- Chapter One –

The sights, sounds and smells of the port overwhelming Tanya in the extreme. Sailors, wives, slaves, street scum, and animals of many sorts crowded the pier by the sea, bringing with them the smells of human waste and animal stink. The din was full of erratic shouting and the occasional cattle lowing or sheep bleating overran the laughing of the drunks and the crying of Navy mothers. Loose children and dogs ran rampant while young mothers scolded their children for running free so.

Tanya could only watch the scene without wanting to turn around and go back to her home. This was to be unfamiliar to her, but she was not to stay in England. After her father sailed to America several years ago – before the blasted war with Britain after the Revolution – she was to follow once her schooling was complete. His small business was just starting out and could only afford to bring Tanya over before his wife and son.

The reason Tanya was to be hurried across the sea was one she could not understand. She was to be engaged to a son of a wealthy Navy General; Jonathon McFarland was a Navy Captain and owned the ship he commanded called the Olympia. Her engagement should have had her father excited and eager to have heirs to the name. His reaction, however, in his recent letter only frightened her; he insisted and wrote she was to sail to America as soon as schooling was complete and the ship taking her there arrived to fetch her.

As Tanya looked back and thought about that letter, a hand placed itself on her shoulder and she started to see her mother looking at her with a sort of flash in her eyes that held the secret meaning of her sometimes uncontrolled anger. Janice Harris knew her daughter was already late to board a ship bound for dangerous waters between English and American shores. With this dawdling now, the ship would sail away without her.

A slave carried Tanya's heavy trunk – filled with her valuable gowns and treasures of her childhood – over one shoulder and slightly buckled under the weight. He tried not to show it, Tanya noticed, as she waited for his mistress to lead him to where he would set the load down. Several of Tanya's nerves tugged her to want to help the slave, but in the society like the one she grew up in, women were fragile beings that needed constant protection. The young woman knew she did not need defense; the calluses hidden under her gloves told a different story.

Tanya strained now to find the ship she was to board. Her father had written saying the ship the Defender would be in port by noon on this day and to look for a man at the ship named Brennis Vance. From there, she was to board and follow the man's every direction and would be in port by the end of thirty or so days.

All the way across the sea of port-goers bobbed the Defender. Piles of cargo were being loaded – the simple ruse of being a merchant ship. Leading the way, with her mother in tow, Tanya skirted past sailors with their wives and confused drunks just waking from drunken unconsciousness. As she neared the ship, the crowds got slightly heavier and she could catch a glance at a heavy man with deep russet-colored hair and beard with peppers of grey entwined with the red.

She stopped and looked up at the towering masts and the snow white sails the size of houses. As she tried to steady her racing breath, her throat caught the air as she saw the beauty of the ship. Tanya forced her lungs to inhale the salty air and she steadied her breath as the man at the ship looked up to see her.

"Ye must be Harris' girl."

"Yes, I am. How did you know?"

"Ye've got yer father's keen eye for beautiful ships. I can see it on yer face. And I am Brennis Vance. I am to welcome ye to the Defender."

Tanya's heart began to race as she gazed back up at the Defender's sails. She could already imagine herself standing at the bow with the wind in her hair. She could almost feel the sun-warmed wood rail smooth under her palm. Of all the ships in the port, in the world, she had hoped the Defender measured up to its beauty with speed and grace.

"Well, Miss Harris, I believe ye could probably get yerself ready to board ship. Our crew just finished loadin' up the cargo and we're waitin' on ye to get aboard."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the slave leave the trunk from over his shoulder onto the dirty port. Brennis then lifted the load without strain and threw it onto his back. He did not look like he was straining, yet Tanya knew men who looked so suffered inside, away from prying eyes.

She lowered her gaze and turned back tom her mother, who stood waiting, looking at her daughter with eyes like daggers for her daughter's dawdling. Tanya gulped and heavily and took a step toward Janice. With as much care as she could, Tanya looked into her mother's eyes and bid farewell with a simple, "Until next time."

What happened next startled the young woman. Janice Harris, a woman in society known to be high-headed and cool-tempered, let slip a tear and gave Tanya a weak smile.

"I'll see you when I can, love."

