Stormy Seas: Part 21

    Vivian made no move to raise her hands from the keys. “You can't shoot me and get a good price,” she said to Stratt.
    Stratt turned and the gun was pointing at me. “Then I'll shoot him.”
    Vivian turned then and her hands lifted. “I thought you wanted him to join your crew,” she said accusingly.
    Of course she did, I thought. She had still been calculating if she could control me. Obviously she had decided she couldn't.
    “Even if she shoots me, Vivian, you won't have time to send anything before she stops you,” I said. I was already slipping the ropes off of my wrists and hiding it in my fist. Stratt didn't seem to have noticed but I still wouldn't be surprised if she knew somehow.
    “Fine,” Vivian sulked and raised her hands away from the machine.
    “Get over there with him,” Stratt said. The gun was still aimed at me.
    Vivian began to slide around the desk past her. I knew she was going to do something.
    As she turned sideways to get past Stratt she hit her from behind and reached for the gun. I dropped to the floor just before it went off.
    Vivian knocked the gun out of Stratt's hand and then kicked it away while trying to hold on to Stratt. They both lunged for control of it but a few seconds after the gun had skittered away, a well placed elbow in Vivian's ribs sent her reeling into the wooden desk. Stratt rolled and reached for the gun but I had scrambled forward, knocking it farther away. Stratt opened her mouth to call for her crew but I still had the rope and before she could get the words out I had twisted it around her throat.
    We sat there for a moment in something of a stalemate. The gunshot didn't seem to mean much to Stratt's crew. Possibly only that I was supposed to be dead. When Stratt tried again to make a noise I tightened my grip on the rope.
    “Send that message,” I ordered Vivian.
    She nodded and stood. I listened to her tapping away until she finally pulled the lever to send the message.
    “Get the gun,” I said.
    She had to carefully step over us to get to the armchair where I had tossed the pistol. I watched Stratt, ready for her to try and fight back. When Vivian was past us I loosened my grip a bit because Stratt had started to make little choking noises that I was sure she wasn't faking.
    “Now what?” Vivian asked.
    “Send another message,” I told her. “Give out our coordinates.”
    “What coordinates?” she asked.
    I glanced up at the desk where Stratt had her maps and charts. “Look for a log book,” I said. I wondered if Stratt ever bothered to keep one.
    “This?” Vivian held up a leather journal.
    “What's it say inside?”
    “Thirty knots, wind from the west,” Vivian read off the page. “Then some numbers.”
    “Go to the last entry and put in those numbers,” I said.
    Vivian went to do so and I stayed put, with Stratt's head on my thigh. I could see her wanting to make a comment about it, but ignored it.
    “What if no one gets the messages?” Vivian asked.
    “Someone always gets them,” I said. “Passing ships, other pirates, Voilitiers.”
    Stratt suddenly started struggling. She managed to cough out the word “No!” as I flipped her onto her stomach.
    “Pass me the gun.” I put my hand up and Vivian set the pistol against my palm. “The others don't seem to think their beloved Captain is in any danger,” I said to Vivian as I pressed the gun into Stratt's back, “but I don't know how much time that will buy us.”
    “What will we do when they try to come in?” she asked.
    “We'll find out how much they love their Captain,” I finished. “Won't we?”
    Stratt glared but stayed still.
    There was a sharp knock on the door then that made all of us startle. “Captain Stratt!” Abbot's voice said from outside.
    Vivian and I glanced at each other.
    “What!” Vivian shouted back, mimicking Stratt's tone rather well.
    “It's those Voilitiers! They're right on top of us!”
    “You're out of time,” Stratt coughed to us.
    “Your orders Captain?”
    I loosened my grip on the rope around her neck.
    “Get in here!” she shouted.
    The door burst apart at the hinges and Abbot and the bearded pirate hurried in.
    “Stay where you are!” I ordered. I pulled Stratt up by the neck so she was kneeling in front of Vivian and I, and I made sure that they could see the gun I was holding.
    “The Voilitiers only want her, if she dies we throw her over,” the bearded one said.
    They both drew pistols from their belts and opened fire into the room.

