The Movement of Stars: A Novel by Amy Brill

Author:Amy Brill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical
ISBN: 9781594487446
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Published: 2013-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

. 18 . Changing weather

Hannah kept her head down as she walked toward the Atheneum the next morning. The air was humid, thick with fog. Her neighbors were indistinct blurs across Main Street, dark smudges that hummed and moved. She’d been up most of the night after leaving Isaac, turning like a leaf in the wind for hours, unable to sleep. In her half- conscious state, his words took on different meanings each time she reheard them. Accusation, admonition, lullaby: This is what you have been taught, he said, again and again, until dawn broke, grey and heavy as her dress, as her heart.

She barely looked up until she reached Riddell’s store. As she approached the familiar porch, its steps bowed by the weight of hope, a blurry crowd resolved, then parted as she stepped on to the stoop. Margaret Granger, Karen Pope, Aliza Starbuck, and two or three others fell silent as Hannah passed.

“Good morning,” Hannah mumbled. No one responded, though Margaret nodded a curt acknowledgment, then ducked her head, quick as a plover. Hannah pushed on into the store, wondering what had put everyone in such a foul humor. The bell broke the hush with its harsh jangle.

She hadn’t checked the letterbox in days, but was still surprised to find not one but two folded pieces of parchment inside. One bore George Bond’s familiar scrawl; the other had nothing but her name inscribed on it in carefully blocked print. It bore no return address or any other indication of its origin. Clutching both, she went back out onto the porch and settled on the top step to unfold George’s missive, ignoring the small flock of women still gathered by the railing.

10 June 1845. Cambridge. Dear Hannah, Forgive the short, and late, nature of this Letter. We have been back and forth to Ohio two times this month, to assist Mr. Loomis, and I have also been sent to Washington, so time for letter-writing has been scant. But good news! Which I’m sure thy father has already carried home to you—Nantucket shall have a place in the Survey this coming year, and the Survey itself shall be overseen not by your Favorite shepherd of Good Works, Lieutenant Phillips, but by Admiral Davis himself, who has a well-deserved reputation as a man of Science and also is a very decent fellow.

She scowled. This wasn’t necessarily good news; her father still hadn’t decided whether or not they’d accept the contract. She’d inquired about it once since the day of Edward’s return, and been informed that she would be told when he’d settled his mind on the matter. As if it were of no more consequence than whether he preferred chowder to broth for supper. Hannah gasped when she read the postscript:

PS: Monsieur Rainault in Paris has established priority on a new comet he sighted in May, sometime around the 19th—just announced in Astronomiche Nasrichten. R.A. 16h 29m 24s Did you not mention that you observed a body near Antares around then, just before you came to Cambridge? I wonder if it was the same.

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