The Old Cape House (22 page)

“What did you find?”

“Not very much, maybe two pages about her. They all say that she was the lover of the pirate Sam Bellamy, and she was also called ‘The Witch of Billingsgate’.”

“Is Billingsgate the island off Wellfleet that disappeared?”

“Yes. Here’s another name for her, ‘Maria Goody Hallett’.” I
selected the next page on the screen. “Apparently, Goody was a name given to women of the day–like Goody Thatch or Goody Jones.”

Paul sat up and added, “Sallinger referred to her as Goody Hallett.”

“Yes, he did, although she still seems to be more of a myth than Sam. There’s a lot of proof that HE lived and that he was indeed a pirate, but there’s not much about her.”

I kept my eyes on the screen. “I wonder how this whole thing is
connected to the Doane house? And what about the baby’s skull?
Whose baby was it?”

Paul moved toward the doorway.

I clicked on the last entries of the page and read out loud, “According to Maria’s legend, she was pregnant with Sam’s baby, but it died in childbirth. Evidently Bellamy was on the high seas and never knew she was pregnant.”

Paul added, “That might explain whose baby it was and why all the secrecy.”

“Yeah, when you think of it, she would have been considered an unwed mother and somewhat of a whore. In colonial days they were pretty strict with that kind of thing.”

I looked at Paul. “If the letters on the vellum have any
connection
to all of this, I bet she must have known someone in the Doane
house, or maybe she worked for them?”

Always attentive to my every word, tonight I sensed Paul was tired. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him slowly back out of the room. “Why don’t you go to bed?” I told him. “I’m not tired, and I’m really interested in all of this.” I mumbled to myself, “…and what about the three gold coins?”

“Good night, honey,” Paul said.

I kept my eyes on the glowing monitor. “I’ll be in soon.”

His head reappeared in the doorway. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, the doctor’s office called to confirm your appointment for tomorrow at 2 pm.”

I stopped typing and went from being excited to feeling queasy. “Oh yeah, I forgot.” I shut down the computer, turned the light off and imagined myself pregnant again. I caught up with Paul as he was locking the side door off the laundry room. “Paul, I need a hug.”

He wrapped his arms around me and rocked me back and forth. “We’ll be okay. I’ll always be here for you.”

I looked up into his eyes. “Whatever we find out tomorrow, I know we’ll be fine, as long as we're together.’”

He walked me into the bedroom with his arm around my
shoulders. As I began to turn the covers down on my side of the bed, I said, “I’m so happy to be living in the twenty first century with a husband that really cares for me and not 300 years ago. It was awful difficult back then for women.”

Paul flipped his blankets to the foot of the bed on his side.
“Don’t worry. I’ll never leave you. I love you.”

Late July – Present Day

MY APPOINTMENT CAME TOO SOON.
It’s not that I was afraid to find out if I was pregnant; I was just worried. So many things could go wrong. I was early for my doctor’s appointment in Hyannis so I stayed on the slower, scenic Old Route 6A, instead of turning onto the Mid-Cape Highway, or what the locals call ‘suicide alley’. The single lane of the winding bucolic roadway relaxed me, as usual. I began to rationalize that my body was healthy, my weight was good, and I had no major medical problems.

My lightened mood was obliterated when a car accelerated on my left. The passenger’s rearview mirror came so close that I could have touched it. Within seconds its rear bumper cut me off as the driver illegally passed me. My purse flew to the floor as I swerved to the right and slammed on the brakes. The car zoomed ahead of me and out of sight.

“Oh my God!” I screamed. My hands stuck to the steering wheel
like glue. I wanted to get off the road. A glance in my rear-view
mirror
revealed no one else was behind me, so I pulled into the first
driveway to my right.

When my car finally stopped on the gravel, I was still trembling.
I shouted in the direction of the car, “What a jerk!” Then in a
whisper, “Take a deep breath.”