Stormy Seas: Part 20

    “Cap'n sure seems mad at you,” Clark said outside my door. I was sitting on the stool as far away from him as I could get. I was guessing from the length of time he had been there that he was supposedly guarding me.
    “After awhile she stops being nice to people who make her mad.”
    “Why do you let a woman order you around anyway?” I asked him.
    “We'd have all been hanged years ago if not for Stratt,” he said. “She knows pirating better than anyone else.”
    “I wonder how she learned it,” I scoffed.
    “Thinking about joining our humble crew?” he laughed.
    I ignored him. I was tired of talking to him anyway.
    I sighed to myself, considering my predicament. It seemed like there was nothing for me to do but listen to Clark talk all the way back to England.
    You got yourself into this foolish mess, I thought. Surely there must be some way to get yourself out of it again.
    I reached up to the porthole near my head and started fiddling with it to see if I could open it. It was far too small to escape through, and even then there was nothing but open ocean for me to escape to, but it gave me something to do.
    “Think of it this way,” Clark was still talking out in the hall. “All your little friends will be amazed that you survived all this. You'll probably be some sort of hero.”
    I rolled my eyes and continued fiddling with the porthole, hoping for a latch of some sort. I grew tired of fiddling very quickly. The whole thing was tightly bolted together.
    I decided to change tactics, and possibly see some more of the ship. Maybe I would get another idea.
    “Where is the lavatory?” I asked Clark.
    “There's a bucket in there,” he laughed.
    My eyes narrowed at the laughter coming from behind the door. I grabbed the bucket by the handle, stood up, and smashed the bucket against the wooden door. Hard.
    The laughing stopped as soon as the bucket hit the floor.
    “I want to speak to the Captain,” I demanded. What I really wanted was to get out of this cell, and maybe find some way to send help for Eldon and the others.
    “Stratt's not going to build a toilet for you,” Clark said in response.
    I kicked the door to make sure I still had his attention. “Not about that!” I practically screamed.
    “What then?” he asked.
    “About everything,” I said.
    “Captain's busy,” he replied.
    “Busy ordering everyone around?” I prepared to give the door another good kick.
    “Busy interrogating another prisoner,” he said.
    “Another prisoner?” What other prisoner? Who else are they holding for ransom?
    “He escaped earlier and they trapped him in the coal store.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    “From your ship, they said his name was Palmer.”
    “Eldon!”
    I realized too late that I had said his name aloud.
    “Aha!” Now I really had Clark's attention.
    A key turned in the lock and Clark swung the door open. “Maybe Stratt would like to see you.” He grabbed me by the arm and half dragged me out into the hallway.
    “Captain?” Clark knocked politely on her door, still holding my arm so tightly that I was beginning to lose feeling in my fingers.
    “What is it?” Stratt's sharp voice demanded from inside.
    “A friend of the prisoner's,” Clark said.
    He waited until Stratt allowed him to open the door. She seemed curious but when she saw me she didn't look the least bit surprised.
    Eldon turned around to see me and didn't look surprised either. He was standing in the middle of the room with his hands tied behind his back and every inch of him smeared with coal dust.
    “So is that how you ended up on that ship?” Stratt asked me. “I was wondering.”
    “We met on board,” Eldon answered casually.
    “Too bad.” Stratt was laughing at us with her eyes.
    I noticed a Transligraph in a little cupboard behind Stratt's desk. I had used one before on an airship with Aunt. It was used to send and translate messages without having to know morse code. It must mean that, for all her knowledge of ships, Stratt had not learned to use morse code and needed this machine to send, receive, and intercept messages at sea.
    “What will happen to Vivian?” Eldon was asking Stratt. They had resumed their conversation.
    “We're holding her for ransom,” Stratt said. She sat down on her desk and took off her feathered hat.
    “Good,” Eldon said.
    Clark was still in the room. If he left I might be able to knock Stratt out and send a message for help out before she came around. I began looking for something to hit her with.
    “Won't you sit down Miss Winters?” Stratt said to me. She waved at the armchair she had been sitting in earlier.
    “Thank you,” I said politely. I took a more strategic seat in a wooden chair a little more to the side. Clark was watching us all.
    Stratt dismissed him with a wave and he left, shutting the door behind him.
    “Aren't you wondering what will happen to you now?” Stratt asked Eldon. “I obviously can't keep you around now that I know you can escape, and I'll have to show your friends that they won't get away with anything they try.”
    “You'll slit my throat in front of them?” Eldon asked. I was horrified for a moment but then I saw how Stratt was reacting.
    “I take no pleasure in slitting throats, Mr. Palmer,” she said. She was smiling. I was getting the impression that she liked Eldon.
    “You don't seem very old fashioned, so I'll rule out walking the plank,” Eldon continued.
    Stratt stood and started circling him. “I can be old fashioned when it strikes my fancy,” she said.
    She had her back turned to me for a moment. I glanced at the Transligraph and then for something I could club Stratt over the head with. My eyes met Eldon's, which were looking at me sternly.
    “No!” he mouthed.
    “I was thinking about something else though,” Stratt came around in front of Eldon again and leaned close to him. He stared straight ahead instead of down at her smiling sensuously up at him. “I'm always in need of more crew,” she said. She had her back turned to me.
    I stopped listening and stood as quietly as I could and tried to keep my skirts from rustling. I opened the little door to the Transligraph and started tapping out my message on the keys. They made faint clicking sounds as I typed out the words “Help. Prisoner.” The S key stuck and made a sharp metallic click when I released it.
    Then there was another click. The sound of a pistol cocking right behind my head.

