Page 18 of Escaping Pirates
I pushed the brig door open and went into my cell, wondering how Harlan’s date was going, when I stopped dead. Something was different…
The cell door hadn’t clanged shut like normal. I caught my breath and slowly pivoted as I realized that I hadn’t been followed and locked up like usual. Disbelieving, I took a fewsteps closer to the brig door that led to the rest of the ship. It was shut tight, leaving me entirely alone.
Think, Elena, think!I ordered myself. There was no way to determine how long I would be unattended, and who knew how long it would be before such an opportunity arose again? I couldn’t squander it now. We weren’t anywhere near land, so I had to stay on the ship. Were there any keys hanging on a wall? If I could somehow smuggle a key into my cell for the next time we were near land…
But no, the captain always kept the keys on his person. With an anxious glance over my shoulder, I ran to the end of the brig, where I’d seen the captain and his brother go for drinks, hoping to find supplies, a map, a knife, anything that could be useful.
Instead, the cabinet at the end of the walkway held only empty bottles. It seemed that perhaps the captain’s secret stock wasn’t so secret after all if the crew were able to sneak down to steal drinks while I was with Sugar and Blossom. I stared at one of the bottles, an idea simmering in the back of my mind. Empty bottles weren’t useless. After finding their corks where they’d fallen to the bottom of the cabinet, I took three bottles and carefully hid them in the straw on the floor of my cell, arranging them so the glass wouldn’t clink together and the bottles wouldn’t roll when the ship heaved from side to side.
My hands trembled, but a fierce pride burned within my chest. I didn’t need to be on land to send a message.
Heavy, running footsteps overhead made me jump and sit rigidly straight on my wooden bunk. The noises had come from the sisters’ quarters and were leading to the brig. Was Harlan fleeing the date?
The captain burst into the brig, staring around, then his shoulders relaxed when he saw me in my cell. He marchedover and pulled the cell door all the way closed, turning the key in the lock with that metallic grind that I hated so much. “That’s better,” he grouched, then looked up at me. “Thought you might try to run.”
“I have nowhere to go.”
He smirked. “And don’t you forget it, either.”
I’d fallen asleep by the time Harlan was escorted back to the brig and shoved into his cell.
“How did it go?” I whispered as soon as the captain had left. My and Harlan’s bunks were only separated by the cell bars, so our faces were less than a foot apart.
“Not quite as terribly as I expected.”
“I need more details than that.”
“Let’s see, Sugar asked me right away if I was seeing anyone, and I told her yes.”
“You are?” It shouldn’t have surprised me. Harlan was handsome, intelligent, and thoughtful. Any girl would be lucky to be with him. The slight twinge I felt was only because I was grateful to him for his kindness, that was all.
Harlan let out a chuckle. “Yes, they were about to break down when I told them that I was now seeing the two most memorable women on the ocean.”
I let out a soft breath of laughter. “I bet they loved that.”
“Oh, they did. I worry I might have laid it on a little too thick, but I need to buy some time until I can figure out a plan. I had a question for you, though. Why do they call you Scurvyella?”
I gently pulled back my upper lip to reveal my weakening gums in the moonlight spilling into the brig. “I knewit affected pirates, but I don’t know how to fix it. As for the Ella part, they said it was easier than Elena.”
“That’s hardly a difference, and Elena is a much prettier name. But—you need fruits and vegetables. What was your diet like before today?”
“Hardtack.”
“What else?”
“Sometimes dried fish. That’s all.”
Harlan closed his eyes and a vein throbbed in his temple. When he opened his eyes again, there was a fire blazing there, but he spoke in a voice of forced calm. “Keep eating fruits like those oranges today. Scurvy can be cured if you eat citrus.”
My heart leapt. Maybe I wouldn’t lose my teeth after all. “We won’t have to worry about finding citrus if we can find a way out of here, and I thought of a plan. How do you feel about writing Sugar and Blossom love letters?”
“Like I’d rather be eaten by a kraken. I don’t see how meaningless love letters would help us at all.”
As softly as possible, I told him about the bottles I’d squirrelled away. “So,” I finished in hushed, excited tone, “If you can convince them to give you paper and ink to compose sonnets of love anytime you’re in here, we could?—”
“Write letters to put in the bottle,” Harlan interrupted me. “You’re brilliant, Elena.”
“Brilliant, desperate, call it whatever you want,” I teased while I felt heat warm my cheeks from his compliment. “As long as we get out of here, I’ll be happy. Now you just need to get some paper and ink.”
