Ethan's Song (7 page)

When she finished with the one she was singing, Ethan let her know he was there by clearing his throat slightly. "I could sit and listen to you all night." He stood in the open door between their rooms, which had been closed when she sat down. "In fact, I think that’s exactly what I’ll do." He didn’t move from the spot, even as she laid the instrument down, standing. "Supper is at seven. You can have yours before or after, whichever is to your liking. You’ll be entertaining me. And my guests." The last three words were added as an afterthought, making her believe he didn’t care if they listened or not. She would be only for him.

"I’d be happy to, Ethan." She said sweetly, bending to put the guitar in its felt-lined case. "Do you think there’s something I could get now? It’s been a long time since I ate anything substantial." Carrying it, she stood in front of him, her blue eyes looking up at his handsome face.

"I could have a tray made up and sent down while you sing to me, if you would."
Shrugging her shoulders, she smiled. "That’s fine with me." She let him take the case out of her hands, walking back to the couch beside him.
He watched her as he unlocked the case, handing the instrument back to her. While she strummed through a few cords, he went into his room, talking to the kitchen on the intercom. When he returned to her room, she looked up and gave him a prize winning smile.
She motioned with her hand for him to take a chair across from her. "You are welcome to get comfortable." He chose to sit on the couch, close to her. "Were you able to get some sleep? You look rested." He looked rested enough to her.
"M-m-m." His answer went neither way.
"Any special requests? I know a few songs." Her fingers fascinated him, as they worked quickly while she talked.
"I like oldies, about being in love, something like that. I heard you sing a couple of them out on deck. They didn’t seem to be your favorite this morning." He changed his tone, as well as the subject. "How long have you been singing?" His question was impersonal, but it was one way to start getting to know her.
"Too many years. Since I was about ten, professionally, if I remember correctly. Seems like all my life." She chose some of her favorite songs from the late sixties, singing to him until a loud knock sounded on the door. Ethan got up to answer it, after telling her not to stop the song she was singing. The tray was brought in by Westley.
Though he spoke no words as he brought the food to the woman, the look in his eyes could have been called hatred, speaking volumes to her. But so short a glance did she make his way, because of the look she saw, she could dismiss it. He would be thinking the worst of her, she knew. If Ethan had talked to him the other night, as she thought he could have done, then she could understand the look. Jenà figured before their cruise ended, she would be ready to yell that she wasn’t going to bed with the boss, as she knew would be in all their thoughts.
Listening to her thoughts, as she put her guitar down, she took a cleansing breath, getting up to take the chair Ethan had set before the cart.
"Will you be joining me? Looks like there is enough for several people here." She didn’t hesitate to begin, she was so hungry.
"No. I’d rather dine later." He bent and kissed her neck softly ."Until seven, then."
<<<< >>>>

THE DININGROOM was full when Jenà took her place at the back of the room. Her eyes were mostly on the head table, on the host. As he slowly ate his meal, he kept his eyes on her. It was to him that she sang, and he knew it as well as she.

When the tables were being cleared, Jenà went out the door, grateful for the guests who detained her employer. She had the feeling she would find him in her room a lot sooner than she wanted.

Laying on her bed, wearing shorts and a halter top, she held one of the books she had brought with her, awaiting Ethan’s arrival. Had she been kept on the shift work, the books wouldn’t have been opened, she knew now. But as things were, she would probably be searching for more in just a few days.

But she really wasn’t reading the words that were before her eyes. Her thoughts were on the man who would walk through the door any time. Both doors were locked, as he had warned, and her bedroom door shut. She wasn’t disappointed when she heard the door slam in the outer room, though she wasn’t expecting him to be upset, and he had to have been, or he wouldn’t have been so noisy on entering. Thinking quickly, she had to come up with something. If it was because she had left too soon... She hadn’t waited for her dismissal, but had left because she didn’t want to stick around, feeling an embarrassment at having sang all the love songs especially to him.

The bedroom door flew open and Ethan stood in the cavity it left. "You weren’t told to leave, Miss Wisdom. I expected you to continue until you were dismissed." She had been right, and she hoped her prevaricated story would calm him. "You will, from now on, stay until further instructions, do you understand?"

