Page 74 of The Sea Witch
“Who—” he began.
“Go back to sleep.”
“But, I saw her before—”
“Quiet, or I’ll cut your tongue from your head and have it stewed.” She grabbed her dagger and held it up so that its blade shone in the moonlight.
He pressed his lips together and lay back. Yet he didn’t close his eyes.
Neither did she. She lay in her berth until the first pink rays of dawn crept through the widows. She attempted to distract herself, recalling past raids, and ports of call. Yet for all the exhaustive details she tried to bring to mind—counting the number of jewels taken from a French merchantman, the haunting music played on a bamboo flute in a tavern in Maracaibo—nothing turned her heart from the unavoidable truth.
She and Ben... they were woven together in a mystifying tapestry. Any hope that they might somehow become untangled from each other faded with each passing day, and night.
Chapter Sixteen
Ben woke that morning to find Alys already up and dressed. Her gaze was shielded as she watched him rise.
He knew better than to press about what he’d seen in her dream last night. It didn’t stop him from wondering.
“Any chance of getting a razor to rid myself of this?” He rubbed his chin, though the rattling his manacles gave him his answer before she shook her head.
“You won’t pass muster on a naval ship with that beard,” she answered coolly, “but you’ll make a fine addition to a pirate company.”
“My happiness knows no bounds.”
A tap sounded on the door. At Alys’s permission, Cora stuck her head in. Cora tossed her head back to flick brown curls off her face as she pushed the door open with her broad hip.
“Breakfast for you and the sailin’ master, Cap’n.” Cora held up two bowls, and the scent of honey, milk, and oats drifted across the cabin.
Alys grabbed her bowl on her way out the door. “I’ll take mine topside. Watch him while he eats, and then bring him to the upper deck when he’s ready.”
Ben’s stomach clenched to hear him spoken of with such remove. Treated like a pet spaniel no one wanted, a responsibility to be fed and exercised, and naught beyond that.
“Aye, Cap’n.” Cora set the second bowl on the table and stepped back before motioning for Ben to begin eating.
He took his seat and went through the mechanical motions of breaking his fast. Spoon to bowl, then to mouth, swallow porridge, and repeat the process.
It didn’t matter how she behaved toward him. They weren’t friends. He had his goal, and he’d hold fast to it. She couldn’t feel betrayed if they meant nothing to each other.
Butwhowas the woman in her dream? And the dream they had shared before? She had a face very similar to Alys’s. And it surely had something to do with why she left Massachusetts.
It was a private agony, one he wouldn’t normally be privy to, were it not for the way they had infiltrated each other’s dreams. She needed to speak of it to someone, unburden herself, or else the sickness of sorrow would consume her from the inside out.
“Susannah’s not a gossip but I managed to drag an account out of her,” Cora said, leaning against the bulkhead. “Nearly got yourself killed on that island.”
“We wereallin danger.”
“Don’t come over all stiff naval officer,” Cora chided affably. “Susannah said you made a fine showin’ of it. Tryin’ to protect the captain. Grabbin’ yourself a club and lookin’ like a right fighter. And you didn’t show a lick of fear, not even when monsters were chasin’ you down.”
“Merely performing my duty.” He couldn’t stop himself from puffing his chest, then rolled his eyes at himself.
“Hurry up and eat, Sailing Master. Thérèse promised she’d show me how to summon that prickly spell of hers. I’ve got this—” she held up her hands and a cascade of red sparks fell from her fingertips “—but it never hurts to add somethin’ to the arsenal. You know,” she added with a pointed look, “in case a prisoner gets out of hand.”
Ben finished his porridge quickly. He washed up before Cora ushered him out of the captain’s quarters. As he made his waytopside, Alys glimmered inside him, drawing him up through the ship, until he surfaced on the top deck.
She was on the quarterdeck, yet she didn’t so much as glance in his direction.
Something heavy settled in his gut. Perhaps he’d eaten his breakfast too quickly.
