The Adventures of Oliver Button

Chapter Two

Of one thing Con was absolutely certain: Biddy was not in Southampton.

After losing her pursuers in the labyrinth of Southampton’s streets a week before, Con had returned to the docks the next day and asked sailors where Biddy’s ship was headed, and was told that it sailed to the American colonies. Con had hoped that Biddy had made it off the ship like she had, and had waited for her in Southampton for a week, but Biddy had not shown.

Of a second thing Con was also sure: she did not want to continue her life in Southampton without Biddy.

That June morning, like many of the mornings in the month since Biddy had gone missing, Con woke up in their hiding place, the old, abandoned shop in a forgotten part of the town. Like most days, Con lay for a while where she had woken up, looking up at the boards of the ceiling and then closing her eyes again.

Most mornings since Biddy’s disappearance, Con would try to go to sleep again for as long as she could, to avoid thinking about Biddy and feeling the hollow loneliness that had replaced Biddy as Con’s constant companion. But today, Con woke with a clear decision: she would leave England.

Yes, she would leave England and sail to the American colonies after Biddy. She knew she probably would never see Biddy again, but Con would start her own life in the Americas. She would get a real job there—she had heard it was easier to find employment there than in England. She could be a servant, at least, if nothing else worked, but ideally, she would apprentice herself to a craftsman, or maybe help on a farm, so that she could learn the trade and be an employer herself someday. And while she was in the colonies, in her free time, she would look for traces of Biddy—asking casual questions of people she encountered, maybe sending out ads in newspapers…

What was she thinking? Biddy couldn’t read. And Con’s questions would surely produce only a variety of I-don’t-knows. She had almost no chance of finding Biddy—the tiny chance she had could only happen by pure luck. Con sat up and sighed, feeling the familiar, wretched loneliness returning to her. She looked around the empty old shop, the counter and Con the only things sticking up from the dusty floor. She shouldn’t have let her dreaming go so far. She knew she couldn’t find Biddy. It was unrealistic.

But today, she would start her new life. Con picked up the little drawstring bag that held all her things, stood up, and opened the door, checking over her shoulder one last time to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Then she walked out the door, into the bright morning.