The Stowaway

IX

"Love, like everything else in life, should be a discovery, an adventure, and like most adventures, you don't know you're having one until you're right in the middle of it." E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly 

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IX.

Eliza's seasickness promptly returned during the night, and instead of sleeping, she spent most of her time cooped over the privy as she threw up every last bit of her evening meal.

She longed for more of the ginger tea that Eggs had brought her, but she dared not move from her position. She would not allow herself to make a mess of the captain's cabin. If she did, surely then he would throw her overboard.

She was exhausted, and her mouth tasted foul. She longed to drink something, and to clean her teeth.

As day broke, she saw the sunrise begin to shine in through the little window by Captain Buckley's desk but peering out from the privy. She was not alone for long once she sun was up.

Without a knock, the captain entered the cabin. He was dressed and made a beeline for his desk. It took him a moment to realise that Eliza was not in the bed. He immediately looked around, frowning impatiently.

He quickly spotted her in the privy, crouching over the box. Eliza was certain she was a brilliant shade of green.

"Do you know where you can go where you won't get seasick?" he asked her unsympathetically. "Back to your father's house."

The ship went over a wave. No doubt it was small, but to Eliza, it was the size of a house. She promptly hurled again. She could hear the captain making a noise of displeasure. She was certainly not enjoying it either.

Just as Eliza was about to weakly tell the captain where he could go, he promptly left the cabin, leaving her alone. He certainly was not one for sympathy or sentiment, or even conversation for that matter. Though Eliza was sure that she would not want to have a conversation with someone in her condition for fear of getting sick herself.

The door to the cabin opened again about fifteen minutes later. She heard loud footsteps cross the floor, before the man cleared his throat as he stood before her.

Eliza forced herself to look up from the privy to see that Captain Buckley had returned, and he was holding out a hot cup of something to her. The smell quickly reached her, and she knew it was the ginger tea that had settled her stomach the day before.

He was looking down on her with a disapproving scowl, but then that was how he had always looked. Maybe it was simply Eliza who annoyed him. The first time that she had met him on the dock a few days earlier, he looked just as displeased.

How horrid would it be for one to be so perpetually dissatisfied?

Eliza forced herself to accept the cup, and she drank, willing the ginger to take effect instantly, even though it would not. She prayed she would be able to keep the tea down long enough for it to work.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

"If you are going to travel aboard this ship, Miss Banes, then you are going to work. If you are throwing up, you are of no use to me," Captain Buckley snapped icily.

Eliza flinched, but stared up at him with confusion and curiosity. His hard, cold demeanour had not changed. It was as though he was determined to be dissatisfied with her, and everything else.

What on earth would have to happen to a person to have them become this? What had happened to the captain? Who was he really? Surely he could not have always been this way.