Stormy Seas: Part 19

    Sweat began to bead on my forehead as soon as we stepped past the boiler room on the pirate ship. A fairly young looking man with a bristling beard was leading myself and a handful of other crew from the Lethargy. We had been taken prisoner and brought down into the bowels of the pirate's ship.
    “Not so good lighting, yes?” Ameya whispered at my side.
    I shushed him. The bearded man had a pistol in his hand and was watching us closely.
    “Through there!” he ordered. He pointed with his gun through a dark little door that most of the other captives had already crawled through.
    I bent down and inside with Ameya following close behind. It was very dark inside, since there were no windows or lamps, and it was quite warm from the boilers.
    I could hear rather than see the other captives as I tried to find a place to sit. I heard the door slam shut and the lock click just before I sat on someone who I had thought was an empty space.
    “Excuse me,” I apologized as I inched past him, trying not to step on anyone else.
    There was silence after that for a long moment. Outside I could hear the sounds of the engine and of shovels scraping coal.
    “Is very dark now, yes?” Ameya broke the silence.
    Someone snorted.
    “Get used to the dark lad,” another man said. “They'll probably sell us to the gold mines in Africa.”
    “It'll be coal mining, everyone needs coal,” someone else added pessimistically.
    “Where are you fellows from?” I asked. I crossed my arms over my knees and leaned against the wall.
    “The H.M.S. Gloryling,” someone said. It was hard to tell who was who.
    “We were sunk by the pirates and they pulled us few out of the water.”
    “And we've been in here ever since.”
    “Really,” I commented. I half turned and started poking at the wall behind me. “Do they ever open the door besides when they bring new captives in?”
    “Never that I've seen.”
    “What have you been eating?” I asked.
    “They open a hatch in the door and put the food in. If you can really call it food.”
    “After a few weeks you'll be happy just to see that!” an older sounding voice said.
    “That sounds like what we need,” I said. I shifted to my knees. “Which way is the door?”
    “Here,” a voice to my left said.
    I crawled that way, trying to be careful of where the others were. My hand hit the metal door and I began running my hand along it, looking for the hatch.
    I felt an indent in the lower part of the door, just about five or six inches above the floor.
    “Have any of you ever tried to open it?” I asked.
    “Sometimes for light,” someone said.
    I started sliding it open with my fingers. It was slow going until I got it open wide enough to fit my fingers through. I bent down and stuck my head out. I turned to the side and craned my neck to see  out into the boiler room. There were two pirates there, one sitting and smoking a pipe, and the other stoking the fires. Neither noticed me opening the hatch.
    I pushed the hatch open the rest of the way and tried to see if my shoulders would fit through.
    “Where are you going Mr. Elderton?” Ameya asked.
    I pushed myself back into the cell and shushed him.
    “You'll end up shot,” someone said.
    “I'll try and find a way to get us all out of this,” I said. “Keep quiet if you don't want to be sold in Africa!”
    I tried again, putting my arms through first. My shoulders made it through the opening and I continued crawling out.
    The pirate who had been shoveling coal tossed his shovel aside with a loud crash that startled me but when I looked he was climbing a ladder out of the hold and his smoking companion appeared to be sleeping.
    I continued crawling out until I was stopped by my backside. The hatch was just barely too short. I tried to wiggle myself through, which caused the metal of the door to dig into my hip bones. One more wiggle got me through and my legs followed easily.
    I crawled away from the boilers quickly and started looking for a hiding spot while rubbing my bruised middle. Then I had another idea.
    I turned around and went back to the boiler room.
    “Mr. Elderton?” Ameya whispered through the still open hatch.
    I wordlessly bent down and slid it shut again. I stood and peered around the corner into the boiler room. The pirate was still seated with his pipe in his hand and his eyes closed with his head on his chest. I took careful footsteps across the coal littering the floor and then climbed up the side of their boiler where the pistons were hard at work moving the ship.
    I passed them carefully and found a huge bin shaped thing filled to the ceiling with coal. After I shifted some of the coal I crawled around to a place where I could look down on the boiler room. If I waited until most of the pirates had gone to bed I could sneak back down, free the others, and we could all take the pirates by surprise.
    The coal moved uneasily below me. I tried to scramble for the edge of the coal store but more and more coal slid out from underneath me. I began to feel myself sinking.
    I looked down. The chair the sleeping smoker had been sitting in was empty but I had a good guess where he was. At the controls for the giant coal box I was sitting in, prepared to drown me in coal.

