The Ruthless Captain

Chapter 9

I nudged him awake, helping him sit up in bed but it was no use. He was too far deep in his sleep and in too much pain to stay conscious. Shooing Jeffery away when he lingered a longer by the foot of our bed, I smiled politely to reassure him I had everything under control.

"Come on, Thomas." I murmured into his ear, slipping a pillow underneath his head so that I could get a better angle in hopes of feeding him the watery broth. "I know you're hurting but you need to eat." I placed the spoon in his mouth, pouring the cooled liquid into his mouth.

He sputtered, choking and coughing out the soup.

Running my hand down his chest, I helped him sit a little bit further up for him to get the soup out quicker, all in the while cooing and muttering words to reassure him. "It's alright. It's alright." I repeated, laying him back down softly onto the bed once he had stopped. He grimaced in pain, eyes still shut tightly like he was suffering the worst nightmare of his life.

"Maybe not dinner tonight." I frowned down at the man. Sweat beaded his forehead while his whole body was covered in a thin sheet of sweat. He looked worse than a few moments ago. Grabbing a clean towel from the bathroom, I rinsed it in warm clean water and wiped down his body. My hands trembled when it ran down all his glistening muscles, pausing timidly when I wiped down his chest. How a man who made me fall in love with him so quickly was a mystery to me. His deep heavy breathing made me stop my hands, worry filling my body once more. Be strong, I thought. One of us had to be strong for both of us.

Taking time to clean everywhere I could see, I was satisfied when the crease in his eyebrows softened, showing me he was feeling a tad bit more comfortable now that he had a light wash. Just when I was about to pull away to go to the bathroom to pour away the dirtied water, I felt a hand clasp my elbow, pulling me back and not letting me take a step further.

"Stay." He mumbled. His eyes were half closed, half opened. He was coming in and out of consciousness, not knowing when the day the began and when the night ended. I smiled down at him, brushing his curls back with my hand like a mother who took care of her children and placed the pot of water I used to clean his body onto the table beside the bed. Climbing into the space he provided me from his curved body, I scooted closer towards him, carefully paying attention to his wounds so I wouldn't hurt him. He wrapped his arms around me, sighing deeply into my ears. We fell asleep in each other's arms until the sun's rays lit up our small room.

Thomas was getting better by the next day. Not by a lot but I could see the difference on his handsome face. He was no longer gritting his teeth and his brows no longer knitted in pain when he slept. Still, even by this improvement, he was drifting in and out of consciousness. I busied myself during the day by cleaning his wounds at every meal, keeping my eye on his temperature and made sure he was comfortable while lying down in bed. When late afternoon crept up on both of us, I looked outside the window and realized the ship was still traveling. It was odd that I was on the ship for so long now and I had shared the same bed as the Captain himself, yet I still did not know where we were heading off to. I heard a grumble escape from his lips. Turning around, his eyelids slowly fluttered open, giving me a quick glance at his sea blue irises.

"Come here." Thomas was far too weak to lift his arm up fully to gesture me to walk towards him. I grabbed the book he had left on the drawer and walked over towards his side of the bed. Sitting on the edge, he took my hand in his and rubbed my thumb soothingly. Like the very first night he had laid his hands on me, my stomach completed little flips inside and my heart rate raced, picking up speed when he opened his eyes bigger to look into mine. I wasn't sure if he would remember this quiet moment we were sharing but in that moment, I didn't care.

"Go back to sleep..." I whispered, placing a kiss on his forehead. His lips turned up into a small smile from my touch. "Boy..." I teased, unable to help myself.

"I thought I told you about what would happen if you called me 'Boy' again." His voice was an air's whisper.

"You no longer scare me, Thomas." I smiled at him. "I can handle you. Go back to sleep."

"I can't." He protested, his eyelids betraying him and closing again. Clearly, he was losing the fight against sleep.

"Shall, I read for you then?" I asked, holding up the leather bound book in my hands. Flipping to the page he marked with a red ribbon, I looked at the scribbled writing inside.

"It's not much of a book." He muttered, sighing again like every word he spoke caused him much pain.

I looked closer at it, noticing that the pages were dated and the entire book was not filled with words. There was still a giant chunk of pages that were blank, almost as if it was waiting for the writer to finish. Suddenly, I realized it wasn't a book but in fact, it was his diary.

"It's your diar-" I looked back down at Thomas but he was already in deep sleep.

I shouldn't read it. I shouldn't read his diary, I thought as my fingers flipped to a random ink decorated page.