"But..." She whispered, putting a little gravelly sound with it. "I couldn’t continue, and you were so busy with your guests. I didn’t think you would mind."

"What’s wrong with your voice?" His concern was genuine, though the anger was still there as he came to the side of her bed. "It sounded great clear through your last song."

"I felt it coming on. It just happens sometimes. I don’t know if it’s because I sang too much today after not much practice, or if it was something I ate. Was there lemon in anything I had? I’m allergic..." Jenà talked so fast, continuing to fake her pre-laryngitis.

"I apologize. I had no idea." He sat, putting his hand on her forehead as if he would find a rise in her temperature.

"Really, I feel fine, it’s just a touch of laryngitis that will probably be gone by morning." She put her fingers on her throat for added emphasis.

"Don’t talk, you might make it worse." What was making things worse was the way she was feeling about lying to him, but she didn’t want him to be mad at her for something stupid, like walking out on him. "I’ll get the doctor." He stood, walking toward the outer room.

"He’s one of my guests. We couldn’t be out here without one." He had turned in the doorway to answer her. "Now, be quiet. I’ll be back in a few minutes."

When he was gone, she rolled her eyes to the ceiling. What if the doctor saw that she was faking and said so? What would she do then? Ethan would be more angry about her lying to him than he was about her leaving the diningroom. If she hadn’t started it, she would be bawled out already, finished. She would be left alone, rather than wondering what was going to happen and when.

It wasn’t long before the two men were walking into her room. First was one she had seen in the diningroom while she was serving, now he was carry a small black bag, one like she had seen doctors carry on television shows. Ethan was right behind him, his concern in his expression, growing more so since he’d left.

"What’s this I hear?" The doctor set the bag on the bedside table, sitting down on the side of the bed. "Your voice has decided to give us the slip?" He smiled, she just nodded. He reached into the bag, taking out a small flashlight and tongue depressor. "Why don’t you open up and say ah-h-h for me."