I leaned over to pick up the contents of my purse that had
spilled all over the floor of the car. A brochure from the Provincetown
Whydah
Museum caught my eye. On the front were images of the pirate ship
Whydah
and the infamous Black Sam Bellamy along with his lover, young Maria Hallett. It seemed odd to be thinking about them after such a close call with my own death but I couldn’t stop
myself. I knew they lived with danger every day, but me…in
modern day…on Cape Cod? Unthinkable, and yet, I had almost been killed.

I pulled myself together, backed out of the driveway and
continued onto the doctor’s. My mind shifted back to Maria Hallett. It must have been terrible for that young girl to be alone and pregnant. Poor Maria. How frightening it must have been for her. Sam Bellamy was thousands of miles away on the
Whydah
and it would have taken months for him to sail home to her. What she must have suffered all by herself. The 1700s were harsh times.

I closed the windows halfway and found an oldies’ but goodies’ station on the radio. I wished Paul had come with me but reminded myself the gallery needed to be open. Besides, Molly had to be picked up early from camp. I know Paul loves me. He’s always there for me, just not today.

***

Dr. Thornton, the gynecologist, was new in town, as I was. His
office was shared with another surgeon and was plain but
comfortable. I noticed two pregnant women in the waiting room with me. I felt self-conscious of my age. Of course, I was hardly showing, unlike the
young woman across from me reading the National Enquirer
wearing stretch pants that barely covered her protruding stomach. No one could tell if I was pregnant…yet.

I skimmed through a parent magazine and checked out the other girl; she had red streaks in her short-cropped hair. I was the only one with gray hair. But I liked my hair. It was soft, almost pure white, and it looked good on me. The nurse interrupted my pep talk and called me into a back room. After some chitchat and the dreaded weigh-in, the doctor examined me and performed the usual tests. He told me it would be a short wait for the results.

Back in the waiting room I couldn’t stop thinking about the bad things that might happen if I was pregnant. My face flushed with a rush of anxiety. Would our medical insurance transfer from one state
to another in time for the birth? Did the old coverage stop on a
certain
date? If there were a gap in the coverage how would we pay for the
baby?

A voice called from behind me, “Nancy Caldwell?”

“Yes, here I am.”

“The doctor will see you now.”

I gathered my things and followed the nurse to Dr. Thornton’s office. As I walked, I couldn’t dismiss the threat of something going wrong with the baby who might be growing inside of me.

***

The doctor sat behind a large oak desk that contained a
telephone, nameplate and a glass paperweight. They were the only items on the glass top besides a manila folder that I assumed contained my personal medical files. With a sweep of his hand, he invited me,
“Please sit down. Mrs. Caldwell, your results are in.
Congratulations! You’re going to have a baby.”

My heart stopped this time, not with fear of dying in a car
accident, but with excitement. I quickly forgot all about the horrible thoughts from before. I started to tear up. My motherly instincts took control over my emotions as I thought…a baby…a beautiful baby.

“It looks like you’re almost five weeks along,” Dr. Thornton said and waited for my response.

Energized I asked, “Can you give me a minute? I want to call my husband.”

“Of course,” the doctor said and left the room.

“Paul?”

“Yes?” he said quietly.

“You’re going to be a Daddy again.” I smiled into the phone.

“Whew! Okay, now don’t worry, honey. We’ll figure everything
out.
Hurry up home so I can hold you and give you a big kiss. And
Nancy?”

“Yeah.”

 “We’ll tell the kids tonight, after dinner.”

“Sounds good. The doctor still wants to talk with me, I’ll call you when I get in the car.”

“Okay, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

I flipped my cell phone closed just as Dr. Thornton returned to his desk. “Now, I’m not going to hide anything from you,” he said. “There may be some complications with a woman of forty. Your chances of giving birth to a child with Downs Syndrome are one in a hundred.”

I listened but didn’t really understand his words. The palms of my hands began to drip with perspiration. I quickly wiped them on my skirt, looked over to him and hoped he would explain more.

“On the other hand,” he continued, “your baby could be born perfectly healthy.” He placed his pen alongside the open file and folded his hands as he looked over the words and numbers on the papers that held my statistics. “Let’s see, you have no significant medical problems.”

