Taking back forever and a day

by Marcy Lynn

  “Thank you.”

  Her hand with his ring and the mourning ring flashed in the sun light catching his attention.

  Tragedy and bliss all in one night.

  He had always been thankful that Elanor hadn’t been in the carriage with the rest of them. “Spanish, I’ve no idea what’s in it. I bet you can tell me though.” He prompted. She’d always surprised him with her ability to guess any sort of herb added to food or ingredient of tea. She had a good palette.

  “Chamomile and some spices I don’t recongnize.” She replied.

  “You’ve always been good at that.”

  She nodded.

  He sighed.

  It wasn’t going as he’d hoped. So much for getting her to relax around him.

  He tried the direct approach.

  “You’ve been a better guest as of late. So I’ll make a deal with you.” He said courteous but then commanding when her lips thinned. “I’m going to give you a dress to wear and you will be allowed to be on the quarter deck. But, if you disobey me, or if I have to tell you more than once to do anything, I will lock you in here for the rest of the journey home.”

  He turned in his seat again to look at her. She seemed to be warring in her head over it; which pleased him. He had the obvious upper hand. Being locked in a small room on the sea or land, it didn’t matter. People were made to move about. He didn’t see why she couldn’t venture onto the quarter deck as she’d been allowed on her Father’s ship. His men knew better than to bother her. Most of them had wives themselves and the others Mistresses waiting for them. But what he banked on the most was their fear of what he’d do to them if they ever touched her.

  She seemed reluctant to answer. He didn’t prod her, just took advantage of being able to openly look at her without a scowl in return. The soft curve of her rosy cheek hugged by the long brown hair cherishing the sides where he wanted to touch. It hung low, shadowing the length of her smooth throat and down the slopes of her shoulders to her back. His vision lowering towards the curve of her left breast revealed from the slacking of the pillow.

  Elanor frowned at the change in his expression. She was thinking about his offer but became distracted by the desire suddenly sparkling in his eyes. She looked at the front of her to see what he was staring at, jerking the pillow back to cover her chest again.

  “I would like to be able to go on the deck.”

  “You’ll do as I say? No arguing?”

  “I will stay on the quarter deck and come back inside when you say.” She made sure to be specific. He could see she wasn’t about to start taking random orders from him.

  Derek stood up grinning down at her.

  “I might have other directions for you to follow.”

  “You will do well to forget them.” She answered.

  Elanor leaned back away from him as he bent towards her until her head pinned against the pane of the window. His face just inches from hers; she could feel his breath as close as he was.

  “Don’t pretend you didn’t feel something from the kiss. I remember a girl who would sneak off to be in my arms.” She lifted her hands to push his shoulders but his face remained close.

  “That girl grew up to be a woman. A responsible woman.”

  “Yes, you did grow up. Though, your sleepy pleasure sound the same.” He taunted.

  Her heart lifted in beat as he hovered his lips just a breath away from hers. “Kissing you, hearing you say my name like that.” He murmured.

  “Don’t you have a ship to run?” She forced herself to ask.

  “My men have it under control.” He said leaning back having taken the hint she wasn’t kissing him.

  “Why do you persist in touching me when I don‘t want you to?” She felt him pull back further. Elanor felt a little badly saying that but it must be said. “I’ll answer that with my own questions. Why are you pretending modesty as though you’re a seeker girl and have never been touched by me? Why are you denying what is clearly still there between us?” His eyes sparkled like stars.

  She frowned at him. “Because it would be like telling you I accept all this and I do not. You cannot expect me to. I want to go back!”

  “Remember when we snuck off for a walk in the back fields and tried to cross the brook over the rocks?”

  Her lips involuntarily twitched at the memory, knowing full well what he was doing. “Yes, I remember that. When you stepped on my dress, causing us both to fall into the water? So agile.”

  He grinned. “That water was a little cold.”

  “Freezing! We were soaked from head to toe.” She said. “And we were so afraid my Father would find out where we went. He’d said that it wasn’t proper for me to be wandering around alone with you anymore.” He laughed, sitting next to her on the window seat. “But your Mother said there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Though she did say if your Father caught us, she’d claim no knowledge. I thought for sure we’d get caught that time.” They both smiled as the memories vividly played out in their minds.

  “Then we thought someone was walking through the woods, so we hid in the hunting shack. I was so sure we were in big trouble then.” She’d watched his face change to the Derek she knew. The talk bringing back all the old easy feeling she always had around him. She couldn’t help but get deeper into the conversation too despite knowing why he’d brought it up. “Then when there was no shouting, we realized we could dry our clothes by the hearth.”

  He laughed. “We were stripping off those clothes faster than a dock side whore. You kept blowing on the fire I started, complaining about how you wished you‘d paid more attention to Teagan’s talks about fire.”

  She laughed too. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know how. As scared as I was, I would have burned the shack down.” They shared another laugh at that. The laughter turned to a shy expression on her face; another cheeky grin spread over his.

