That first night, he had shown her the jagged scar that lay upon his left upper arm, the product of a fellow crew member’s mishandled harpoon. To his pleasant surprise, Constance had immediately found it endearing. Because it was a part of him, she had said, it would also be a part of her love for him.

With help from his father, John, she and Adam had purchased their large house by the sea, just outside the town of New Bedford. They had thought long and hard about what to call it, and at last they decided on a name that was simplicity itself. “Seaside.” Very soon after moving in, Seaside and Adam became Constance’s entire world.

Before her marriage, Constance had been a very successful midwife, a valuable skill taught to her by her late mother. Several times a year, women of Bedford would still call upon her talent, and it was a service that she loved doing. She never charged a fee because she always considered it to be a privilege seeing a new child brought into the world. She was very good at what she did, but occasionally a child would be lost despite her best efforts. And although that broke her heart, she had no choice but to accept it.

Even so, Constance had few regrets in life. She lived in a beautiful home, and she and Adam lacked for little, provided she judiciously handled the funds he always left in her care. She had many friends in town. Nonetheless, she mourned her lack of children, for they would have fulfilled her and greatly assuaged her loneliness.

She worried what would become of Seaside should she and Adam die childless. If that occurred, the house might one day fall into disrepair, because it needed constant attention due to its nearness to the sea. She smiled slightly as she thought about Adam forever scraping and painting every time he was home. In a way, Seaside had become their child, their mutual object of love and attention. The house had been neglected when they bought it, and returning Seaside to its former glory was hard and expensive work. Nevertheless, Adam had toiled diligently, sometimes hiring idle whalers to help him. Now Seaside was a beautiful, comfortable home, and Constance loved living here.

As the daylight waned, the oil lamps hanging on the back wall of the porch seemed to glow brighter because of it, their comforting radiances causing her to smile. Those burned whale oil, harvested by Adam and brought to Seaside for their personal use. Whenever Constance filled the many house lamps she again thought of him, the emotions coursing through her heart always bittersweet. So far he had always returned. Even so, entire crews were sometimes lost during their hunts for the great whales, and every time Adam put to sea she feared that she might never see him again.

She then thought of the guesthouse that lay on their property some fifty yards west of the house proper and of Eli, Emily, and James Jackson, the three Negroes living there. Eli and Emily were husband and wife; James their young son of eight years. Adam’s father had been a southern tobacco farmer who freed his slaves and came north to New England to find a more honorable way of life. Although emancipated, Eli and Emily chose to come with John and his wife, Clarice.

With the passing of Adam’s parents, Adam had offered the Jacksons continued employment and lodging in the guesthouse. Eli and James maintained Seaside and her grounds, while Emily helped Constance with the cleaning and cooking. But even though the Jacksons provided a constant presence in Constance’s life, her deep loneliness for Adam continued unabated.

Just then Constance remembered the huge, bright red pennant she had made for Adam before he departed on his current voyage. She spent many nights sitting by the fire, hand sewing that piece of fabric, all the while teasing Adam slightly by refusing to tell him why. Only upon finishing her work did she allow him a proper look at it, telling him that on his return to the harbor, she wanted him to fly it from the very top of the mainmast. She could then charge her carriage straight for the wharves without a second to lose.