During the remaining two weeks before my bond with George Bainbrigg was to be decided, I was in a heightened state of feeling, constantly aware of the presence of Katherine and seeking out ways to be alone with her, if only for a few moments. I was sure she felt the same. Whenever we encountered each other we talked and listened to one another’s deepest concerns. And all the time we were talking I was aware of her physical presence: her eyes, her body, her voice. She was like a magnet, irresistibly attractive to me.
Along with my pursuit of Katherine, I worked hard at mastering the system of double accounting and familiarized myself with the names and locations of the merchants my master dealt with in New Jersey, Maryland, Boston, New York and the Caribbean. I studied the account books and bills of lading, and began to read about the principles of navigation.
By the end of the month the weather had turned colder still. It was not the chill damp and fog of an English November, but a fierce, clear cold that swept down from the mountains in the north. In the mornings the windows of my bedchamber were transformed with sharp-etched star patterns of frost. Deep frosts whitened the trees and shrubs, and the churned-up mud of the roads turned silvery and crisp to walk upon. There were a few light falls of snow.
Katherine and Betty had met a few times more, usually at my master’s house, where they could sit in the parlour and talk and sew. But one day Katherine said she would go that afternoon to the bookshop and call on Betty, and I offered to go there after work and escort her back to Walnut Street.
It was already dark when we left my family’s home. We walked back along Third Street, where the lamps above people’s doorways cast pools of light and the snow sparkled underfoot, and as we talked we drew closer and our gloved hands brushed briefly together. I caught Katherine’s hand and held it. She did not resist, though she fell silent. We walked on slowly, our hands clasped, and I felt a bloom of happiness and expectancy unfolding within me.
When we reached the turn into Walnut Street I saw the house only a short way off, the lantern shining above its door. From now on there might be eyes watching us.
“Kate,” I said – and I stepped back into the shadows and turned her towards me. And it happened easily, as if by instinct; her face lifted to mine, our noses bumped, and then my lips were on hers, and I felt her respond and soften against me. We dropped hands and our arms went round each other. I kissed her again, and pulled her closer. I didn’t want this to stop.
But we heard footsteps coming nearer, and voices. We drew apart and moved on, linking hands again, and only let go as we approached the house.
Once inside, I felt that everyone – Mary, Isobel, my master, even the dog – must be able to see the glow that came from us. I wished them all a quick “good evening”, and went up to my room, my heart soaring.
The next day I was kept busy. The Frances returned from New England, and when she dropped anchor in the river my master took me out there in a boat and showed me around. There was plenty of storage space in the schooner’s hold, which at that time was laden with a cargo of fish and about to be unloaded. I saw the captain’s cabin, and the one my master would use if he travelled with the ship. These were plain, but comfortably furnished with bunks, tables, chairs and writing materials. The sailors – and no doubt any apprentice who accompanied the merchant – would make do with whatever space they could find.
On board I met the captain, Richard Grey. He was a Bristol man, someone George Bainbrigg put much trust in; and we had his company later at dinner, and heard news of Boston and Rhode Island merchants – many of them fellow Friends or Yorkshiremen – of my master’s acquaintance. I listened with attention to all the talk of his travels and dealings.
The Frances would not now undertake another voyage until the spring, for at the beginning of December the snow began in earnest and the weather grew much colder.
We heard that William Penn was shortly to leave Philadelphia and set off with a group of Friends for an area of wilderness in the north of the province to negotiate the acquisition of more land from the Delaware Indians. He was gradually buying up tracts of land in this way – for although the king of England had granted him ownership of Pennsylvania, the Indians who lived there knew nothing of this; and William Penn would take no land unless it had been fairly purchased from the Indians and agreements drawn up and signed by all parties.
I looked at the map in my master’s office and saw that the area called Pennsylvania was immense, most of it unmarked by any settlements.
“The settlers occupy only a small part of this great wilderness,” George Bainbrigg said. “There is room for all.”
We occasionally saw Indians in Philadelphia. They would arrive with furs for sale – beaver, fox, otter. These Delaware Indians were strong, hardy men, their skins brown and greased with bear’s fat against the cold. They wore trousers of animal skins, and mantles of duffel, and their hair fell straight to their shoulders, much like ours. Many strings of beads hung about them, and feathers, and little skin bags, and other heathen objects like bones and animal skulls. They wanted metal goods, kettles, tools, blankets and duffel cloth, and when they were bargaining they kept their faces very still and expressionless and showed no emotion, no clue to what they were thinking.
I watched how my master dealt with them.
“Never smile,” he warned me. “They don’t like to be smiled at.”
He bought furs and sent them to the tanners to be cured. When they came back they were soft and pliable, and we hung some of them for display in the sales area, where Kate came to admire and stroke them.
The time had come for a decision about my future. Was I willing to be bound as an apprentice to George Bainbrigg for five years? He had made it plain that he wanted to keep me.
“I’m pleased with thee, Josiah,” he said. “And pleased with myself, too, for judging well. I thought, that day when thou knocked on my door, that thou seemed a suitable lad. Thou must talk to thy parents, but I’ll be glad to sign the bond.”
There seemed no reason to refuse. I’d wanted freedom – but to do what? To pick up rubbish? To swill floors? Every job worth doing needed a time of learning. I liked my work here; and my parents would be pleased.
And there was Kate.
“I shall tell them I am happy, and want to stay,” I said.
“Good! Then I’ll arrange for the agreement to be drawn up.”
The contract was signed in the second week of December. I read it through, and agreed to the conditions; then my father and George Bainbrigg signed it. And so my life for the next five years was settled for me. I’d be nearly twenty-two at the end of my apprenticeship: old enough to set up in business on my own, to marry, to rent or build a house. Such things seemed far off.
Later that day I walked over to the forge to see Ben Kite and tell him my news.
“Thou hast done well!” he said. He was beating a rod of iron into a hook shape, the hammer blows ringing in the cold air. “A lot of conditions, aren’t there, for apprentices?” He paused. The hook was finished. He set it aside to cool, and grinned at me. “So – what is forbidden thee? I know there’s fornication.”
I laughed, and began ticking them off on my fingers: “I must not fornicate. I must not marry. I must not frequent playhouses or taverns, or play at cards, dice or any other form of gambling. I must faithfully serve my master, and obey his lawful commands. I must not buy or sell without his licence. I must do no damage to my master and his business, nor steal his goods, nor lend them unlawfully to anyone…”
“Well, that lot should keep thee out of trouble!” Ben said. “Which dost thou think will be hardest to keep?”
“Fornication,” I said, grinning – for it seemed the thing to say.
But I was resolved to keep all these commandments. There were no playhouses for me to frequent in Philadelphia; and taverns and gambling seemed to me part of my old London life. I thought about Kate, and the feelings I had for her, and believed I could – indeed, must – resist temptation, or at least postpone it until I was of age. As for the promise to obey my master’s lawful commands and to protect his goods and interests: not to do those things seemed so alien to my nature that I never gave it a thought.