by Tara Brown
Alek let go of Lenny and stepped up to the man. “Choose your next words wisely, Les. That’s my niece you’re talking about. Edwin’s daughter.” Alek’s tone changed and the humor slipped away. Just as Lenny did, hurrying down the dock with the dogs at her side.
As she got out of hearing distance, Les was backpedaling with his hands in the air, making Lenny smirk.
Alek Ailling wasn't a man to trifle with. But Edwin Ailling was something else altogether. Something to be feared.
Chapter 2
Diving into the cold, gray water was refreshing until it became something else, something inexplicable.
Lenny’s love of swimming and her bizarre ability to hold her breath while moving faster in the water than anyone else she knew, made her perfect for one job.
This one. And fortunately, it was one that traveled well. When she did leave Blockley, she would find work along the coastlines.
She surfaced and swam to the starboard side of the boat, relishing the feel of the water surrounding her.
The waves rocked her until she took a deep breath and sunk below, opening her eyes and giving it a moment before she started inspecting the great hull, time for her vision to adapt to the saltwater.
Her slim, strong body slipped through the water quickly. The hull was old. It would need work from one of the massive cranes at the dry dock in Waterly City she’d heard Alek speak of. They could lift an entire ship from the sea, dry her out, and replace boards and tar her up again.
A sight Lenny would see one day.
As she made her way along the back of the ship, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary for a boat of this age. She surfaced and exhaled, bobbing in the rougher surf as she waved at Alek like she was supposed to every time she came up for air. He waved back and slapped the red-faced man on the arm.
Lenny took another breath and dropped below the stern, inspecting the corners as she rounded to the port side. The damage was here. She swam closer, running her fingers along the patch. Alek had done a good job, as always. He was the best boat repairer in the kingdom, famed for fixing a boat during low tide and getting her back into the water by high tide. His team was made up of the unlikeliest of men, but they worked hard and fast. Sort of how they lived, which was why they seemed so unreliable at first glance, which was how most judged them.
Lenny touched the boards, feeling for strain and tremors, but she was sound. She made her way back to the bow and was about to surface, feeling her lungs begin to ask for air when she paused. She floated in the middle of the streams of sunlight and current, focusing on a noise, a sound. It was different than anything she’d heard before.
Ignoring the nagging in her chest, Lenny swam forward, floating midway between the sandy ocean bottom and the repetitive waves above that knocked the boat. There, glinting in the sunlight, was a blue mist, which was unlikely since it was under water.
The sound came again, a whisper of a song, something calling her. She forgot her breath and the pain in her body as she ran out of oxygen and her hand reached for the light, but it moved, or rather it jumped, fading and reappearing further away.
She was about to kick her legs and swim in that direction when she caught a glimpse of something else. A dog barking at her through the water. Scar was on the docks. Lenny couldn't hear her, but she recognized the sound. Panic hit as she realized she couldn't breathe. She kicked and lifted, breaking through the water, gasping hard and long, coughing as her body screamed. Scar continued to bark.
“It’s okay, girl. I’m okay!” Lenny called to her, coughing and gasping more.
It took a second for her body to stop tensing with muscle spasms before she could swim to the dock and lift herself onto the old rough gray planks. She flopped onto the wood and heaved her breath.
Scar nudged her, growling a bit like a mother might.
Lenny’s father’s reasoning that the dogs saw her as something they had to protect started to seem more believable. She’d never seen Scar get so worked up before. She inspected every inch of Lenny until she was giggling and squirming to escape. It took a minute before Lenny managed to get to her feet and run her fingers through Scar’s wooly white coat.
“I’m all right, Scar,” Lenny reassured her and made her way up the long dock to where her uncle waited.
“Well?” Alek asked.
“She’s fine. Sound. There’s no tremble or shudder and the patch seems to be holding just fine. But the hull is getting old. Time to take her in.” Lenny wiped water from her face and took the sheet Alek offered to dry off.
The red-faced man grumbled, “Well, we know that, lass.”
