Damn! Higgins, why do you have to bring this up now, on the eve of my greatest happiness!
"I will speak to Mr. Fletcher about that, and we will come to an agreement, I am sure," I say. "Anything else you might want to burden me with, Higgins, my dearest friend, confidant, consultant, protector, and ever-present conscience?"
"Very colorfully put, Miss, as always," he answers, laying down his brush, apparently satisfied with the condition of my mop. "But, yes, there is something and it is this. If you marry, you must expect to be with child within a year. Though it would be a joyous occasion, welcoming another such as you into the world, are you ready for that particular and dangerous trial? You are, after all, still quite young."
"I am sixteen years old." I sniff. "That's old enough for a lot of things."
"Indeed. I have noticed that, small as you are, you do have all the necessary female equipment, and judging from what I have observed of your amorous adventures in the past, it all seems to be in excellent working order."
"Higgins," says I, with an edge of warning in my voice.
"I am but suggesting that you might think about the change in your life that would occur by your having a child."
"Don't care, Higgins. Jaimy and I have waited long enough," I firmly reply. Then I blush and say, "Plus, I know of some things ... other things ... other games that people who love each other play, which do not lead to babies."
"You blush most becomingly, Miss. It is reassuring that your face is still able to don a maidenly flush of pink in the cheeks," replies Higgins, without changing his usual calm expression. "But you do realize a marriage must be ... consummated ... to be legal?"
"Well, we will do it, then. Babies are born at sea, as well as on land. In fact, I helped deliver one on the Pequod. Little Elizabeth Ahab, it was, and a perfect little creature was she."
But it turns out that Father Neptune, that unpredictable rascal, is the one who decides my future, and not me.
"Jacky?" I hear from the speaking tube right above my head.
"Yes, Jaimy, I'm here," I reply. I still can't believe I am alive and he is here with me and I am hearing his voice.
"Better get ready. Looks like we're in for a storm."
"I'll be right up."
I had noticed that the sea had been working up, because the Nancy B. was beginning to pitch and yaw a little more than normal. I get up and dart out of my cabin and onto the deck. There is a cheer from my own dear crew as I emerge into the light—there's little Daniel Prescott, my young ship's boy, So good to see you again, Missy!, and my two stout sailors Smasher McGee and John Thomas, and there's Jim Tanner, and—Good Lord! Up at helm is John Tinker, himself, grinning for all he is worth as he spins the wheel ... And there's Jaimy, lovely Jaimy, looking oh-so-splendid standing there and gazing up at the set of the sails, his dark hair blowing about his face. Hard to believe, but three members of the original Brotherhood of the Dolphin are standing on the same rolling deck!
"First, Jaimy, a kiss," I say, wrapping my arms around him and pressing my mouth on his. Ummmm...
I think he's a bit startled, this not being regular Royal Navy quarterdeck routine, but he quickly gets into the spirit of the thing. His own arms go about me and he hugs me tightly.
When our lips come apart, I lower my eyes and say to him, "I know you for a proper young gentleman, Jaimy, but this is my ship, love, and when I am on it, I do what I want to do, and what I want to do right now is to have you kiss me again and hold me, Jaimy, hold me ever so close to you. Oh, Jaimy, we have been so long kept apart." And the tears are coming again, and again our lips come together and stay there for a good—oh so very good—long time.
Then the dear boy takes my shoulders in his hands and looks me in my streaming eyes and says, "I want to hold you like this, Jacky, for the rest of my life, but right now I've got to deal with this. You should go below, for it will be rough."
What...?Go below?
He glances over my head and I follow that look and notice that the storm has drawn closer. It looks like a bad one, a bank of storm clouds that stretches across the horizon with nothing but blackness beneath, blackness that is split every few moments by streaks of lightning, followed by the rolling thunder that rumbles across the sea, warning us to beware the fury that is surely to come. The wind has come up even more and my dress flies up about me.
"One more kiss, Jaimy, and I will go below," I say all meek-like. We have that kiss and then I turn to go back down into my cabin.
Oh yes, Mr. Fletcher, I will go below, but it will not be to cower and hide—it will be to change into my midshipman's uniform.
I find Higgins setting the table for dinner. "Higgins, I'm going to need my uniform after all. We're in for a bit of a blow and I can't face it in this flimsy dress. And if I were you, I wouldn't set out the dishes just yet."
He nods and lays out my black middie jacket, white shirt, and white pants as I pull my dress over my head and fling it onto the bed.
Higgins helps me into my midshipman gear and asks, "The boots, Miss?"
"Nay, I don't want them wet. I'll just go barefoot. I will have better purchase that way, anyway, and things are going to get slippery. And no hat, either—it'd just get blown off."
As I go to leave the cabin, he says, "Please exercise some caution, Miss. I sense that you have not fully recovered from your recent ordeal."
It's true, I am still a bit trembly, but fighting this gale should cure me of the shakes. I assure him that I will be careful, then go back out on deck, to find my ship's boy, Daniel Prescott, standing next to Jaimy on the quarterdeck. Jaimy appears startled to see me once again on the deck and clad not in my dress, but in jacket and trousers.
