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Captain Eaton and Nat were avoiding Kit. John Holbrook was the only one on this ship who didn’t mind her company. Most of the time, he was reading his books, even forgetting about the meals. But the moment he noticed Kit, John would smile, shut his book and come to join her. Slowly Kit learned the details of his dull history.

“It was foolish of me, the farmer’s son, even to think about Harvard,” John told her. “It was too far to the school, and my father could never let me go for more than a month out of the year. But he wanted me to learn, and I wanted to go to college. Till this spring I was hoping I could save enough money. Well, the Lord didn’t provide the money, but now He has another plan for me. Reverend Bulkeley of Wethersfield has agreed to take me as a pupil. He is a famous scholar, in medicine as well as theology. There isn’t a more learned teacher, even at Harvard.”

This talk about money embarrassed Kit. Her grandfather seldom mentioned such things. For sixteen years she had never questioned the expensive and beautiful things she had. In the last few months she had had a terrifying experience of living without money, but she didn’t want to speak about it. Instead, she tried to tell John Holbrook of her own childhood. She saw that he didn’t like the way she had grown up on the island. The green palms, warm blue ocean, white sandy beaches meant nothing to him. Didn’t her parents give her work to do?

“I don’t remember my parents at all,” she told him. “My father was born on the island and was sent to England to school. He met my mother there and brought her back to Barbados with him. They had only three years together. They both drowned by accident on a pleasure trip to Antigua, and Grandfather and I were left alone.”

“Were there no women to care for you?”

“Oh, there were slaves of course. I had a black maid. But I never needed anyone but Grandfather.” Kit remembered her Grandfather: his fine cheekbones, his thin aristocratic nose, and his loving eyes.

“It must have been hard to lose him,” said John gently. “I am so glad you have an aunt here. I’m sure she will be very happy to see you.”

“She was my mother’s only sister,” said Kit. “Grandfather said that my mother missed her very much. Her name is Rachel, and Grandfather said that she was beautiful. My mother remembered that she was always laughing. But she fell in love with a Puritan and ran away to America. She wrote to my mother from Wethersfield, and she has written a letter to me every year of my life.”

John Holbrook looked at Kit. “That was many years ago,” he told her. “Don’t forget that your aunt has been away from England for a long time.”

Kit felt that it was another warning which she could not yet understand. Later that hot afternoon Nat walked over to her where she stood on the deck looking at the river.