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the journey back to Portsmouth together.
    “I should think they are very busy just now, preparing to cast off or some such,” Beth said soothingly. “I’m sure they will take notice of us soon, because our trunks are in the way.”
    Indeed, Lady Metherton had been so kind, the last several weeks had been all but unbearable to Beth. She took Beth entirely under her expensively dressed maternal wing and tut-tutted about the kind of father who would bring a gently bred girl into the wilds of North Africa. Even Tripoli, a thriving metropolis, was hardly civilized enough for a refined British woman, let alone the desert, with all that nasty sand and sun. No wonder Beth’s manners were less than refined. Why (Beth could hear her cultured voice, particularly well modulated as a lady’s should be), Beth could not help her brown complexion, and no doubt traipsingabout on those dirty camels had stunted her growth. A sigh. It could not be helped, and England was the only remedy for her condition.
    Beth was fairly sure that England would not be the remedy or that it would, at the very least, be a very nasty draught if Lady Metherton’s reaction to her was any indication of the reception she would receive in the drawing rooms of London.
    “Well, well, ladies,” a bluff voice echoed behind them. Beth and Mrs. Pargutter turned to see a large man with a rolling gait dressed in a dark blue coat of superfine with huge metallic buttons across his chest in civilian imitation of a naval officer. “Welcome to the Beltrane , the finest merchant ship in the Med and your home for a few weeks if the breeze blows well. I’m Captain Tindly.” He bowed.
    “Captain,” Beth said, extending her hand. “I am Miss Rochewell, and may I present Mrs. Pargutter and her companion Miss Fellows?” Beth naturally took the lead, though Mrs. Pargutter was nominally her protector.
    “Your servant, madam,” the Captain said in a voice born to bellow orders at sea. “We cast off at sunset.” He called to the nearest seamen, “Mr. Severn, Mr. Cobb, see these trunks to the forward cabins. Shake a leg, there.” He turned to bawl orders about fo’c’sles and hammocks and grates, then surveyed the shore and muttered, “Damn all passengers. Where is he?”
    A man scurried into the rigging and scrambled up it rather like a rat. Beth was used to such behavior, but Mrs. Pargutter gave out a little shriek and grasped Beth’s arm. “Did you see that, my dear? Why, he looked hardly human!”
    “Be easy, ma’am.” Beth patted her hand. “Surely you saw sailors on your voyage out.”
    “Never like that!” she cried. “Positively bestial! Besides, I spent the whole voyage in my cabin, for I have never been a good traveler, and the sea quite oversets me.”
    Beth sighed. The trip stretched dismally ahead of her, though what she had expected from Mrs. Pargutter under the best of circumstances she could not say. Beth was suddenlyvery glad that Jenny would have the tending of what she suspected would be a determined invalid. The seamen hefted their trunks. “Perhaps you would like to go to your cabin?”
    “Yes, yes. I am in need of a little restorative. I have a supply of laudanum.” Mrs. Pargutter bustled after the seamen, Jenny Fellows in her wake. Beth did not follow.
    “Blast! I swear I’ll leave him,” the Captain said behind her. “I’ll not miss the tide.”
    A ship some way down the quay drifted away from its moorings, one sail flapping down and then another. A breath of offshore breeze kissed the neighbor’s canvas. “Captain, if I stand against the wall of the quarterdeck, will I be out of your way? I’d like to see us sail.”
    “By the door there.” The Captain smiled, pleased that she bothered to be out of the way.
    “Ahoy the passenger’s boat!” a sailor yelled.
    Out of the growing gloom a boat thumped against the side. A large form swung a leg up over the rail and stepped on board.
    “About time, Rufford!” the Captain