"Danny, go below and bring me my oilskins, if you would," I say. All on deck already have on their rain gear. The storm is much closer now, and the black wall of cloud towers high overhead. We are going to be hammered.
"Aye, aye, Captain," he pipes as he scampers off to get my gear. I am sure he did not answer my order in that manner to intentionally get Jaimy's goat, but I can tell that Jaimy's goat is certainly gotten. It is very easy to get used to being the captain of a ship, and I can tell from Jaimy's expression that he is neither pleased with my reappearance dressed as I am nor with his demotion by a mere ship's boy.
I go to him, place my hand on his arm, and peer into his eyes and smile. "Come, love, and together we will get through this storm, side by side, as we will get through other things in our lives, neither one of us in front of the other." I put my left arm around him and give him a poke in the ribs with the stiff forefinger of my right hand and continue to look deep into his eyes. "All right, Jaimy?"
He looks off, takes a breath, lets it out, and then smiles down at me, running his hand through my hair.
"This is not the Royal Navy, then, is it, Jacky?"
"No, dear one, it is not. This is Faber Shipping Worldwide,suchasitis."
He laughs and says, "Well, let's get on with it, then."
I jump up and kiss his cheek, then climb into my 'skins as we all prepare to get mauled by the storm.
Ah yes, Jacky and Jaimy, together at last! Hooray!
Yeah, right...
Chapter 2
"Come, Jaimy, come down with me, and let us go into my bed."
My gallant crew had fought that howling gale the whole night long, but the Nancy B. is a stout little ship, she is, and she carried us through the storm. We pitched, we rolled, we yawed, with just scraps of canvas set—just enough sail to keep her head into the wind, so she could take the mountainous seas on her port bow. Her bowsprit tore deep into the bellies of the waves and disappeared while green water swept across her decks; but she came back up every time, the seas streaming off her sides, her bow lifted high to take yet another in her teeth. She held, yes, she did, and so did we.
As the storm lessened in the early morning hours, I had sent Jim Tanner and John Thomas below to get some sleep, and now they have come up to give us blessed relief.
Jaimy and I stagger down to my cabin and prepare for bed. We strip off our rain gear; then we pull off our damp clothes and take up the towels that Higgins had laid out for us—the oilskins had not kept all of the water out—and we dried ourselves.
Completely nak*d now, I know I am looking quite awful and I am suddenly shy before him.
I put my arms across my chest and whisper, "I-I-I'm sorry, I know I don't present a very c-c-comely sight to you, Jaimy, being banged up and all ... But I'm your lass, Jaimy, should you still want me." My hair is plastered to my head, my bare feet are blue, my skin is gray from tiredness and cold, and my body is splotched with bruises and scars; I cannot imagine any man wanting me in my current condition.
"My eyes could not behold a vision more lovely," he says, taking me by the shoulders. "I have been waiting and hoping for this moment for years. Now here it is, and here you are." The lovely boy holds me to him and plants a kiss on my forehead. I drop my arms and put them about his waist and pull him to me and lay my head upon his chest. Oh, thank you, Lord, thank you...
"But you're trembling. Here. A quick toweling of your hair and then into bed with you." He takes up the towels and rumples my hair dry, and I crawl into my lovely bed and pull the covers to my chin.
"Come to me, J-J-Jaimy. Come lie next to me and we shall finally be as one. Hurry, Jaimy, come and warm me. Oh Jaimy, I am so c-c-cold. Hold me to you, please, J-J-Jaimy..."
I shudder and the shuddering doesn't stop, even after he slides in beside me and puts his arms around me. I press my face into his neck and wrap myself around him.
"Hold me, Jaimy, it has been so long and I am so ... c-c-cold..."
I feel him take his hand from my shoulder and place his palm on my forehead.
"Good Lord, Jacky! You're burning up with fever!" cries Jaimy. He jumps out of my bed and goes to the door.
Don't go, Jaimy, don't leave me ... What are you doing, Jaimy? What...
He puts his head out and shouts, "Higgins!"
Chapter 3
The fever has left me and I am told we are being tied alongside Paul's Wharf in London. We had a following breeze upon our entrance into the mouth of the Thames, and Jaimy told me he felt it best to come all the way up to the city; we could always ride the tide and the river flow on the way out.
Imagine that, Paul's Wharf, not two hundred yards from our old kip under Blackfriars Bridge.
Jaimy now sits on the bed, by my side, and holds my hand and looks into my eyes.
"You are much better, Jacky, and for that I am very glad," he says, softly.
"I am so sorry we could not have been ... together ... last night."
"Actually, my dear, it was the night before last. You've been out for a long while. It is good to see you back among us once again."
I don't remember much of the past few days, but I do know that it was Jaimy who held me to him when my body was wracked with chills and he who held the cool wet cloths to my sweat-soaked form when the hot flashes came.
"It is so good to be here," I whisper, still weak from the fever. I lift my hand and put the backs of my fingers to his face. Oh Jaimy, you are so beautiful...