Chapter 49
Harper tucked the journal back in its case and buried her head in her hands.
When she closed her eyes, she could see Meg bent over in pain, the lash falling one after another as the women stood in a semicircle muttering prayers.
She could feel the disgust of the men who watched from the captain’s lookout, and the weight of the coin in their pocket that bought their silence.
Harper felt a bone-deep rage, the intensity of which she had not allowed herself to indulge in since she had lost her world.
She kept her emotions in a safe range now, padded bumpers to protect the extremes of her mind and heart, but this was unfiltered anger.
She could feel it like fire in her fingertips.
She wished death on all those who watched, all those who were complicit in this action.
Taking a deep breath, Harper pulled the historian’s account to her and opened to the third day of Meg’s trial.
Meg MacGruer was imprisoned aboard The Mary Clarence for a total of twenty-three days, during which the crew noted the treatment of the girl; but as they were in service to Ewin Taine, it does not appear that any action was taken against Taine or the other women he traveled with until the incident with Liam Kelly.
For his part, the efforts that Kelly made to rescue or intercede on Meg’s behalf and the events that led to Meg’s imprisonment were wholly unsuccessful and are recorded in a halted and vague manner by both Meg and the crew.
What we know is that shortly after young Rory Taine’s death and the burial at sea wherein the young boy’s body was cast into the Atlantic, Meg is noted as “hysterical” and “in a deep state of mourning” by the ship’s captain, a retired officer of the British Royal Navy by the name of Cedric Caseling.
Caseling notes in the ship’s log that Meg was spotted on the stern of The Mary Clarence well past midnight, and the night watch noted her presence out of concern.
It is also noted that she was approached by Liam Kelly, an Irish mariner who made a living as a deckhand on freighters crossing the Atlantic to the Americas and back.
The next notes on the matter are recorded by Kelly himself and offer few details other than that he approached Meg as he was afraid she was attempting to jump from the stern of the ship.
His notes are part of an activities log, and it appears he spent the greater part of that evening with Meg in the quarterdeck, where her presence is noted by Caseling, as well as other sailors, upon the subsequent Boston investigation in the fall of 1690.
It is interesting to note that nowhere is any impropriety mentioned and while not customary for passengers on ships such as The Mary Clarence, the quarterdeck was a well-traveled area of the ship, and Meg’s presence was a curiosity, but not a scandal to the seamen of The Mary Clarence.
It is noted by Caseling that he witnessed the lashing of Meg MacGruer.
Considering the matter regrettable but overall a matter of privacy to Ewin Taine, he did not intercede, nor did his crew.
It is recorded that the crew was aware of Meg’s imprisonment in what was a small storage closet belowdeck, where Taine and his group were housed for the journey, but again, neither Caseling nor his crew interceded on Meg’s behalf.
At the point of the lashing, The Mary Clarence was twenty days’ voyage from Bell Island.
At the time, Bell Island was officially known as New Kinross, and had only been named a legal colony for a bit over five years as it had taken another previous five years to build the manor house while the Duke and Duchess resided in Boston proper.
By 1690, a small community had started to grow on the island.
It was isolated by way of its geographical location, and accessible only by sailboats manned by the most experienced skippers.
The Lady Dewitt, Duchess of Kinross, was especially beloved among the Boston socialite circles, having a reputation for a fascination with the esoteric.
It was even rumored that the reason the Dewitts had been sent to Massachusetts Bay Colony back in 1680 had been due to the duchess’s penchant for the occult.
It is also interesting to note that the crew log notes the presence of “sea creatures of indistinguishable character” upon their approach to waters surrounding Bell.
Caseling was considered something of an expert on marine life.
He made a name for himself on a Dutch expedition to Hudson Bay in 1650, where he created a bestiary of sorts.
A skilled painter, Caseling’s illustrations were considered the seminal guide to sea creatures of the Arctic Sea and the North Atlantic.
He noted the presence of these elusive sea creatures upon The Mary Clarence’s approach to the Boston area, and they remain the most concise record as to the mysterious fate of Meg MacGruer.