Caution to the Wind Read Online Free PDF

his hat behind because she could watch the wind play with his dark curls as though it were trying to untie the leather thong that held back his hair. Silently, she cheered the wind on.
    Every now and then, he tipped his chin as though catching the scent of a distant enemy on the breeze before turning his sharp eyes back to the horizon. He reminded her of a wild animal, patiently stalking his prey, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce.
    A faint odor tickled her nostrils, and the image faded. Face tilted, nose twitching, she searched for the wisp of a scent lingering in the air. It smelled vaguely familiar, like a hearth in the morning before the lighting of a new fire, musty and thick.
    She squinted toward the horizon. Had they sailed closer to land, even if she couldn’t sight it yet? Baltimore’s chimneys were choking enough when one walked through the town. The sharp odor could have drifted out over the open ocean.
    Amanda set the holystone in her bucket to let the seawater seep into the brittle sandstone. She pulled it out, water dripping from its pores, and set to work on a dark, stubborn stain. She hadn’t expected sailors to be as fussy as old nurse-maids about the tidiness of their ship, but the Amanda was their home, and they insisted everything be—what was it they called it— shipshape .
    The odor, stronger now, pricked Amanda’s senses. She covered her nose and mouth with her grimy sleeve and scanned the open deck. Sailors were busy at their tasks, unperturbed by the foreign scent hanging in the air. One man, perched high above her on a platform, scanned the horizon like a bird of prey searching for its next victim. Two more coiled a rope the thickness of her forearm. A third group cleaned the guns even though they had seen only limited use in training exercises.
    The captain and Buck Smythe stood amidships, their heads bent together in consultation over a map. The captain’s cocked hat was nowhere to be seen, and sunlight streaked his dark hair with golden highlights. He looked up and his gaze captured hers. Amanda’s breath caught in her throat, and she twisted her face away.
    The sound of a familiar ditty drifting on the breeze caught her attention. Bull leaned against the bulwark, whittling, whistling and keeping an eye on his charges. Amanda shrugged and dipped her stone in the bucket again. If Bull and the captain weren’t concerned about the smell, she supposed she had no cause to be.
    She scrubbed the deck and watched the seawater evaporate, appreciating the way her efforts reawakened the sun-bleached oak, giving the dull, lifeless planks an ivory glow that sparkled in the sunlight. She didn’t mind hard work. Her assigned duties absorbed her every moment, from sunup to sundown, and sometimes longer if Bull decided something needed done. In the evening, she crawled into her hammock, muscles aching and so tired that even the thunderous snoring of the men didn’t keep her awake.
    Life at sea and a constant stream of duties kept Neil out of trouble as well. At first, he and Amanda had been assigned the same tasks, but Neil’s sharpness of mind and interest in sailing soon earned him the right to learn at the side of any man with the patience to withstand the endless questions of an intelligent, inquisitive boy.
    Amanda overheard him ask the navigator how he could navigate when the skies were cloudy and one couldn’t see the stars. He asked the bosun the names of each of the different types of sails and when they were used. He asked Buck about the differences between nNaval ships and privateers. And Neil, not having the sense to give the captain a wide berth, trailed him as if he had the captain at the end of a line. Whenever Captain Stoakes got too far away, Neil pulled him back, asking questions about the business of privateering, how Letters of Marque were issued, what ships they were allowed to attack and what happened at the prize courts.
    Much to her surprise, the captain didn’t seem