Leah’s father wasted no time in returning to the sea. He is eager to escape the pain of losing Mother, Leah thought.
But first, the goods from the recent journey needed to be dispersed. Captain Rigley wanted to be ready to set sail in two weeks for his next expedition to New England. Leah watched as cargo from the new world was unloaded from the three ships. The Unity had been filled with furs. The Charity contained lumber, and the Thankful was full of dried fish.
Then new supplies were brought aboard. Items for trading with the natives such as iron kettles, knives, and axes were stored below. Leah wondered about people who would trade valuable furs for such ordinary items. She knew that her father also brought gold coins for trading, not with the natives, but with other Europeans who had settled along the coast of Mayne. They were the lumbermen and the fishermen. Over the years, she had listened eagerly to her father’s many tales of adventure and encounters with these people.
At dinner a few nights before his departure, Leah’s father instructed her governess—her mother's sister, Aunt Elizabeth—on what he wanted for his daughter in his absence. Aunt Elizabeth was a grandmotherly woman, the older sister, forty years old. Her dark brown hair was streaked with grey, and loose curls framed her round, smooth face. He provided her with a sum of gold for his daughter’s care.
Leah interrupted their conversation. “Father, I want to go with you. I don’t want to stay here.”
He looked at her in disbelief. “Nonsense, Leah. You’re barely twelve years old.”
“But Father, I will be fine. I want to be with you. I want to see New England.” Leah didn’t tell him her real fear—that he wouldn’t return this time.
“The sea is no place for a girl, Leah. I’ll hear no more about this matter. You’re going to stay here with your Aunt Elizabeth.” He spoke in his captain’s authoritative voice. He lowered his head and looked directly in her eyes. “You’re going to stay here with your Aunt Elizabeth.”
Leah glanced down at the dish in front of her, trying not to cry.
He said softly, “Leah, I’ll be back in the fall.”
“You said that last time. Mother died while you were away. What if I die before you come back?” She squinted her eyes defiantly.
He recoiled at the suggestion. “The sea is no place for a girl.”
Leah knew he would not change his mind.
The next day Leah went to the market with Aunt Elizabeth. While Leah waited outside a shop, she spotted Peter Astley, the cabin boy she’d passed that first morning. He was rugged for sure, she noted, but barely as tall as she. She also knew he was responsible for his widowed mother and younger siblings, and a plan quickly formed in her mind. Leah walked over to him.
“You’re the cabin boy on the Unity, aren’t you?” she asked.
He knew she was the captain’s daughter and shuffled nervously, staring at the ground and then peering inside the shop to see if his mother was coming. Leah followed his gaze and saw his mother at the counter. After a few more seconds, Peter glanced shyly at her and nodded.
“Are you going on this voyage?” she asked.
“My last one.”
“Last one?”
“Yes. I will have enough money saved to go to London.”
“Why are you going to London?”
He smiled. “School. I’m going to get educated. I won’t be a sailor no more. I’ll be a barrister or a judge.”
“That’s quite ambitious of you,” Leah said. “Would you like to go sooner?”
He looked puzzled but nodded. “Sure. But I haven’t enough money yet. How could I go sooner?”
“I could give you the money,” Leah said.
“You? Why would you do that?” He eyed her suspiciously.
“So you would let me take your place on the Unity.”
He laughed. “You’re a girl!” He looked her over and laughed again.
Leah frowned. “I can make myself look like a boy. All you need to do is tell the first mate that you can’t go, at the last minute, just before the ship sets sail. You could say I am taking your place. I’d give you the money now and you won’t have to wait another year to go to school.”
He shook his head doubtfully. “I’d catch the devil for sure if I agreed to such a scheme. Captain Rigley would punish me.”
“No one would know,” Leah insisted.
“You can’t hide that you’re a girl.”
“I’ll keep you out of it, I promise. If I am found out, I’ll say I fooled you, too. I’ll say that I discovered that you could not go to sea and took advantage of your plight. No one would ever know you were privy to the deception. I promise.”
Peter thought for a moment. His mother came outside, and he glanced quickly at Leah, with a guilty expression. He shook his head as he started toward his mother. “It would never work.”
Leah called, “If I prove it to you, Peter, will you change your mind?”
He looked back at her over his shoulder and shrugged.
Leah pressed her lips together in determination. She went inside and told Elizabeth that she was returning home. Then she hurried to implement her scheme.
The next morning, only two weeks after his arrival, her father prepared to depart. She tried one more time to convince him to take her along. “Please, Father, I shall not be any trouble. I can help you. My arithmetic is tops, and so is my penmanship. See?” She showed him a sample of her work.
“Leah, why are you so possessed with this notion? Is Aunt Elizabeth so harsh?”
“No, Father. Elizabeth has been very kind. But she is not Mother. It does not feel like home anymore. I want to be with you.”
“You must stop this nonsense, do you hear? I will listen to no more of it.”
Leah left the breakfast table and ran to her room. Didn’t he miss her as much as she missed him? Didn’t he want to be with her? She decided that it was adherence to custom—the idea that females and the sea didn’t mix. But she’d heard of courageous women who’d fended for themselves.
Leah went down to the dock to say good-bye to her father as he headed back to his ship. Men were loading the final goods on board the Unity, which was once again moored to the wharf.