“May the wind always be at your back, sir,” Lenny offered kindly, regardless of how he had treated her, and strolled up the dock, with Scar at her side, to where Ollie was chewing a stick he’d found.
“Thanks, Lenny,” Alek called. “We’ll settle up at home.”
She waved over her head without looking back and hurried for the smithy shack to dry off. The sun was nice but nothing compared to a hot forge.
When she arrived there, James wasn't around but Master Barnes was, smacking a long rod of glowing red metal, turning and shaping it with every hit.
“What’d ya find?” he asked as he always did.
“Old boat with a need for a dry dock. I suspect he’ll be back though. He won’t listen to Uncle Alek. He’ll keep sailing it and patching it until it sinks.” Lenny had seen it before with the older fishermen. They weren’t fond of listening, not even to someone who knew their craft better than most. The Ailling men had been fishing these shores for hundreds of years.
“Aye, I don't know how Alek stands it,” he said between hard blows. “Preaching to the choir that one is. They all know it, but they sure don't act like it. And they’re damned lucky to be getting their advice from a fine fisherman like Alek who spent his entire life on the water before the accident.” He spit on the ground when he said it, warding off any bad luck the accident might have contained.
“No one more stubborn than an old fisherman.” Lenny shivered from the heat.
“Have ya met my wife?” he asked with a grin. As the red coloring dimmed, he stuffed the steel back into the coals and spun the wheel to make the blower shoot air on the fire.
James came back around the side of the shack. He paused when he saw Lenny, his brow furrowing as he brought Master Barnes more coal for the fire. “Thanks, James.”
“Hello again,” she said quietly. James was like a horse that needed to warm up to people. You couldn't come straight on, you had to let him come to you.
“Hello again.” James nodded.
“You must be excited about tomorrow night, your sister celebrating her engagement to Josu. He’s a fine lad that one,” Master Barnes spoke loudly, bringing the steel back from the coals to hit again. The sharp noise of it used to bother Lenny, but now it reminded her of James. “And his family is quite successful.”
“Master Barnes, I’m going to be completely honest with you,” Lenny said with a soft smile. “Josu’s a nice enough man all right, and he seems to have honorable intentions when it comes to my sister. And I suspect he even loves her, regardless of her being the second most stubborn woman in Blockley. So if she’s happy, I am too. Otherwise, I don't give a fig about what my sisters do or whom they marry.”
Master Barnes laughed and, for the briefest of moments, James smirked. His eyes met Lenny’s and she swore he softened. It didn't last and it likely meant nothing to him, but to her it was worth all the effort she had put into this. This nothing. This nothing that meant everything to her.
“Are you both coming to the party?” Lenny asked, trying to keep the conversation going but changing the subject slightly in her favor.
“Wouldn't miss it for the world, eh, James? Miss Amaya is the sweetest girl,” Master Barnes said with a firm nod before hitting the red steel again. “And I think we both know I have a fondness for stubborn women.”
“Amaya is something all right.” Le
nny clung to the sheet and laughed softly as the warmth of the fire surrounded her. “All kidding aside, Amaya is plenty sweet. She might be the nicest of us all so long as you’re not a relative. And Hilde is of course the most beautiful.”
“And you’re the strongest,” James said surprising both Master Barnes and Lenny. She was about to thank him when he continued, “You would be the son your father never had, but your family has Wilfred. And he must make your father proud. I heard his haul of fish last month was larger than anyone else’s, including your da’s.” He said it innocently and smiled, his cheeks flushing slightly before he turned and left as awkwardly as he had come. It was the most he’d ever said to Lenny, and she silently wished he hadn’t bothered.
Her chest tightened a little as the realization hit that the problem with James was he saw her as a boy. A lad. One of the gents. She was not a female, a girl, a woman, or an option. Being a strong girl was just as Hilde had claimed, a mistake Lenny wouldn't see until it was too late.
Master Barnes stopped smacking the steel and placed it back into the coals. He stepped close to Lenny, his voice lowering and his eyes wandering the road behind them as though he might say one thing but decided on another. “Don't worry, Lenny, one day it’ll be your turn.” He gave her a slight pat on the arm and turned back to the fires.
