6. TO SAIL INTO THE SUNRISE
"I've been keeping her going about south-east and a bit east," said Susan. "But we passed the lightship a long time ago. I kept going straight on like you said. It's still dark, but there's something else to steer by now. A sort of glimmer right ahead. … I put off waking you as long as I could."
John could hear the pride in her voice.
We Didn't Mean to Go To Sea, Chp. XVI
It had been, without any possible doubt, the worst night in Susan Walker's life. And yet …
And yet, as she steered Goblin and her sleeping crew through the night, Susan felt an odd sense of exaltation. For all the beastly wretchedness and humiliation of illness, for all the unshakable sentiment of wrongness that they should be out here at all, for all the horrible gnawing worry about how worried everyone else was sure to be, even for all that, she admitted to herself, she wouldn't have missed it for anything. Wouldn't have missed this moment in which she had finally overcome her weakness to be here, in command.
As she glanced at her brother's sleeping form, she realized that in all of their years together, she had never felt closer to him. This is what it was like, then, to be captain. She let him sleep a while longer and steered confidently for the unseen dawn.
7. WHAT PEGGY IS GOOD AT
Peggy was the first to turn back, and within minutes she was calling to them.
"Got something, Peggy?"called Nancy, and added, "She's a galoot on some things, but pretty good on tracks."
Secret Water, Chp. XIX
Peggy Blacket, mate and part owner of the sailing ship Amazon, is in point of fact, good at a great many things.
She can quack like a duck in such a duck-like manner that real ducks stop whatever they are doing to admire it. She can track and spoor and lurk. She can make hammocks and mend sails. She can sail their boat and shoot their arrows as well as Nancy; they learned together after all, and only she has the patience to make the arrows. She can make drop scones as good as Cook's; she was always Cook's favorite. Nancy has no time for cooking, but is always willing to help eat the scones. She is good at making friends wherever she goes, and would have even more if it were not for loyalty to her sister. Nancy is mostly good at making enemies.
What Peggy is best of all at is managing her sister. Nancy Blacket, Terror of the Seas, is her captain and her friend, but there is no denying that she requires a good deal of managing. Uncle Jim can't do it at all, and Mother hardly ever tries. The less said about Great Aunt Maria the better. If it weren't for Peggy, Nancy's world would be made up exclusively of implacable foes and desperate wars. She would go down all guns blazing, but she would go down all the same. Peggy is rather more interested in staying afloat, and so they do.
Chatterbox Peggy will take her sister's darkest secrets to the grave. No one at home will ever know that, every year so far, the first week back at school, a despondent little girl named Ruth cries herself to sleep, inconsolably homesick for a place where Captain Nancy is a person of importance. And no one, not even Nancy, knows that the reason none of the other girls ever tease her about this is that, long ago, Peggy took the first one who even thought about it out behind the hockey pitch and thrashed her silently, thoroughly, and, needless to say, ruthlessly.
In return for all of this, Peggy is called donkey and galoot. She is cheerfully blamed for whatever may go wrong. But she is comforted when the thunder rumbles and never has to sleep alone. She is never ever left behind. She holds herself to be the luckiest person in the world.
8. MISS RUTH IS AT IT AGAIN
"Jibbooms, bobstays and battleaxes!" exclaimed Nancy. "If you call me Ruth again …"
"All right, Miss Nancy … though Ruth's a nice name, I must say."
The Picts and the Martyrs, Chp. I
Miss Ruth is at it again, thinks the Doctor. Nancy, indeed! She's even got me calling her that now. She's up to her tricks and jerking us all about like marionettes. If her poor mother knew the half of it, it would be the end of her. But it's her own fault, really, letting two young girls run wild like that. It isn't right and it won't get better with time. One of these days there will be a scrape she can't talk her way out of. Pity, really, her heart's in the right place. Won't matter in the end, though.
Miss Ruth is at it again, thinks Sammy the policeman, and why is it always me who's made to look the fool? God and his angels help the man who'll marry that one, that's all I can say.