Stormy Seas: Part 18

Out the window I could see the Lethargy slowly rolling onto her side. The remaining crew were hurrying to untie lifeboats and escape the ship before it sank. I watched them, scanning for Eldon and trying not to cry.
    Behind me, the door to the cabin opened. I spun around as Captain Stratt came in, hands on her hips and eyes practically laughing at me.
    “Don't look so worried,” she said. “You can thank Captain Leak out there for letting us rescue you. If we hadn't come along you'd still be on that sinking hulk.” She leaned forward a little when she talked.
    “What will you do with me?” I asked her. I tried to match her boldness.
    “Ransom,” she said casually. She strolled across the luxurious cabin and slouched into a tall leather armchair. “I like a good ransom. It's almost legitimate business, bringing people back where they belong.”
    “What about sinking ships?” I shot back.
    “I saw their engine room myself,” she said. “Their engine shot a broken piston into the boiler tank and that tore a hole down through the hull when it exploded. That's the work of a Captain who doesn't know how his ship works. I've seen it a lot more than you'd think on big old cargo ships like that. Hire a cheap Captain who knows how things work on land but not how to run a ship.”
    I looked back out the window at the Lethargy. It was noticeably lower in the water but I couldn't see the lifeboats anymore, we were hurrying away from them.
    “You might as well sit,” she said. She was watching me as she reclined with her feet over the arm of the chair.
    I sat across the room on a regular wooden chair and arranged my skirts neatly around me.
    “How's a stuck up rich girl end up on that boat?” she asked me as she tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder.
    “I fancied I could be a sailor,” I replied haughtily.
    She laughed. “What's your name?”
    “Vivian Winters,” I introduced.
    She leaned over and stuck out her hand at me. “Captain Carlotta Stratt.”
    I glanced down at her hand, trying to decide what to do.
    “I won't try to turn you into me,” she laughed. “It'd be too much work.”
    She slouched in the chair and picked up a glass bottle of rum from the floor. As she drank I marveled at her ability to slouch while wearing a corset.
    “How soon can we be back in England?” I asked her.
    “A few days,” she shrugged. She fingered the bottle as she thought. “It'll be exchanging you for the money that'll be the interesting bit.”
    I sighed. She seemed to be far too pleased with herself. “How much do you expect that I'm worth, if you don't mind me asking?”
    “I don't set the price usually,” she said. “I try to find out how much your family thinks you're worth.”
    She watched me, hoping for a reaction. I pursed my lips and tried not to give her one.
    “I should warn you though,” she continued. “Not everyone's family pays.”
    “They'll pay,” I said confidently.
    “I've heard that before,” Stratt said. “If they don't though, I won't be holding on to you either. There are plenty of people who will pay for you, if you understand, and I have to pay my crew for being kind to you.”
    “I know that you're trying to frighten me,” I told her.
    She laughed and sat up, facing me with our eyes level. “Teaching you that the world is full of harsh realities that, up until now, you've been kept hidden from.”
    I stared back at her. “Are you quite finished yet?”
    She grinned. “Looks like I'll be just as glad to be rid of you as you will to be rid of me.”
    She stood up and swaggered over to the window. Taking a spyglass from her belt she scanned  the remains of the Lethargy. “You'll be happy to know that your friends made it into the lifeboats in time.”
    I tried not to sigh with relief. It was easily accomplished since I had accidentally tied my corset a bit tighter than I usually liked and couldn't get enough air in to make myself sigh.
    Stratt turned around and collapsed the spyglass. “You have any questions for me?” she asked.
    “No,” I said. I pretended to be examining a chart on the table.
    “So you have me all figured out?”
    She came back and sat in the armchair again.
    “You were kidnapped by pirates and no one paid your ransom.” I shrugged as I said it, though I was only guessing.
    I wasn't looking but I felt something very like an icy chill from her side of the room.
    She stood and with a few quick strides she crossed the cabin and opened the door. “Abbot!” she shouted. She came back in and sat on the table where she could look at me. “I wouldn't mention Abbot's mask,” she cautioned, back to her sultry self. “He had a nasty accident with a boiler while we were taking a ship a few years ago.”
    Abbot came into the cabin. “Captain?”
    “Escort Miss Winters to her accommodations,” Stratt said.
    “Aye Captain,” he said through the vents in the mask. He grabbed my arm and practically dragged me out of the Captain's cabin.
    Down in the hold he unlocked a door and gave me a shove inside. I nearly landed on my head and before I could turn back around he had the door shut and locked again.
    I sat in a pile of my own skirts and took in the room as I tried to figure out how to go about getting up. There was a bunk against one wall with a mattress but no sheets, a bucket, and a stool. There was one small, dirty, porthole that was allowing some sunlight through to dimly illuminate my cell.
    I tried to sigh, but, when I found that I couldn't I set about unlacing my corset.
    At the very least I was finally alone with my thoughts and my thoughts had only one direction they wanted to go.
    Eldon had kissed me. The memory of it made me giddy. Then I remembered that the pirate had done the same and I felt like spitting again. At the very least the pirate had not stolen my first kiss. Eldon had.
    I clamped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from giggling.
    How can I act like this! I scolded myself. Eldon is trapped at sea and I may never see him again! I'll never know what he was going to say after we kissed!
    I used the stool and dragged myself upward as I tried to untangle my feet from my skirts. When I was standing I looked out the porthole.
    There was nothing but blue water and blue horizon.
    Of course. I thought. I sighed and sat down on the stool. Eldon was gone and I was certain that I would never see him again.

