New York_ The Novel - Edward Rutherfurd [42]
With every year that went by, I came to realize my good fortune in being married to Naomi. She would do all her work about the house for the Mistress, even when she was big with child, but she never complained. I knew how much she had to do and helped her all I could. At the end of the day, she always had a smile for me. We shared everything, and grew to have such an affection between us that, as the years went by, I could hardly imagine what it had been like to live without her.
My little Hudson was the most lively little baby you ever saw. I delighted to play with that child, and the Boss would come and play with him too. I believe for a time Hudson thought the Boss was his grandfather or something. When he was two years old, Naomi had another child, a girl; but that baby wasn’t strong, and she died. Two years later, though, we had another little girl, and we named her Martha. She had a round face like her mother, and as she grew up, I could see she had her mother’s nature.
In no time, it seemed, Hudson was a boy of five. He could run and scuttle about. The Boss said he couldn’t catch him. And Naomi said Hudson looked just like me. I used to put him on my shoulders and take him with me on my errands around the town. But always, if there was time, I would take him down to the waterside, for he loved to look at the ships. And the thing that really excited him was to see them unfurl their sails so they would make a great slap and a bang in the wind.
One day, when Mr. Master was visiting, he asked Hudson what he liked to do. And Hudson piped up and told him that he wanted to be a sailor.
“Ha,” said Mr. Master to the Boss. “Maybe he should come to work for me.” And the Boss laughed. But when I thought of all the cargoes of slaves that Mr. Master was carrying up to New York, I didn’t want my son to sail in any ship like that.
As for Martha, she was a most affectionate child. She would throw herself into my arms if I’d been out for a while, and cling on to me round the neck, and say she wouldn’t let go unless I told her a story. And I didn’t know any stories, so I had to make them up. It wasn’t long before I was telling her stories about a great hunter called Hudson, who lived up the river of that name, who was free, and who had a sister Martha who was very loving and wise. It was amazing the adventures they had with the animals up in that wilderness.
During this time, the Boss also found a good husband for Miss Clara. I think he and the Mistress were both glad to get her out of the house. Once again the Boss pleased the Mistress very much by finding a good Dutch family, so that she was married by the dominie in the Dutch church just like her brother Jan. Her husband did not live in town, but out on Long Island, so we did not see her often. But the Mistress would go out to stay at Clara’s house from time to time, and from all accounts they got on much better now that Clara was married.
As for the Boss and the Mistress, they lived together, but without any quarreling they seemed to go their separate ways.
The Boss and Mr. Master became very close. Mr. Master was one of those men who never seem to look any older. With his narrow face, and his shock of yellow hair, those hard, blue eyes he had, and the stringy build of his body, he hardly changed at all apart from some lines on his face. He had a pleasant manner, and he was always busy with something. Whenever he came by, he’d say, “Good day, Quash,” and when he left, “You’re a good man, Quash,” and he’d give me a quick look with those blue eyes of his. Sometimes he’d say to the Boss, “Quash here is my friend. Is that right, Quash?” And I’d say, “Yessir.”
In these years, wishing to keep the rich Dutch families on their side, and to profit by their friendship, the English governors were giving out huge grants of land to them. And English merchants did well too. And Mr. Master was eager that the Boss should get himself some land. Because in England, he said, you couldn’t be considered a gentleman unless you had plenty of land. And the important