The Ladys Pirate

by The lady's pirate (lit)

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next few days seemed to last a year. Hal kept himself aloof from her. Elspeth tried to stay busy, but there was fearfully little for a lady to do on a sailing vessel.

  At first, her days consisted of reading and walking about on the deck. Finally, she was desperate enough to seek out more physical labor to give her unruly mind something besides Hal Merritt to think upon. Poor Cole had agreed to let her help him in the galley.

  After a few days, she realized why women of her class didn't cook. It was beastly hard work.

  She wiped sweat-yes, sweat-from her forehead with the back of her hand. The galley sizzled from the heat of the stove as she helped Cole prepare dinner.

  Cole had assured her there was nothing at all to cooking. Until she'd tried. Now, teaching her to cook, something, anything, was a challenge he stubbornly refused to put down.

  "I'll teach you to cook, lass, if it's the last thing I do."

  Elspeth had begun to despair teaching her to cook might indeed be the end of the old sea dog.

  Today's lesson was sea biscuits.

  "A pinch of salt for each bowl of flour. A little ash to make it rise a bit." Cole guided her hand to pinch just the right amount then handed her a wooden spoon. "Now stir it up."

  Her broken left arm made her clumsy still, but she gamely plunged the spoon in the bowl and began to stir.

  "Whoa, gal!" Cole sputtered a laugh. "Leave most of the flour in the bowl, elsewise the crew won't have much biscuit."

  She bit her bottom lip. "Sorry, Cole."

  "Stir that while I get some water." He left her to her task.

  As she began to stir again, she thought she saw something move in the dry ingredients.

  "Oh, dear." She picked up the small thing on the spoon. "The flour is ruined."

  "What?" Cole returned to her side and peered over her shoulder. "Just a little weevil." He pinched the weevil between his fingers and tossed it into the waste bucket. "I usually sift them out." He shrugged.

  "Should I start with fresh flour?"

  "No, why would you do that? The boys have 'et plenty of weevils before."

  They ate bugs? Her stomach squirmed as she wondered if she'd also eaten some?

  "Don't be so squeamish, gal. A little bug don't hurt you. In fact, there's folks as seek such little varmints out. A reg'lar delicacy they are."

  "All right," she replied, but kept her eyes averted from the bowl as much as she could.

  Heavy footfalls echoed along the passageway. Hal stuck his head in the door. Elspeth's heart fluttered at the sight of him. She hadn't realized how much she depended upon his company until she had been deprived of it.

  "Cole, I need the medicine box. Isaac got a fish hook in his hand."

  She dropped the spoon. "Can I help?"

  "No," came his curt reply. "I can manage."

  He took the box from Cole's hands and beat a hasty retreat.

  Cole looked at her. "You'd best go give some help with the lad. A woman's touch is needed more there than here."

  She shook her head. "The Captain has matters well in hand. I'll stay and continue my lesson."

  She could feel the old man's eyes on her as she bent back to her task, less concerned with observing the bugs in the flour than avoiding the man's canny gaze.

  "Tell me, gal, what do you think of Hal?"

  "He's a fine man."

  "He's a pirate."

  She turned to him. "He's your captain."

  "Aye, so I be a pirate too."

  "Cole, tell me why he turned to piracy. It wasn't only that my husband was trading in slaves, was it?"

  "You must get that information from him. It ain't my place to tell his tales."

  "I know my husband hurt Mary."

  "He told you 'bout her?"

  Elspeth nodded, reassuring herself she wasn't really lying. "Who is she to him?"

  "His sister."

  A flush of guilt followed her relief that Mary was only his sister, not his love.

  "I'm surprised," Cole continued. "The boy be more Injun than he lets on sometimes. They have a superstition against speaking of the dead."

  Dread came over her as she realized her husband was more than cruel. He was a killer. Perhaps Hal had been right to take her out of Richard's reach.

  "He said she still lived," she said. After a fashion.

  "Her body lives. But she's dead just the same. Would have been better if the bugger had killed her outright."

