Abbeyford Inheritance Read Free

Adelina’s teeth began to chatter with fear. She hated storms.
    Sammy cupped his hands around his mouth and spoke close to her ear. “ If you can get on a ship, you could get right away from here. It’d be the best way. By road, he’d catch up with you.”
    Adelina nodded. “I could go to England, but I’ve no money.”
    Sammy shrugged. “No problem. Stow away.” He suggested in a matter-of-fact manner.
    â€œBut – but how do I know which ship is going to England?” Adelina’s eyes flickered down the long line of swaying masts.
    Sammy said, “ Look, you stay here, I’ll go along the harbour an’ see if I can find out if there’s one bound for England.”
    He was gone a long time, so long that Adelina began to think he had deserted her and returned home. She crouched behind a stack of barrels, trying to find a little shelter. Then the rain came, soaking in minutes her thin shawl. She shivered from cold and fear, and delayed shock. She groaned aloud, the picture of her father’s still form horribly fresh in her mind.
    Sammy was back, squeezing his thin frame between the barrels. “Miss Adelina, where are you? Oh, there you are. I’ve found one,” he told her gleefully. “Come on, I’ll take you. It sails on the tide. If we go now, there’s no one about, the crew are all having a last fling ashore. If you slip on now and hide yourself in one of those longboats they have on deck, no one’ll find you.”
    â€œBut – but I can’t stay hidden under there all the way to England. It takes weeks!”
    â€œI’ve thought about that,” answered the practical Sammy and gestured towards a bundle in his hand. “ I’ve gotten you some food. Stay hidden as long as you can, then if they find you when they’re at sea it’ll be too late anyway,” he said triumphantly. “They’ll not turn back just to put you ashore.”
    â€œI suppose not,” Adelina said doubtfully, “ but – but what do they do to stowaways? Flog them?”
    â€œNaw,” scoffed Sammy, “not a pretty girl, anyway. Likely as not they’ll make a fuss of you,” he added with a confidence Adelina did not share. The young boy, old for his years though his hard life had made him in many ways, could not be expected to understand the fears of a young girl amongst a group of rough, tough sailors.
    Adelina swallowed her fear. The prospects of a life under big Sam’s rule were even worse. She would take the risk. She would do anything, risk anything, to get away from Big Sam.
    â€œWhat about you, Sammy, aren’t you going to come with me?”
    â€œNo, Miss Adelina. I’ll get away from him one day, but I want to head west. I gotten it all figured out. When I’m a bit older …” He grinned at her, for a moment no longer the half-starved waif, but a boy with determination and toughness. Adelina felt relief. Sammy would be all right.
    Adelina remained hidden for the first four days of the voyage. Luckily she did not suffer sea-sickness and, though the small, stuffy space beneath a tarpaulin covering a longboat was cramped and unpleasant, there she stayed.
    On the fourth day, when the sun was high in the sky, two sailors pulled back the tarpaulin.
    Adelina blinked in the sudden bright light.
    â€œGawd love us! Look what we ’ ave ’ere!” cried one.
    The other one gaped. “A stowaway!” Then he grinned with blackened teeth. “An’ a mighty pretty one too, ain’t she?”
    â€œI saw ’er first, Black Wilf,” said the first.
    â€œMebbe, but you owes me for savin’ yer miserable life in that fight we ’ad in New York harbour, don’t forgit.”
    Suddenly a knife blade flashed in the sunlight and Adelina watched with horrified eyes as the two ruffians faced each other, circling like two wary fighting cocks.
    â€œShe’s