She wondered what he might have said, until her mind flitted about, darting from James to the blue light that had moved in the water and the sound she swore she had heard. The light must have been glare coming off something. A reflection she hadn’t noticed in the shipyard before.
Scar whined and Lenny realized they were likely thirsty. “All right,” she said as she rose from the seat. “They need a drink in this warm weather. See ya tomorrow night, Master Barnes.”
“Bye, Lenny. Hurry home, eh?” he said with a pitch, maybe from worry.
She did hurry home because Scar and Ollie forced her to. They practically made her run the whole way.
Once she was home, she didn't bother changing, but got to work watering the dogs and bringing round the horses before dark.
But it didn't matter how busy she was, her mind was focused on that blue light. The way it jumped from her, vanishing then reappearing further back. If she believed in those sorts of things, she might say it resembled a wisp from the old stories. But she’d never heard of a will-o’-wisp under water.
It plagued her. In fact, it was all she thought of all night long. Even in her sleep, it filled her dreams, the song repeating itself.
Haunting her.
Chapter 3
Lenny woke early as always and walked down from her room on the second floor with the hounds on her heels. Yawning, she put them out the back door, then climbed into a comfortable chair in the living room, next to her father who sat in his favorite chair.
“Morning,” she said with a second yawn as she wrapped a wooly blanket around herself and patted her lap so Tubby, the indoor cat, might be tempted to come over.
“Good morning, dear.” Her father smiled at her from where he sat whittling as he always did in the mornings before the chores started. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did,” she lied, not wanting to trouble him with her bothersome imaginations. Tubby got up, stretching and prolonging his journey over. When he did finally get to her, he stared up but didn't move, expecting she might pick him up. “Fine, but Mother’s right. You’re lazy.” Lenny leaned forward and lifted the chubby black cat into her lap.
“Today’s the big day,” her father said with a smile. “Perhaps your young man will dance with you tonight.” He waggled his bushy eyebrows.
“You’re not funny and there is no young man.”
“Hmmm, that’s not what Alek told Gran. She said he was quite certain there was a young man luring you to the warmth of the forge in the heat of summer, perhaps Master Barnes’s assistant, James?” He chuckled lightly, amusing himself with his toying.
“I have no idea what you’re on about. I think age is settling in, Father. Or you’ve got the madness. Too much time at sea.”
“Ha!” He offered a salty stare. “Doesn't run in the family. Most men suffer the siren’s call, but this family is immune to it.” He leaned in, lowering his voice, “I’ll be honest, I’ve grown so accustomed to tuning out your mother, I doubt I hear women speaking now at all.” He winked.
“You’re terrible.” Lenny giggled, loving their mornings alone. If her father was home from sea, he was an early riser like Lenny and her brother, Wilfred, whereas her mother and sisters would sleep late. “Have you spoken to Wilf? Did he make it home last night?” Lenny asked, giving Tubby a back rub.
“Aye, he did. Ship came in at dusk, filled with fish. I swear he’s bribing the kelpies to scare the fish into his nets, same as the old ones used to do.” He made a joke about the folklore neither of them believed. Wilfred had been lucky with the fish for two years straight. They’d called it beginner's luck his first month, but two years later they were starting to call it something else. Her brother was a talented fisherman, a trait her father was proud of.
“He and Bethel coming to the party tonight then?” Lenny asked.
“He said they were, though I don’t imagine she will want to. I hope they do. Your mother’s been downright feisty about him not coming home as much to visit now that Bethel is pregnant.” He shook his head, muttering something else but Lenny didn't hear it well enough to understand. Not that she needed to. Her brother’s wife was ridiculously spoiled. Even Wilf became irritated with her frequently, but luckily for him he spent most of his time at sea, away from home.
“Gran did tell him not to marry her. Said Bethel was too pretty for there not to be a greater flaw in her character. Gran always says the gods are fair,” Lenny offered, half joking. “And Bethel is nearly as beautiful as Hilde.”
