The Lady of the Sea ~ Complete - Will be Edited Soon!

Chapter 12

Bella followed Berkeley down into the hold and through the small but sturdy door that led into the galley. Berkeley surveyed the room. Vegetables were strewn across the counter and a pot of water sat there, unable to be boiled. He turned to Bella, "Cold soup again?"
Bella frowned at him, "It's all I know how to cook. If you hadn't murdered the real cook..."
Berkeley sighed, "Bella, it was necessary. If we let a mutineer get away with something like that, the whole crew would go against us."
Looking down at the dirty floor, Bella mumbled, "He didn't deserve that."
Berkeley tried to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she leaned away from his touch, clearly not looking for comfort from him. The Quartermaster inhaled deeply then said, "Well, I'll leave you to it." And he left, closing the door behind him.
Bella remained where she was, standing stock still. She hadn't had enough time to properly digest all that had happened the past week and it was catching up with her. A single tear fell from her eye, but she quickly swiped it off her cheek and began preparing lunch for the hungry pirates.
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Bella was sitting on one of the water barrels drinking her portion of the cold soup when First Mate Maddock approached her. He hopped up on the barrel directly next to her's, the lack of personal space making Bella uncomfortable. He had a strong body oder that made Bella want to stop eating. His teeth were as yellow as the rest of the Pirates, but unlike the others, he had an eyepatch on. It reminded Bella of the stories her father used to tell her about pirates, she hadn't actually believed that any of them had lost an eye.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Maddock leered at her.
Bella scooted over one barrel, but Maddock only followed her.
"What do you want?" She asked briskly, figuring that if she didn't act scared he wouldn't bother her for long.
Maddock put a finger to his lips, "Shh, little lass, I need to ask you an important question."
Bella tensed, his tone was too menacing and alarms were going off in her head. The man just seemed worse than all of the others, crueler, perhaps.
"You've been in the Captain's cabin?"
Bella nodded, "Just to bring food, but yes."
A grin spread across Maddock's face, "Good. Very good." He stopped to make sure there was no one listening and continued, "You see, I think our Captain is hiding something. You wouldn't happen to know something , would you?"
Bella's mind flashed to the emeralds she had found. She could easily tell Maddock, her intuition told her she shouldn't. She couldn't figure out why, though, she owed Captain Kell no loyalty. He had given the command to kill Jeff, after all. Thinking about Jeff sealed her resolve and she turned to face Maddock, letting her emotions take over.
"I just might."
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