Chapter 14~ The Bastard Girl and her Cabin Boy
“Constantine?”
Brought back to reality, I realized that Edmund had finished the horrid procedure. His fingers dripped red with my blood, and my foot still looked like the mess it’d been previously. Edmund’s chest rose and fell in great breaths as if what he’d just done had exhausted every ounce of energy he had. I sat up, took out the crushed leather from my teeth, and took another drink from the bottle of rum which Edmund snatched away right after.
“I’ll never walk again.”
“On the contrary. I realigned your broken bone and cleaned the flesh of splinters. It was certainly bloody, to say the least, but I think you may walk again. God willin',” replied Edmund.
“Really?”
“Well, it is difficult to say. Your foot experienced a great deal of trauma. It'll take months to heal completely. But, I wouldn’t give up hope just yet.” And Edmund smiled. That in itself brought a burst of warm joy in my cheeks, entirely forgotten to me since those stormy nights. He took a couple of dry rags and gently tied them around the wound. I watched his golden face and honey hair. No matter how many times I looked at the Cabin Boy, I always found something more and more handsome about him, whether on the inside or out.
“Thank you, Edmund,” I said. The words were so soft they almost became a single breath. Yet, he heard and smiled to himself but nothing more.
“I promised you you wouldn’t die, lass. And I don’t break promises. That’s one thing I have learned in this godforsaken place.”
When he finished, we both sat against the wall in silence, eyes forward, trying to recollect our minds. What had happened over the course of two days had ruined lives and left more and more questions unanswered. Finally, I peered over at him as did he. The tension in the room was uneasy. But, Edmund all of a sudden laughed hilariously.
“So, little miss runaway, how was your wild expedition?” joked Edmund. Lighthearted and reunited at long last, I giggled too and told Edmund all about my travels—Dr. Zagaeski, the prophecy, the Indian pirates, and especially the apples.
“Bloody hell! A fortune-teller!” he jubilated, “Don’t think I’ve seen a fortune-teller in years.”
“Oh, yes, he was wonderful. A good man. He didn’t deserve to die.”
“Not many of us do.”
Even then, I still saw Dr. Zagaeski dead on the steps of his own home. It hurt like a stake to the heart. He was a friend, a short-lived one but one nonetheless.
“Why didn’t you come with me?” I asked the Cabin Boy.
His breaths became silent, and his disposition turned nervous and stagnant. Everything almost felt the same as the night that Edmund and I almost—
“We both know why I didn’t come, Constantine. You wouldn’t have wanted me there anyway.”
“That’s not true.”
“Like hell it’s not true. I…”
My hand found him instantly. The only warmth in the room touched my heart and melted the frost away.
His head turned at the sudden touch, and he dove into the blues of my own eyes. If I could say anything about myself, I was the eighth ocean. I was so easy to get sucked into and drowned in. And though I had never known it before, I lived in a constant state of drowning—either gasping above the surface or slowly dying below it. But at that moment, the rapid tsunami in my head bubbled and hummed down to sweet laps. It felt odd not having to panic for once.
Edmund couldn’t seem to pull himself out of the waves. But still, his hand found mine.
“What are we doin’?” he whispered hopelessly. I didn’t know. I didn’t think I ever knew for certain. That was a question that couldn’t be answered with words.
“You’re right. It wasn’t right for you to be there. But I did want you there, more than anything. And I couldn’t get you out of my head the whole day. However, I learned things about myself.”
Suddenly, the ship rocked violently, making me fall into him closer. With his other hand, Edmund stabilized me. We were so close that I could only breathe in the entrancing smell of him—only him.
When the ship then again calmed, I continued, “I’m a stubborn wench sometimes. I hang onto the things I think are true. I still love my father. I don’t want to give him up. But, that means I’m blind to the things in front of me. I’m afraid of them.”
Edmund shook his head barely and smiled the smallest I’d ever seen.
“Don’t be.”
I could only remember the night Edmund first saved me. How could a person so haunted and unloved learn to love another? Could it be possible that two souls so in need of care be able to love one another? It almost seemed unreal. Beautiful things like that don’t just happen every day.
I saw myself reflected back in his eyes, the ones I’d missed so much. I pressed a hand to his chest and smiled.
"I learned something else."
Edmund gazed back, just as breathless as I.
“I learned that you have to lose everything before you realize just how much you have,” I recited.
“And what do you have, lass?”
“I have you.”
