The morning light awakened Zachary. He lay for a moment wondering where he was before he recalled that he was in a room with Caleb. Zachary was lying on his side, and Caleb was snuggled up behind him. Zachary felt something hard pushing on his ass and he giggled, realizing not only what the hardness was but that he had an equally hard member.
He knew that the coach for Salem left early so he decided to awaken Caleb, who moaned a few times before sitting up in bed rubbing his eyes.
After they dressed the boys went to the privy, which was behind the building and occupied. Both boys were desperate to urinate and almost decided to do it outside when the privy door opened and a young lady exited. She looked at the boys, blushed a little, and walked back into the building.
Unable to wait any longer, the boys crowded in together and relieved themselves. As they did, their hardness subsided, but not before each had looked at the other’s cock and smiled.
Back in the inn they found they had plenty of time for breakfast before the coach departed. They ate a huge meal, not knowing when they would eat again. Later, they regretted their gluttony but for the moment they were more than satisfied.
When the coach arrived at the inn door, they handed their sea bags to the coachman, who fastened them to the top of the coach along with luggage from other travelers.
It happened that one of the travelers was the young lady they had met outside the privy. She was with her father, a rather stern looking man who seemed to be examining the boys with a constant, steely gaze.
Caleb broke the silence, introducing himself, “I’m Caleb Stanley and this is Zachary, my man.” When the man heard the name Stanley, his gaze eased and he introduced himself and his daughter, Sylvia. He asked the boys where they had been, and the two spent some time talking about their adventures.
There were four other travelers crowded into the coach. Zachary pushed against Caleb to make room for a rather large man. He had never had physical contact with Caleb until that morning, and he found he rather liked it. It seemed both comforting and stimulating.
As they rode, Zachary began to wish he hadn’t eaten so much that morning, and for a time he was afraid he would vomit, but he managed to control the feeling. Later he learned that Caleb had felt the same way.
The coach made three stops before it arrived in Salem. There Caleb told Zachary that the family home was actually in Marblehead, a town which had been carved out of Salem some years before.
Looking about for a carriage to take them to the Stanley home, Caleb saw none and decided they could walk. By the time they had arrived at the house, they found the seabags had become quite heavy.
Without knocking, Caleb entered the house and called, “Hello. I’m home.”
They heard a squeal and running feet, and soon Caleb was surrounded by two boys and two girls, all trying to hug him at the same time.
A lady dressed in black walked into the hallway and up to Caleb, giving him a hard hug. “You’re the man of the family now, Caleb,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry. It will take me some time to get accustomed to that idea.”
“And who is this?” she asked, gesturing at Zachary.
Caleb introduced Zachary, again referring to him, “My man.”
Zachary didn’t have much idea what that meant, but he took her proffered hand, bowed a bit, and said he was happy to meet her.
Meanwhile, the children had been standing around them, wondering about the strange new boy.
“What about Marcus?” his mother asked. “I thought he would be your man.”
“Oh, Marcus will have plenty to do. I met Zachary on board the ship and one day in a battle, he saved my life. We’ve been together ever since.” That was of course embellishing the truth, but it seemed to serve the purpose which was to have Zachary accepted by the Stanleys.
Caleb took Zachary on a tour of the house, during which they met Marcus, a black man in the black clothes of a servant. When he heard that Zachary was to be Caleb’s man, he looked surprised. Noting the look, Caleb said, “It’s all going to be fine, Marcus. You will have plenty to do and you’re still in charge of the household.”
“Thank you, sir,” Marcus replied with a little bow.
Arriving upstairs in Caleb’s room, the boy showed Zachary an adjoining room with a door between, telling Zachary that would be his room.
“We’ll get proper clothes for you eventually. It will be a little odd that my man will be eating with us, but that’s the way it’s going to be.” He sounded quite firm.
“Caleb, I don’t understand. Is Marcus a slave?”
“No, he isn’t,” replied Caleb. “He and our two other servants were slaves, but slavery was ruled illegal in Massachusetts in 1783. Father asked them if they would continue with us at a salary and they all agreed.”
Relieved, Zachary asked, “And what does it mean that I’m your man?”
“Well, technically it means that you’re my personal servant, who waits on my every need, but of course that’s not going to happen. You’re my friend and my equal, and if you occasionally fetch something for me or hand me up into a carriage, you will still always be my friend.”
“But you announced this without even asking me what I wanted,” protested Zachary.
“True, but I ask you to give it a try. If you’re unhappy with it after a time, of course you’re free to do whatever you want to do.”
“I’ll try it,” Zachary said, but in his mind he had some reservations.
At dinner that evening, Mrs. Stanley sat at one end of the table and Caleb, being now the man of the house, sat at the other. Zachary sat to Caleb’s right, and the younger children sat at the sides of the table also.
They were served by a young black girl, whom Zachary assumed was another ex-slave. When she had set the table, she had not included a space for Zachary, assuming that he would eat in the kitchen, but with a nod from Mrs. Stanley, she quickly set another place.
“If Zachary is your servant, why is he eating at the family table?” asked the older brother Will.
Zachary was uncomfortable and asked if he should eat in the kitchen.
