Chapter eight
For the rest of the week Derek kept himself busy with the managing the ship.
He wanted her to get used to the idea that they were not turning back. This would be the way of life from now on. In actuality, he wanted to get used to the idea himself as well. Ever since she left abruptly a few years ago, he had been determined to put things right again. He just couldn’t think of another way to make her understand without going about it the way he had. Sooner or later, her stubbornness would have to subside. He wasn’t so sure about that though now that she was on his ship. He’d expected her to be upset at first but enough time had passed that she should be at least showing signs of acceptance.
Caspin elbowed him a few times to get him re-focused on working the ship.
He just didn’t understand it. Everything had fallen into place as though it was supposed to happen. But he was still dealing with trifling things. Her temper for one, but his men seemed leery with the prospect of her being aboard. They didn’t see it as good luck. He’d heard a few different times now them throwing salt over their shoulders or walking around the main mast backwards to counter the bad luck they were sure a crafter was bringing to the ship. Derek never lied to his men. If she were to join him, they need to be aware of who she was. He’d smacked Steppe in the head a time or two to snap him out of blaming every little thing on bad luck. Just because she acted hot tempered didn’t mean she’d curse or hex the whole ship.
If anyone were in danger of that, it would be him. The only one who didn’t seem affected by the fact that Elanor being a crafter was Caspin. Of course his best Mate wouldn’t have anything to say, since his wife’s people believed in voodoo.
Derek himself, didn’t care much think about magic or anything to do with it. To him, everyone was made, born, lived and then died. It’s what you did in between that mattered. He believed and maybe worshiped only one thing, the law of the sea. And he’d had a spot of good fortune lately because of it. He’d always just accepted her abilities and never really thought much of it.
“Captain?”
Derek looked over his shoulder at Steppe who’d come up behind.
He looked a little uneasy. Elanor must be up to something.
“Did she club you and jump ship?” He half joked.
“Oh no, Miss Elanor is too nice to do that, Captain.” He watched Steppe rub the back of his head and then look up towards the door of the cabin. “She’s been in there a long time and I can see her getting-” Steppe stopped, his face turning a beet red. “She’s pacing a lot now Captain. I was wondering if she could come out for some air. I won‘t let her off the quarter deck.”
“Did she put you up to this?” He asked suspiciously.
“No, Captain. I told her she needed to ask your permission after seeing how uncomfortable she was. But she said she’ll cook in there before asking permission to do anything.” The boy realized the mistake of adding the last part wincing. But Derek laughed. His stubborn burde. He gestured for Steppe to take the wheel.
“Keep us on this heading, I’ll be back.”
Derek jogged up the deck and stairs. Just as any other time he didn’t knock. She sat on the window seat looking out. He watched with amusement as she snatched a pillow to cover.
“What do you want?”
Though it was hard to keep his hands off her, he hadn’t since the kiss. He’d decided the next time they came together, would be her full awake and coming to him. He did, however, make her sleep next to him. She’d start away from him but by morning he enjoyed waking up to her soft body snuggled up into his. Derek crossed the room, sitting at his desk.
“This is my room, I don’t have to want anything to enter it.” He pulled some charts out of a drawer and laid them on the desk. He didn’t need them, knowing the path home by heart. Spreading out a map, he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“The wind has turned direction; it’s going to be a little longer before reaching home.”
“You should take it as a sign and head back north to take me back to Inglid.” She replied.
“The wind changes on whim. I have no intentions of bringing you back.”
“But you could be ignoring another chance to make this right. The wind is in favor of north and not south, how can you ignore that?”
He twisted around in his chair to look at her.
“If I followed the wind as a rule, we’d end up sailing in circles. The wind changes often. The sooner you accept that you’re not going back to Inglid, the better.” He said firmly. It was met with the stubborn lift of her chin. He hadn’t intended to argue with her though. He made an attempt to change the direction of the conversation.
“How are you enjoying the tea?” He gestured to the table where a cup rested empty. She stared at it for a moment before allowing an answer.
“I was so grateful to be spoiled once again with my indulgences.“ Long lashes batted at him.