Leah ran back to her house and grabbed her bags. She went behind her house to a shed. She put a small mirror on the wall and proceeded to cut off her long curls. The shorter hair framed her face, changing her looks instantly. She tied a bandanna around her head and then changed into boys’ clothing which she had taken from her cousin’s closet. She threw her own dress and shoes into the bag and placed it in the back of the shed behind some old logs. Carefully, she counted the gold coins her father had left for Elizabeth for her care while he was away and placed them safely in her pocket.
She placed her pre-written note on top of the bag. It read:
Aunt Elizabeth,
I am safe. You need not worry, I have left of my own choice, and not because of any misdeed or mistreatment on your part. Please know that your good care has been appreciated and that I will return one day to thank you in person. But for now, I must find my own way. No matter your desire to help, this is a quest I must pursue by myself.
All my love, Leah.
Grabbing the sack containing her things, she ran out of the shed towards the edge of town where Peter lived. She stopped and waited and watched.
Soon Leah saw Peter walking down the path that led to town, carrying his sea bag. “Peter,” she called, hurrying to catch up to him. He stopped and studied her.
“You!” he said. “What have you done to yourself?”
“I told you I could look like a boy. Be honest. If you didn’t already know me, you’d not have thought me a girl. Tell me that ain’t so.” Leah reached into her pocket and held out the gold coins.
Peter looked at the coins and then at her. “No,” he said, “it’ll never work,” He started walking down the path.
Leah’s heart sank as she followed him. “It will work. Please, Peter, I must go. I must be with my father.”
He stopped and bit his lower lip. “Are you sure? The sea is not always a nice place to be. Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”
“I know all about it. My father has told me stories.”
“Ha! I bet he didn’t tell you half of it—cause it’s not something girls ought to be hearing. Did he tell you about sharks? Did he tell you about the storms? Did he tell you about the pirates?” Peter glared at the young girl to make sure she understood.
Leah swallowed. “Pirates?”
“I thought as much. You’d never make it, girl. The sea is for men—which you ain’t!”
“I’m not afraid of any of those things,” Leah persisted, following as Peter hurried toward the docks. “Not of sharks, or storms, or pirates, neither!”
Peter stopped as they neared the town. Leah could see he was considering her proposal. She suspected he was thinking about his widowed mother and younger siblings. She held out the coins, pushing them closer toward his face. “You want to go to school, or don’t you? If you don’t take my offer, you’ll be all grown up before you even get started. You could leave now and come back educated by the time this voyage is over. Do you want to become a barrister, or are you just talk?”
Peter hesitated. He shook his head. “It just ain’t right,” he said.
“It ain’t right that I have to be separated from my only family, my father. You know that he will see to my safety once he knows I am aboard.”
“You promise you won’t tell when you get found out that I knew you were a girl?”
“We discussed this!” Leah retorted. “If I get found out, I'll say that I fooled you as much as everyone else. I promise. No matter what happens, you won’t be to blame.”
“Ha! No question you will get found out. I just hope I’m far away by then, is all.”
“So you are going to let me take your place?” Leah smiled, hope bubbling up in her chest.
Peter grabbed the coins. “Okay. I’ll give it a go.”
Leah clapped her hands together excitedly.
“But you’re gonna need some work.” Peter looked her over. “Come with me.” He led her off the path. “Roll on the ground,” he commanded.
“What?”
“Roll on the ground and scuff up those shoes. No boy I know wears new shoes. Not for long, anyways.”
Leah complied, rolling on the ground and scuffing her shoes. When she stood up, Peter pulled at her shirt and tore it a little.
“Hey,” she said.
Peter smiled. “That’s better. Maybe you’ll fool ’em long enough for me to get away. Just keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking. And don’t look anyone in the eye. You got girl eyes, for sure.”
They headed for the wharf, and Peter explained to Gervase, the first mate, that he couldn’t come. Gervase, his hair in red ringlets and his face ruddy from the sun, looked Leah over doubtfully. “Kind’a frail young fella. You sure he’s been to sea before?”
Peter nodded. “He says so and I believe him. Besides, there ain’t time to find no one else.”
“What’s your name, boy?” Gervase asked Leah.
Peter watched nervously as Leah answered.
“Lee.” She tried to speak in a deep voice.
“Lee what? You got a last name?” he demanded.
Leah thought quickly. “Lee Stern,” she said, glancing at the ship.
“Well, get your stuff below. Peter, show the new cabin boy to his quarters.”
Peter nodded and led Leah quickly down below.
“Lee Stern? Where’d you get that name?” he whispered to her.
Leah clenched her jaw. “I like it.”
“Well, just keep quiet as long as you can. If you talk too much, someone’s bound to figure it out. This is where you bunk.”
“What do you do?” Leah asked.
“Do?”
“As a cabin boy? What’s my job?”
Peter cringed. “I thought you said you knew all about this. Look, you just keep the galley clean and help with the chores, cooking and such. The first mate gives you your orders. He will tell you what to do. Don't be disagreeable. Remember, he owns you while you are underway.”
Peter hesitated, biting his lip, trying one last time to decide if he should go through with this scheme. For a moment, Leah thought he would change his mind. “I will be fine,” she assured him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded knife. “Bet you don’t have one of these, do you?” He held it out for her to see.
“No.”
“You will need it more than I will.” The words sounded particularly ominous to Leah and briefly she doubted her own decision. But only briefly. She took the knife and stowed it in her own pocket.
Peter turned and hurried off the boat with the gold coins jingling in his pocket. Leah watched from the deck, then glanced over at the Charity. Her father was talking to his crew and the sailors on board. All three ships began weighing anchor and setting sail. Leah gulped and went below to square her things away.