A Convenient Wife

Sherburne, Nantucket Late summer, 1850

The one thing that Caroline Hudson could not abide was a suffering child. Now she was looking at three of them, apparently all from a single family. The tall and lanky boy was dressed in pants two sizes too small and a shirt that hung from his bony shoulders like a nightshirt. Both garments were patched, frayed and smudged with dirt. Caroline judged him to be about twelve years old, although the way he kept his eyes focused on the toes of his scuffed shoes, it was hard to say for sure.

Then there were the girls. One was no more than six. A petite dark-haired china doll, she blinked up at Caroline from under thick black lashes and smiled. The other was clearly the eldest of the group. She was tall and thin like her brother, her strawberry-blond hair haphazardly braided without attention to brushing through the tangles, her clothing the fashion of a woman, rather than a girl of no more than fourteen. She faced Caroline directly, one hand protectively on her sister's shoulder as she peered up from under the brim of her bonnet and made her announcement.

"We've come for schooling, miss."

"I see," Caroline replied, looking beyond the children standing on her front porch. "And where are your parents?"

The girl glanced down and her brother looked up for the first time, his eyes darting about as if seeking the nearest escape.

"We've come for schooling," she repeated. "This is a school and my brother and I have come for lessons." She motioned toward the small brass sign on the gate that announced the entrance to Miss Hudson's School for Young Ladies and Gentlemen.

"The new session does not begin for another two weeks," Caroline replied. "Did your parents send you here alone?" Surely the parents were aware that Caroline's school was private and accommodated a maximum of twelve students whose parents paid tuition that it did not appear these children could afford.

"We come on our own," the boy muttered.

"Came," his elder sister hissed.

Caroline racked her brain for some adult she might connect with them. The entire island of Nantucket was a small and close-knit community and the town itself even more so. Caroline had lived on Nantucket her entire life. True, she did not personally know every citizen, especially those who lived in the more remote areas, but surely...

"My name is Eliza Justice," the eldest girl said, dropping into an awkward curtsey. "I'll be fifteen in November. This is my brother, Jerome. He's thirteen. And my sister, Hannah, is five, but I know that you only accept older children for your school so Hannah's just here to..." Eliza's confidence appeared to falter for the first time.

"And who are your parents?" Caroline asked.

"Tyrone and Sarah Justice," the girl replied.

"Your family is new to the community?"

Hannah piped up for the first time. "No, ma'am. We've been living here my whole life. Our house burned down and Mama..."

Eliza silenced her sister with a squeeze to the shoulder. "Will you teach us or not?" she asked.

"Won't you please step inside?" Caroline could not believe she was asking these little ragamuffins to enter her home. Of all the homes on India Street, the Hudson house had been considered the finest. Of course, those had been the days before the great fire, the days before the whaling industry that sustained the island had begun to falter, before...