Chain Locker Read Free Page B

from the water and I bet he’d be content doing something else.”
    â€œWell, he plans to write an exam for some marine officer rating this summer. He’s been getting ready all winter.”
    â€œEmily, girl, you can’t be running your life based on your fears! There’s lots of things worse than having to put up with the disruption of being married to a sailor.” She grinned. “After a few years of marriage you’ll probably be glad to have him out of the house for a while, anyway.”
    Emily smiled obligingly. Gennie broke the brief silence. “Why do you say there’s no more time left?”
    â€œHenry’s uncle is a master watch on one of the big sealing ships out of St. John’s and he got Henry a berth for the ice. He’ll be leaving in a few days and we won’t have any contact for a couple of months, maybe longer. I simply have to get it settled before he goes.”
    â€œI think there’s something you’re not telling me,” said Gennie, “about a certain other person—”
    There was a commotion outside, and then the faint and earnest thumping of what could only be a grade two hand on the door, most likely female. Gennie opened it and there stood Elsie Porter with two red eyes blinking from behind her snow-covered face. “Miss, they gave me a mobbin’!” she wailed.
    â€œOh, dear. Come over here by the stove, Elsie, and we’ll have you fixed up in no time. I’m sure it won’t be the last mobbin’ you’ll get.” She gently closed the door to keep out three rosy-cheeked little girls, one of whom was eating snow from her mitt while another wiped her nose on her sleeve. Gennie suspected they were the guilty parties who had covered Elsie’s face with snow, but she chose not to undertake an investigation and subsequent administration of justice while the victim needed comforting.
    â€œFaith and Gail held me down and Leet mobbed me,” Elsie sobbed. “She even shoved snow down my back.”
    â€œWell, I’ll certainly have a word with Faith and Gail and Melita,” Gennie assured her as she wiped her face and tidied her hair. “But did you do anything to egg them on, now?”
    â€œI double-dog dared them,” Elsie declared proudly.
    â€œThere you go, then. It’s one thing to dare somebody—but a double-dog dare; well, you know—”
    â€œI know, Miss. I’m sorry.” She perked up. “Will they have to stay after school?”
    â€œWe’ll see. You just stay by the stove and warm up. School will be starting in a few minutes.”
    â€œIt’s not very warm by the stove, Miss. Is it lit?”
    The arrival of the rest of her students provided the distraction Emily needed from her preoccupation with Henry—who was a far more pleasant preoccupation than Randy and his father. She and Gennie, with the help of Jessie Locke, at sixteen the oldest and most responsible girl in the school, proceeded to set out the lessons for the day. Balancing such a mix of personalities and needs was a challenge that animated Emily, and their energy and sense of wonder—of the younger ones, especially—always served to quicken her love for her calling. But the day passed too quickly and, like Cinderella at midnight, she felt the sparkle of the previous hours drain away as the weight of her decision fell back upon her. She was in no hurry to get home, and braced herself for Randy’s leering eyes.
    To her immense relief, neither he nor his father was anywhere to be found. “They’re gone,” her mother declared. “The wind shifted this morning and the ice let up a bit, so they decided to leave. Your father says they should be back in Herring Neck by supper.”

chapter three
    On Saturday evening Emily stood in the kitchen of the big house that her grandfather had built for his eight children, waiting for the irons on the stove to heat