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Two sailors had died from falls during her journey to and from San Francisco aboardParadise. During a nighttime storm off the coast of Brazil, one sailor blew off the rigging and disappeared into the dark waves. A second fell more than a hundred feet onto the deck as Helen watched on a day as clear and beautiful as today.
Elijah approached her with a stern face. “I’m afraid, sister, that I must enlist your aid with an odious task. I’ve ripped two shirts. Might you ply needle and thread below decks?” When her eyes strayed back to the rigging monkey, he stepped in between her and the sight. “I promise to send for you whenAlacrityis dressed and ready to dance.”
“Very well,” Helen replied reluctantly, knowing he was right to keep her busy.
“Hold fast!”
The men’s cries to their mate followed her below decks. She repeated the phrase in her mind while she searched Elijah’s trunk for torn shirts.Hold fast.
When the ship’s boy knocked later, she sighed in relief at his affable grin. “She’s dressed! Muster!” he cried before running off.
Stepping onto the deck, Helen heard the fabric signals snapping in the wind above her head. With one hand bracing herself and the other shielding her eyes from the sun, she looked up and laughed with delight.
Brightly colored signal flags and pennants rippled in the air high above. Strung end to end, they extended from the bowsprit—the massive pole projecting forward from the ship’s stem—to the top of the foremast, up to the mainmast, down to the mizzenmast, and below to the stern.
Her eyebrows raised at the size of the enormous American flag whipping over the sea behind the stern, attached to the diagonal gaff. Subtle, Elijah was not. Sunlight illuminated the thirteen stripes and thirty stars dancing triumphantly in the air.
The blue-and-white checked house flag flew from the top of the mainmast, the highest position on the ship. A large, red M for Miller was emblazoned over the middle.
The hands’s mood was cheerful as they assembled on the poop deck under the national ensign waving above. Elijah addressed them briefly but rousingly from the raised quarterdeck before they scattered to their respective tasks.
“Flying the colors, I see,” Helen said to a beaming Elijah.
“And they shan’t be stricken,” he replied. No surrender.
Her own pleasure was vicarious; inwardly, grim determination reigned. Her mind didn’t stray for long from the challenge awaiting them in London.
When they entered the greenish-brown waters of the Thames estuary, it was their closest pass by land in two weeks, and Helen was rapt. Even greater, however, was the attention given toAlacrity. By the time they approached an immense fort on the north bank of the Thames, the ship was the center of attention.
“Ahoy, English! Behold!” Elijah called out, though his voice wouldn’t carry to the soldiers who poured out to watch them glide past. “The American Millers are here—and not in chains this time!”
Shaking her head with bemusement, Helen beheld the star-shaped fort facing the river, ringed by ramparts and moats. Artillery was pointed down at the water—toward them.
She shivered. “It looks to be older than anything in Boston.”
“We’ve reached Essex. That’s Tilbury, and its location is no coincidence. See how the river has narrowed and we’ve passed the mudflats? Naval invasion becomes a threat where a ship could disembark. For centuries, this fort has stood between London and anyone who would come in from the North Sea. No doubt they’re worried about the French again now.”
“Why, look at that gate!” Helen pointed to the huge, white neoclassical structure with columns next to a guardhouse. Its ornateness surprised her. With a rueful look, she glanced at the bright flags dressing the ship.And men jest about how we adorn our frocks!
“We’re sailing straight past that gate, so don’t be too impressed.” Elijah’s chest expanded with pride again. “All their gunpowder is for naught now.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, “You stopped the Spanish Armada, but you’re powerless against us! Your parliament repealed your ancient Navigation Acts! Open your ports! The Americans are here!”
Listening to the crew’s cheers, Helen raised an eyebrow. “The spirit of Father has possessed you.”
Elijah turned to her, his expression unyielding. “He was right aboutsomethings, and you know it. The English are used to taking and taking. They look down their noses at us even as they’ve grown complacent and tired.”
She sighed, realizing his attitude shouldn’t surprise her. Between their Irish mother and the War of 1812, they’d been raised on tales of woe, and Elijah was further hardened after living amongst the English in Canton.
He waved his hand about. “Look around you, Helen. Don’t you see their mouths fall open? Their necks turn as we pass? They’ve never seen anything likeAlacrity! It’s the Stars and Stripes flying over their heads!”
“I see,” she confirmed neutrally.
He turned to her, both frustration and curiosity clear on his face. “Aren’t you pleased? Doesn’t your heart know joy in their reaction?”
“I leave it to you men to best each other with your ships, and your guns, and your regattas. Father lived in a war with no end, but I refuse. I’ve no need to show another that I’m faster or bigger. I don’t seek dominion over another. All I want is to be free.”
He nodded solemnly and squeezed her hand. Then he winked. “You’re not sporting at all, you know. No matter, leave that to me. For I’m about to show the British that Elijah Miller’sAlacrityisfaster. I’ll shock all of England.”
She smiled. “Shock themafterwe’ve secured a British investor. Gentle as you go. Remember that we’ll arrive in London with a hand outstretched for silver. We can ill afford boasting and pride.”
