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“The stem gives critical strength to the integrity of the ship. You taught me that trees have knees.” They laughed together. “Are stems made from knees?”
“Preferably yes, but not just ordinary knees. Some come from higher up on a tree. The very strongest come from the base of the trunk along with a branch. To be sufficient for a ship’s stem, the tree must be quite sizable, one that’s stood for a very long time.”
“That would be nigh on impossible to find in Britain.”
“It’s become difficult in America, too. Very few clippers have a stem constructed from one piece. Obtaining a timber so large is challenging enough; it must also be handled and fashioned.”
Nicholas smiled when he felt her lips transform into a smile against his chest. “Alacrity’s?”
“One piece! The log was colossal—thirty-five feet. Dug out of the ground rather than cut to preserve the grain near the base. Beautiful white oak, sixteen inches at the foot and eighteen at the head. It amazed the shipwrights.”
He blinked in the darkness, realizing this had to have meant that Robbie’s family shipyard builtAlacrity. And if that was the case… “Helen,youobtained that lumber forAlacrity, didn’t you?”
“Every piece,” she whispered.
“You didn’t just assist Robbie in his work. Youwerethe agent—and not only forAlacrity.”
She nodded against him, and he stroked the hair away from her temple for a while before speaking.
“I suppose when you helped have Elijah’s ship built, you didn’t know that you would one day sail aboard her.”
A half-strangled sound erupted from her. “I didn’t knowAlacritywas Elijah’s. Oh, you see us now, but our lives were, believe it or not, even more complicated. At least our relationship was. It’s one reason I’m not fond of deception. Robbie and Elijah—they used a proxy agent to commission the ship with Gray & Co. They didn’t want Robbie’s parents—or me—to know who was behind it.”
“What? Why not?”
“They wanted the finest ship and knew Gray & Co. would build it. But they didn’t wish for the Grays to know of their plans to operate it together. Yes, there’s a long story there, but that is the gist of it. All was discovered beforeAlacritywas finished—and Robbie’s parents sent him far away instead. But it was too late to renege on the contract, soAlacritywas to be finished. The Grays are very concerned with their reputation.”
Her explanation raised more questions for Nicholas than answers, but he heard the exhaustion in her voice now—and sensed that she had already shared more than she’d wished.
“Even hearing the gist, I’m pained for you, Helen. So you didn’t know who was behind the ship when you sourced the lumber for the stem?”
“No. Only that it was to be the grandest clipper yet built, let alone by Gray & Co. The Grays charged a fortune, and I was charged with finding the finest lumber in the land for it. So I did.”
“So you did, Helen. So you did.”
Her voice took on a dreamy quality. “The stem is crucial to the ship’s structure. It’s not just the most forward part of the bow. Curving up from the keel, it’s where the port and starboard planks of the hull meet and are fastened. Imagine the strength required!”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. “I’m not imagining that right now. I’m thinking ofyourstrength. What it required of you to be married to a man who would shirk his duties, leaving you to do his work. I know—you’re more than capable. That changes nothing about what it says of Robbie. I’m imagining what it was like to be married to a man who could be sent away by his parents. It’s poor form to speak ill of the dead. But I don’t care right now. I only care about what you’ve been through. And I’m sorry for it.”
Holding him close, Helen was silent for a long time, and when she spoke, he knew a satisfaction unlike any other in his life.
“In your arms right now, Nicholas, I feel even better, safer, than I do thinking of a ship’s stem.”
