I counted twelve bells before it fell quiet again.

When it did, I could only shake my head. “It’s midnight, Asa.”

“And so tomorrow becomes today. Now, where to start?”

With a book under my arm and fresh confidence in my heart, I returned to the crates amidships in the morning. Asa had said reading would help me talk more like Miss Coates, so I’d grabbed the thickest tome I could find from the captain’s shelf. Settling into my spot, I opened Sir Isaac Newton’s book, hoping it would teach me pretty words and high-flying ideas.

Sir Newton’s book, I soon discovered, was duller than my elbow’s elbow. My mind kept straying from it and running back to last night and all its surprises.

I reached under the brim of the straw hat I’d found in the captain’s cabin and ran my fingers over the newly healing cut. It felt a bit itchy but pleasantly tight. All night, Asa and I had shared our stories, one tumbling after the other without stopping, like waves. I’d told him about Sewel, and wrecking, and Mama. He’d told me about his sailing adventures to places like Newfoundland and the Azores, and how he had spent a year with an uncle in Paris when he was ten, learning to value the part of himself that his father loathed most.

Thinking about our night, it seemed a kind of magic had happened. We’d squeezed sunlight from our sad stories and laughed in the darkness. We’d made time itself disappear. It was the best night I’d ever had. Stitches and all.

A soft whistle had me looking up. Asa crouched on the lines above me, a round-brimmed hat throwing a shadow across his smile.

I glanced around. The hands had all moved to the bow and were taking turns peering through a spyglass. “What are you doing up there?” I called up, just loud enough for him to hear.

“Old Jansen needs me. He’s saddled with a crew full of landsmen.”

I had noticed that myself. As boatswain, Hackett supervised the men working the ship’s deck. He was constantly yelling and threatening to punish someone for doing something wrong. With the war, most able sailors had turned to privateering, as the earnings were far better, so merchant ships ended up with inexperienced crews.

“But you told me you were a marine,” I said. Topmen did the most dangerous work, balancing on ropes halfway in the sky—often in rough seas.

Asa smiled and pretended to wobble on the lines. “Oh no, you’re right. I’d better learn this quick. How’s your head?”

“Still full of nonsense. You didn’t fix anything, Asa.”

He laughed. It was my favorite discovery overnight: we could make each other laugh. Really laugh, like I did with Mercy, shoulders shaking and everything. “How is Sir Newton treating you? Are you enjoying gravity?” he asked.

“Oh yes! Gravity is so…so…” I had no idea what gravity was. “So rare.”