The first of Midnight Quotes

“No further sound. Nothing. Even the faint creak and lap of ship and sea was suspended. Then the vessel came alive. Footsteps pounded up from the fo’c’sle. There were shouts and oaths as men stumbled over each other.”

“He would never forget his first taste of English fog. A wet white wall that ate through clothes, flesh and senses, letting him loose in a limbo world to face the evil English Spirits. Were they evil though? ”

“Early dinner had been laid in a private upstairs room at the Trow. A great honey-baked ham crusted with cloves sat on a pewter serving dish on a side table, along with a roasted green goose, a pig’s face, boiled tongue, a dish of oyster sauce, another of cheesecake and a tower of damson cheese.”

“All the time Midnight was silently pulling on his white stockings and buckling his shoes. Now he straightened up, but continued to act as if she didn’t exist, though she’d been forced to move as he moved. It was humiliating.”

In the seaport city of Bristol in the late 1700′s, Midnight, a black slave, encounters and falls in love with Jess, a white indentured servant.

“Jess swallowed, feeling her heart pump and thud. She crept to the door. Put her hand to the latch. Lifted. Across the room the old woman stirred and mumbled. Jess became a statue, but it was all right. The latch clicked up and the door opened.”

“Jess was prodded awake by the tow of somebody’s shoe. The somebody bent down, peering at her in the gloomy first light. She smelled bilious breath and heard a voice mumbling: ‘What’ve we got? A bleedin’ varmint in my place. Out th’goes!”

“The sale was over. Mr Lambert sought her eyes, but she refused to meet them. He went to the starboard side of the boat and took hold of a broad plan, heaving at it while the Captain remained still and silent, watching. Jess stood paralysed, despair mountain inside, seeing the plank slide into position.”

“Midnight, tall and still against a background of copper pans hanging on the wall, looked directly at Jess. She caught her breath. They were the same. Ordered about. Both of them. From morn till night. Birth till death. For always and ever.”

“Who’ll bid for the wench?′ Samson Orry gripped Jess round her narrow waist and swung her on to the tavern counter. ‘Sharp as a tack, shipmates. Sharp nails an’ all!′