Hesitating, Jenà complied. Her fingers dug into the covers at her hips, getting prepared to hear the worst.
"H-m-m-m," the man gave her the
doctor sound
when he finished looking. "I think a little penicillin is needed. Does it bother you at all?" She shook her head, a bit of a frown on her forehead. "Think you could swallow pills, or would you rather an injection?"
Her eyes grew wide. "Pills." She still whispered in her gravely way.
"Ethan tells me you’re allergic to lemons, or citric fruits." She nodded, because it really was true, though she usually watched what she ate, and never had a reaction quite as bad as she was letting on. "I’ll have to go to my room to get the medication." He stood, looking over at Ethan. "She’ll be all right." The younger man seemed to relax at the doctor’s words.
"It’ll be better in the morning, I’m sure." Jenà assured them both. "It always is."
"I don’t know about that." The doctor turned back to her. "It could take several days to a week to clear that mess up."
Her expression changed. Why would he play up her condition, knowing there wasn’t one? What did he have to gain from it? Did he know something about Ethan’s anger that would cause him to shield her from him?
"I suggest you remain quiet until I tell you otherwise." The doctor warned her with seriousness. "We wouldn’t want that voice permanently damaged, would we?"
"No," she whispered hoarsely, getting a look from Ethan that told her to listen to the doctor.
"I think he meant to quit trying to talk." He walked out of the room with the older man. "I appreciate your time, John. I’m sorry to have dragged you away from your wife." His voice was getting harder to hear. "I’ll bring the pills back..." The outer door shut quietly as they both left.
Jumping from her bed, she went into the bathroom to take a look in the mirror. Closing the door, in case Ethan knew she was faking and was waiting to catch her, she locked it. Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she was surprised to see that her throat was spotted with white dots. The next thing that she wanted to know was if she could talk. "This can’t be." Her voice wouldn’t go much over the hoarse whisper that she had been using on purpose. Opening the door, she was walking back to her bed. "I can’t believe this."
"I thought you were told not to use your voice." Ethan was walking into her room. "What are you doing up?"
"He didn’t say I was confined to my bed." She argued back. "I had to go to the bathroom." She didn’t tell him why, so didn’t feel she was telling him another fib.
"Am I going to have to stuff your mouth to keep it shut?" He was beside her at the foot of her bed.
"No." She couldn’t help talking. She did it all the time.
"In bed. Right now." Ethan ordered, going into the bathroom to fill a glass with water. "I don’t want to hear another peep out of you, do you understand?"
Silence filled the room. Sitting on the bed, she picked up the discarded book, opening it to the first page, planning to start it from the beginning again. Maybe she could concentrate on the words now, since she wouldn’t be able to do anything else. If Ethan had his way, she was thinking, she’d be kept in bed until the doctor said she was fine. The thing that was worrying her the most was whether or not she would be allowed to be alone.
Ethan came back in her room, carrying a small package and the glass of water. "What do you think you’re doing? I said in bed, didn’t I?" He handed her the glass, taking a pill from the envelope. "After you swallow that, I want you in your nightgown, or whatever it is you wear, and I want you in those covers." Watching her swallow the pill, he took the glass, getting a defiant look from her. "I mean it, Jenà. Do I have to undress you?"
"You’re always threatening me. Get out of here so I can..." Her words stopped at the look on his face. "I know, shut up." She felt a little relief, knowing that her lie had come to be the truth. It was eerie, though. "What..." She had turned to ask him what she had eaten earlier, but remembered she wasn’t supposed to ask anything. With a deep sigh, her shoulders sagged as she walked to her dresser, pulling out one of the short gowns she owned. Right about now, she wished she owned one of the long, flannel type, seeing that Ethan wasn’t going to leave.
"If you must say something, perhaps I can get you some paper and a pencil." He talked through the bathroom door. "I’ll be back in a few minutes. You’ll be all right?"
She opened the door a crack, giving him a disgusted look. "Yes, Ethan. I’ll be fine." She just couldn’t keep the words from spilling out. Closing the door she finished dressing.
She was in bed when he came back. "That’s better," he told her with another triumphant smile. "I’m glad you’ve got a book. It’ll keep you busy, for a while, at least."
Jenà reached up for the paper and pen he was holding. In large letters, underlining each of the words, she wrote the message she had for him. IF YOU’D GO AWAY, I WOULDN’T BE TEMPTED TO TALK SO MUCH!!!
"You’re probably right about that. Is there anything I can get you?" He felt a little pity for her, as he spoke and she couldn’t, not without being told to shut her mouth.
The pen scribbled the letters N and O, but then she wrote out that she wanted to know what her last meal had consisted of.
"Let’s see." Ethan stood beside the bed thinking. "There was rice with a sauce, veal cutlet, spinach a-laEdward." He stopped when she began writing again. "I’ll have to ask. I don’t know what he puts in it. You rest."
BUT I’M NOT TIRED! I’M NOT SICK!! Her hand wrote as fast as it could.
"I’ll come back in a bit to keep you company. Would that be all right?" He watched her fill the whole page with her answer, larger N and O than before. He looked down at her for an explanation.
"Because when you are around me..." She forgot again.
"Write it." He barked at her. "I understand. Got it loud and clear. The doctor told me you needed rest. He actually told me to leave you alone." He chuckled. "I wonder what he was thinking?"
"Yes, I wonder, too." When he looked at her with narrowed eyes, she lifted the paper she’d written first, then smiled mock sweetness up at him.
"I’m going. You don’t want me back tonight?" He looked disappointed at the shake of her head. "I’ll come check on you in a little while anyway. Someone needs to tuck you in, and turn off the light."
When left alone, she closed her eyes wondering if this was a blessing, or if she was being punished her for making up the story. Either way, she was going to have to put up with Ethan’s
caring
ways. It seemed he was going to do everything for her. How much energy was it going to take if she was to shut off a light? She would have to get up to use the bathroom. He couldn’t do that for her, could he?

SHE HAD fallen asleep reading her book. Feeling it being taken away from her hand, she stirred a little, opening her eyes to look up at him. Her smile received one in return.

"You are a temptress, Jenà." His words were a whisper as he bent, placing a kiss on her forehead, though he wanted to touch her lips with his.