Sleep is a Wonderful Thing

Somehow I got myself into the habit of going to bed around 11 every night. The problem with that is that my family is in the habit of waking up around 5 or 6 in the morning. The real problem with that is that my body seems to need about 9-10 hours of sleep a night to function normally. And by normally I mean not crying all the time and not assuming that everyone else in the world hates me.

Crying is usually my second warning that I need to get a good night's sleep. I'll cry at a movie on tv, or at a song that usually doesn't make me cry. Or something in my life that normally doesn't bother me quite so much will make me cry. By then it's too late to do anything since if I can't stop crying and just go to bed it usually means that I need to be somewhere or do something.

The real problem with me lacking sleep comes after the crying has started and before I can make it to sleep. All it takes is one comment, or one look from someone and I immediately think that everyone around me hates me. The first time I remember feeling this was once when I was about 10 or 11 I spent a week with a friend who insisted that we stay up late every night. Then one of the last days we were there my friend shut and locked the door to the back deck while a friend of her mother's was outside. After she noticed that it was locked and we let her bang on the glass for a minute I went and opened it, taking the blame for my friend. To me she seemed furious, as if Hades was opening up behind her and commanding Cerberus to come running out at me. The rest of the week I was certain that she was still mad at me, but not only her, both of my friends parents and every one of their family that we went to visit.


I'm thinking about this now because I'm tired. I'm still in the earliest of stages, which means a mild state of panic. I used to feel it a lot during the school year and I always attributed it to not having my homework completed. But now there is no homework. There's nothing that I need to complete before tomorrow except having a good night's rest, and I'm panicking. I think I'm worried about having Thanksgiving off of work, or about getting to work on time tomorrow, or about writing more of Stormy Seas. But I probably won't have work on Thanksgiving, work isn't until 11 and I know I'll get there on time, and I just finished writing the next segment of Stormy Seas. I'm just very, very tired. And with that, I go to bed.