  Her imagination drew a picture of complete horror. Cole added to the awful picture.

  "She sits on a braided rug by the window, rockin', all day long."

  What had Richard done to her to cost the poor woman her sanity?

  "She's mad?"

  "No. She's not mad. Her mind is gone, lass. Washed away like writing on the sand." He turned to her. "So, be gentle with him, my lady."

  Cole took the bowl from her. "Go see if you can help with the boy," he commanded softly.

  She stared at him for a moment, then hurried to obey. It was better than thinking about poor Mary rocking day after day, her mind empty.

  * * * *

  Hal glanced at the anxious faces of the crew around the wheelhouse. He should order them back to work, but Isaac was something of a pet and he knew they were all worried. He mixed a spoonful of laudanum into a cup of water and handed it to the boy sitting pale and quivering against the wheelhouse.

  "Drink it all down. It'll take away some of the pain."

  Isaac raised the cup to his lips and sipped, then spit out the bitter draft.

  "I know it tastes bad, Isaac. But it will help. Now drink," he commanded in his best captain's voice.

  Grimacing, Isaac again raised the cup and drank, barely keeping it down.

  "Good boy. Now, sit still and we'll give it a little time to work."

  While the boy sat quietly, Hal examined the wound. The three-inch long hook had punctured the boy's hand in the fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger. The barb had embedded itself in the muscle underneath.

  "Really did a job on yourself, didn't you?" Turning to his first mate, he asked, "What do you think, George?"

  "Only one good way to get it out, Rabbit."

  Hal nodded and felt his stomach turn. "Get me some tin snips."

  George handed the snips to him. Isaac's eyes grew wide. He jerked his hand to his chest and covered it with the other, shaking his head wildly. He made to get up and run.

  Hal pushed him down and held him there. "Isaac, stop it. I'm not going to cut anything but the hook. Do you hear me?"

  His dark eyes full of fear, Isaac stilled.

  "Listen to me. Close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you."

  Isaac stared into Hal's face. Hal put his hand to the boy's cheek.

  "I won't tell you it won't hurt, son, because it will, but if you can sit brave and quiet, it'll be over in just a moment."

  Her scent alerted him just before she knelt down by the boy.

  "Isaac." Her voice was soft and soothing. "The Captain has helped me, too. See?" She held out her bandaged arm. "It hurt very badly, but because the Captain worked quickly and well, it was over and now I am nearly healed." She stroked the child's curly black hair. "Would it help if I sat beside you?"

  Isaac looked up at her with naked adoration in his eyes. He nodded and reached for her with his uninjured hand. Elspeth sat beside him and put her arms around him, hugging him to her.

  "There's a brave boy. Now close your eyes as the Captain said and let him do what is necessary to make you well again."

  Isaac closed his eyes and leaned his head upon her breast.

  Hal's eyes met hers and she took a deep breath and nodded.

  "Proceed, Captain."

  Just as she had the night he'd set her arm, she charmed him with her courage. He could see this was harder on her than her own injury had been.

  "And you may shout or make any noise you wish, Isaac. When the Captain set my hand, I screec
hed like a witch."

  Isaac smiled.

  Hal whispered, "Countess, you may wish to close your eyes as well."

  She did.

  Sucking up his own courage, Hal took Isaac's injured hand and set it on his leg. He glanced up at George and nodded. George took the exposed end of the hook and drove the barb all the way through the child's hand.

  Isaac hollered. Elspeth tightened her hold on him, laying her cheek against his head, cooing soothing words to him.

  "Brave boy. Such a brave boy."

  Hal grabbed the tin snips and clipped off the barb, then pulled the hook out the way it had gone in.

  It was over in a moment, as he'd promised. Hal poured some rum over the injury and looked it over.

  All through this neither Isaac nor Elspeth had dared look.

  "You can open your eyes now."

  Isaac kept his closed tightly.

  Elspeth opened hers and looked. "It's all right, Isaac."

  The boy opened his eyes, red-rimmed now, and looked down at his hand. There were two ugly red holes in his flesh where the hook had gone in and the barb had come out.

