by April Dawn
Reena stood now, fearing the angry lines that were forming on his face and the conclusions that had taken shape in his head.
“Even with you along, it could have worked. If you weren’t so stubborn.”
He advanced on her. Reena looked around for some sort of weapon. She held up the copy of Devine Comedy she’d been reading as though it were a sword.
“You needn’t have even been unfaithful to that pathetic lump in the hold. If you’d only let me in to talk, I could have placed the bolts and had you at his side in a moment. Then it would have been easy to prove that he’d been the saboteur and not I.”
Stepping around the chair, she backed further from him, a ferocious grip on the book.
“No, you couldn’t let me in when I asked you. You wouldn’t even let me in to seduce you. I have never had to force my way into any woman’s bedchamber and yet you, a whore, made me force my way in!” Gregory’s muscles rippled and bunched in his attempt to restrain his rage.
The wall of the small cabin pressed against her back, and she threw the book at his advancing form. The corner of the book struck his forehead, and he bellowed in fury, closing the two steps between them in a second. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her so hard that she thought surely her neck would break. Reena almost didn’t hear the slight knock at the door, so loud was the blood pumping in her ears.
The room spun, and the door opened.
“Reena…”
Her gaze darted to the sound of the concerned familiar voice. Fish stood in the doorway.
“What…?” Fish stepped in the room, slamming the door behind him. His father abruptly stopped shaking her. “What are you doing?”
“Leave,” the captain ordered, nostrils flaring.
“What are you doing? You know what the men said.”
Reena’s mind reeled. She tried to focus on what he was saying, and at the same time, get her breathing under control.
“Leave. Everything is fine.”
“It doesn’t seem fine. It seems like you were about to throttle her.” Fish stepped up to them, placing a hand on Gregory’s shoulder.
Her pulse and breathing slowed to a more normal pace as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened. The room spun to a halt. Had she caused this? Had her refusal to use his given name motivated his actions? Pain throbbed through her head, but she didn’t dare let his arms go for fear he would shake her again.
“Father, you have to let go of this foolish vengeance. She isn’t worth a mutiny. Besides, she saved my life. Does that count for nothing? This has gone on long enough. They have suffered enough already.”
Reena looked at the young man. He was well healed, but seemed to have grown so much older in such a short time.
“She couldn’t just keep her mouth shut. I spent the last days of John’s life confined to my room. My crew took the side of a woman over their own Captain, and in the first day of my captaincy. Then the fool woman can’t even be civil when I come to dine with her. How can they suffer enough for all that?”
Reena thought she heard a low whine in his voice and almost laughed in her haze. The men’s roles of father and son had reversed.
“She saved my life and the lives of many of the crew, so did he. They’ve been separated from each other, wounded, and afraid. For two people that love the way they do, that is enough of a punishment.
The tension in the hands which held her lessened, and Reena fought the need to clutch at them to keep her unsteady legs standing.
“Father, stop.” Fish put a hand on his father’s slumping shoulder as he released her. “She will be married in days and gone in less than a week. Is she really worth losing your ship over? You just became captain.”
Reena leaned against the wall, clutching at its surface with her spread fingers.
“If the men mutiny, you won’t have anything to show for all the hard work you’ve done and neither will I. Is one woman worth all that? Or a little revenge? Is that worth us both being set on an island to starve, or worse? You know the crew would have to leave me if they intend to leave you. Is your revenge worth our lives?”
She didn’t dare speak. Fish seemed to be calming the beast with his soft, incessant explanation.
“She loves Joshua, Father, the way you loved Mother. Is this how you would want mother to see you? Trying desperately to kill a woman. Do you think she would be proud of you?”
Reena closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting.
“She’s not to leave this damned cabin until she weds,” the captain snarled.
“She won’t, you have my word.” Fish lifted both hands, palms out.
Reena heard the door close and opened her eyes, breath whooshing out in one loud cry.
Fish came to her side as her legs wobbled beneath her. Helping her to the chair, he said, “That was why you were so troubled, isn’t it? You were worried about my father’s revenge.”
She nodded, eyes not meeting his.
“You’re safe now. He won’t be back.” Fish knelt at her side.
Reena wished she could believe that, but she wasn’t sure.
“He’s really not such a bad man, you know.” Fish gazed toward the closed door.
Dark circles of fatigue surrounded his eyes, and he’d grown pale. Fish had fought into exhaustion to save her. Or more likely to save his father from his own machinations.
“Sit, before you fall over,” she ordered shakily.
Fish slumped toward the chair across from her and nearly fell into it.
“When mother was alive, he never did any harm to women. Though he was always too vengeful, he was honorable in his reprisal.”
Elbow resting on the table, his hand slid over his face, coming to rest on his forehead.
“Of course, he has his pride, but what man doesn’t?” Fish eyed her around his hand. “She changed him, calmed him. We both did.” His palm dropped away from his forehead, thumping loudly on the table. “When I was a boy, he would bring me some fantastic bit from each port he visited. Then he would ride me on his shoulders until I was sure he would tire, but he never did.”
Reena reached out, covering his hand with hers.