“Steppe hasn’t learned to the art of leaving some bits out of conversation. I did have some good intentions sending it to you.”
“It is said honesty is a virtue to the star seekers.” He’d heard her Mother say that to Elanor and her sisters. “The tea has a fragrant taste I’ve never had before. But it’s very good.” Derek watched the lines of her long graceful face twitch with the effort to say the next words.
“Thank you.”
Her hand with his ring and the mourning ring flashed in the sun light catching his attention.
Tragedy and bliss all in one night.
He had always been thankful that Elanor hadn’t been in the carriage with the rest of them. “Spanish, I’ve no idea what’s in it. I bet you can tell me though.” He prompted. She’d always surprised him with her ability to guess any sort of herb added to food or ingredient of tea. She had a good palette.
“Chamomile and some spices I don’t recongnize.” She replied.
“You’ve always been good at that.”
She nodded.
He sighed.
It wasn’t going as he’d hoped. So much for getting her to relax around him.
He tried the direct approach.
“You’ve been a better guest as of late. So I’ll make a deal with you.” He said courteous but then commanding when her lips thinned. “I’m going to give you a dress to wear and you will be allowed to be on the quarter deck. But, if you disobey me, or if I have to tell you more than once to do anything, I will lock you in here for the rest of the journey home.”
He turned in his seat again to look at her. She seemed to be warring in her head over it; which pleased him. He had the obvious upper hand. Being locked in a small room on the sea or land, it didn’t matter. People were made to move about. He didn’t see why she couldn’t venture onto the quarter deck as she’d been allowed on her Father’s ship. His men knew better than to bother her. Most of them had wives themselves and the others Mistresses waiting for them. But what he banked on the most was their fear of what he’d do to them if they ever touched her.
She seemed reluctant to answer. He didn’t prod her, just took advantage of being able to openly look at her without a scowl in return. The soft curve of her rosy cheek hugged by the long brown hair cherishing the sides where he wanted to touch. It hung low, shadowing the length of her smooth throat and down the slopes of her shoulders to her back. His vision lowering towards the curve of her left breast revealed from the slacking of the pillow.
Elanor frowned at the change in his expression. She was thinking about his offer but became distracted by the desire suddenly sparkling in his eyes. She looked at the front of her to see what he was staring at, jerking the pillow back to cover her chest again.
“I would like to be able to go on the deck.”
“You’ll do as I say? No arguing?”
“I will stay on the quarter deck and come back inside when you say.” She made sure to be specific. He could see she wasn’t about to start taking random orders from him.
Derek stood up grinning down at her.
“I might have other directions for you to follow.”
“You will do well to forget them.” She answered.
Elanor leaned back away from him as he bent towards her until her head pinned against the pane of the window. His face just inches from hers; she could feel his breath as close as he was.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t feel something from the kiss. I remember a girl who would sneak off to be in my arms.” She lifted her hands to push his shoulders but his face remained close.
“That girl grew up to be a woman. A responsible woman.”
“Yes, you did grow up. Though, your sleepy pleasure sound the same.” He taunted.
Her heart lifted in beat as he hovered his lips just a breath away from hers. “Kissing you, hearing you say my name like that.” He murmured.
“Don’t you have a ship to run?” She forced herself to ask.
“My men have it under control.” He said leaning back having taken the hint she wasn’t kissing him.
“Why do you persist in touching me when I don‘t want you to?” She felt him pull back further. Elanor felt a little badly saying that but it must be said. “I’ll answer that with my own questions. Why are you pretending modesty as though you’re a seeker girl and have never been touched by me? Why are you denying what is clearly still there between us?” His eyes sparkled like stars.
She frowned at him. “Because it would be like telling you I accept all this and I do not. You cannot expect me to. I want to go back!”
“Remember when we snuck off for a walk in the back fields and tried to cross the brook over the rocks?”
Her lips involuntarily twitched at the memory, knowing full well what he was doing. “Yes, I remember that. When you stepped on my dress, causing us both to fall into the water? So agile.”
He grinned. “That water was a little cold.”