  "Move your thumb, Isaac."

  The boy obeyed.

  "Good, no lasting damage. Mind you keep it clean for a day or two." Hal laid his hand on the boy's head and smiled. "You are a brave lad. Just be more careful when you're fishing from now on."

  Isaac nodded and sniffed away the last of his tears. He got up on his knees and threw his arms around the neck of the Countess Greymere.

  She hugged him tightly and kissed his head.

  "Off to your chores, now." Hal swatted the boy on his bottom.

  With a quick grin, Isaac ran off. The crisis over, the crew wandered back to their duties.

  Hal was left alone with her.

  In spite of his vows to the contrary, there was no where else he'd rather be. Elspeth's expression said she wondered if he would bolt.

  "Thank you, my lady. You were a great help to him."

  She shrugged. "I only held him. You were the one who helped him."

  "I'm not sure Isaac would agree."

  She smiled her dimpled smile. "I was pleased to be of service, sir."

  Hal cleared his throat and stood up.

  She seized his hand, then dropped it immediately. "May the Countess make a request of the Captain?"

  He could refuse her nothing. "Of course."

  "Will you dine with me tonight? I miss your conversation."

  Her eyes were so filled with hope, he had to say, "I'll come by for you at seven."

  She beamed, spearing his heart with guilt for leaving her alone.

  "Well, I suppose I should get back to work. Cole is teaching me to cook, you know."

  He didn't have time to respond before she leapt to her feet and headed back down to the galley.

  With the Countess' charming company to look forward to, the day dragged by, giving Hal plenty of time to wonder what had happened to his determination to keep distance between them. He shouldn't be planning to spend time with her. He should be finding any excuse he could concoct to avoid her. Maybe he should just be honest, tell her how hard it was for him to be close to her, knowing they could be nothing to one another. Perhaps she would take pity on him and leave him be.

  Yet here he was, hair washed and combed, hanging loose around his shoulders to dry, pulling open the wardrobe looking for the clothes he'd worn the night he'd dined with Elspeth and her stepfather.

  No, that would be overdoing it. It was simply a meal, nothing more. It would be wrong to dress the dandy.

  Better by far to let her see him as he was. Let her see as clearly as he did the chasm lying between them. Soon she would return to her real life. And he would return to the sea to finish what he'd started.

  He'd kill Richard March.

  That much, at least he could do for her.

  * * * *

  Elspeth paced the small cabin waiting for the knock at the door. Why he'd stayed away from her, she could only speculate, but she blamed herself. She'd obviously embarrassed him with her unladylike pleas for another kiss. He was not interested in her as a woman. She determined to accept his company and not seek more from him.

  A knock woke her from her musing.

  "Come in, Captain."

  He stepped through the door. His hair hung long and thick around his neck. Her fingers tingled to touch it, to run her hands through the dark fall. So much for her determination.

  The lamplight reflected off the small gold loop in his ear. He wore the same clothing she'd seen him in before, but he'd rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing his muscled forearms.

  "Ready to dine, my lady?"

  "Yes."

  She accepted his offered arm and they left the cabin. She knew she had to say something, beg his forgiveness again for her abominable behavior.

  "Captain, about the night we were on the deck and..."

  "The night I kissed you?"

  A fiery flood of renewed embarrassment flooded her cheeks.

  "Yes. Is that why you've stayed away from me?"

  "Yes."

  His direct answer took her back.

  "I do apologize. It was unforgivable-"

  "Why? It was a very pleasant experience for me. I hope for you, too."

  "If it was so pleasant, why do you avoid me?"

  He chuckled. "It was rather too pleasant." He took her hands and turned her to face him. "Elspeth, you are a beautiful woman. I'd be lying if I said I don't desire you."

  His words made her heart sing.

  "But," he went on, "what happened must not happen again. I would not dishonor you."

  "So for my good, you would deprive me of your company."

  "For both our goods, Countess. There's nothing to be gained by pursing what cannot be."

