The Stolen Heart (13 page)

 

 

The thought of her having had to resort to menial servitude as a
housemaid, open to molestation by the men of the household, or worse
still, prostitution, filled him with anger and dread.

 

 

At the same time, he wondered how she had managed to continue her
masquerade for so long without help. Unless--

 

 

He stripped off her trousers and then put her in his own bed,
pulling up the sheets and blankets and tucking her in all around. He
put his coat over her, and then heaped up all the blankets he could
find. They were a bit musty, but at least they were warm.

 

 

Then he put up the bed rails and went up the companionway to the
galley to find Cook.

 

 

“I need to see you downstairs at once.”

 

 

He nodded and followed the Captain.

 

 

Once they were in the privacy of his cabin he demanded, “How long
have you known?”

 

 

Cook stared at him blankly. "Known, sir?"

 

 

“Come, come, don’t take me for a complete fool, man. You've been
helping Al with hot water and all sorts of chores. How long have you
known she is a woman?

 

 

“Not long, sir. A few days. Since she was injured in the boat and
hurt her back, and then got burned by the hot stew.”

 

 

“I see. And how long have you been lovers?” Jared gritted out.

 

 

Cook’s craggy face was the picture of outraged innocence. “No, sir,
we
never
-I swear! Never!”

 

 

“Who, then? Who else knows?” Jared demanded furiously, wondering why
he was so angry at the men on the ship, and not the woman who had
deceived him.

 

 

“No one!" Cook protested. "Not that I know of, anyway. They think
she's a soft little lad, and the only person who has any especially
close regard for her on this ship has been you, sir.”

 

 

“But Al is my cabin boy-girl- Oh damn, you know what I mean.” He
rubbed the back of his suddenly aching head.

 

 

“I do, sir. I was only saying, if
you
didn’t know, then what
makes you think anyone else did?”

 

 

Jared sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t believe
this! I’ve been, well,
naked
in front of her and
everything.”

 

 

“You're not the only one with call to feel embarrassed, sir. She’s
seen us all showering on the deck and filling the washing barrel, if
you take my meaning. I know it's a shock, sir, but you’ve done
nothing, I'm sure, which would cause her to think less of you.”

 

 

“But she’s from a respectable family. Her father is a friend of
mine, a decent man, with a most educated and respectable wife. If
you're telling me she is an innocent, well, what must she think of
us all? It would be like a missionary living amongst a group of
South Sea cannibals.”

 

 

“Not that bad, surely. I imagine she would think that we are her
friends, sir.”

 

 

Jared snorted. “
Friends
? With a
woman
?”

 

 

"“Aye, sir. What else would you call it? Swapping stories, playing
cribbage and chess, giving her all those navigational calculations
to do. It’s what friends at sea do. I imagine it's not much
different from what husbands and wives do when they're at home
together, you know, chat about their day, their mutual
acquaintances, the latest gossip, that sort of thing.”

 

 

Jared gave a derisive laugh. “Ah yes, of course, how silly of me to
be concerned. But just how many husbands make their wives climb the
rigging, scrub the decks, and try the blubber?" He shook his head
and sighed. "Good God, what she's put herself through, with Mate
riding her every chance he got, trying to toughen her up.”

 

 

“I hear your cousin’s wife did a remarkable job her first voyage at
sea. Al could have told you at any time, sir. You know that.”

 

 

“Then why didn’t she?” His eyes narrowed. “Come to that, why didn’t
you
as soon as you found out who and what she was? She
is
really Jed Hussey’s daughter, isn’t she?”

 

 

“Yes, her name is Almira Hussey. She was as desperate as she said
she was to find her missing father and save her brother from the
hell ship he's on. No one would endure what she has done if she
wasn’t desperate.”

 

 

“Damn.” He ran his fingers through his thick black hair, ruffling it
until it stood up on end.

 

 

Cook had never seen his captain looking so distraught.

 

 

Jared paced up and down in the small sleeping cabin like a caged
tiger. “I blame myself as much as her. I should have remembered old
Jed had only one son. So the part about her brother shipping out on
the
Dolphin
is true then as well?”

 

 

Cook nodded. “Yes. She's worried sick about him sailing with Killer
Smith. She has never lied, except in making us think she is a boy.
She gave me her word.”

 

 

He gave a short bark of laughter. “Well, that’s a whopper, isn’t it?
And that lie colors everything else she has ever done or said on
this ship. It makes her word worth nothing.”

 

 

Cook's eyes widened. “Surely not, sir. You know why she did it. Her
sisters-”

 

 

“But she kept on lying. She made fools of us, and that I can’t
forgive,” he spat.

 

 

Cook shrugged. “Maybe she doesn’t need to be forgiven. Maybe she
just needs you to understand. And maybe your forgiveness is not
going to matter much longer. Look.”

 

 

Al had begun to thrash deliriously on the bed, throwing off the
covers, so that Jared ran over to her and tried to maintain her
modesty in front of Cook by pulling the sheet back up to her neck.

 

 

“Quickly. We need more brandy from the ship's stores, and the
medicine chest. I want you to fill the tub with cold water only. We
have to get the fever down, and hope it’s not contagious.”

 

 

"Nay, it looks like she's baked in the sun, sir."

 

 

"All the same, we need to stay away from the others until we can be
sure."

 

 

"Aye, sir. I'll be back shortly."

 

 

Cook fetched the things while Jared tried to calm and soothe Al, who
was beginning to rave and thrash about even more violently.

 

 

He fetched a basin with cool water and pressed a compress to her
head, then another one with brandy, while Cook filled the tub.

 

 

“What else do you want me to do to help?”