Stormy Seas: Part 17

    “What colors is she flying?” Ray shouted up to the crows nest. We were both on top of the sail, dragging it up. In the morning light we could clearly see the other ship hurrying toward us.
    “Still can't tell!” Victor called down to us. He had a spyglass to his eye and was closely watching the other ship.
    “Vivian will be curious about it,” I said. “I should go find her.” I looked down to see if she was already there looking up at me.
    “When I thought you were a nobody like me I wanted to tell you not to get your hopes up with her,” Ray said.
    “Now that I'm the foolish son of a cloth maker you've changed your mind?” I asked.
    “Yep,” he said. He finished tying off. “You could go be a fat, rich man with a fat, rich wife.”
    I looked down at my lean frame. “I don't think there's any hope of me becoming fat, and, at this rate, no hope of becoming rich either.”
    “There are always ways to get kicked off,” Ray insisted. “If you were drunk or started a fight. I'd even let you hit me a few times.”
    “I'd have to do something spectacular to get kicked off of this ship.”
    “I could knock you around and have them take you to a hospital,” Ray offered.
    “No, no, I think I'll be just fine staying put,” I hurriedly tied off my knot.
    “Pirates!” Victor shouted from the crows nest. “They're pirates!”
    Adrenaline shot through my body at lightning speed. I grabbed the end of my rope and swung down to the deck.
    Captain Peck was coming out of his cabin.
    “Full speed, Rhoden,” Peck called up to the ship's wheel.
    “Can we outrun them?” I asked the captain.
    “Their ship is probably half the weight of this one and the wind is in their favor.” He straightened his collar. “No. If we hurry on our way they might not think it's worth chasing down a cargo ship,” Captain Peck replied. “Victor, take my keys and get the guns. Just in case. Eldon, Ray, get the engines moving.”
    “They've been moving at full speed all night!” Ray complained.
    “Nothing less than one hundred knots.”
    “Come on Eldon.”
    Ray tromped away muttering about knots. We both hurried down the ladder and raced to the engine room. Patrick and Michael were already there checking the boilers. The wheels above us were making a terrifying grinding noise.
    “What's going on?” Ray called as we came into the boiler room.
    “We can't quite tell,” Patrick explained.
    “One of the pistons cracked but we don't know what's making the noise,” Michael had to shout over the sound of it.
    “I was just going to ask the Captain if we can let it cool to work on fixing it.” Patrick started to go past us.
    “We have to outrun a pirate ship right now, fix it later!” Ray commanded.
    “Pirates!” Michael exclaimed.
    I nodded rather than try to shout over Ray and Patrick.
    “We have to let it cool! If we don't stop the engine she'll break,” Patrick insisted.
    “She's held this long,” Ray said. “Fill the firebox again, we have to get this ship moving!”
    Patrick gave in and he and Michael began shoveling coal to stoke the fires.
    “What about the cracked piston?” I asked.
    In response Ray began climbing up to the wheels.
    “Ray!” I called.
    “I'm just climbing up where I can see!” he shouted back. “Go tell the Captain that we're working on it!”
    I turned reluctantly and started to climb the ladder leading out of the boiler room. As I was climbing out I heard the sound of heavy metal snapping followed by a rapid series of what sounded like cannon fire. Ray shouted and Patrick and Michael started running. I sped up the ladder to make room for them and climbed out into the hold before I heard one last, deafening, bang. The engine had exploded.
    “Ray!” I shouted back down. Other than the hiss of steam the boiler room was eerily silent.
    “What's happened?” Captain Peck demanded. I could hardly look at him. It was him rushing us that had made the engine blow.
    “Ray, Michael, and Patrick are still down there,” I said to him.
    “Tell Rhoden to send another distress signal,” he ordered. “And send someone down to help.” With that he began to descend the ladder himself.
    I turned and ran for the control cabin.
    “Something is wrong with engines Mr. Elderton?” Ameya asked as I ran by.
    “They blew. Go help Captain Peck!” I called over my shoulder. I looked back to make sure that he went.
    Rhoden was still at the helm in the control cabin. “What happened Eldon?”
    “Send another distress signal,” I repeated. “We lost the engines and we have wounded.”
    “Hold this.” He let go of the wheel and I took his place. Out of the open window in front of me I could see the morning sky and the bright blue waves shimmering like diamonds, and almost directly in our path was a large ship.
    I glanced back at Rhoden, bent over some controls. “I'll tell them that we'll ask for aid from a passing pirate ship. I'm sure they'll board us soon.”
    The Lethargy was already slowing to a halt.
    “What will happen when they catch us?” I asked.
    “I can't say for sure,” Rhoden sighed, still tapping out the message. They'll take the cargo that they want, if we let them take it they might let all of us stay with the ship and we can use the sails to make our way to Boston. It'll be slow going without the engines but we'll make it.”
    “What about Vivian?” I asked.
    Rhoden was silent for a moment. “If she's lucky they won't find her,” he said finally.
    “What if they find her?”
    “They might only take her for ransom, but then, they might not. You can try to protect her but I'm sure they'll only kill you.”
    I imagined every horrible fate that could befall Vivian. My hands left the wheel and I ran from the control cabin without another word to Rhoden. I raced down to the galley where I had left Vivian after breakfast.
    “Eldon!” she called when I burst through the door. “What's going on? We heard terrible noises!”
    “The engine blew,” I began to explain. Her hair was in a long braid and her face and apron were spattered with flour from helping Jack cook. “Come on.” I grabbed her wrist and ran back out of the galley.
    “What's going on?” she asked again.
    “Pirates,” I said quickly.
    She made a sound almost like a whimper.
    “Get dressed.” I let go of her wrist when we had reached the door to her cabin. “Shoes and everything. Make yourself look,” I could think of no other way to describe it so I said, “rich.”
    She untied the apron and tossed it on the floor of her cabin. I looked away as she pulled on her stockings and grabbed her boots.
    “My coat is behind the door,” she said quietly.
    I found her coat and held it up for her to put on.
    “What about your corset?” I asked.
    She nodded and pulled it out of a drawer. “How far away are they?” she asked as she wrapped it around her waist.
    “Close,” I said. “I want to find you a hiding spot before they get on board.”
    “Why have me dress up?”