“Then what’s your flaw?” her father asked, lifting his big eyebrows. “You’re as pretty as your sisters.”
“How much time have ya got?” Lenny scoffed. “Never mind, I know Mother’s list off by heart. Can’t sew. Can’t cook. Hates cleaning. I’ll make a terrible wife. Rude. Mischievous. Always sweating.” Lenny lifted her eyebrows at her father on that one. “How I offend her by sweating has to be a new one. Surely, she’ll add breathing to it soon.”
“I offend her by sweating as well.” He chuckled for a moment but leaned in, placing a hand on Lenny’s knee. “You need to know, not all women are meant to be wives, lass.” He said it low, in case someone else was up and listening. “There’s a reason your uncle is teaching you the ways of the boat repair business. You think one of his sons will take that over for him? Your cousins are far too consumed with fishing. Randall did nearly as well as Wilf, and Marcus wasn't half bad either. Those boys will never turn to mending ships. The money is only half as good, even with Alek’s skills.”
“You think he means for me to take over one day?” Lenny was stunned by the confession.
“Aye, I do. I expect you’ll be working on the inside of the boats as well as the outside by next summer. He told me himself, his next apprentice position was yours. But don't tell your mother. She’ll be fit to be tied hearing you’ll be working with that crowd.”
“Alek’s merry band of pirates, you mean?” Lenny’s mother lovingly referred to them as she came around the corner from their room with a scowl on her face. “Don't fill her head with ideas, Edwin. She’ll marry as she should, and you will stop letting her think otherwise.” She pointed a finger at Lenny. “The moment Amaya’s engagement is firm and settled, you and I will be accompanying Hilde to the city. I’ll have you engaged before Hilde is married, so help me gods.”
Lenny cringed, terrified of the idea.
Even her father wrinkled his nose. “Come on now, Elsie. Ya know the girl has no desire to marry. Why push it on her? She’s a hard worker. Alek loves having her at the docks. She’ll be able to take care of herself and learn a trade.” He tried to be polite but his wife wasn't having it.
“Ab
solutely not. Over my dead body!” she shrieked.
“Woman,” Edwin warned, standing up.
“Don’t you dare ‘woman’ me, Edwin! It’s shameful enough you let her run about in britches, no less, with dirty hands and a foul mouth. And those hounds.” She pointed at the window where Lenny’s hounds were suddenly staring in, nearly as tall as the bottoms of the windows themselves. “She runs around like a wildling, those beasts traipsing after her. She’s always sweating. She can’t sew or cook or clean.”
“She cleans the stables well enough we don't need to hire anyone to do it. Saves me a fortune on labor around here. And we all know what you like to do with those savings, don't we, darling?” he said it and likely regretted it.
Lenny regretted it. It was the tipping point.
“We’ll never marry her off at this rate. Don't you want her to be safe and cared for when you’re dead and gone? Is this really what you want to saddle me with?” she sobbed. “How could you agree with Alek?” she cried, running for the bedroom.
Edwin’s eyes narrowed and fixed on his daughter.
“You told her, not me.” Lenny lifted her hands in the air innocently. Even Tubby had quit purring.
“Blasted hell,” her father cussed and stormed down the hall after her mother. Lenny took that as her moment to escape.
“I’ll be in the yard,” she called after him and pulled on her socks and boots. She’d learned to dress quickly and vanish, off to do chores before Mother had the chance to chase her down and insist on dresses and bathing.
Ollie, Scar, and Lenny were halfway down the trail by midday, all her chores completed, and each of them had a belly full of whatever Amaya managed to sneak to them in the field. Of course the meal had come with a lecture on why women should marry. Amaya had learned exactly how to be a woman from their mother.
As she passed the smithy, Lenny waved at Master Barnes, but James wasn't in the yard so she didn't slow. Instead, she hurried to Uncle Alek’s, checking the dock for any new customers, and while there was a new boat, Uncle Alek was nowhere to be found. Needing to avoid home for a while longer, she hurried along the boardwalk until she reached an alley that took her to the center of town.