“Absolutely not,” said Caleb. Then, looking at the younger children he said, “I know it’s a little unusual, but Zachary is first and foremost my friend. I want him considered as a member of the family. Yes, he may sometimes perform services for me, but I have no intention of making him a traditional servant.”
Mrs. Stanley frowned but said nothing.
A little later, one of the girls asked, “How did Zachary save your life?”
The children were looking very interested until Caleb said, “I don’t believe it’s a suitable subject for the dinner table. I will tell you after dinner.”
The meal passed easily after that with Caleb and Zachary describing places they had been. The children were especially interested in Gibraltar, so the boys went into some detail.
“Did you see any Negroes in Africa?” asked Nathan.
Caleb put down his fork, looked at Nathan, and said, “We saw many, many Arabs, and Negroes onshore. What you might not know is that there were also Negroes in our crew who were in every way the equals of the White sailors. They did their jobs ably and fought bravely when necessary.”
It was clear to Zachary that Caleb was now considered the head of the family and it saddened him a bit for it would place a barrier between Caleb and his siblings, but he realized he knew very little about well-to-do families and decided the best thing to do was simply observe.
Following dinner, the family retired to the parlor, where Will reminded Caleb that he was going to tell them the story of how Zachary saved him.
“Well,” began Caleb, “I’m a little reluctant to do that because the event doesn’t put me in a very good light, but I’ll try.
“There were Arabs who were sailing around the Mediterranean Sea, some of them in ships called xebecs and palaccas. They raided merchant ships whenever they could. The Arab ships were much faster than the merchant ships and they had intercepted several. One of our tasks when we were there was to escort the merchant ships out of the Mediterranean.
“One day, an Arab palacca overtook us. They didn’t like to fight with cannons the way we did, but they used grappling hooks to attach their ship to ours and then they swarmed over the larboard railing.
“I was on the quarterdeck, as was Captain Whitmore, but he was close to the starboard rail while I was close to the larboard one. To be honest, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I’d been trained with a sword but had never fought with one. Now it was like I was alone defending myself with one. The other midshipmen and the lieutenants were down on the deck fighting but I was frozen to the spot.
“A huge Arab man leaped onto the quarterdeck and approached me. I drew my sword. The man looked at me and laughed. Then he flicked his sword somehow and mine flew out of my hand and across the deck. I was defenseless.
“The Arab man had a grin on his face and he was talking. Of course, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but it seemed to me that he was gloating.
“Very slowly, he raised his sword moving just enough towards me that the point of the sword was on my throat.
“I don’t mind admitting that I was terrified, and I saw no escape.
“Suddenly, someone leaped onto the quarterdeck, startling the Arab. He turned his head for just a moment.
“Zachary was right there, and with no hesitation, he drove his sword into the Arab. He was much smaller than the man, so he drove the sword up. He pulled it out and thrust again. The man fell to the deck, dead.
“And that’s how Zachary saved my life.”
The children and even Mrs. Stanley looked at Zachary with wide eyes. They now saw a brave boy who had saved another.
Nathan asked, “What happened then?”
“Well, Zachary jumped back down on the gun deck and I lost sight of him in the melee. Eventually, the Arabs were driven off. They retreated over the rail, detached their ship from ours, and began to move away. As they sailed off, the gun crews on the Bradford loaded their guns and fired in a way that the cannon balls fell onto and destroyed the palacca.”
“Did they all drown?” asked Nathan.
“Well, the ones in the palacca did. There were a few wounded Arabs still on our deck, as well as many dead ones. Mr. Carruthers, the surgeon’s mate, did what he could for them, but only five survived and became prisoners of war.”
“Were there dead Americans too?” persisted Nathan.
“Oh, yes. Sadly, we lost some good men that day.”
At that point, Mrs. Stanley said it was time for the boys and girls to go to bed. Dutifully, they trooped out to the privy and in a few minutes returned and went upstairs.
Turning to Zachary, Mrs. Stanley said, “Thank you, young man. You were very brave.”
“Well, ma’am, I wasn’t really feeling anything except that I had to help Caleb. When the fracas was over and I realized what I had done, I was shaking all over.”
With that, Caleb and Zachary followed the children up to bed. In Caleb’s room, Zachary said, “It’s true. I wasn’t feeling brave or scared or anything. I just did what had to be done.”
Caleb pulled him into a hug, saying, “I’m certainly glad you did. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be rotting at the bottom of the Mediterranean. Do you think Mother will understand that I don’t want to go back to sea?”
Hugging him back, Zachary said, “I would hope so. After all, now that you’re the man of the family, don’t you have duties that would keep you here?”
“I suppose so.”
“Am I supposed to lay out your night clothes or anything?” asked Zachary.
Caleb laughed. “No. I can handle that myself. You get a good sleep.”
Zachary went into his room, where he found that someone had laid out a nightgown for him. He undressed, put on the nightgown, and climbed into bed.
He was nearly asleep when he heard Caleb enter his room. Caleb lifted the covers and climbed into bed with Zachary spooning into him.
Zachary realized that Caleb wasn’t wearing anything.
“Wait a minute,” he said. He climbed out of bed and removed his nightgown. Then he climbed back in and lay facing his friend. “That’s better,” he said. They hugged, and soon they were both asleep.