The Bastard Girl (The Bastard Girl Series, Book #1)

Chapter 14~ The Bastard Girl and her Cabin Boy

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.