I sat quiet and tried to listen. I couldn’t think of any questions to ask.

“In about three weeks we can do an ultrasound and an
amniocentesis
test for chromosomes. Then we’ll have more information upon
which to decide the next steps.”

“Next steps?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s up to you and your husband to decide if you want to
go through with the pregnancy if the tests reveal potential
problems.”
He closed my file. “I can recommend a good doctor, at that time,
based on your decision.”

Why wouldn’t I go through with the pregnancy? I knew there might be problems but I would never kill my baby. I stood to leave. I was starting to feel angry that he would even suggest an abortion.

“Are you feeling all right, Mrs. Caldwell?”

“Yes, I have a lot of thinking to do. I’ll be fine.”

He stood and went to open the door for me. “Remember to make your appointment with the receptionist for three weeks from today.”

“I will.” I felt numb.

***

When I got back into the car, I told myself not to be upset. He was only presenting the facts to me. I gave Paul a call to tell him I
was doing fine but I couldn’t erase the doctor’s words from my
mind.

Before I left Hyannis, I pulled into a drive-thru coffee shop and ordered a small coffee with double cream and a shot of raspberry. I quickly changed my order, “Make that a decaf, please.” I’m going to do everything right from now on. No more caffeine–it’s not good for the baby.

The coffee was too hot to drink so I decided to drive the short distance to Kalmus Beach, near the harbor. I parked the car to see the whole horizon and rolled down the windows on both sides of me. The gusty wind blew in across my face and hair and out the other window. It felt so refreshing and seemed to smooth the rough edges that had been forming all around me. What a strange day. First I
almost died, and now I’m pregnant! The blue water was
mesmerizing as a catboat sailed by and then faded into the distant horizon. My heart relaxed into a slow rhythm, and my eyes closed.

December 1715

EASTHAM – CAPE COD

HESTOR INTENDED TO MAKE HER PRESENCE KNOWN TODAY.
The temperature was near freezing, and the rain had not stopped since early morning as she traveled on the packet to Eastham for Maria’s trial. The nasty weather did not sway her in her decision to
don her best hat, skirt and cape. Looking favorable within the
community was important to her, and today was a special day. After all, she was the one who’d discovered the young Hallett girl and had run to the authorities with her news.

Her timing was perfect; everyone had already arrived at the meetinghouse. As Hestor opened the door, a collective hush swept over the townspeople, and all eyes were focused on her. Constable Bayer escorted the pompous housekeeper, one of the key witnesses, to the first pew, where Abigail Doane and the midwife from the North Parish, Mehitable Cole, were also seated.

Matthew took his place next to his mother in the upper gallery, overlooking the top of Hestor’s hat. His nerves were on edge as he awaited the beginning of his beloved’s trial.

Minda stood by the door in the rear of the building. She was
alone and felt uncomfortable amongst the colonists. She prayed to the great Kiehtan for strength.

Maria tried to make sure that she was presentable this morning. She had removed the top soiled skirt from her layers of clothes and placed it underneath the clean ones. Then she’d wiped the dirt from her face and hands using her drinking water. Her cheeks, rosy from the cold prison room, highlighted her dark auburn hair that fell into natural curly ringlets under her cap. With all of the past events that Maria had experienced, she still retained that simple beauty which had attracted Matthew and Sam to her from the beginning.

As Reverend Treat took his place at the head table, people
straightened their backs in their seats, then looked to the front of the meetinghouse. He raised his hand to signal Constable Bayer to bring in the accused.

When young Maria entered the room the only sounds came from
the Reverend as he coughed and blew his nose. She kept her eyes
downward in a penitent pose, glancing up and down in quick movements to see whom she could recognize.

A parade of witnesses each took their turn providing facts,
assumptions, and opinions concerning Maria’s pregnancy and the
possible whereabouts of the dead child’s body. It slowly became evident there could be no conviction of murder due to the missing body and no clear answer about what had happened.