  “I never would have believed you’d get bold like that, Ella.” Her childhood nickname flowed off his tongue in such a familiar way. “ As many times as I’d tried when we were kissing and touching, you’d always turn the prim girl on me. There we were stark naked, scared we’d get caught by your Father who would have kicked our naked backsides, you go and get that look on your face.” He bat his eye lashes mimicking what he thought she looked like then, his voice high pitched to imitate a girl’s voice. “Derek, since they’re going to think it away, do you think we could try making love?”

  Her hands cover her face, laughing into them at his retake on the way she‘d started that. “And what do I say? Oh no Ela, I’m sure they’ll understand that we fell in the brook.” He scoffed.

  “What a pratt I was. Here you were offering and I’m trying to be a gentleman!”

  She giggled into her hands. “It took some nerve to just say that too!”

  “And I got the shock of my life next.” This time his mimic was him putting a finger to his lower lip, batting his lashes again.

  “Watch out the window Derek, I want to try something.”

  Elanor blushed deeply. “I overheard one of Mother’s friends talking of it, her husband sounded pleased by it. I wanted to see if you‘d like it too.”

  He closed his eyes. “I loved it. A little too much if you remember correctly. I couldn’t watch out the window at all, let alone stand there with my legs so weak.”

  “Yes, I remember. That’s when we decided to go to the cot in the corner of the shack.” He opened his eyes, a soft light glowing.

  “I remember laying there thinking I’d died and gone to heaven.”

  She snorted then. “I’d never been so surprised in my life when you suddenly acted like a water fountain!” He howled laughing.

  “Eaves dropping didn’t give warning of that did it my darling?”

  “No it didn’t. I had no idea that would happen.” Stains of scarlet red appeared again on her cheeks. He reached out and cupped one with a soft smile on his face. “I made up for it though didn’t I?” She didn’t p
ull away. Her own smile turning tender. “Yes you did.” After the shock, he’d pulled her to the cot to snuggle together.

  At first they did as they had done before, kissing and touching.

  Then it turned a bit more intense when Derek had moved to lie half over her body. He’d never touched her there before, and at first it felt invasive. But after a few moments she had this strange longing for something more. She hadn’t known what she needed until Derek moved completely over her.

  She’d given him her virginity.

  Elanor saw the expression on his face now and knew he was remembering what they shared as well. He continued to caress her cheek with his thumb.

  “That wasn’t the first or the last time we let our passion or feelings for each other guide us, Ela.” He said softly.

  “It’s not the same, Derek. We were naive children with no responsibilities.”

  He started to reply but they heard a rap on the door to the cabin.

  “Derek? The wind’s changed. It’s blowing south east.” Caspin called through the closed door. Derek sighed softly, leaning to press a kiss to her cheek before rising. “I’ll send Steppe with your dress.” He crossed the room to leave.

  “Derek.”

  He stopped and but didn’t turn around clearly disappointed that his bring up memories didn’t effect the situation as he’d wanted.

  “You’re not going back north. So you can make this hard or you can make it as it should have been.” He left her then, not waiting for an answer. It wasn’t as simple as that though.

  Though deep down in her soul; she wished it could be.

  Chapter nine

  Elanor dried her eyes before Steppe arrived.

  The cabin boy would report everything to him and he would think- a heavy sigh broke free from holding her breath. Nothing had gone the way she expected. She had a clear path draw out in her mind and it just all went madly wrong.

  If only he could understand it wouldn’t ever be the same again.

  A short rap brought her out of the fog of thought. The door opened only slightly; she wasn’t about to put the blanket over her. The air in the cabin already starting to thin out from the heat again.

  Reaching an arm through the door she took the dress. “Thank you Steppe.” The door closed as quickly as it had been opened.

  She’d been prepared to put it on right away, and get some fresh air. But looking it over, she realized if she adjusted it, the dress wouldn’t make her suffer the heat. The dress had long sleeves. A frown creased her brow after a few good yanks didn’t produce what she wanted.

  Derek had been able to rip the front of her dress with a little effort, why couldn’t she get it to loosen? She thought of her sister Constance. Though they’d been warned against preforming too much of their elemental magic, her middle sister had become adept at transformation. She could take material and transform it into whatever she wanted. Often Constance preferred transformation that made dresses cover more not less. Elanor sighed again.

  “Miss?” She looked up from her work towards the closed door.

  “Yes, Steppe?” She called.

  “Captain wants to know if you wanted another dress?”

  “No, there isn’t a better dress in my trunk. I’m trying to take the sleeves off.” She said putting the dress in front of her to cover. She peeked out at him.

  “Could I use your knife Steppe?”

  He had a look of panic glancing nervously behind him.

  “If you give it to me Miss and tell me where to cut-”

  “If you cut the wrong places, it’ll just make the dress fall apart. Please? Honest, and truly, really Steppe, I will just use the knife to fix the dress.”

  “If the Captain-”

  “Please? I swear, I will not use it against you. I only want to loosen the thread on the dress so I can fix it.” She could just use the dress as is, but she wouldn’t last very long out in the sun.

  “I shouldn’t Miss. The Captain…I don’t think he’d like me giving you a weapon.”

  She regarded him with a narrowed brow.

