Chapter 4

Captain Harrow discovers his daughter has written a diary in which she describes her intention to do away with herself because of her unrequited love for young Jeffrey Carstairs. He decides that his only course of action is to take the disconsolate Sophia with him on his cruise to the Indies. When he broaches the plan to her, she is adamant that she does not want to leave her beloved Jeffrey. The Captain instructs the cook to prepare her a sedative to calm her down for the journey to the dock and his ship waiting to whisk them away from the unhappiness that surrounds Sophia every way she turns. The sailors are surprised to see a pretty young female board the vessel and there are some grumbles of "bad luck" with a wench onboard the ship. When they are told by the Captain that Sophia is his only daughter they fall into line and the voyage is started with high hopes for good fortune and reasonable profits.

Sophia's father saw from the drawing room window that his daughter and the pretty maid Polly were languishing disconsolately in the arbor garden. They were watching the silly birds bathing with careless abandon in the wading pond built many years before he had purchased the mansion and the grounds of the Harrow estate. His daughter had been in a state of despair ever since the ill-fated trip to the Carstairs estate. He was certain from Sir Lionel's explicit description of his daughter's behavior that she was no longer a virgin and that his son was in no position to offer his hand in marriage since he was committed to a contracted union with a young lady in a different district.

He turned to the staircase and quickly made his way to Sophia's bedroom deciding to take advantage of her absence to see if she was hiding any hints of her current attitudes. He wanted to discover what she might be planning for the future now that young Jeffrey Carstairs was crossed off her list. He was surprised at the abundance of French undies that seemed to be strewn about in no particular order and he wondered what sort of game his daughter and the pretty main Polly were up to behind the closed bedroom door. Quite by accident, he came across a beautifully decorated journal clearly marked "Sophia Harrow, Her Diary" and opened it without hesitation because of his great concern for his daughter's welfare.

He was much astonished at the degree of depraved activities between his daughter and the innocent looking young maid but conceded that it was much preferable to the illicit relationship she had initiated with Jeffrey Carstairs. When he saw the references to the visit to the Carstairs estate, it confirmed the narrative of Sir Lionel and filled Captain Jack with a realization that steps needed to be taken immediately to save his daughter's honor and sanity.

It was the most recent entry that almost caused his knees to buckle with shock and a keen sense of immediate danger.

"Tuesday the 15th ... I have concluded that there is no hope of a sanctioned union with my beloved Jeffrey. Polly has done her very best to offset my burden with her generous gifts of love and she pampers me outrageously, but I have no doubt that my best course of action is to leave this stage like a "Juliet" denied her one true love. I will open my veins and drain my blood so I go white as a sheet into the void of the hereafter to wait for my Jeffrey to arrive by my side once again."

Captain Jack's hand was shaking as he returned the book to its hiding place. He knew it was time for him and Sophia to absent themselves from this sorrowful place and find some solace in the joys of travel and commerce.

Sophia and Polly were unusually quiet that evening. They had decided to try on a number of the older gowns to determine which were suitable for retaining and which needed to be donated to the needy of the parish. Sophia liked the opportunity to keep dressing and undressing Polly. It was so much like the way she would play with her dolls when she was just a small child. Besides, Polly never objected if her hands should stray to some area of interest for a quick infusion of excitement to an otherwise boring day. Sophia gave Polly a number of her French undies because she had lost all interest in wearing the revealing finery if her Jeffery was not able to see her special private parts.

Her father called her down to the drawing room and when she entered with an attitude that screamed out her rebelling nature and deep-seated ire at her unfair confinement.

"Sophia my love, we must quit ourselves of this place and repair to the Indies for some personal attention to making new associations and finding new avenues of interest."