    “So that if they find you they'll be more inclined to hold you for ransom,” I explained.
    Canons fired. I ran to the porthole and saw the pirate ship almost on top of us. “Warning shots,” I explained to Vivian. “Come on.” I grabbed her hand again and ran. There was quite a lack of good hiding places on the ship. I wanted to make it as close to the rudder as I could to try to hide behind the water stores where I thought the pirates would be least likely to look. As we ran down the hall and past the hold I heard Captain Peck and Rhoden shouting orders, followed by more cannon fire.
    “Are we shooting at them?” Vivian asked.
    “We don't have any cannons,” I admitted. I had never been on board while we were under fire before, and the shots sounded so close now.
    “In here.” I opened a door and hurried Vivian through.
    It was dark and I had to feel my way between the tanks to find a space away from the door. Vivian was holding tightly to my hand. I found a corner near the back and pushed Vivian into it.
    “Here,” I said.
    Her grip tightened. “Stay,” she pleaded.
    “I'm staying,” I assured her. We waited in the dark listening to shouts and footsteps all around us. The cannons had stopped but by now I was certain that we had been boarded, if I was found coming out from a rarely used room it would surely raise suspicion. I imagined the pirates would be going through the cargo hold looking for valuables. Then they would move on to the Captain's cabin and look for expensive equipment or money. They would leave without ever knowing Vivian was on board.
    Vivian was still holding on to my hand as we waited in the blackness, and I thought I could hear her heart beating. I stroked the back of her hand with my thumb.
    “Are you afraid?” I asked her.
    “Yes,” she said. We sat in silence for a moment. “Are you?” she asked.
    “Terrified,” I admitted truthfully. I was very aware of my own heartbeat, and I wished I had a gun, just in case.
    “That isn't very encouraging.”
    “What could I say that would be?”
    I looked down at her in the darkness and tried to find her face.
    She thought. “Nothing,” she conceded.
    “Alright.” So I put my arm around her waist and kissed her. I felt time stop for a moment as I held her and drank in every detail of the moment.
    A gunshot very close by surprised us both. Vivian put her arms around my neck and hid her face in my shoulder.
    I probably shouldn't have kissed her, I thought now. Though, I hoped I would have the chance to do it again.
    “Do you love me?” she asked.
    I rested my head on her shoulder so my forehead was touching the side of her neck. I had to tell her something but there was no way to answer her.
    “Vivian,” I said into her arms. “If I could-”
    The door opened suddenly. I felt another burst of adrenaline and lifted my head. Light was coming in through the door and around the water tank just enough that I could see Vivian's wide blue eyes full of fear in front of me.
    “Told you this is where they'd hide her!”
    A heavy hand came down on my shoulder and dragged me backward. I stumbled away from Vivian and landed on my back at the bottom of another tank. Two pirates were standing over us holding pistols. The one who had tossed me aside was dressed in a long black coat with brass buttons. He whistled at Vivian.
    “No wonder they hid you,” he said. “Come on outta there.”
    Vivian was backed against the wall. I rolled over to stand but was grabbed by the shoulders and pushed back down. I looked up at a man with a leather mask over the lower half of his face. It strapped around the back of his head and had vents for air. He stuck the barrel of his pistol in my face.
    Vivian screamed as the man in the coat hauled her out from between the water tanks.
    “There, now how 'bout a kiss?”
    He grabbed her head in his hands and shoved his face into hers. She started struggling and he backed her into the water tank.
    “Hey! Clark! You heard Captain Stratt!” the other pirate called through his mask. His gun was still aimed at me.
    He let go of Vivian. “Just having a little fun.” He grinned.
    Vivian spat on his shoes and he swore at her.
    “Abbot! Clark!” Another pirate shouted.
    “Coming!” Clark called back. He took Vivian roughly by the arm. “Bring him,” he ordered with a point in my direction.
    “On your feet!”
    I stood and felt the pistol press between my shoulder blades. Clark dragged Vivian ahead of us and I followed them, keeping my hands up near my shoulders and trying not to think about kicking Clark in the back.
    On deck the rest of the crew was seated in a large cluster surrounded by pirates and guns. Captain Peck and Rhoden had been bound to one one of the masts. The pirate ship was beside us with a few ropes linking the two decks.
    “With the others!” I was shoved toward them and sat down. I scanned the crew looking for Ray. I saw Michael nearby. He was holding a hand against a large wound on the side of his head. His other arm was bleeding and looked burnt.
    Vivian screamed again and my attention snapped back to her.
    “Found her Cap'n!”
    “You meet pirates before, Mr. Elderton?” Ameya whispered to me.
    “Of course not,” I whispered back.
    “Their Captain is surprising,” Ameya said. “Is coming.”
    A woman came down the stairs from our aft deck. She had leather boots on that came up high on her legs, and a daringly short skirt of red velvet. A ruffle above her corset hinted at a shirt underneath. Her dark blond hair was loose around her shoulders and plumes of pheasant and peacock feathers stuck out of the front of her hat.
    I looked away, feeling uncomfortable staring at her.
    “Good work Clark,” she said. “Get her on board before this old hulk sinks.”
    Sinks? I thought.
    “Aye Cap'n!”
    Vivian screamed again as he carried her away.
    “Put her in my cabin!” Captain Stratt shouted after him. She turned her attention back to us and strode toward Captain Peck.
    “How did you know she was on board?” Peck asked her.
    “We intercepted your messages,” Stratt said cooly. She leaned toward Captain Peck seductively. “You don't seem to know very much about these waters, Captain,” she mocked. “I thought everyone knew not to send wireless messages this far out.”
    “I'll admit to being warned,” Peck said.
    Rhoden grunted unhappily beside him.
    “Too late to fix it now,” Stratt continued. “And that hole in your ship is too low for my cannon fire. You should have taken better care of your ship.” She shifted to the side so her hip stuck out. “I'm sorry Captain, this must be embarrassing for you.”
    Peck steadily met her gaze as she laughed in his face.
    I looked away and watched the pirates load up their ship with coal and other supplies from the Lethargy. I saw Clark's black coat coming back and felt an angry weight in my stomach.
    “Alright men!” Stratt shouted, her alluring tone was replaced with a commanding one. “Hurry it up, I want our ship clear when she goes down!”