“When I was barely a man, my mother became ill. She died of the pox before father could return from sailing. He hasn’t been the same since. I see little glimpses of the man I knew, but for the most part, he’s gone.” He shook his head. “In his place, sits a man whose pride won’t allow him to release any slight, a man whose anger is so great that it wins out above all else, even common sense.”
“I think he is in there—somewhere—and I think that if you continue to be with him and influence him, he will be that man again.” Reena imagined Gregory sitting by his son’s bed, watching over him and using his own fancy shirt to cool the young man’s head.
“Forgive him,” he said, suddenly grasping her hand. “Don’t tell Joshua or the crew. Let it be. He truly is a good man, down deep.”
Fish’s wide eyes were so hopeful that Reena couldn’t bring herself to disappoint him.
“I’ll keep it to myself,” she said.
“So tell me, why do they call you Fish? Do you swim well?” she asked, in a desperate attempt for a new subject to discuss. The encounter had been frightening and uncomfortable, and she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Fish righted the tray and pulled a gobbet of turtle meat from it.
“Like a fish.” He smiled and winked.
“What is your real name?”
“I won’t tell,” he said, handing her a chunk of the greasy meat.
“Why? Is it such a terrible name?”
“I still won’t tell.” He shook his head, grin in place.
She blew out the last of her unsteady, nervous breaths.
“All right,” she said, before reaching over and grabbing the book off the floor. “Well, I chose another book for us. Do you wish to start, or shall I?”
9
When Reena missed her daily visit to Joshua that evening
, she found Gunner at her door. He seemed a bit out of breath as his eyes swept her cabin.
“Joshua was worried when ye didna come to sit with him. Are ye all right, lass?”
Reena surveyed Gunner, wondering how much to tell him. He was loyal to Joshua, so she knew that he would do what he thought was best for him. But would he agree with what Reena thought was right for him? The less Joshua knew about this while aboard ship, the safer he was by her mind. Reena turned, motioning for Gunner to sit. He closed the door and moved silently across the room. She tilted her head as she watched him walk. He was so graceful. It was too feminine a word, but Reena could think of no other for the fluid way he moved. It was just graceful. A man of his bulk should have lumbered around clumsily, knocking things about as he went. At least that’s what she had always imagined when she read the sort.
He sat in the sturdy chair with his leg propped on his knee, silent. She examined the unusual man. With his bulging muscles, shaven head, and large tattooed body, one would think he would be impatient and prone to violence, but he’d seemed level headed even in the most stressful of situations.
“Gunner, I must tell you something, but you have to promise to listen until I’ve finished before making a decision. Is this acceptable to you?”
Gunner looked at her for a moment, and then squinted, as if he were trying to see into her. After a few seconds, he nodded, his spine stiff, and his muscles tensed in preparation.
“Gunner, the Captain has been insisting I dine with him since Joshua’s injury.” Reena paced the small cabin, tapping the book she held against the fingers of her other hand. “Last night he came here.” She turned toward him.
“Did he hurt ye, lass?” Gunner’s eyes softened, but his body was that of a caged animal, ready for action.
“He tried.” Reena shivered as she faced the wall where Gregory had held her. Gunner was at her side in an instant. She held up a hand to him. “I’m all right, Gunner. Please sit and let me finish.”
This is how she would have expected Joshua to react. She was deeply honored that this man would so care for Joshua that he would take her fiancé’s cares and concerns into his own heart. When she swiveled in his direction with her continued pacing, he was sitting once again.
She sat in the chair across from Gunner, shaking a bit as she conveyed the story, leaving nothing out.
“The captain has confined me to my quarters until the wedding. I think I shall be safe, if he doesn’t have to see me, but would you please come by and check on me on occasion.” Reena returned to feet and stood before him, to stare intently into his eyes. She needed him to understand the seriousness of what she had to say, and to know the truth of his reply as only his eyes could tell it. “And Gunner, Joshua cannot know. If he found out that the captain tried to harm me, he might do something foolish.”
She bent her knees, bringing her gaze in line with his and rested her hand on his arm, oddly like a mother with her overgrown child. “You must promise not to tell him. I need you to tell him that I said it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding. Tell him that I shall see him when we are married.”
“The men will surely hear that I have been confined to my room, but you must keep them from speaking of it in front of Joshua. Promise me?” Reena held her breath for his response.
“Ye can count on me t’ keep watch at the door each day ‘til mornin’, lass.”
Cool relief flooded her limbs. “You would do that?”
“Aye. T’ protect ye I would, lass. Joshua would want ye safe.”
And stand guard he did. Every night, shuffling noises would sound outside her door. Her heart would pound until the small double tap sounded. That was Gunner’s signal. More small shuffling noises woke her from time to time until finally at dawn, his footsteps would move away down the hall.
Chapter Twenty-six
By the day before her wedding, Reena had become certain that she was with child. Pacing her room, she struggled with the decision of when and how to tell Joshua.
“He lost his first wife in childbirth.” Her nail found its way into her mouth as she confided in Fish.
