Having braced themselves against the prospect of high winds and choppy water, they now found themselves holding their noses against the pervading stink of fish. Cabal Mears had been loading his catch into the sloop for over thirty years and its wood was impregnated with a compound of pungent odors. It took some time for the passengers to get used to it. When they had cast off, Jamie Skoyles and Tom Caffrey took an oar apiece to row the boat while Mears held the tiller. Huddled together near the prow of the vessel, Elizabeth Rainham and Polly Bragg peered into the semidarkness with trepidation. The two women had met before because Polly had befriended Nan Wyatt during the long journey south from Canada. Attractive, shapely, and with a ruddy complexion, Polly spoke with the same soft Devonian burr as Caffrey. It was one of many things that had drawn them together. Though she had done menial jobs for the army, there was no suggestion that Polly would now replace Nan as Elizabeth's maid. Adversity made the women social equals, and they traveled as friends, knowing that they would have to support each other during the testing days ahead.