Edmund didn’t need another word. He dropped my hands and replaced his touch around my face and waist, pulling me into a whole new ocean of his own. I wanted to explore all of it. His lips were on mine--warm, soft, and hungry. Pirates were greedy, after all. Neither of us could stop giggling all the while. My heart was vibrant yellow like the sun, glowing so bright Edmund could probably see it through my blouse. And we kissed until my lips were pink and raw, a pain I didn’t mind having. And when I finally did pull away, out of breath, I almost could not believe what had just happened.
“Wow…” he murmured, cheeks slightly flushed and his honey hair tousled.
I looked up at him and snuggled closer to the warmth emitting from his chest. “What?”
“Never in my life would I ever think I’d be lucky enough to care about someone so breathtakin’, so radiant.”
Edmund touched my cheek and brushed his worked fingers across the soft, heated skin underneath. He played with the dark curls around my face and pressed a light, innocent kiss to my lips.
“Say somethin’, lass,” he laughed.
But, I didn’t know how to express the pure happiness overcoming me. Maybe the months of misery had dulled out my senses so much that an explosion of new feelings just paralyzed the rest of me.
After a few more seconds, I could regain use of my words.
“This…feels right.”
“Does it?” Edmund said, again with another laugh.
“Yes. I’m going to become addicted to you, Edmund Hemingway.”
The miraculous Cabin Boy—my miraculous Cabin Boy—grinned and pulled me close into an embrace. It didn’t need to be said; both of us had been caught up in the dazzling, splendiferous storm of limerence for one another.
But it was all so bittersweet. Nothing was perfect for us nor would it ever be. Both of us, so young, were afraid of what may come. If what Tew delivered was any prediction of what more was to come, then there wasn’t a point in finding any sort of happiness. My skies were dark and thunderous, warning of imminent danger. It’s a queer feeling, knowing just what will come next in a line of destruction.
But no one could take that night away from us. No one.
So, I held on tighter to Edmund, breathed in, and completely left my fear for once in my life.
**********
“How’s your leg feelin’?” Edmund asked out of our comforting silence.
I scoffed aside and looked at the bloodily bandaged thing. “It might hurt less if you'd just cut it off.”
He laughed and placed a kiss on the top of my head. “I’d never forgive myself if I did that to you, Constantine.”
“I’d forgive you.”
We both laughed. Edmund brought over the food and water. Because of the new supply of resources, the food wasn’t the regular rotting filth but dry bread and rock-hard salted beef—a true treat. I ate happily and carelessly.
Edmund checked on the wound all the while and kept my mind occupied.
“To think Henry Every was once a subordinate sailor on another man’s ship. I just could never imagine it.”
“Me neither. But, learning my mother’s past…I thought she was the one thing that would never change. No one could share a closer bond with her than my father and I did. Nevertheless, I believe Maut knew it’d hurt me. For a man trying to win himself a new wife, he wasn’t very charming.”
Edmund chuckled but quickly steered the subject back around. “So, was it then that you decided to give up on him—your father?”
“I don’t think it was one moment per se. It’s been months since coming to this place. The feeling was pilfering away my hope and optimism until all there was left was the truth. I was orphaned long ago.”
“Constantine,” he said, taking my hand, “We’ve talked of your father for so long. Where did he go? The man is a ghost ship; appearin’ then vanishin’ back into the horizon like never before existin’. No one knows if he even breathes still.”
“He lives, Edmund. This I know is true. Sorrow may have made itself a welcome visitor, but I know in my heart that this earth is not through with him yet.”
“But how is anyone to believe you? Sentiments may be deceivin’.”
My heart thumped loud and worried. I hadn’t ever revealed my father’s whereabouts. Only my godmother and I knew. And chances were that old hag had met her maker. This sort of information was such that men would kill over. I wanted more than the world to receive a head trauma and lose the memory of him forevermore.
I looked at Edmund’s distressed face and understood how safe I was with him. I had shared a piece of my heart with this boy. And I needn’t hide the lock from the key.
“When I last heard from my father, it was 1691. He’d sent me a letter explaining that he was headed to Africa to start a new life for us. That gave me the strength to hold on to the delusion for three years--until I finally set off to find him. I discovered that my father was no longer an honorable man, just a renowned thief of the ocean. But, he remained my flesh and blood; and I remained the only living legend he had left. I spent so long tracking him down, following any leads given to me and raising money to sail to Africa. Two months before I came to Dover, England, I finally found coordinates of a newly purchased summer mansion under his name—in Bombay. But I hadn’t expected my father to travel farther towards the Arabian. By that time, Tew caught up with me.”
“Bombay? You think he’s still there?”
“I do. And after meeting with those Indian pirates, I know why.”
ns 15.158.61.48da2
