A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 4

Mal raps briskly on the cabin door. "Can I come in?" he calls. Alice looks up from pulling on her boots and grins.

"It's your cabin!" she calls through the closed door. A moment later, Mal comes in. He glances at Alice — she's sitting in the chair next to his desk and struggling with her boots which are, thankfully, not on top of the desk this time.

"Just wanted to make sure you weren't changing," he says, heading for his chest.

"Oh, what, my girlish charms aren't enough for you?"

They're too much for me, he thinks, and he's instantly glad he has something to do here. He can always rely on his ability to bury himself in a task as a reasonable distraction from certain young women who are probably giving him terrible big pleading eyes and oh-so-cutely struggling to get on the boots that are probably too big like everything else she wears and—

"Why'd you give it to me anyway?"

The question knocks Mal back to his senses and he actually focuses on pulling out his boots and raincoat. "Huh?"

"The cabin. I mean, it's your cabin, right? And you're the captain and all that, so I understand why it's not Gunny's. But why'd you give it to me?"

Mal shrugs. "You're a paying customer," he says, turning around. Alice's boots are on and they fit well, a bit snugly, even, closely hugging the curve of her calves.

"My eyes are up here," Alice says.

"I was just admiring the craftsmanship," Mal says, grinning lightly. Alice returns the expression, but her tone doesn't come out nearly as light-hearted as her expression.

"I'm serious, Mal. Why'd you give me the cabin?"

"You're a paying customer," Mal says defensively. "Didn't seem right asking you to pitch a hammock in the hold — you even got one?"

"No," Alice admits, though she can't help thinking that she would've preferred that. It would have made a perfect basis for future daydreams about working on a ship like this to really know what it was like to sleep as the crew did. But then again, she did have a prime view from here, where she could pretend she was the captain on this trip, sleeping in the cabin surrounded by logs and stores and — Wellingtons, apparently.

"Then what're you complaining for? I promised I'd get you where you're going, and I let you do it in comfort, and you're complaining about that?"

"No. Well, I just mean, it's your room, isn't it? Shouldn't you be using it?"

"Bit late for that, isn't it?"

Only if this turns out the way I hope, Alice thinks. She knows how unlikely that is. But where she thinks she'll be able to get a straight answer out of Professor Hedgewick, Mal knows far better what this day will look like. It's probably souring his mood more than a little bit, but he isn't about to let that stop him. Visits to the Professor are never his idea of an enjoyable afternoon — but he'll do what he has to to get by. And if this girl is gonna do it, with his help or without, he might just consider offering. As a favor. For Benny.

Unwilling to entertain that thought any longer, he practically shoves Alice off the chair.

"Hey! Rude!"

"Oh, sorry, I thought you said I should go back to using this room as if it were mine?"

"That wasn't what I mean," she complains. "All I meant was, you should get to sleep in a real bed."

"And I will, starting tonight."

"Oh. Yes, I suppose. I didn't really think—"

Neither did Mal, it seems, because the room suddenly gets incredibly tense. For an instant, he can't explain it, and then he remembers that all the other people who have found themselves in his cabin when he's changing shoes are aware of his missing leg.