Four years went by. Becky and Jake continued to do everything together and had adventures at the docks or in the fields, with Nelson tagging along half the time. Jake continued to get into trouble, such as accidentally breaking a chicken coop, disturbing the peace at late hours, and stealing from the food market. One day when he was fourteen, the administrators at the orphanage had warned him that any more screw-ups would kick him out. So, with the threats from them and the urgings from Becky, he volunteered to help out at the blacksmith's shop. The blacksmith was leery to let a troublemaker like Jake work for him, but he took a risk and started Jake off with sweeping up the shop at the end of the day. The consistency of having something productive to do kept Jake out of trouble. As the blacksmith saw what a hard-worker Jake was, he started to train Jake in the craft of blacksmithing. Now at sixteen, Jake's confidence was boosted in the facts that he finally gained respect from an adult and found a place where he felt he belonged.

Becky had grown into quite a lovely young lady, despite her tomboyish antics. She abhorred the boring parties her parents always held and changed out of her fancy dresses as soon as her mother was out of eyesight. Her father, being a wealthy merchant, had enrolled her in a finishing school in preparation for his daughter to marry someone rich and important one day. Becky hated attending there, and whenever she could, she slipped away to spend time with Jake, who her parents disapproved of. They felt his "type" was a bad influence on her. She didn't care what they thought because her best moments were spent with Jake. She also thwarted any advances from the boys that flocked around her, including Nelson. He had grown into a spoiled snot. He turned his nose on Jake as well and only interacted with him because he was trying to court Becky.

One fine afternoon, Becky and Jake had been walking together on their favorite spot overlooking the harbor.

"Can't I just hide at the blacksmith's shop while you work? I can't bear to go to another one of those parties!"

He chuckled. "No, that's one of the first places they'd look."

"You're right."

"Uh, what was that?" He held his hand up to his ear. "I couldn't hear that."

She sighed. "You're right."

"Don't forget it."

Becky shook her head, and the silence resumed. Jake plucked a weed and started ripping off bits of it. He cleared his throat.

"Becky, there's something I wanna give you."

"Really?" her eyebrows raised and then fell with her next thought. "It better not be something you stole."

"Nope. I promised I'd stop stealing, and I've kept my word." He dug his hands in his pockets and found a small brown box wrapped in twine. "Here you go."

She rapidly pulled at the string. "So what's the occasion? It's not my birthday."

He shrugged. "It's to celebrate that I got my first real paycheck. I wanted to buy something with honest money for once, and there was nothing I saw that I would have wanted."

Becky pulled out a silver engraved heart locket. "Oh, Jake, you shouldn't have! But it's beautiful, I love it!"

She lifted her hair up so he could put it around her neck. Jake was only too happy to oblige. As she turned around, she met his blue eyes. Becky couldn't look away. Jake gently clutched her hand and leaned in closer.

"I should have known I'd find you here, with him," a familiar voice said.

Jake and Becky awkwardly stepped away from each other.

"Nelson," Becky groaned, "what are you doing here?"

"Your parents sent me to find you. You're my date to the party tonight, remember?"

"I'm not your date."

"Well, you're coming with me then."

Becky sighed helplessly at Jake, who was still irritated at seeing Nelson. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah," he answered sullenly.

"Later, Jake" Nelson sneered as he followed Becky towards town below.

She suddenly turned around. "And thanks for the gift, Jake!"

This brought a slight grin back to his face, and she walked on. "I knew she'd like it," he thought. "I guess I'll head back to the blacksmith's."

Since he had gotten a full-time job there, Jake was allowed to sleep in a little room off the workshop, that way he'd be close to his job. Jake liked it in there: it was snug and isolated from the world, which didn't think too highly of him to begin with. He didn't have many possessions, and the solitude suited him just fine. It gave him time to dream about his future.

Later that night, while the rest of the town slept, Nelson was running as fast as he could down the street, daring not to look behind him. With no true friends, Nelson was often bored and desperate enough to do practically anything to be accepted by his classmates. This had caused him to get into trouble, but nothing too serious that his father couldn't excuse away. Not until tonight, that is.

Becky had been bored with him all night. She didn't even try to hide it. She mingled with other people and yawned loudly when she was with him. He had finally given up and excused her so she could get some rest. He suspected she sneaked out to meet up with Jake. Nelson ended up leaving with the more popular kids from his class. They were goofing off together. One thing led to another, and they dared him to steal money from a traveler at an inn. And he took it.

Nelson hated that the more he grew up, the more he resembled Jake, and Jake was starting to become the good guy. With Jake in the way, he had no chance with Becky. This flurry of jealous thoughts and hatred are what drove him to slip the money he had stolen through a crack in Jake's window. The envelope bounced gently off his hay bed and partially peeked out from under it. Nelson crept softly away.

The next morning, Jake crawled sleepily out of bed without even noticing the envelope of money and went straight to work with starting the morning chores. However, his boss had needed to get a tool from one of the boxes he kept in Jake's room, and he saw the envelope on the floor. He decided to wait a little while before bringing it to Jake's attention.

"Jake, lad," he spoke slowly as he approached Jake a couple hours later, "I thought you had changed."

"What do you mean?"

"I found this in your room."

Jake gasped. "I didn't steal that, I promise! I gave up that life. Someone must have framed me!"

He shook his head. "I trusted you."

"You gotta believe me!"

"I've already called the constable. Wait, Jake, stop!"

But it was too late; at the mention of "constable" Jake fled from the blacksmith's shop as fast as his feet could move. Even though he knew he was innocent, it was clear to Jake that no one would ever believe him. He didn't want to go to jail for something he didn't do. The best thing to do was hide out until he could prove his innocence. He wanted to go to Becky, but there was no time. He'd meet up with her soon. His feet took him to the docks, the place were he was always mysteriously drawn. A crane was loading the last of a ship's cargo on board. Barely thinking, Jake crept under the blanket covering the cargo load and felt himself being lifted onto a ship bound for the Atlantic.

"All right, men, were all done loadin' everything up! Let's shove off!" the gruff voice of the captain called.

"I think I've made a huge mistake! If they catch me, they're going to give me to the constable, and I'll be thrown in jail for stealing and stowing away!" Jake said to himself. He slowly sneaked to the edge of the blanket and peeked out to see where he was. "I'm in the hull of a ship! Maybe if I get out now, I can make it off the ship." He crawled out from his hiding place and began running about looking for the way out. Once he found it, he went up the stairs and peeked out the door. The deck was a flurry of men all puttering around performing their tasks. "Great! There're too many men out there! Oh no!" A man began heading straight for the door Jake was behind. Jake tried to run down the stairs to find a place to hide, but it was too late: he was already spotted.

"Oy, who are you? I've never seen you before. Wait a minute; that means you're a stowaway! Get over here!" The sailor chased him down the stairs and caught him by the arm. "C'mon, you! I'm takin' you to the captain!"

"Wait, no, please! I don't want to be a stowaway! I want to get off!"

"Even if what you're sayin' were true, that can't happen. We've already pulled from port. You're stuck with us."