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move.
    He released his grip on the basket. “What’s in it, then?”
    She tried to speak, but it was as if those stormy dark eyes had fused the words to her throat. She finally swallowed hard, his bold gaze and the scent of sandalwood from his clothing doing funny things to her stomach.
    He angled her a glance with the barest of smiles. “Now, I know you can talk, because you’ve already bargained yer way across the ocean.”
    She coughed, clearing the knot of awkwardness from her throat as she tightened her grip on her basket. “A rose. It is precious to me.” Her lips compressed into a straight line and one hand was on her hip. It was the look and stance she used when someone thought she was too young to know what she was doing, which happened rather a lot back in Ixheim.
    “A rose?” A shadow of something passed through his eyes, then vanished like vapor, making her think she’d imagined it. Next he surprised Anna with his terse, dismissive words. “I’ll inform the captain of yer predicament.” He turned and strode down the ship’s deck.
    As Anna followed down the gangplank behind Georg Schultz, her thoughts remained with that tall, arrogant man in the fancy frock. She snapped a glance over her shoulder. “If he’s not the captain, then who is he?”
    “He’s the ship’s carpenter. A boatswain.” Georg Schultz held up three thick fingers. “Third in command.”
    At the bottom of the gangplank, Anna explained the arrangement to Christian and waited as he pulled out a leather pouch. The money was counted and handed to Georg Schultz. When the ship’s carpenter shouted down to load the passengers, they lined up behind the large group of Mennonites to walk up the gangplank. The mighty Mennonites, was how Anna thought of them. There were so many of them! Twice, perhaps thrice as many as there were Amish. Tensions between the Mennonites and the followers of Jacob Amman were thorny at best. How would they survive living together in such close quarters? Anna gazed at the ship as she took her place in line, sticking closely to Dorothea, who held Felix’s hand in a death grip.
    If all went well, this ship would be home for the next twomonths. If all did not go well, it could be longer. Maria liked to remind everyone of another of Esther Wenger’s horrifying tales: a ship’s passage that took nine months. Nine months! Three-quarters of a year. The thought made Anna shudder. But then she’d also heard Maria speak of a journey that took only four weeks. She was counting on the latter—a swift passage, blessed by God.
    Once on the ship, they were led straight down the companionway into the lower deck. Anna’s eyes stung with the sour stink and took more than a moment to adjust to the dim lighting. She helped Dorothea climb down the last few steps as Felix disappeared to explore the lower deck. Christian went quickly ahead in the cavernous space, pointing out sleeping shelves, nooks and crannies where families could claim space near the bow of the ship because the mighty Mennonites had claimed all available space in the stern. It was quickly apparent that passengers outnumbered beds.
    The beds bore little resemblance to the kind found in Anna’s home in Ixheim. These were wooden bunks, six feet long, three feet high, open at both ends. They were set in rows, side by side, and stacked to the ceiling. No more than two persons were supposed to be assigned to one bunk—according to Esther Wenger, who told Maria—but Georg Schulz insisted that each family was only allowed one bunk. Georg, first down the companionway, took the largest one, nearest the stern of the ship and closest to a hatch. For the Gerbers and the Müllers and the Masts and others, one family per bunk would mean crowding four or five or six into one bed. Anna looked toward the stern and saw a Mennonite family of ten settling in. Ten in one bed!
    Maria was directing traffic. “You, Josef, you take yourfamily over there. Conrad—you take your