The Dreamer (18 page)

I awoke not many minutes later. I didn’t have to recall the circumstances. I awoke to see those iron bars above me, in that dark stench, and the fear almost overwhelmed me again.

I sat up, taking deep breaths, and began to examine my cell. I gripped the iron bars in every direction and shook them, testing for weakness or breaks. But they were sure.

I stood up and began to pace, examining the room. It was damp there below, moldy, slimy and foul, with a stench that assaulted. A rat scurried across the room, and I shrieked. The sound echoed around me.

This was all my fault. I had no one to blame but myself. I could have been in my classroom hundreds of years in the future, blandly teaching a group of indifferent students, anticipating nothing more unpleasant than a night of insipid papers and a bad cup of coffee. But I had fought and worked and manipulated until I had gotten my way, oblivious to the possible perils I might have to face. Or rather … I thought of them and then dismissed them as inconsequential and insignificant compared to the pursuit of truth.

The duke was a villain — something
worse
than a villain! Marshall Looper was a villain. He lied and killed and stole openly, almost flauntingly. Yet Charles Dubois was something more, something far worse. He smiled, and drew one close to him, and made promises and was kind and gentle. He knew how to manipulate, and he was without conscience.

There was a sharp noise in the distance, something that had fallen up above, and I started at the sound. I stepped back, but those iron bars pressed into my back.

I couldn’t get a hold of myself. I couldn’t reason away my reactions and fear. I knew what was coming. I knew what was in store for me. A calm, cool assessment could have aided in the forming of plans, a means of escape. But I could think of nothing concrete, nothing solid. All that mattered was that I was in danger.

I took a step, and my dress caught on a jagged piece of iron and tore, and I caught it up quickly with my hands to disengage it. I examined the tear distressfully.

It was ruined! Ruined!

What would the captain say now? He would never again look at me the way he’d done in that shop all those weeks ago, almost like he was afraid to touch me … though after that he had turned and left me without once looking back.

A lump formed in my throat and my eyes began to burn. I swallowed, forcing down the surge of bitterness, regret and terror with monumental effort. I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

I would not succumb! I would not give in!

I sat down and withdrew my notes, but my hands shook so much it was too difficult to write.
I am in peril ….
I tried to record, but the pencil broke and tore through the paper, and the words merely looked like illegible scratches. With a surge of impatience and fear, I threw the papers on the floor, and they scattered at my feet.

Hours passed and it grew dark as I paced and wrung my hands and started at every sound. The ship came to a stop. I paused and listened. There was commotion up above. Men shouted, and I could hear the scrape of the longboats being dragged into position and lowered. With cold, clammy hands, I gripped the iron bars, pressed my face against them, oblivious to the oily grime, and waited.

It grew quiet. And I knew we were at the island.

*** *** ***

I finally slept, and my dreams were tormented and terrifying, and I ran and ran from the evil men chasing me. There were crowds of them, and they seemed to multiply as I raced. I saw the university up ahead, and the church steeple just beyond it, and I was relieved and hopeful to see it, knowing I was finally safe.

But when I reached the steps, the men did not stop, and they pursued me all the way up to the top. They took a hold of me and held me, and I turned to see the duke standing there smiling. But it was not the beautiful smile any longer. It was wicked and frightening.

“You cannot go back,” he sneered.

“Captain! Captain!” I cried, looking for him.

The duke laughed. “You are alone.”

Arms pinned me down, and I could not move. I thrashed about, and then opened my eyes.

I had been dreaming, but the arms pinning me down were real! I fought against them, and cried out, but a large hand covered my mouth, effectively silencing me.

“Stop it, Rachel! It’s me,” the man fiercely whispered in my ear.

I stilled instantly.

He loosened his grip on me, and I turned to find him kneeling beside me, two or three men in the distance.

“Captain!” I threw myself into his arms.

“Hush! There are three men still up there,” he whispered sharply. “We need to move quickly.” But he didn’t move immediately. First, he wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly and buried his face in my hair.

“I didn’t know what I’d find when I came down here,” he said.

There was a quiet cough in the distance, and he pulled away from me, though he didn’t release me. He helped me to stand and drew me out of the cell, the door now ajar.

He looked very different than I remembered. He had a beard for one, as though he hadn’t shaved at all since I’d last seen him, and his clothing was changed, too. No longer was he in his expensive captain’s jacket and breeches. He wore a loose white shirt and short dark pants that looked similar to Looper’s, though without the stripes. And his eyes seem to have aged ten years in these weeks we’d been apart, the lines around them etched more deeply, more strain and fatigue in them than ever before. I wondered if he’d been ill.

Life sprang into me. I could feel strength and courage flowing into my very bones. Suddenly, I knew I could conquer anything.

“Captain,” I whispered as he pulled me up the steps, his eyes careful and wary. “The duke is a villain.”

“I know,” he answered, not looking at me. “Now hush.”

“He brought me here by force. The pirates bludgeoned and kidnapped me. I didn’t choose to come. I didn’t defy you. And, I’m awfully sorry for what I said to you before!”

“Quiet!”

I silently followed him to the upper level of the ship, through the empty sleeping quarters for the crew. Rows of hammocks stretched across for miles it seemed. I couldn’t take proper measurements, of course, under the circumstances.

