Sophie held her head as she leaned against the beam in the wretched under belly of the ship. She was unsuccessfully trying to hold her body still against the relentless swaying. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth they rocked. It never ended. For weeks they suffered together aboard the Flying Hart. It felt like years ago that Sophia and her new sisters boarded their home for the next month. They were wide eyed and excited about the voyage to the New World. One even noted that the name of the ship seemed appropriate to their voyage and that it was a good omen.
"The Flying Hart," the short blond girl giggled. "That surely is a good sign right?"
"I'm sure it is darling," another woman said.
Their destination was Jamestown Virginia. Their passage was paid by their future husbands, whom they had never seen or met before. Jamestown was in the beginning stages of colonization but had only, so far, drawn men to cross the vast sea and start a new life in the rugged untamed world. There was a massive need for women to join the movement. Incentives and advertisements were all over Sophie's small town trying to recruit women. The advertising boasted "More rights!" "Own land!" and other infusing promises. Sophie had no interest in it whatsoever. She was perfectly comfortable in her quaint home in a sprawling manor on the edge of town living with her father and mother. She had all the necessities of life. A beautiful home, her own maid and several servants. She rode her horse, she socialized in society. She had friends and she was accomplished. She was desirable and even had a few young men with intentions of courting her.
Her whole life crashed down on her one evening when her father never returned home. He died in a horrible carriage accident. The wheel of the carriage broke off at the most inopportune moment. They were riding along a cliff's edge. The carriage, the horses and passengers all slipped down the jagged cliff. There were no survivors.
There was also no male heir in her family. All her father's wealth was passed down to her second cousin Frank. He agreed to pay her mother a very small humble allowance. When they had complained, this was his solution: To send Sophie to the Americas. Her mother only protested a little before agreeing that it was the only solution and at the same time, as only her mother could do, made herself out to be the victim.
"Oh, how will my nerves take this?" she cried as she fanned herself dramatically. "The loss of my husband and my daughter. How can one person be expected to endure so much?"
It was convincing. Sophie nearly felt sorry for her mother, but then she remembered that she was the one being uprooted and shipped off to a savage land where she had been virtually purchased by a strange man who had not seen a woman in years. Absolutely, they had assured everyone that they weren't being purchased, but the writing was on the wall. There were already a few boat loads of women who had gone before them. She wished she could speak to some of those women now. Sophie was not an imbecile. Sophie knew that any man who was willing to purchase a woman sight unseen was probably not the most respectable man. She felt like she was literally being fed to the wolves.
Most of the women were not as cynical as Sophie was however. They were glassy eyed and anxious.
"Isn't this exciting?" one woman said. "Don't you feel so lucky?"
"Exciting?" Sophie asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Oh yeah," she said wistfully. "Some of the first women in a new land. We are part of a movement that is going to be written in history. We are pioneers in a new world. How can you not be excited?"
Sophie had never thought about it that way. There was a part of her that liked the fresh outlook and the other part of her that wanted to slap the silly grin off the crazy woman's face.
"What's your name?" Sophie asked.
"Sarah," she said sweetly.
"Hi, Sarah, I'm Sophie," she introduced herself.
She and Sarah stuck together after that. While Sarah was much too bright and hopeful she was a good balance to Sophie and Sophie recognized she needed that. She could hear her father say, 'Don't be so quick to expect the worst, Soph. There is always hope.'
She wondered if her dad could stay so positive if he was in her situation right now. They sat in the corner huddled together talking about their past lives. Sarah came from a much poorer family. It was her idea to come to America. She didn't want to stay in the same cottage with her seven brothers and sisters any longer. This was her bright new future not the prison sentence as Sophie viewed it as. Sophie found herself excited for Sarah and hoping she would be matched with a nice man.
They also befriended Kathryn and Joane a few more days into the voyage. Sophie looked back at those days with fondness now. That was before the stench of vomit and illness permeated the walls of the ship. Buckets were struin all about full of vomit and feces. They were hardly allowed up on deck. They were instructed to stay out of the crew's way. The only two times she went up above was when there was a death. They lost five women already. Sophie helped wrap the dead bodies in canvas cloth. The deck hand then slid them on a plank and into the depth below. They cried, they all cried, how could they not? And how could they not all be scared that this might be their own future?
Kathryn wretched again beside Sophie.
"Oh, dear girl," Sophie said, releasing the hold on her own head to smooth Kathryn's hair back from her face. Sarah slid the full bucket of bile away when it looked like Kathryn was finished. "When is the last time you kept anything down?" Sophie asked.
"Three days," Kathryn croaked.
"Oh, dear Lord, how much longer will this torture last?" Sophie asked rhetorically.
"Until we are all dead," Joane said flatly. "It's all part of their mischievous plan." She continued, "I think Sophie has been right all along. They enticed us with grand stories of adventure and then they drag us across the sea until we are the embodiment of death so when we break free of this doom of death our mongrell husbands will look like angels of light."
They all laughed half heartedly.
"Finally, someone understands what I've been saying all this time," Sophie giggled weakly. They were all ghosts of who they were when they walked onto the ship. Their dresses were stained, their eyes were sunk and dark, their skin translucent and thin.
"At this point I would gladly marry a bear if it meant I could get off this ship," Kathryn agreed.
"What do you think they will be like? For real?" Sarah asked in her soft voice.
"You know my answer," Sophie said.
"Do you really believe that?" Sarah asked. "Do you really believe they will be brutes?"
Sophie and Sarah had already had this conversation. Everytime Sophie didn't want to scare the poor girl but she also thought she should be prepared. "Yes I do," she said too sharply. "Men who are drawn to the New World may be adventure seekers and explorers but they are also lawless men and outcasts who wanted to break free of the confines of society. I love society. I love daily baths and tea and biscuits in the afternoon. People like me don't want to go to the New World. Why would we when Bonnie old England has everything? We are walking into a community of men who have lived without civilization and order for years. They haven't seen women for years. I expect nothing but a smidge above savages to greet us upon arrival."
"Come on Soph," Joane reproached. Her eyes were closed though as she spoke. She was ragged with exhaustion. "Don't be like that. Be more hopeful. These men spent a lot of money to get us here and only the most affluent men can afford our passage."
"That's right," Kathryn croaked. Her throat must be rubbed raw Sophie thought. "You are probably right that some of them are savages but surely those that could afford us are not."
Sophie sighed, "I hope you are right," she conceded. "But I am very fearful you are not.
"Land!" Someone yelled from above. "Land hoe!"
The four of them sat straight up in alarm.
"Land?" They said in unison.
"This is it this is it!" Sarah squealed with delight. "We are about to meet our husbands!