by Peggy Gaddis
Major Lesley, beside her when the steward had brought fresh hot toast, smiled at Claire and said quietly, “Whatever you’ve done for him — ”
“One of the crew had had an accident.” Claire spoke so that the whole table of passengers could hear her. “A very bad burn, and I helped take care of him. You see, I’m a registered nurse.”
The others were immediately interested, and Major Lesley reminded her humorously, “I warned you not to let that become known.”
“The man was badly hurt and I was glad to do what I could for him,” Claire answered quietly.
The steward came up then, smiling warmly at Claire.
“The captain’s compliments, miss, and he’d be honored if you would have lunch with him in his quarters,” he announced.
Claire said quickly, “That’s very kind of him, but — ”
“You can’t refuse, my dear,” Major Lesley said, before the steward could speak. “It’s a sort of royal command, and one any of the other passengers would give a lot to receive. Tell the captain Miss Frazier accepts with pleasure.”
The steward touched his cap brim and departed.
Claire looked up at Major Lesley.
“Well, now, really.” She was faintly annoyed.
“Did I seem unduly presumptuous, Miss Frazier? I’m sorry. I had no such intention,” Major Lesley apologized like an abashed schoolboy. “It’s just that I was afraid you didn’t realize how much of a compliment the captain was paying you.”
Chapter Nine
The steward opened the door of the captain’s quarters, stood aside for Claire to enter and announced as though she had been a royal personage, “Miss Frazier, sir.”
Captain Rodolfson greeted her with a touch of old world courtesy for which she was not prepared, because he had seemed gruff and stern at dinner when she had seen him.
He motioned her to a chair, offered her a tiny glass of very dry sherry and smiled at her.
“Curt tells me we are deeply in your debt, Miss Frazier,” he began, as he lifted his sherry in a little silent toast to her.
“Oh, please, Captain, you and Mr. Wayne are much too kind,” Claire assured him lightly. “In my profession, treating even such serious burns is almost a routine matter. The crewman should be quite all right in a couple of weeks.”
“You don’t think we should put him ashore in a hospital, or transfer him to another ship that has a doctor aboard?”
“Not unless you feel some doubt as to my ability to look after him,” Claire answered. “Which, of course, I expect to do, with your permission.”
“But we couldn’t ask that of a passenger, Miss Frazier.” The captain was shocked at the idea.
“You aren’t asking it, Captain,” Claire reminded him. “I’m offering because I am a nurse and always glad to be of service in any way that my profession dictates.”
“Well, it’s very kind of you,” said Captain Rodolfson, studying her with a sharp intentness. “I regret very much I haven’t had the opportunity to get to know you better. Curt gets all the social duties aboard.”
“And performs them beautifully, Captain,” she said smoothly.
Captain Rodolfson seemed to notice nothing amiss in her tone and nodded, smiling.
“Yes, Curt’s quite a lad, isn’t he?” he agreed. “He’ll make a very fine captain, I’m sure, when he takes over for me.”
Claire looked up at him, startled.
“You’re retiring, Captain?” she asked. “I’d no idea you had reached retirement age.”
A small, wizened monkey of a man in immaculate white coat and trousers was setting up the luncheon table, and the captain sat beside Claire and lowered his voice.
“I have a shocking confession to make, Miss Frazier, and I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it confidential.”
“Well, of course, Captain — ”
“I’m tired of the sea and ships!”
Claire laughed. “Oh, I can’t believe that, Captain.”
He grinned, his teeth faintly gleaming through his close-cropped, grizzled mustache.
“I know it sounds shocking,” he admitted. “But after fifty-five years at a job — I ran away to sea as a cabin boy when I was ten!”
“And you never married?” asked Claire, so interested that she did not realize she was being inquisitive.
A sort of shadow dropped over the ruddy face and his eyes went dark and bitter.
“Oh, yes, I married. My wife went to sea with me. She was washed overboard in a storm on the China Sea fifteen years ago.”
“I’m sorry, Captain — ”
“It was a long time ago,” he answered quietly. “One learns to adjust to bereavement, or one goes under.”
“I know,” said Claire huskily, and the thought of Rick was a hurt in her heart.
“You, too, have lost someone dear to you?” probed the captain gently.
There was a mist of tears in Claire’s eyes as she managed a smile.
“Someone very dear,” she agreed, and set her teeth hard.
The wizened, monkey-like little man murmured something, and the captain stood up and waved Claire to the table.
The food served to her was delicious and more than ample; her eyes widened as the cabin servant placed a bowl containing one toasted wheat biscuit and a small jug of milk in front of the captain.
“You see now, Miss Frazier, why I appear at only one meal in the salon?” The captain indicated the scanty fare before him. “I’m allowed only one meal a day and I take that in the salon. This cardboard stuff I’m allowed to eat at mid-day would, I’m afraid, destroy the appetites of my passengers and crew. So I consume my fodder in here in privacy. I hope you’ll protect my secret?”
There was a twinkle in his eyes, and Claire laughed.
“I’m not sure I can promise that, Captain,” she answered lightly. “The word is out that the reason you don’t eat with the passengers is that you despise them and wish it wasn’t necessary for the ship to carry them.”
