A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone for being patient with me and for all the great comments! I really appreciate all the comments, corrections, suggestions and praise. I love hearing from you and what you have to say.

Chapter 10

"Gemma," Chermona called as she saw me in the hall with my bag. "Oh thank God you're here. You can put your bag there." She smiled. "I'm going to be splitting the girls up into groups and each will be assigned to a chaperone. It should be about five girls per chaperone since I won't be assigning a group to Mr. Fowlson or your brother."

Ann and Fee joined us soon afterward and had their bags placed with mine and Chermona's. After we discovered who each of us would be chaperoning, the girls started to arrive. There were 20 girls in this class and all of them had convinced their parents to let them come. We made sure that all the girls had everything they would need before Mr. Fowlson came and started to load luggage on the carriages that were now arriving. It was nearing ten o'clock before we actually set off.

We road the train to London and arrived there soon after noon. We stopped in a small shop for lunch before going to the docks. It was very clear that half of these girls had never been this close to the docks and had no idea at what it would be like. Chermona led the way to her uncle's ship with everyone else following her and Mr. Fowlson pulling up the end to keep anyone from straggling.

We arrived at the ship as they were starting to load the last bit of the cargo into the haul. That was when I saw Tom. He was standing in the shade of the ship and stepped out when he saw us. I walked up to him and gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before bringing him over to introduce everyone.

"My I present my elder brother, Mr. Thomas Doyle." I turned back to Tom, "This is Miss Chermona Smith, the language teacher at Spence Academy and the lady who put this trip together. You know my friends, Miss Worthington and Miss Bradshaw and I believe that you've met Mr. Fowlson." Tom nodded a greeting to everyone and smiled at Chermona.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Doyle," she stuck her hand out and to shake his hand. I smiled to myself as Tom seemed a little put back at this masculine gesture by the beautiful woman before him.

"Now, why would this beautiful group of ladies be standing at the bottom of my gangplank?" I heard a loud voice call from above us. We all looked up and saw a man in dark blue with slightly graying hair standing at the top of the gangplank. Chermona put her bag down and walked quickly up the gangplank as the man walked down with open arms.

"Ah, Uncle! It's wonderful to see you!" She exclaimed, hugging the man.

"My dear, it's good to see you again. How have you been?" The man asked with a laugh. They began to walk down the gangplank together.

"I'm perfectly fine." Chermona said, "Let me introduce you to everyone." They stepped on to the dock and came over to us. "May I have your attention? This is my uncle, Captain Nimrod Smith. Uncle, these are some of the chaperones, Misses Ann Bradshaw, Felicity Worthington and Gemma Doyle, her brother, Mr. Thomas Doyle and the groundskeeper, Mr. Fowlson."

Captain Nimrod smiled and nodded to each of us in turn before turning back to Chermona. "Well, let's get your luggage on the ship and everyone to their rooms." He led the way up the gangplank and helped all of the ladies up onto the deck.

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My room wasn't the biggest, but it was perfect size for me. Chermona and I were going to room together since Ann and Fee were going to room together. In between our room were all the girl's rooms. Tom and Mr. Fowlson were on the deck below us with the rest of the men.

We set out to sea that evening. Fee was great on the ship; she said it was because she was an admiral's daughter. Ann wasn't so lucky, she soon became uneasy and when a storm hit us she became very ill. I was fine, but when the storm hit us I became a little unstable. Chermona and Tom were great on the seas and were constantly buzzing around to check the people who were ill.

It took us about two and a half to three week, depending on how you look at it, to get to New York City. I stood on deck with the girls who were excitedly looking over the city. I pointed out the Statue of Liberty and told them that it was a gift to the American's by the French. I also showed them Ellis Island, where the lower class immigrants had to go through to get into America. They questioned me un-mercilessly about New York and America. I was trying to answer them to the best of my abilities when Chermona came up to me.

"My uncle can't get us into the harbor tonight. Anyways, it's too late for the inspectors to come out. They will be out first thing in the morning to check for health and such; you know what I'm talking about." She said, looking over the harbor at New York with a great longing. She snapped out of it and looked at the girls "Alright, we have an early and long morning, go eat dinner and we'll be going to bed early tonight. Let's go, come on." Chermona moved the girls back down into the lower deck for dinner.