Life and Love at Sea: A Pirate Love and Adventure Story

Chapter Three

I was up at five the next morning. My first thought was to repack and leave immediately. Then I thought about it a bit. Maybe it was just a onetime thing. And I handled it pretty well. Worse comes to worse I could always get off at the next port...

Eventually I decided to stay. I wanted to be pirate more than anything, and if it meant working for a pig, then I would just have to deal with it.

When I stopped in the kitchen for breakfast, the newest piece of gossip was how the Captain had finally decided on our destination. I wasn't really listening so I didn't catch the name of the place, but I made a mental note to ask Davy about it later.

By five thirty I was outside the Captain's door. There was still about an hour till sunrise, but it was my first day of work, so there was no harm in getting there early. When I knocked the door was opened by a surprised looking Davy.

"Mandy! You're here!" he exclaimed.

"Where else would I be?" I asked in a tone that I'm sure made it were clear to him that he wasn't forgiven.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't think that you would come back after my awful behavior to you last night you would come back," he said apologetically. "I can promise that that will never happen again. In fact, you can personally make sure that I never again drink more than two glasses of alcohol."

"Whatever," I said like ice, rolling my eyes. I must admit that I was becoming less and less angry, due to his sincerity. I might end up forgiving him sooner then I suspected. "What do you want me to do?"

"Oh, come on. Please just forgive me," he pleaded. I did enjoy watching him beg. I actually had to put some effort into not laughing out loud. That was something I knew for sure that he didn't do often. "I know what will make you feel better," his face brightening up a bit as he said this.

"What?" I said, seriously curious.

"At five this morning, I woke up drenched in rain, on the deck. I think I slept out there all night. To tell the truth, everything that happened after you left was a blur. I don't remember a thing."

I had to laugh out loud at this. I guess, now that I'm sure he's suffered enough, I can forgive him.

"Ahh, so I see your now as rock hard serious as you seem. Your shell of ice can be broken," I laughed even hard when he said this. Soon he was laughing with me. He grinned and said "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"Yes, I suppose it does," he grinned. "You got what you deserved."

"Yea, it was cold out there," he said, shivering. It was then that I realized how oddly pale his skin was and how flushed his cheeks were.

"Here sit down," I said, concerned. "You look sick. How do you feel?"

"I'm just a little cold, it's no big deal," he said, feebly trying to shake of the arm I was putting around his shoulder. "Today's the first day of a new voyage and I have a ship to run.

"You also have a crew who I'm sure could function without you for a day or two if you are sick," I countered. "At least sit down and rest for a minute."

He mumbled something inaudible as I sat him down on the small couch in the corner of his office.

"So I heard you have decided on a destination," I said, trying to distract him from getting up again.

"Yes we be sailing to a bunch of beautiful, deserted tropical islands near the equator," he said matter-of-factly. "There is a large treasure that was buried and lost long ago on one of those islands. To tell the truth, without you I would have never thought of it.

"Oh, really. What did I have to do with the choice?" I asked.

"Before I tell you, you must remember how drunk I was when I was thinking of this. My mind wasn't quite working right," he said, while I nodded. "When you, um, rejected me you called me a barbarian. So I decided that we should go to a place with real barbarians, which this place definitely has, so that when I protected you from them, you would fall into my arms. Sort of a stupid plan, I know. But the location actually is very promising."

When he started to say this I was giggling slightly, but by the time he finished I just couldn't hold in my laughter. He laughed along with me, but the laughter took a lot out of him and by the time we stopped he was leaning on me almost entirely for support and breathing very heavily,

"Maybe I should help you to your bed, you are in no condition to be up," I said. I took a look at his face and said, "Are you going to be sick?"

"No," he said. Then he made another face, then urgently said, "Okay, maybe. Just help me to my bed, please."

I lifted his arm up onto my shoulder and slipped my arm around his waist. Eventually, after moving very slowly, I got him into his room and then in his bed. By this time he was started to act a little loopy. I tried to walk away and get him some blankets, but he grabbed me by the wrist and said, "Don't leave, Mandy! Stay with me forever."

"It's okay," I said soothingly, stroking the back of his hand. "It'll only take a second."

I came back with the blankets and started to lay them on top of him. When I was finishing he unexpectly grabbed me and pulled me down on top of him. He put his arms behind my back and pulled me into a hug. From this position I could have easily bent my head down a little and kissed him. No one would have ever even known. There was no way he would ever remember. Also, it was very unlikely I would get another chance like this.

"Come on, you need your rest," I told him gently, pulling myself up. As much as it mentally pained me to past up a chance like this, there was no way I could justify myself kissing him. It would be taking advantage of him, and I didn't want to do that.

I took care of him for another twenty-four hours. This meant I took his temperature, gave him blankets when he was cold, took them back when he was hot, fetched him soup and tea from the kitchen, and explained to that rest of the crew why he couldn't leave his chambers. At end of this time he was just starting to recover, but was still very weak. Like I expected, he didn't remember a thing from his sickness expect the fact that I did a very good job of taking care of him.

His first mate was very kind the whole time. He offered to take over for him while he was sick and for a couple days after so that he wouldn't fall ill again. All that left Davy was the office work, which very light since it was so early in the trip.

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