The captain looked startled.
“Really? Is that what they think?” he marveled.
“It’s what I was told,” Claire assured him, laughing.
“Well, there’s not a word of truth in that statement,” protested the captain. “I enjoy the passengers very much — that is, some of them. We seem to have a pretty average crowd aboard this time. Curt tells me that there was some unpleasantness about a poker game the first night out.”
He was watching Claire with a curious intentness, and Claire’s head went up.
“Would you like to know the truth about that, Captain?” she asked quietly. “Is that why you asked me to lunch? To check up on the passengers?”
Captain Rodolfson’s eyes flashed with angry surprise.
“My dear young lady!” There was a snap in his voice. “I can assure you that any checking up on the passengers that may be required is well attended to by Curt and the steward, Carl.”
“I’m sorry,” said Claire briefly.
“And so am I, for your misunderstanding,” the Captain told her. “I merely happened to mention that we apparently had a card shark aboard, and that, of course, is something we simply will not allow. The man will be put ashore at a Caribbean port — ”
“Oh, no, you mustn’t do that! You’ll break his heart! Why, he’s been planning this trip, dreaming of it, saving for it for years!” Claire protested swiftly.
“His passage money will be refunded.”
“Oh, Captain, please! You mustn’t do that!” Claire was terribly in earnest. “It wasn’t the way you heard it at all. He’s not a card shark! He wasn’t playing crooked poker! Truly he wasn’t!”
Swiftly she launched into an account of the scene between MacEwen and the Major, and when she had finished, the captain studied her shrewdly.
“And you believe this man, this Major Lesley?” he asked.
Wide-eyed, Claire said, “Well, of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Oh, then you know him well?
”
Color burned in Claire’s cheeks, but she met his eyes straightly.
“I never set eyes on him until I came aboard in Jacksonville,” she answered with spirit. “But in my profession, we do learn something about judging character. Everybody insists he’s a wonderful judge of character; but — well, I just know the Major was telling the truth. He wanted to give MacEwen back his money, and the only way MacEwen would accept it was for the Major to admit he won it dishonestly.”
The captain nodded thoughtfully, and there was a faint smile beneath his close-cropped gray mustache.
“That’s pretty much the way Curt had it figured out,” he admitted. “Oh, of course he didn’t know the reason behind the Major’s calm acceptance of MacEwen’s accusation. But he felt pretty sure that the Major just wanted to get out of any more card playing! Curt’s a pretty smart fellow, and I was inclined to believe his summing up of the situation. But now you make it even more clear. I have another reason for being grateful to you, Miss Frazier.”
“Well thanks for believing me,” Claire said awkwardly.
The cabin boy served her dessert, a delectable apple pie with a thin slice of tangy cheese. To the captain he presented a small saucer which held two white tablets and a glass of milky-looking liquid.
“I’m under strict orders to drop twenty-five pounds on this trip,” the captain explained, eying the pills and the liquid with a humorously resigned eye. “I’m trying very hard to hang on for another year or two until Curt gets his master’s license and can take over for me.”
“Oh, is he going to become captain of the Highland Queen?”
“We are both planning on it. He has a few more months to go before his master’s license, and then he has been promised my job,” the captain answered.
“And what will you do then?” asked Claire, genuinely interested.
“Oh, don’t you know what every retired ship captain looks forward to, Miss Frazier? Retiring to the country and starting a chicken farm.”
“You won’t like it,” Claire warned him.
“I don’t suppose so.” He grinned at her. “But a man can’t keep going to sea all his life. I’ve just about done that. And it’s time to stand aside and let a younger man take over. I know Curt will do a fine job. Don’t you think so, Miss Frazier?”
“Oh, I’m sure he will,” Claire answered almost too hastily. “He is very popular with the passengers.”
“And with the shippers with whom we do business,” the captain nodded. “My only fear is that he’ll fall in love with some little flibbertigibbet who won’t want to go to sea with him, as my Martha did. If that happens — ”
“Well, frankly, Captain, it’s not the sort of life that would appeal to every woman,” Claire pointed out.
“I know.” He nodded above his pipe. “Women like to put out roots, settle down, raise a family, give them security. That’s natural enough, of course. But — well, I hope when Curt falls it will be for some woman with an adventurous spirit, who can make a home for him aboard ship as my Martha did for me.”
Claire nodded soberly, caught in spite of herself by the tide of memories that were sweeping over him.
“If a woman is truly in love with a man, Captain, she wants to do what he wants, live the way he wants to live, because since he will be the breadwinner, it’s her responsibility to go along — ” She broke off and laughed at herself ruefully. “I don’t quite know why I’m talking like this. How would I know what a woman truly in love would want?”
“You’re a woman,” the captain pointed out, smiling.
“Well, yes, but not an expert on love, by several million light years,” she assured him, and stood up. “I’ve enjoyed this very much, Captain. Thank you for having me.”
He rose too and walked with her to the door, smiling down at her.
“It’s been my pleasure, Miss Frazier! Thank you for it.”
He held the door for her. She smiled up at him and stepped out into the companionway as the door closed behind her.
