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four and eight in the evening, so that she could join Washington later under the stairs. Tonight, she’d planned to craft his silhouette as he carved the graceful Irish ketch.
    “I fear I do not command your full attention, Miss Mercer.”
    Judith lifted the cup, swallowed. The tea burned her throat.
    “Tending my health has turned my daughter into a night owl, Captain Willis,” Eli Mercer explained, smiling pleasantly.
    Judith pressed her father’s hand. Eli would protect the knowledge of Washington’s existence as fiercely as she did.
    The captain changed tack. “My officers praise your daughter’s reading of the story of Noah and the Flood to the seamen.”
    “We’ve felt warmly accepted by all the ship’s company.”
    The sneer, again. “I, too, sought upon occasion to enlighten, and even to make merry with my men. While at our common diversions I must have seemed the loving, even indulgent, father of this ark. Then I would need to ‘ship my quarterdeck face’ as we say, to become lord again. No more. It was not fair to the men. I saw hope in their eyes. Hope of rising above their station. Worse, I saw thoughts that they may, in some capacity, be my equal.”
    “Art thou attempting to goad us into debate, Friend?” Eli Mercer
asked, the tone of his voice remaining banter-light. He even used the older English Quakerisms in his speech. Judith wondered if she would ever achieve her father’s diplomatic skills.
    “Debate?”
    “Our Society is based on equality.”
    “Actual equality, not an ideal?”
    “Just so.”
    The silent servant filled Judith’s cup. “My father and I have no quarterdeck faces to ship,” she affirmed sharply.
    Captain Willis leaned across the table, his dress uniform advancing on her in the polished brass, too. “Ah, now, at long last a taste of fire, Miss Mercer! Your indignation is somewhat legendary. It persuaded even the British Admiralty to overrule my objections and permit you to board the Standard for the crossing.”
    “We didn’t meet with thy approval?” Judith asked.
    “And I have made you so welcome you never suspected my initial opposition! You will report as much, I trust, in one of your future missives to the Admiralty. I know there will be several. With many admonitions.”
    “Suggestions.”
    “Of course, suggestions. Gentle persuasion. Quakers. Why was the Standard chosen as your escort over the waves to your native land? Did you wonder?”
    “I did not.”
    “Allow me to enlighten you. This ship has roamed the French and Barbary coasts unmolested in times of heaviest fighting. Our twenty-four-pound guns have remained silent through the late unfortunate hostilities between your United States and Great Britain. Silent since our glorious victory over the French at Trafalgar, to be precise. Ten years. The wisdom that presides over our Admiralty must have imagined this frigate the safest of passenger barges for your return.” He swallowed his glass empty again and turned to Judith’s father. “We are something of a Quaker man-of-war, wouldn’t you say, Eli Mercer?”
    Her father smiled. “Were thy ship’s magazine empty, perhaps.”
    The captain glared at them both. “Is that another step in your loathsome process?”
    “Friend?”
    The sneer returned. “Will you heave my ammunition overboard? I’d best keep my sentries on guard against this devious Friend and his daughter, practicing her own black art in her charming silhouettes. What if you should convert my men, Mercers? A crew of Quakers does not suit a man-of-war.”
    Cruel laughter erupted before he demanded more brandy with that curious, silent twirl of the glassware’s stem. “Tell me, Judith Mercer, do you think the American ships are run substantially different from His Majesty’s?”
    Judith thought of Washington’s eyes, which still were full of his love of the sea despite his long captivity. His time in his American vessel must have given him that. “I am not well versed on that