“Freezing! We were soaked from head to toe.” She said. “And we were so afraid my Father would find out where we went. He’d said that it wasn’t proper for me to be wandering around alone with you anymore.” He laughed, sitting next to her on the window seat. “But your Mother said there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Though she did say if your Father caught us, she’d claim no knowledge. I thought for sure we’d get caught that time.” They both smiled as the memories vividly played out in their minds.
“Then we thought someone was walking through the woods, so we hid in the hunting shack. I was so sure we were in big trouble then.” She’d watched his face change to the Derek she knew. The talk bringing back all the old easy feeling she always had around him. She couldn’t help but get deeper into the conversation too despite knowing why he’d brought it up. “Then when there was no shouting, we realized we could dry our clothes by the hearth.”
He laughed. “We were stripping off those clothes faster than a dock side whore. You kept blowing on the fire I started, complaining about how you wished you‘d paid more attention to Teagan’s talks about fire.”
She laughed too. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know how. As scared as I was, I would have burned the shack down.” They shared another laugh at that. The laughter turned to a shy expression on her face; another cheeky grin spread over his.
“I never would have believed you’d get bold like that, Ella.” Her childhood nickname flowed off his tongue in such a familiar way. “ As many times as I’d tried when we were kissing and touching, you’d always turn the prim girl on me. There we were stark naked, scared we’d get caught by your Father who would have kicked our naked backsides, you go and get that look on your face.” He bat his eye lashes mimicking what he thought she looked like then, his voice high pitched to imitate a girl’s voice. “Derek, since they’re going to think it away, do you think we could try making love?”
Her hands cover her face, laughing into them at his retake on the way she‘d started that. “And what do I say? Oh no Ela, I’m sure they’ll understand that we fell in the brook.” He scoffed.
“What a pratt I was. Here you were offering and I’m trying to be a gentleman!”
She giggled into her hands. “It took some nerve to just say that too!”
“And I got the shock of my life next.” This time his mimic was him putting a finger to his lower lip, batting his lashes again.
“Watch out the window Derek, I want to try something.”
Elanor blushed deeply. “I overheard one of Mother’s friends talking of it, her husband sounded pleased by it. I wanted to see if you‘d like it too.”
He closed his eyes. “I loved it. A little too much if you remember correctly. I couldn’t watch out the window at all, let alone stand there with my legs so weak.”
“Yes, I remember. That’s when we decided to go to the cot in the corner of the shack.” He opened his eyes, a soft light glowing.
“I remember laying there thinking I’d died and gone to heaven.”
She snorted then. “I’d never been so surprised in my life when you suddenly acted like a water fountain!” He howled laughing.
“Eaves dropping didn’t give warning of that did it my darling?”
“No it didn’t. I had no idea that would happen.” Stains of scarlet red appeared again on her cheeks. He reached out and cupped one with a soft smile on his face. “I made up for it though didn’t I?” She didn’t pull away. Her own smile turning tender. “Yes you did.” After the shock, he’d pulled her to the cot to snuggle together.
At first they did as they had done before, kissing and touching.
Then it turned a bit more intense when Derek had moved to lie half over her body. He’d never touched her there before, and at first it felt invasive. But after a few moments she had this strange longing for something more. She hadn’t known what she needed until Derek moved completely over her.
She’d given him her virginity.
Elanor saw the expression on his face now and knew he was remembering what they shared as well. He continued to caress her cheek with his thumb.
“That wasn’t the first or the last time we let our passion or feelings for each other guide us, Ela.” He said softly.
“It’s not the same, Derek. We were naive children with no responsibilities.”
He started to reply but they heard a rap on the door to the cabin.
“Derek? The wind’s changed. It’s blowing south east.” Caspin called through the closed door. Derek sighed softly, leaning to press a kiss to her cheek before rising. “I’ll send Steppe with your dress.” He crossed the room to leave.
“Derek.”
He stopped and but didn’t turn around clearly disappointed that his bring up memories didn’t effect the situation as he’d wanted.
“You’re not going back north. So you can make this hard or you can make it as it should have been.” He left her then, not waiting for an answer. It wasn’t as simple as that though.
Though deep down in her soul; she wished it could be.