The Traitor's Stain (wattys 2019)

Chapter Eighteen: Setauket, Long Island

Ophelia's life was forever changed by the night the HMS Harbringer exploded.

It was obvious to her that things would never be the same from the moment the deafening boom rattled her down to her bones, when the fire from the explosion just about blinded her. As she watched the flames reach higher and higher into the sky. The people that had been coming towards her and Anna no longer worried about them when they saw it: instead, they began to row towards the Harbringer, shouting.

The thought of what she'd done kept her up that night, and all the nights following it. She saw it every time she closed her eyes: the bright light, the orange the set the fog on fire around herself and Anna. It came to her in those quiet moments of her life: while rowing back across the Sound the next morning, trying to go about her life like normal as the entire town of Setauket talked about the Harbringer's demise, whenever a British officer walked into her store. Every time that happened, she couldn't help but wonder: do they know? Can they tell just by looking at me that I know something about what happened? That I know exactly what happened to that ship because I helped to destroy it?

They must not have: a few days after the explosion, she heard the official story from Isaac when he came in for more supplies for Colonel Erickson. The army was saying that the ship was felled by a freak bolt of lightning, which caused the gunpowder on the ship to ignite and blow the ship off. Thank God, though, that the crew were all at the tavern and not on board the ship.

Ophelia was absolutely relieved when she found out that nobody had died in the explosion. It was an extra weight off of her shoulders. One that she'd been carrying even before she and Anna had towed Jacob and Caleb into the Sound.

"What are you supposed to do now that the ship's gone?" Ophelia asked as Isaac paid for the supplies the army needed. "Weren't you guys supposed to leave Setauket?"

"We're waiting for more ships from home," Isaac said. "The Harbinger was the last one that could be spared. It'll be weeks, maybe months before we can get moving."

Ophelia put that thought in the back of her mind. She'd have to let Ben know; she was certain that he'd love to hear that their mission had been such a success.

It was only after Isaac left that Ophelia noticed that Beth was behaving strangely. Had been since Isaac came, in fact. She had that look on her face, the same one she got when there was something she wanted to say, but thought she would get in trouble if she did.

"Beth, what's on your mind?" Ophelia asked as they went back to cleaning the store after Isaac had left.

Beth looked up at her, frowning. "What was that?"

"You have that look on your face, again," Ophelia said. "The one you get when you have something on your mind, but you don't want to get in trouble for saying it."

Beth hesitated. "Do you think that ship actually went down because of lightning?"

Ophelia flinched when Beth said that. Did she know? She couldn't have known, could she?

"I don't know," Ophelia said. "What else could it have been?"

"I don't know, either," Beth said. "I've just never known lightning to only strike once, is all. It seems kind of odd to me."

She knows, Ophelia thought to herself. I don't know how she knows, but she knows.

I have to tell Ben!