Stormy Seas: Part 16

    “You are having a nice day Miss Vivian?” Ameya asked.
    Eldon had gone to help with the sails and left me alone in my cabin with socks and shirts to mend. I had neglected to lock the door.
    “Yes, thank you,” I replied politely. I went back to sewing, hoping that he would go away.
    “You and Mr. Elderton are good friends now, yes?” he asked. He was standing just inside the doorway or I would have gotten up and closed it on him.
    “Yes, I like to think we are,” I said truthfully. I couldn't help smiling as I thought about him.
    “Ah, you are lovers then?”
    What! I nearly screamed.
    “Ameya!” Someone else called.
    “Yes?”
    Michael stuck his head in the doorway. “Miss Winters?” he asked.
    “Yes?” I asked.
    “Another ship has been spotted, I wondered if you wanted to see it.”
    “That sounds lovely!” I left the mending on my bunk and gladly followed after him.
    “We don't often pass other ships out here,” Michael explained. “I thought you would like to see.”
    It was clear that Michael was fond of me. However, since I was the only female on board I was not certain if I should be flattered. Besides, I was rather fond of Eldon. He might not be the daring ship's captain I had envisioned before running away, but I realized that I liked him because he was real.
    We came up on deck and I started searching the rigging for him. I was surprised at how low the sun was on the horizon. The day had practically flown past.
    “It's on the port side,” Michael said.
    I turned around and tried to remember which way was which. He pointed out the right way and we both leaned against the railing.
    “Where is it?” I asked.
    “Over there somewhere,” he pointed toward the lowering sun. “They spotted it earlier heading toward us.”
    I was squinting and shading my eyes but I couldn't be sure that I was seeing anything.
    “We'll probably come closest to it sometime tomorrow morning.”
    “Do you ever wonder where the other ships are going?” I asked.
    “On their routes, same as our ship,” Michael replied.
    “But they might be going anywhere in the world, even far off places like China.” I felt like a scene from a moving picture with the wind tugging my hair and skirts as I stared off into the sunset. I hoped Eldon would see me.
    “Not many ships in the Atlantic go all the way to China.”
    He wasn't getting my point. I wasn't sure what my point was, but that was beside the point.
    “See anything?” Eldon's voice called from high above me.
    I turned and looked up. He was dangling from a rope with his bare feet on the rigging. He looked quite dashing without his jacket and hat, a bit more wild than usual.
    “Nothing,” I called up.
    He jumped away from the rigging and practically flew down to the deck.
    “Try this,” he said. He handed me a spyglass. “Try to keep it just to the left of the sun.
    I opened the spyglass and turned to look. If I could keep the sun just outside the edge of my view I could make out a column of smoke and a sail.
    “It's so far away,” I commented.
    “We're moving very quickly toward each other,” Eldon reminded me.
    “Like I said, we should pass closest to them sometime tomorrow morning,” Michael pointed out. I had completely forgotten that he was there.
    “Did you finish all the mending?” Eldon asked with a sarcastic grin.
    “I left it all for you,” I said flatly. I looked back through the spyglass at the horizon. He took it out of my hands. “Go back and finish it then,” he said. He gave me a little wave back toward my cabin. “Michael and I have more chores before supper.”
    “Right, back to work.” Michael said. “See you at supper Miss.”
    Eldon caught my arm as I was turning away and leaned toward me until our cheeks were almost touching. My heart involuntarily skipped a beat and he whispered into my ear “Lock your door.” Then he turned and clambered back up the rigging.