Piracy

18. Teasing Him

Harry let go of my arm the moment we appeared in the sunlight and he commanded me to walk behind him.  The captain was a completely different man when he was on deck.  He was mean, ornery and very loud. I found myself flinching at the volume of his voice on more than one occasion.

"Payne! How soon until we find another ship?" He shouted across the entire expanse of decking. 

"Working on it, Captain!" Liam shouted back. "Hopefully by tomorrow," he added.

Harry raced across the deck and up to the quarter deck where Liam stood at the helm. Liam turned to face the captain, but held his ground. I could see that he and the other crew members held a great deal of respect for the captain.

"Hopefully isn't good enough!" Harry bellowed at Liam. "I need an answer by nightfall."

"Aye aye, Captain," Liam responded solemnly.

How on earth did he expect Liam to find another ship, I wondered. He didn't seem very appreciative of the navigator's efforts.

Next he was barking commands at Louis about overseeing the riggings and some possible repair that he wanted done. Louis sped into action, cracking the whip at two men by the names of Bartholomew and Giles. He didn't actually hit them, but the cracking sound made them work faster. I closed my eyes, trying to fight off memories of my whippings at the hand of Master Aubigné. 

The captain continued on like this for some time, barking orders at every crew member and deck hand he encountered. I briefly made the acquaintance of crew members by the names of McKitrick and Abner who were busy following Zayn's commands to ready some weapons in preparation for their next encounter.

After that, I tried to block out the sound of Harry's shouts since I barely understood what he was saying anyway. Instead, I took my first real, uninterrupted look at the ocean. The sky was a brilliant azure and the sun was quite strong, making me feel overly warm in a matter of minutes. I looked around to every side of the ship and found it somewhat unsettling that there was no land in sight anywhere, although the calm, blue waters were stunning. I wondered briefly in which direction we were traveling, but it soon dawned on me that we must have been heading south by the intensity of heat. Had we traveled north, we'd likely be encountering snow at this time of year.

After Harry stopped yelling at everyone, he simply strode around every single deck, inspecting the ship with his own eyes. He was quite thorough about it, too. Finally, he turned to me and said, "Would you like to take the helm?" 

"Sure." I giggled a bit at the idea of me steering this gigantic ship over the waves. I followed him up to the quarter deck, where he dismissed the other crew for a bit. The wheel was bigger than I expected. He positioned me in front of it and showed me where to place my hands. Then he placed his hands over mine, his chest pressed firmly to my back. He didn't take control, though. I assumed that he was just guiding me in case I made a dreadful mistake. 

"Come right ninety degrees," he said calmly. "But do it very slowly."

I carefully began to turn the wheel, afraid of going too quickly, but Harry then grasped my hands and steered us steadily to the right. It took much more effort to turn the wheel than I had expected. It felt as the ship was tilting a bit as we turned and I glanced to see if anyone had been taken by surprise at our sudden turn. Not a one - all were still standing, attending to their respective tasks. 

Once we were traveling in the new direction for some time, I just stood at the helm with Harry's hands over mine, enjoying the breeze in my hair and Harry's breath on my cheek. 

"Do you do this with all of your...." I couldn't come up with the right word, but it was no secret that Harry had been with many other women. "Umm...I mean, all of your female companions?"