Read May: Daughters of the Sea #2 for Free Online Page A

looking around the watch room—every place except where his daughter was sitting beside him with the spoon of oatmeal held in midair.
    There was a long silence. May noticed that Gar’s eyes had settled on a small closet door that was always locked. After a moment, his gaze drifted back to her. May flinched when she noticed a shadow of sadness in his eyes.
    “What’s in that closet?”
    The sadness vanished. “None of your business, miss!”
    May was shocked and, at the same time, more intrigued than ever. She knew that he did not keep the key to the closet on the ring with the other keysof the lighthouse. This closet held secrets, and it was as forbidden to her as the water. In that moment the closet and the sea became linked in May Plum’s mind. The words that Gar said next when he turned to May confirmed her thoughts.
    “I been thinking, May, that maybe I could arrange a position for you off Egg Rock. You know, where you could make a bit of money.”
    “Where, Pa?”
    “I thought maybe over in Bridgeton or Augusta,” Gar said, looking away.
    A quiet terror welled up inside her. Yes, she had wanted to get off this island, out of this house, but inland? There was something unimaginable, unthinkable, about not being in sight of the sea.
    “Bridgeton! Augusta! Pa, that’s so far. I don’t want to go polishing some rich person’s floor.” Even if it meant escaping the silence and suffocation of the lighthouse, she could never move inland. To be so far from the sea would be another kind of suffocation.
    Her father held up his hand. “Hold on, de-ah.I don’t see you polishing no old biddy’s floors or sewing—though you are a good seamstress. But you’re so good with book learning and numbers, better than me or your mother. I think you could be a teacher.”
    “But, Pa, I’m only fifteen. I haven’t graduated school yet, and with the way the winter’s been and me hardly ever getting across, it’s going to take me an extra year at least.”
    But he wasn’t listening to May at all. “Or maybe you could be a librarian like Miss Lowe. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
    This took May up short. A year ago she would have loved the notion of being a librarian. But now she was not so sure, especially if it took her to Bridgeton or Augusta, far from the sea.
    “Maybe,” she whispered sullenly.
    “May?” New alarm sounded in her father’s voice. “You seem a bit vexed.”
    Anger rose up in her. May wondered why her mother could always be “poorly,” her father often drunk, but she herself had no right to feelings.
    She squeezed her eyes shut and spoke. “Yes, Pa, I am feeling a mite vexed.”
    “Well, you’ll get over it and be right as rain again. I suppose the strain and all.”
    She opened her eyes and looking at him took his hand. “No, Pa, I might not,” she said softly, but there was a firmness in her voice. Gar stared at her as if, for a moment, his daughter had been replaced by a stranger. But even the look of hurt and confusion on his face wasn’t enough to keep her from speaking.
    “I do not see myself going inland to Bridgeton or Augusta, no matter if there were one hundred libraries where I could find employment. Not there!”
    She stole a glance at the closet with its dwarfish door. She needed to find a way to open it. She was determined.
    Voices could be heard downstairs. “The doctor must have arrived. I’ll bring him up to see you as soon as he finishes examining the other men.”
    “And your mother, de-ah. Don’t forget your mother. She will want a long consultation.”

5
THE DOCTOR’S VISIT
     
    H EPZIBAH P LUM ATTEMPTED to keep the new doctor, Lucius Holmes, by her bedside as long as possible.
    “Fresh air! My goodness, Doctor Holmes, all we got around here is fresh air. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “I think, Mrs. Plum, it would really help your gout.” The doctor hesitated slightly. “Even more than this medicine.”
    Hepzibah Plum pulled herself