 

 

“We’re going to have to take it in turns to nurse her. You have you
galley duties. Go get a big vat of stew prepared, and be ready to
relieve me here if a storm blows up or anything. Otherwise, I’ll
look after her.”

 

 

“I’ll be back soon, then, to spell you in another couple of hours.”

 

 

“And, Cook.”

 

 

He nodded. “I know, sir.”

 

 

“Not a word to anyone until we decide what to do for the best.”

 

 

His brows knitted. “What do you mean, what to do?”

 

 

Jared shrugged. “My first instinct is to put her off at the first
port we get to.”

 

 

“You can’t, sir,” Cook dared to argue. “She needs to find her father
and brother. She’ll be worse off with a bunch of strangers miles
from home in a Spanish speaking country, and you know it.”

 

 

Jared’s back stiffened. “You forget, Cook, I can do what I like. I’m
Captain here, and I have to think of what is best for the crew. That
includes her, for the moment at least. But you seriously can’t tell
me you think her continuing with her duties, continuing to live with
me as my cabin boy, is what is best for her!”

 

 

“Why not?" Cook shot back. "She's happy, accepted by almost everyone
except Mate, she has friends, and she's doing a decent job for a
decent wage. She's kept her dignity and decency as a person. Plenty
of women have fallen as a result of what she has had to endure. Al
is different. She's triumphed in adversity, soared like a eagle,
with your help of course.

 

 

“I do think putting her ashore, leaving her friendless and alone,
with no hope of finding her brother and father, would be the worst
thing anyone could do to her, and not the act of a friend.

 

 

"I know you've been friends if nothing else. You can't treat her so
callously. She cares for you, for us
all
. She's been a true
part of the crew from the moment she came aboard. It would break her
heart to be left behind.”

 

 

Jared opened his mouth to argue, but Cook shook his head. “You don’t
have to decide anything at the minute, Captain. There will be plenty
of time for that after she is well.
If
she gets well. Now
get her in the tub, and see if you can’t get the fever down.”

 

 

He closed the door behind him, and Jared went over and locked it.
Then he pulled off the covers and carried her over to the tub. Al
began to thrash about as the cold water came into contact with her
heated flesh.

 

 

He pressed her back against the side of the tub and began to dab at
her face, neck, and shoulders with a cool cloth. He tried not to
look at her bare body open to his gaze, but he was astonished at how
voluptuous she looked, with her large rounded breasts, and lean
waist and hips.

 

 

Well,
any
woman would look good to him after being so long
without female companionship, he told himself gruffly. He would just
have to ignore her curves. He was only trying to help her get
better, not start a liaison with her.

 

 

They had lived together side by side for months, but he was now as
shy of her as if she were a fine society woman, and he was afraid of
shocking or upsetting her.

 

 

But he had no choice. He had to touch her in order to nurse her. The
thought of Cook touching her filled him with a cold fury.

 

 

No, the other man could help feed her, and keep an eye on her, but
only when he had to leave to go on duty, and only when she was
decently dressed.

 

 

However, that was easier said than done, for it was hard to confine
Al’s flailing limbs in any clothing at all. He had little experience
of infants, but sympathized with parents if this was what they had
to go through to get their offspring decently dressed.

 

 

No sooner did he finally succeed in getting another shirt back on
Al’s shivering, thrashing body, than she soaked it with
perspiration.

 

 

As the hours passed, she also spilled soup, water, rum and brandy
down herself as he tried to get various medicines and fluids past
her parched and trembling lips.

 

 

It was partly his fault-he was unprepared for the trembling desire
he was filled with as he looked at her bare beauty.

 

 

“It’s all right, dear, here's some broth. Just try a little for me,”
he said to her at five the following evening.

 

 

She managed a few mouthfuls, then lost half of it all over the clean
shirt he had just put on, and fell back against the pillow
unconscious.

 

 

He stripped off the shirt and decided to give up on keeping her
clad. He took a soaked sheet and wrapped her in it, and put her back
in the bed. Then he sat down on the bunk beside her, utterly
exhausted himself. He kept one hand on her shoulder and closed his
eyes. At least he would come awake if she began to thrash around
again.

 

 

He must have dozed for a time, for when he awoke, the cabin was
nearly dark, and he was curled up against her with one arm thrown
around her waist.

 

 

He sat up and checked her forehead, and then lay watching her,
wondering how he ever could have missed her beauty. Her pert nose,
the long-lashed almond-shaped eyes which tilted slightly upwards. He
tried to imagine her with long blond hair, cascading down over her
breasts…

 

 

He rubbed his neck and shook his head to rouse himself from the
erotic daydream. Here he was lusting after a mere child.

 

 

Although, she had only said she was fifteen, to pretend to be a
small lad, hadn’t she? He guessed from what the knew about Jed
Hussey’s family that had to be about nineteen or twenty, though she
could be as old as twenty-two if she was the first born.

 

 

That thought comforted him a bit, and he moved his arm along her
stomach, telling himself he was testing the sheet. It was now bone
dry, her fevered body having evaporated all the moisture.

 

 

He stood up and lifted her in his arms tenderly. Then he immersed
her in the tub once again sheet and all. He placed her back in the
bed, and looked around. Everything was as tumbled about as if a
typhoon had blown up.

 

 

He got out his pocket comb, and began to neaten her hair, and wiped
her face and mouth with a clean cloth.

 

 

Cook came in a short time later for his turn to watch her. He stared
at the captain. “You look terrible.”

 

 

“I’m all right. I managed to get some sleep a little while ago. You
don’t have to watch her. But it would be good if you could help me
get the cabin sorted. She’s sleeping for the moment.”

 

 

“Looks more like she fainted to me,” Cook said, noticing her
unnatural stillness.

 

 

Jared went over to check her breathing, and placed his head on her
chest to listen to her heart.