  “I could have taken your knife plenty of times! I don’t believe in using weapons to hurt. Knifes are for tools, not to stab people with. Now, please give me your knife. You’re starting to hurt my feelings.” She put her hand out for the knife. He looked down at it and then as reluctantly as she’d see anyone make a choice, he reached to his waist and lifted his knife.

  He gave it to her handle first. She gave him a dazzling smile.

  “Please hurry with it Miss. I don’t want to be flogged.” He croaked.

  “Call me Elanor.” She used her hip to close the door and went back to the table to work on the dress. She meant what she said. Honestly, what would she do, stab the entire crew? Leaving her floating on the sea with bodies and herself? She couldn’t even magically man an entire ship on her own she didn’t think. No, it had settled in her mind that she’d have to figure this out when reached the island. Both shoulders came off without ruining the dress. Cutting the collar would be tricky though. She didn’t think about anything but concentrating on the path she took around it.

  “Miss?”

  “Almost done! And please stop calling me Miss.”

  “Alright, hurry though, Miss- Elanor.” She could envision him rubbing the back of his neck. It brought a grin to her face. The last of the collar fell away and she lifted the dress. Done! She set the knife on the table then shed Derek’s vest.

  Since everyone else walked around barefoot, Elanor decided against wear his boots again. Barefoot but covered properly, she grabbed the knife feeling very chipper. It would be a great change to be able to get out of the cabin room. Turning the knife so that the blade was pointed towards her, she gave it back. He smiled then.

  “Thank you.” He said.

  “No, thank you.” She smiled. “How does it look?” She turned around in the doorway.

  “It looks alright.”

  She laughed. “Well that’s better than terrible I guess.” Elanor felt rather than saw the string she’d missed on her left side. “Oh could I have the knife back? See the string?” He nodded, handing her the knife. She carefully cut the long string away. With the knife up, she saw a crack in its handle. The string fell to the ground.

  “Did you notice your knife was damaged?” He frowned. “It works just fine Miss, um, Elanor. Is it broken now?” It almost felt as though he’d just called her out for damaging his knife. An amused twitching of her cheeks her first reaction and then she decided to help him understand.

  “Not exactly, but if you used it for something tough to cut, like rope, the handle will snap.” Elanor turned the blade towards him and pointed to the spot on the handle and she knew as soon as the sound of a sword being unsheathed reached her ears that she’d acted stupidly.

  “Put down the knife.” Derek demanded. Vibrant shock and then anger electrified through her body. “You would pull a sword on me Derek?” Elanor had expected one of his crew, not him to be standing there. Not him. She could only stare.

  “I said drop the knife right now, Elanor!”

  “Here Steppe.” She turned the blade towards her and handed the knife back. He took it after looking to Derek, then back to her.

  “I’ll tell him the truth Miss.”

  She shook her head no. Still in shock that Derek had pulled the sword from it’s sheath. She wouldn’t allow Steppe to take the fury of this situation.

  “Step away from him Elanor.” She did without saying another word. Her gaze leveled with Derek’s evenly.

  “Are you going to run me threw with that?”

  “This is what I get for letting my guard down.” He accused.

  “And this is what I get for trying to be reasonable and follow rules you have no right to give me.” She said acidly.

  “I have the right!” He shouted. “If I tell you to do something, you damn well better do it!”

  “Or what? You’ll stab me with that sword? You know better than anyone on th
is ship that I would never, ever use it against him. It’s against everything I believe. Not to mention I wouldn’t hurt the one person who has treated me as a friend.” The tears felt hot on her cheeks. He put the sword back in its sheath roughly.

  “You pointed a knife at him. What else was I supposed to think?” His voice soften, a small step taken towards her.

  “Do not.” She warned, pointing a finger towards him.

  “She didn’t, Captain. I gave her my knife to fix her dress.” Steppe answered.

  “Have you lost your damn mind, Steppe? She’s my prisoner. You don’t give someone a knife to gut you with!”

  “She didn’t Captain. She only used it for the dress.” Steppe said again.

  “You didn’t know she wouldn’t!” He exploded. “She could have bled you dry before anyone knew about it! I gave you a responsibility! To take care of my prisoner. And you gave her a knife!”

  Elanor’s mouth had fallen open. She never knew what would happen next with him. It always seemed to slap her in the face that this was not the Derek she knew and had loved. She didn’t know this person in front of her.

  “I’m sorry Captain. I didn’t think.” Steppe bowed his head.

  “Damn right you didn’t think. Get out of my sight.”

  She watched Steppe give a regretful glance to her and then did as he was told. Derek turned on her, but she cut him off before he could say anything.

  “If you so much as lay a hand on me, I promise you, you will regret it.”

  “Threats now, Elanor?” A golden brow arched.

  “I hope this ship sinks!” She shouted. A few of his men looked up at them from the gun deck, curiosity on their faces. She pointed down to them. “Did you hear that? I’m cursing your ship and it‘s Captain!” They in turn looked at each other confused.

  “Now you’re starting to sound hysterical. We both know that isn’t how it works.” He said.

  “Don’t you dare take a condescending tone with me! Or tell me how magic works!” She yelled. “If I’m going to be accused, I may as well play my part well! The things I‘ve had to suffer!”