Before Tanya could respond with anything else, Brennis interrupted with a cough. "Lass, the cap'n would like to be on his way; ye should come along."

"I…wa – I…you…you're not the captain?"

"Fortunately, nay. Too much a hassle. Nay, I'm the first mate."

Tanya was still struck when Janice put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Go along. Your brother and I will follow after you."

Following her mother's instructions, Tanya followed Brennis up the ramp toward the Defender's main deck. Tanya kept looking over her shoulder at her mother, who stood watching her daughter climb to safety. Deep within her spine, Tanya felt something was unfinished. Something to do with her leaving. Tanya felt herself stop and she turned around to face Janice.

"Mother," she called, just o hear it said one more time.

"Get on that ship, Tanya Harris. Don't you think I never support your father's decisions. I support him all the way with your voyage. Now go!"

That nervous feeling instantly left Tanya's spine. Her mother agreed with her father on going to America to escape a terrible fate in England. She couldn't help but smile and turn back to the ship she was to board. Even as she did so, she felt a new feeling creeping up her back. When was the last time she felt fear?

With slow steps, she made it aboard the ship and instantly the crew was preparing to sail. She had to move toward the companion-way behind Brennis in fear of being held back by a line of crewmen. The first mate disappeared down the hatch before her eyes as she struggled against several of the crewmen's glances and leers. Once she reached the companionway hatch, she almost collided with someone rushing up to the top deck.

He looked several years older than her; she guessed his age was about twenty-one or so, but t he stubble of beard and untidiness of his tawny hair would not give her an accurate assumption. The sailor wore a loose white shirt with a leather vest and brown sailor's pants, boots coming up to his knees clunking on the wood deck. Based on the ferocity in his hazel eyes, he was either upset that he was late for departure or the sight of her, a society lady from England, on a ship bound for America. Had the captain informed his men of their guest, or did he want to surprise his crew with an untouchable cargo?

With an air of anger, he brushed past her and onto the top deck. Tanya looked over her shoulder at him, a little frustration following his arrogant person. She then realized that it was futile to keep herself topside and descended down into the companionway. At the bottom of the steps stood Brennis, the trunk still slung over his shoulder.

"Took ye long enough. I was fearin' ye got lost, or one o' the men got ye."

She bit her tongue against the man. He was a fool to think it light-hearted that she was a wench that would be passed amongst the crew. Yet he also assumed she had gotten lost; another foolish thing to think because he had plowed ahead of her, leaving her to be an almost acceptable bait for the pirate crew.

Ignoring her somewhat disturbed expression, Brennis turned and continued down the companionway until he stopped at a door near the stern. Tanya noticed it was several cabins away from the captain's own quarters. She couldn't tell if she was confused about the placement, or thankful for the nearness of a leadership figure. Either way, she felt grateful for her cabin's location.

Brennis pulled a key from his pants and unlocked toe cabin door. It swung open and he plowed on, leaving Tanya in the companionway. She heard the loud thud of her trunk slamming onto the cabin floor and stayed out of his way. There was silence for a few moments, then he called out, Ye comin'?"

With heat tickling her cheeks, she stepped into the cabin to find it nearly full with Brennis' large shape dominating the room. What she could see was a little bunk with a thick wool coverlet neatly tucked into the sides of the mattress. A small table with one wooden chair sat in a far corner of the cabin, far enough away that Brennis' hulking shape didn't bash into it. With a kick of his boot, Brennis forced the trunk to a hap-hazard position at the foot of the bunk. Keeping silent, Tanya said nothing as to what the man was doing.

"Where ye be wantin' it? A lady need not move her own heavy belongin's."

"There is fine. I'll get around to it once I'm comfortable. You need not concern yourself with me until we're in safer waters. Thank you, Brennis."

The man merely shrugged his shoulders and left the cabin. A moment later, he popped his head back into the room, a key in his hand.

"Ye may need to lock yer door. The crew may get mighty unstable and an open door may not stop 'em."

She took the key graciously and he closed the door behind himself. With his boots fading into the empty companionway, Tanya locked the door and set her mind on where she was going to put her trunk. A little while later and a few minutes of hauling her trunk around, she finally set it under her porthole window to gaze out at the sea she wanted to cross; the sea that separates her old home from her new.