  What did he mean by that? Did he wish more from her than a brief affair? Even as she acknowledged an affair with him was what she secretly wanted, she knew it would never be enough.

  "Now, let's go eat. I'm starved." He led her into the mess.

  * * * *

  All through dinner, he watched her. Couldn't take his eyes off her, in fact. She laughed at the stories the men told to amuse her. Told a few herself, opening her life to these men who would never see the inside of Parliament or the Queen's palace or the beautiful homes of the rich. Even Isaac leaned on the table, transfixed.

  "What do the grand folk do at their parties?" George asked.

  "There's usually a small orchestra, so we dance. Often the gentlemen will play billiards and there are always card games."

  "Card games?" Wilbur Green spoke up. "What sorta games? Betting games?" Wilbur regularly augmented his purse by gambling.

  "No, Wilbur," Hal warned.

  Elspeth smiled. "Yes, indeed. The gentlemen bet on everything. Even the ladies enjoy a game on occasion." Her eyes lit up. "Do any of you play whist?"

  "Elspeth-"

  "Hush, Hal. I haven't played in so long. The Queen disapproves of ladies playing cards."

  Clearly she was going do what she wanted whether he permitted it or not.

  "Will you teach me, ma'am?" Wilbur asked, producing a grimy deck of cards.

  "Certainly," she said, taking the deck.

  Hal saw Wilbur's eyes shining. Thought he had a pigeon in the rich, beautiful Countess.

  She shuffled the cards in her elegant hands and quickly explained the rules of whist. "Let's see. Captain, you partner Mr. Ross. Cole, you must be my partner."

  "Certainly, milady." The rough sailor took a chair across from the Countess. She dealt the cards, showing the last card which she dealt herself, a six of clubs.

  "Clubs are trumps," she announced and set to arranging her hand.

  Cole and George did likewise. Hal never arranged his cards. He didn't like to let anyone have a clue to what he held.

  Elspeth cut him a look. "Captain, did I deal them to you in suit?"

  He smiled but said nothing.

  As the hands pr
oceeded, an avid crowd around them, giving advice, asking questions, snickering at misplays.

  Hal watched her play. Actually, he watched her, glad for an excuse.

  As she considered which card to play, Elspeth sucked in her bottom lip and frowned at her hand. She fingered several before settling on a two of clubs. Hal had to play his king. Cole came up with the ace.

  "Well done, partner," she said.

  Cole preened under her attention while George, damn him, dropped the queen. Cole led back with a club and Elspeth proceeded to run the trumps out and win every blessed trick.

  "Seven points," she crowed. "The game is ours."

  "We never did settle on stakes," Hal said.

  She turned to him and he thought she was about to make a joke, but she only said, "Well, as I have nothing of value with me, I suppose we'll have to play for pride."

  George frowned. "If we're playing for pride, I need a new partner."

  Shouts flew up around the room.

  Cole stood and stretched his old bones. "Perhaps the Captain should partner you, my lady. I've got to get to the galley and clean up our mess."

  "I'll help you, Cole." Elspeth made to rise.

  He waved her offer aside. "No, no. You show these savages how civilized folk game." He came around behind her and leaned toward her ear as though to share a confidence. "Make sure you take 'em good, my lady. These pirates got plenty of money."

  She grinned. "I will. I'll need some traveling money when we get to Jamaica." She handed the cards to Wilbur who had taken Hal's seat next to her.

  "A penny a point, my lady?" Wilbur asked. "We can keep a running total."

  She nodded her agreement. "Captain, is that agreeable?"

  "Indeed. But I warn you, Wilbur is a known card sharp."

  "Hal!" Wilbur protested, "I'm merely a sportsman looking for a friendly game."

  Hoots and derision greeted this announcement.

  "Do your worst, Mr. Green. I am ready," she said.

  They played until well into the night. Elspeth and Hal ended up winning three dollars and twenty five cents from George and poor Wilbur who didn't really know what had hit him.

  "How much is this in pounds?" she asked as Wilbur paid up.

  "Don't rightly know, my lady," Wilbur said, "but you have to give me a chance to win it back."