Free The World Duology (World Odyssey / Fiji: A Novel) by Lance Morcan, James Morcan Page B

owed him one. Baldy was standing a little to one side. The two stared at each other and nodded. Each had done well that day and they knew it.
    Then Nathan looked for the maiden who had caug ht his eye. Finally, he saw her. They smiled knowingly at each other.

 
    11
     
     
    Kensington , England, 1847
     
     
     
    S usannah, now twenty-one, sat talking to her father in his rectory in Kensington. He’d summoned her to discuss something he said had been on his mind for some time.
    As they talked, Drake Senior studied his daughter’s face. She’s more beautiful than ever , he decided. The clergyman never tired of Susannah’s company. She reminded him so much of his dear departed Jeanette.
    Since his wife had passed away nine years earlier, Drake Senior had watched with pride as Susannah developed into womanhood. His parishioners loved her. So, too, did the young children she’d been teaching at Kensington Pu blic School since securing a position there as a teacher a year earlier.
    Apart from her dalliance with would-be po et Blake Dugan, Susannah had never given him any cause for concern. She’d been a loving daughter and friend, and her presence had helped fill the void left by his wife’s passing.
    After Blake’s shock death, Susannah had moped about, pining for her lost love. Her school marks suffered and teachers commented she seemed to have lost her old spark. Time rectified that, as Drake Senior hoped it would. A progressive young female teacher – the first woman to teach at Susannah’s school – took the clergyman’s daughter in hand and inspired her to apply herself to her studies.
    Looking back on that now, Drake Senior realized he had the teacher to thank for inspiring his daughter to stop moping around and to aspire to do something with her life.
    Beyond devoting herself to her chosen profession, Susannah helped her father with parish duties, sang in the church choir and enjoyed the companionship of a large number of friends around her own age. A delightful, well-rounded young lady , one of Drake Senior’s parishioners had recently told him – and he couldn’t agree more.
    “Anyway,” Susannah said, in terrupting her father’s thoughts, “what was it you wished to speak to me about, papa?”
    Clutching his ev er-present bible, the clergyman marshaled his thoughts and looked sternly at his daughter. “You know I have been called by God to spread his word?” It was more a statement than a question.
    Susannah nodded. “Yes, papa, and I know your parishioners respect t he work you are doing here.” The young woman sensed her father wasn’t referring to the work he was doing in the parish. She was well aware he was a long-time supporter of the London Missionary Society and had long held ambitions to do the Lord’s work abroad. However, she wasn’t sure she approved and so wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
    Drake Senior continued, “Well, h e has spoken to me and I now know what I must do.”
    Susanna h waited expectantly.
    Drake Senior announced , “He has called me to spread his word to the heathens of Fiji.”
    Susannah was shocked. “But papa, they are cannibals in Fiji.”
    Drake Senior smiled patiently. “That they are, my dear. However, the missionaries of our church are having some success in converting those same cannibals to Christianity.”
    The clergyman went on to tell Susannah about the Wesley Methodist Mission at Momi Bay, on Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu. He talked with such passion about the missionaries’ successes there that Susannah could see his mind was already made up.
    As Drake Senior spoke, Susannah slowly came round to the idea of moving to warmer climes – even if that meant living among cannibals. She suddenly liked t he prospect of waking up to blue skies and a tropical sun. The gray dome that seemed to permanently cover England for much of the year was beginning to get to her. I do need a change of scene , she admitted to herself.
    Knowing Drake Senior