“I know.”
Jed climbed to his feet and then nearly pitched face-forward into the sand.The man caught his arm, hauling him back upright.For a moment, Jed thought he was going to throw up again.But the feeling passed.
“Just water in my ears,” he muttered.
The dry land underneath him didn’t help either: it rocked under his feet like the rolling of the waves.
“There’s some bushes up there.Get in out of the wind, eh?”The man slung Jed’s arm around his shoulder.“Come on.”
With help, Jed scrambled up the dunes until they came to a rough, grassy track that followed the shoreline.Beyond that, the flat and fertile marshland stretched out into the distance, crisscrossed by rhynes, the drainage channels that had reclaimed it from the sea.A low hedge enclosed the nearest field.Sitting behind it, Jed would be out of sight of both ships at sea and anyone that might go past on the track.
And, just as importantly, sheltered from the wind.He shivered, hitching the blanket around his shoulders as the wind chilled his bones.
“You’d better sit down with that blanket and warm up a bit.I’m in no hurry.”The man held out his hand.“My name’s Solomon, by the way.”
Jed took it, and a warm, dry grasp enclosed his cold hand.“I’m Jedediah.”
“Do you want to cut that pigtail off?I have a knife.”
Jed eyed him warily.With the blanket warm and cosy around his shoulders, he regretted his earlier irritability.But you couldn’t be too careful.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Let’s say I’m no friend of the Navy’s.”Solomon dug in his pocket and held out a small, workmanlike pocket knife.
After a moment’s hesitation, Jed accepted it.He hacked off his pigtail and buried it under the hedge.Impatiently, he pushed aside the strands of wet hair that now fell into his eyes.
He glanced at the other man, who was calmly tucking the knife away.An idea—a dangerous one—floated into Jed’s head.
“You said as how you were in no hurry?”he asked cautiously.
“Well, no, I en’t.I’ve five days’ walk ahead of me, so a few hours here or there won’t make a deal of difference.I don’t mind waiting.”
He dropped onto the grass, giving every appearance of being willing to wait.His haversack was on his knees, and he bent his head over it, setting to rights the belongings he had disturbed when he pulled out the blanket.
Jed sat down beside him, studying him covertly.You couldn’t read a man’s character on his face, but you could judge him by his actions, and so far Solomon had been nothing but helpful.Why?Out of the goodness of his heart?That wasn’t something Jed believed in anymore.He hesitated.
On board ship, he had seen men lose a year’s wages on one roll of the dice.But he never played, no matter how much his messmates cajoled him.That was a fool’s game.For five years he had hoarded any coin he could lay his hands on, with one goal in mind: escape the Navy.He’d never gambled.
He’d have to gamble now.
“If I give you six shillings, do you think you could lay your hands on a pair of breeches for me?”
“En’t you afraid I’d make off with your money and you’d never see me again?”
“Aye, ‘course I am.”
A wry, sympathetic smile crossed Solomon’s face.“A pair of breeches and maybe a hat?You can’t go about the place without a hat.”
Jed put his hand to his bare head.“If you can get ahold of one, yes.”
“All right.You’ll hide here while you’re waiting, will you?”
Jed nodded.He ripped open the little bag he had sewn into his trowsers for the swim and—heart in his throat—counted out six shillings into the other man’s palm.
“I’ll be gone half an hour or more, I think, so don’t fret,” Solomon said.“I’ll be back.”
After Solomon’s departure, Jed spread his shirt on the hedge to dry in the wind, then huddled down on the leeward side under the blanket.Was he half-witted to trust a complete stranger?Only because the fellow had been kind to him and had a comely face.He would probably never see those six shillings again.