She’d seen him every day since she’d been shut up in her cabin. Part of her knew that he was checking to be sure that his father hadn’t done anything foolish, but she also knew he was a good man, and he enjoyed her company as much as she enjoyed his.
“You will have to find a way to tell him. In fact, you should have told him before telling me.” His eyes gleamed mischievously. “Why, if it was my child, I would be very angry if you told another man before you told me.”
Fish winked. Glancing down at the floor, she considered the truth of what he said. She had come to find that he had an age and wisdom beyond his years, which Reena had learned were twenty. His youthful air and charm hid a man that was cunning and wise. He would make a good captain one day.
“You figured it out. If you hadn’t been here so often, helping me when I felt ill…”
“I can’t resist cleaning out chamber pots.” He grinned, his eyes shining. “There is something so chivalrous about sneaking a woman’s sick above decks to dispose of it.”
After the hours they had spent together, they’d become fast friends, and Reena found herself looking forward to his visits. He was a lot like her brother, and he filled the roll quite nicely.
“Let’s not worry about it now.” Fish stood as he spoke. “You are to be married tomorrow. Don’t think on it again until after the wedding. The time will come, and you will know what is right.”
“All right,” she said. “What do you think of this?”
Holding up her wedding attire for him, she bit her lip. She had done her best, under the circumstances, to make her wardrobe presentable for her wedding. It would be a contracted marriage, no more than a sharing of vows and tokens, so she knew that she shouldn’t be worried about it. Besides, she couldn’t imagine that Joshua would cut the most dashing figure either, but she would be glad to see him. To share her room with him. And her bed.
“You will look fantastic in it. You’ve done a wonderful job, and you are a wonderful woman.” Fish held the door open while he paused to study her. “You saved my life, and you’ve taught me things I didn’t know. You were a great friend, during my recovery, and a great doctor on top of everything. You deserve to know my name.”
Reena gawked at him, her mouth agape. She didn’t think he would ever tell her, and though it didn’t matter to her what it was, she was honored that he would consider telling her. He glanced around conspiratorially, adding great flourish to each move. Reena couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s Horace.” He grimaced. “A family name on my mother’s side.”
“Why, I like it. I think it’s a strong name,” Reena said, her grin a bit wider than she could control.
Fish rolled his eyes and shook a finger at her. “Not a word.”
She held up a hand and crossed her heart. He nodded with a smile and stepped out of the room, leaving her to think about what the next day would bring.
9
The ocean stretched around them, blue and peaceful. The sky kissed it on the horizon and lightened as it went heavenward. The sun was warm and comforting, and the few fluffy clouds in the sky kept their distance from it, as though not wanting to darken their nuptials. It was the perfect day for a wedding.
Reena stood before the Captain, pronouncing her love for Joshua to the whole crew. Her lovely white gown was covered in peach ribbon, and since no fresh flowers could be found, she had made a bouquet out of the ribbon and lace that she would have added to her dresses. She no longer cared so much about her manner of dress. She was marrying the man she had loved for as long as she could remember, a man who had taught her that she was more beautiful and desirable than she had ever realized. Reena would soon be home with her family, and she suspected that Joshua would be as joyful as she to learn that they were starting a family of their own, once his fear subsided.
Best of all, Joshua was walk
ing. Something he should not have been doing for some time given the extent of his injuries. The ornate bone and silver cane that he used to support his weight was lovely, and Reena wondered where he had gotten it. He stood now, declaring his love for her. He appeared so strong, proud, and able to face any danger, calling to her mind knights of old. His body betrayed no hint of his injury, even though they’d been standing before the captain for quite some time now.
Life was getting better every day. Reena only hoped that she would continue to have good luck until the ship reached port, and she could reach her father and be assured of his good health. Most of all, she hoped that the captain would cause them no further trouble.
Reena turned her gaze to the captain. Though his voice was strong and clear, his lips bowed in the slightest downward tilt whenever he looked at her. Reena tried to ignore his displeasure and focus on her wedding. She’d thought, planned, and imagined this day for so long, but now it seemed as if was passing her by in a whirlwind. Reena tried to concentrate, to make memories and not think about their situation. However, when her mind came back to the ceremony, Joshua moved in and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. Her heart jumped at the longed for contact of his hands on her body. She leaned in. His head lowered, lips brushing hers. The men cheered. At the sound of their shouts and whistles, Reena and Joshua broke off their kiss and smiled at the crew. The solemnities were over, and Reena’s dream had actually come to life. She was Mrs. Joshua Sinclair.
9
Joshua gripped the cane’s head as the congratulations of the men stretched on without foreseeable end. He would prefer that they allow him to pass with his wife, but the crew had fought for them even against their own captain, and they deserved their moment.
Wife. He loved how that sounded. He watched her laugh as the men congratulated her. Reena was beautiful. Her whole face brightened when she laughed, and he couldn’t help but love her all the more for it. The sailors shook their hands and continued their congratulations, but Joshua couldn’t process all of their words. His mind turned to the larger problem at the moment, aside from how to get his lovely wife to their room before he lost control of himself. Reena had been lying to him, and she had been using Gunner to do it.