His hand never released its grip, and I had to hurry to keep up with him. The other two men were tall and dressed similarly to the captain, though it was too dark to see them properly. We reached the other end of the room and the captain pushed me up against the wall while he peeked around the corner of the open doorway. One of the other men went through, but the captain motioned that we would wait.

“He had the map, Captain,” I feverishly explained. “At first I refused to help him. I told him that I wouldn’t cooperate. But then he tricked me,
tricked
me. He told me he was working with pirates for the greater good. And I was so stupid. I believed him. And then when we reached the islands, he turned on me. They put me in the hold. A-and look … the dress you gave me is ruined!”

But it seemed as though he wasn’t listening to me, just examining my face carefully, as a doctor would a patient to be sure that she was, indeed, as well as she claimed. And then he reached up and brushed my cheek with a calloused finger.

The man returned immediately thereafter and motioned us up the second ladder. We quietly ascended, and I found myself in the night air, the stars shining brightly overhead. I tightened my grip on the captain’s hand, and absurdly, I felt like laughing, a frantic delight swelling through me.

We quickly made our way to the railing, and below I saw that there was a row boat waiting for us, two more men already seated and holding the oars. Long ropes connected to iron hooks hung from the railing of the ship, and silently I was commanded to shimmy down.

I climbed up to the top of the railing and began to carefully swing my leg over the side of the ship, holding tightly to the coarse rope with damp palms.

But just when I was about to swing my other leg over, there were shouts in the distance and the explosion of a gun, and the three men around me sprang into action.

A cloud moved in front of the moon at that moment and the world went black. I teetered up at the top, unsure of what to do until the captain shouted at me, commanding me to go. I swung myself over the side just as two men, locked in a clash of swords, crashed into me, and I lost my grip and fell off the side of the ship.

I felt an explosion of pain followed by freezing darkness.

Chapter Fourteen

Notes: All is well. Please disregard prior emotional collapse. Prolonged doubt and anxiety the only explanation. Lab studies of hormone levels might be helpful, though impossible considering the period.

It is good to see the captain again.

As a case study, of course.

Introduction to a Captain Fredrick. Exceptionally original.

I awoke safe and warm. There was a slight pain when I shifted, but it was only slight, and it only seemed to sweeten the pleasantness of my condition.

I opened my eyes. I was in bed. It was dark except for a single candle that burned on the table beside me. I took a deep breath, and then suddenly remembering what happened, my eyes widened and I looked around.

But I couldn’t move. I was pinned under a warm, heavy weight. I looked to find the captain himself sitting next to me. Well, not sitting exactly. Evidentially he’d been keeping vigil in the chair by the bed, and had fallen asleep. His head rested on me, across my middle, one hand gripping my own, rather tightly, even in sleep. His hair was damp, though his clothes were dry.

I reached out and gently touched his hair with my hand, then ran it down his face, fingering the deep lines around his eyes until at last it came to rest on his coarse beard. He seemed exhausted.

He stirred, and I pulled my hand away. He opened his eyes and saw me. Quickly he released my hand and sat up, running his hands down his face. “Forgive me. I’ve hardly slept for weeks.”

“How did you find me?” I inquired, a strange new mood descending upon the room when he looked down at me with that intense, devouring expression.

“After Fin told me what happened, I questioned those around port and discovered that some of Looper’s crew had been captured. In exchange for a life sentence instead of hanging, they told us what they knew. One of them had been walking on deck as you discussed the map and overheard where you were headed.”

He ran a hand over his face again, as if to block out an unpleasant memory.

I watched him. “How did you manage all that?”

“I have connections,” he said vaguely, watching me. “Are you alright?”

“Yes.” I smiled. “Now. Thanks to you.” Without realizing I was doing it, I had reached out and touched the back of his hand with my fingers.

“You said before … that Norcross had been kind to you until today? That he turned on you just a few hours ago. So you were never …” he swallowed, “hurt?”

“No, Captain.”

A shudder went through him, and he took a large breath. Rubbing his chin, he tried to smile, giving a short, unnatural laugh. “You don’t know what I’ve been imagining these last weeks. I knew we wouldn’t be able to get to you for weeks. This ship is older, bigger, slower. We have less men, less weaponry. Even when we did finally catch up to them, we could never face them in open battle. It would be suicide. So we bided our time, followed the strange coordinates, and lingered at a safe distance when we approached, waiting for darkness. It was agony.” He laughed, his voice tight.

“And I had wondered all the time if you would come,” I answered in amazement. “I wasn’t sure … I didn’t know if you could or … or would. Forgive me for doubting you.”

He shrugged.

“And I wish to repay you, but I have nothing.”

He put his hands on my shoulders as though to steady me. I was trembling.

“But I think I have an instinctual, almost overwhelming impulse to bestow upon you a … a physical gesture of affection. I believe this archetypal token of gratitude has a very real and appropriate place in our culture after all. And I also anticipate that you … that you may not find it unpleasant, and might even appreciate and value such a gesture. That, little though it may be, you may consider a not inadequate means of repayment. Though truly repay you, I can never do.”