Free The Triumph of Grace by Kay Marshall Strom Page B

other crewmen. The midsized ship Ocean Steed was brig-rigged, same as the Willow, the ship that had brought her from Africa to London barely a year before. She immediately recognized the distinctive twomasted square-rigging. Already familiar with such a ship, she jumped to and tried her best to help the sailors who were setting sails.
    " 'Tis an excitin' adventure wot awaits us," Jackie said to Grace afterward, his admiration bubbling over at his new friend's familiarity with a sailing ship.
    Before Grace could answer, a sudden commotion echoed up from below. She gasped and shrank back.
    "A'feared of horses, is you?" Jackie asked.
    "Horses!" Grace exclaimed. "That isn't African slaves?"
    Jackie laughed out loud. "There be no slaves on a English merchant ship, not African or any other kind!"
    No slaves? From the moment Charlotte first whispered to Grace that she would sail on a ship headed for America, Grace had assumed it would be packed with slaves, just like the ship that had carried her Cabeto away. What other cargo would be carried to such a country?
    Just about everything, as a matter of fact. For although American artisans were fine for repair work and one-of-a-kind items, even average men and women in the States preferred to buy most of their manufactured goods from England and Scotland. It was true that slave ships aplenty came into the harbor at South Carolina, but those ships arrived from Africa, not from England. No, the Ocean Steed's hold was filled with fine- tooled furniture and English-bred riding horses, all specially ordered by wealthy Carolina aristocrats.
    That night, as Grace adjusted her exhausted body into her hammock, she did her best to remember again the details of Cabeto's face. So much had flooded her since she last traced his picture in her mind. . . .
    "You be well enough to sleep?" Jackie whispered.
    "What?" Grace asked with a start. "Oh, yes. Just weary, is all."
    "I means, the beatin'. Is you well enough from that?"
    "Oh! Yes, of course. I'm used to it."
    In all things, at all times, be a man.

11
    F or a civilized country to continue as such, when a charge is rightly considered and a judgment properly passed, that judgment absolutely must be duly carried out," Lord Reginald Witherham stated through clenched teeth.
    It was only with great effort that he managed to control his voice. Even so, the vein on his forehead throbbed, and he laced and unlaced his fingers obsessively.
    Lady Charlotte made note of her husband's simmering fury. With measured calm, she replied, "In a civilized country, Husband, one's own handkerchief is not used against one to prove a preposterous charge of thievery in order to elicit a vengeful death sentence."
    There was a time, not long past, when Lady Charlotte feared her husband. She no longer did.
    "In all matters, a wife should support her husband," pronounced Lord Reginald.
    "And your actions, Reginald?" responded Lady Charlotte."Do you truly believe they deserve my support?"
    Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, Lady Charlotte waved off her husband's sputtering response. "I have no doubt but that I did the right thing," she said as she turned toward the stairs and the refuge of her private chambers.
    Lord Reginald waited until Lady Charlotte was halfway up the stairs before he called out, "Do join me for tea, my love. A guest will also be in attendance."
    Charlotte did not pause in her ascent.
    "You will not want to miss him," Lord Reginald insisted."The guest brings word from your father."
    Lady Charlotte stopped.
    Lord Reginald smiled. He prided himself on his ability to use a well-timed statement to his advantage.
    Lady Charlotte swung around to face her husband. "What of my father?" she demanded.
    "Until tea, then?"
    A flush of victory refreshed Lord Reginald's stressed features.As his wife hesitated, he turned his back on her and walked away.

    The parlor clock rang out its fourth chime as Lady Charlotte stepped into the room. Tea had already been laid out on the