Page 14 of Hired by Pirates

* Close Quarters *

Sometimes a sailing day was a bit monotonous, without much in the way of a diversion. But with this morning’s excitement, and a new crew member on board, it was supper time before I knew it.

After checking our heading, I left Jocko at the helm with the route. He and Jake were accustomed to swapping shifts during meals. Since they didn’t eat very much, and what they did they gobbled down quickly, it was only a minor inconvenience to either of them.

As I went down to the galley, I saw that the rest of the crew were gathered around the table, as Barnaby and Astor served the stew.

“Aye, Captain,” Barnaby grinned with slightly graying teeth as he placed a bowl in front of me. “She’s not just a doctor. She has a few new recipes to teach me.”

Woods poked at his dish suspiciously. “What are the green bits?”

“A little bit of green vegetables with every meal keeps you healthy,” Astor explained. “There are even some sicknesses that can actually be caused by lack of vegetables.”

Woods took a bite, then tilted his head from side to side appraisingly. “Not so bad, I guess. You can barely taste it.”

“Aye, she’s sneaky, this girl,” Barnaby laughed, joining us at the table. “She also has an idea of how I can bake better bread in this wee stove.”

“I don’t know for certain,” she protested, twisting her hands in her skirts as she sat down beside me. “It’s just something I read about in an old cookbook once.”

“Well, it’s certainly worth a try,” Tobias said. “We know that Barnaby does his best, but his bread is always burnt on the outside and mushy in the middle.”

Astor looked to her left, watching Simon as he took slow bites. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Fine.”

“I noticed that he was lying down most of the day. That’s what you wanted him to do, right?” I asked her.

“Yes, definitely, he needs his rest,” she said thoughtfully. She reached out to place her palm on his forehead. Her eyes closed for a moment as she concentrated, then took it away as she smiled. “I don’t think you have a fever. But I’m going to make you drink another cup of that tea in the morning.”

“Lucky me,” he muttered.

“You’ll be grateful for her care, or I’ll have the bosun punish you for your foul attitude,” I said sternly. But I laughed when he stuck out his tongue at me.

“What’s so bad about a cup of tea?” Jake asked.

Simon rolled his eyes. “Remember that time we were being chased by the police, and had to hide in the barn with the goats?”

“Aye,” Jake nodded, shuddering at the memory.

“Now imagine if the smell of the goats were a taste, and you had to drink a cup of it.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Jake muttered, shaking his head.

“I know it’s dreadful, but it really does help,” Astor said apologetically.

Leaning a little closer, I said, “You are the absolute authority on medical advice on this ship, Astor. So if he misbehaves, you let me know immediately.”

Her beautiful lips turned up in the most adorable smile I’d ever seen. “I’ve handled difficult patients before. Don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye on him.”

Simon grumbled, probably because he was overtired. He always seemed to need a lot of rest anyway, and losing so much blood must have drained his energy even more.

The rest of the evening was quite merry, with Tobias and Barnaby sharing stories of some of the strange things we’d seen on our travels.

We were just finishing up our dinner when Astor turned to me. “I’m not certain how freely this is spoken of, Captain, but is it appropriate for me to ask what sort of work you all do? Are you simply traders, bringing supplies from port to port?”

The rest of the crew fell silent, and the poor dear looked like she wanted to swallow the words back.

“As a member of the crew, you have every right to ask,” I explained, ignoring the sideways glances of the other men. “But since you just recently became a crew member, I don’t think we need to taint a lady’s ears with details of the more unsavory jobs.”

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