Miss Ruth is at it again, thinks the Postman. Clever of her, though, you have to admit, finding a way to look after her friends like that. I just hope no one forgets and gives her away. Miss Turner's a right terror when she doesn't have her way. Bit like her niece, really.
Miss Ruth is at it again, thinks Cook. Bless her!
9. PIRATES !
"We landed on an island," said Roger.
"We did lots better." They heard Nancy's voice again. "We got picked up by pirates. We were in a pirate fight."
Missee Lee, Chp. IIX
Nancy had been adamant.
"This story has got to have pirates in it. Real ones. And they capture us but then we become friends and have adventures with them … when we aren't fighting desperate battles, of course."
Her eyes were shining as her thoughts ran away with themselves.
"… and we meet their leader, and she's a girl."
Roger grinned at this.
"… and she falls in love with John and gives away all of their secrets."
The two captains spoke at the same instant.
"On my ship, mister, able seamen know their place. They speak when spoken to."
"Shut up, Roger!"
This time, Peggy understood. She caught Susan's eye, and then both of them had to stage a sudden fit of coughing to hide mutinous laughter.
10. UP A HILL
(with apologies to Constantlearner and Fergus Mason)
"Hullo," said Captain Flint, "where are John and Nancy?"
"Gone exploring," said Titty, "up the valley to look at the deer and see if there are any of those Gaels."
Great Northern? Chp. XIV
Perhaps it was the steepness of the path, or the brisk pace set by his companion; perhaps it was something else altogether. For whatever reason, John had been silent for quite a long time.
"Penny for your thoughts, Commodore."
"Sorry. I expect I was wondering if we'll ever do this again. All of us together like this. I don't think I can come at all next summer. I'll be at sea, most likely. Training cruise."
Nancy nodded. They all knew this, even if no one had yet said it out loud. It was one of so many things that couldn't be helped.
"We'll miss you."
She turned with a sly smile.
"Peggy will miss you very much indeed."
John could find nothing to say to this unexpected turn in the conversation. Nancy's smiled turned into a piratical smirk.
"Surprised?"
"I guess I've never really thought about it."
"Well here's news for you, Captain John. She has. Thought about it, that is. At least she did. I found an old exercise book of hers this winter. It was probably from the year we first met you. She was practicing signing 'Mrs. Margaret Walker.'
"No!"
"Oh yes. She wasn't quite sure that was right, though. She tried 'Mrs. John Walker,' but that wasn't the best. By the bottom of the page it was 'Mrs. Admiral Walker."
For a moment, John was well and truly speechless, but then he looked at Nancy's shining eyes and burst into laughter.
"Well ... I suppose I should be flattered at her confidence in me. But I'm sure she's forgotten all about it."
"I'm sure she hasn't. You could do worse, you know. She's an heiress. Unless Uncle Jim surprises us all, half of Beckfoot is hers. Not to mention half of Amazon."
John tried desperately to keep a straight face.
"I'll admit that's very tempting. But maybe I could do better."
He looked Nancy straight in the eye, and suddenly neither of them was laughing at all.
When Nancy spoke, it was in a voice he'd never heard from her, quiet and, had it been anyone but Nancy, John would have said afraid.
"John, don't. I'm sorry I said anything. I shouldn't have. I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it and that she's forgotten all about it."
Which was altogether irrelevant, and they both knew it.
"Nancy…"
"Stop! Not one more word. Not now. Not ever. Just … just don't."
They walked in troubled silence for awhile, John altogether bewildered, Nancy startled at the violence of her own reaction, and sorrier than she could ever say, and both terribly worried that something irrevocable had happened between them. It was John, in the end, who found the way. He stopped abruptly, and held out his hand.
"Still friends…?"
Relief and joy surged over Nancy's face, as she took his hand and shook it heartily.
"Forever!"
She looked down the path and then turned with a grin.
"Race you to the bottom!"
