyage over the great western ocean, but he knew Captain Newport’s ship had not been this crowded or miserable.

As he leaned against a cannon below deck and watched the stream of life on the bank of the Thames outside the window, he was filled with misgiving. Was he truly doing the right thing? If God had sent him from Virginia to find a new life in England, was his return to Virginia an undoing of all that God had planned for him?

The thought stood in front of the afternoon, killing his hope, until the sight of a tall youth upon the gangplank caught his attention.
A young man in a dark cloak and hat was waving papers at the bosun, and after a moment of examination, the bosun stood aside to allow the young man aboard. Fallon grimaced. Another passenger! By heaven, did the captain seek to crowd them so that not a single boy could stretch out to sleep?

A moment later the passenger
’s footsteps echoed on the wooden steps of the companionway, then his cry rang through the babble of boys’ voices: “Fallon Bailie!”

Fallon swung away from the window, stung by surprise.
The face before him looked familiar, but the clothes were too fine—

“
Don’t you know me? ‘Tis Brody, you ruffian! I’ve come to hold your hand on this voyage, and see if you’ve been truthful in all that you’ve said about Virginia.”