She stood for a moment looking at the closed door, thinking of the big, grizzled, gentle man who had faced and accepted the loss of a beloved wife with such courage and fortitude. She thought of Rick, and the cowardly way she had run away from the hospital, unwilling to face the loving sympathy of her friends. At that moment, she wasn’t liking herself very well!
She walked out on the deck, drenched with golden sunshine, and around to the deck chairs where she had been spending most of her afternoon hours. But even as she reached the corner behind which they sat, she heard the voices of Mrs. Burke and Mrs. Hennessy and turned away. She didn’t want to get involved in their chatter, she told herself, and turned once more along the deck.
As she passed the companionway door, Curt stepped out into the sunshine, almost colliding with her, and stopped, drawing back, a smile on his face, his eyes eager.
“I understand you lunched with the captain.” He smiled at her. “Great old boy, isn’t he?”
Claire looked up at him.
“You two seem to have formed a mutual admiration society,” she mocked. “He seems to think quite well of you, too.”
As though somewhat surprised as well as obviously pleased by her lack of hostility, Curt said eagerly, “I hope so. I have a tremendous admiration for him.”
“He told me about losing his wife,” said Claire quietly. “She must have been a wonderful woman, to be willing to go to sea with him like that.”
“I’ve only worked with him for the last twelve years, so I never met his wife,” Curt answered, and for a moment they stood side by side, looking out over the sea as the ship plodded steadily on her way. “I imagine it would take a most unusual woman to be willing to sail with her husband like that.”
“I imagine she would just have to be very much in love with him, don’t you?” asked Claire slowly. And then realizing the intimacy of that, she added hurriedly, “I didn’t know that ship’s captains were allowed to take their wives aboard with them.”
“It’s a very old custom aboard freighters and tramp steamers,” Curt told her thoughtfully. “I imagine it dates back to the days of the Yankee Clippers, when a captain might be gone from home for years at a time.”
“I always had a mental picture of the wives of Clipper captains pacing the beach waiting for word their husbands’ ships had been sighted,” Claire admitted.
“If there were children to be schooled and brought up, perhaps the wives felt they were needed more at home,” he agreed as though the subject had an unusual interest for him. “Life aboard ship can be very pleasant, even for a captain’s wife; that is, of course, if she wants to make it so.”
Suddenly he straightened and his eyes widened.
“Well, what do you know?” he marveled softly.
Puzzled, Claire looked a question at him, and suddenly he grinned, that small-boy grin that added to his charm.
“You and I are standing here talking, without verbal daggers flashing between us! Why, you are almost friendly! I can’t believe it!” He frankly admitted his amazement, and Claire had the grace to blush.
“I have been a bit unpleasant, haven’t I?” she agreed reluctantly.
“You have indeed,” he assured her firmly.
She stared at him for a moment, scarlet and embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” she said miserably. “I — well, I am sorry — ”
“Don’t be,” said Curt quietly, all hint of teasing raillery gone. “You’ve been deeply troubled and very unhappy.”
Claire caught her breath and stared up at him.
“How could you possibly know that?” she stammered faintly.
“By just looking at you when you didn’t think anyone was,” he answered with a simplicity that she found somehow painful. “Whatever it was, I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.”
“You and Nora both have bothered me quite a bit,” he said slowly, as they leaned on the railing, not looking at each other. “But of course Vera exp
lained that Nora is going through the agonies of a frustrated love affair and is not really responsible. After all, she’s only a kid.”
“And I am twenty-four and a woman grown who is supposed to have more sense than to grieve about a frustrated love affair?” she cut in swiftly.
Curt straightened and eyed her.
“Oh, boy! Here we go again!” he said half under his breath. “I should have known that flag of truce business was just a come-on.”
“That was what you meant, wasn’t it?” Claire pursued him relentlessly.
“Well, no,” said Curt grimly. “It hadn’t occurred to me you could be sharing Nora’s mental attitude, because I couldn’t imagine any man you could care about not being your slave, and you don’t have a mother to drag you away from him. So why should I take it for granted that you were, like Nora, a fugitive from a love affair?”
Claire set her teeth and turned her eyes away from him. And when she looked back again, he was gone! He had simply turned and marched away.
She stood for a moment watching him as he strode down the deck, and then she turned back once more to contemplate the ocean, her mouth thinning a little. After all, what difference did it make to her whether he liked her or not? She didn’t like him, or any other tall, devastatingly handsome man. She’d been in love with one such charmer, and for a girl with any sense at all, one such experience was surely more than enough!
Chapter Ten
The days slid by like blue and gold beads on a chain. As Major Lesley had warned her happily, the Highland Queen poked in and out of various Caribbean ports taking on or discharging cargo, and the passengers went ashore for a few hours at each port, returning in the evening to chatter across the dinner table about their experiences and their discoveries.
Major Lesley proved to be a fascinating guide, and Claire was happy to accompany him on these shore trips. He always seemed to know which was the most interesting sight; which the most famous historical point of interest. And once he was convinced that she did not consider his carefully acquired guide-book tours a bore, he expanded visibly in the sun of her approval and was obviously delighted and proud of her companionship.