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CHAPTER 12
I was beginning to believe that I really was bringing bad luck on this ship. Everything that could possibly go bad had happened, and I'd only been there just over a week.
I was trying my best to make my way down the rope ladder from the crow's nest, but the height was terrifying for me, and Leonardo wasn't half as patient with me as he was when we were going up.
The ship rose up over a huge wave, and my hands slipped from the wet rope as it crashed back down, leaving me fall the final few feet, straight on top of Leonardo. A gush of cold salty water threw itself from the waves into our faces and we spluttered the assaulting taste out of our mouths.
"What do we do?" I yelled, trying to brush the wet hair from my face.
"There's nothing we can do," Kelly replied. "We're at the mercy of the sea now."
"Can't your pet ghost help?!"
A bolt of lightning struck the water a few yards away from the ship and Kelly just chuckled. "Try and get some sleep, the storm will be over tomorrow."
"Are you fucking serious?" I demanded, also deciding that it may be time for me to get up off Leonardo.
He groaned in pain as I climbed off him.
"What good will it do any of us to just stand around worrying?" Kelly said. "There's nothing more that we can do except wait and see."
"That doesn't mean that we can just go to sleep without a care in the world, other than the fact that we may be living our final few hours!"
"Have a few tankards of grog. The boys have brought extra barrels up to help get them through the storm." Kelly wandered off again back to his cabin, leaving Leonardo and I on the deck, soaked through to the bone.
The rapid swaying of the ship was making my stomach turn, and I could begin to feel the vomit rise up from the pit of my stomach to my throat. I darted towards the side of the ship, arriving just in time for the sick to explode out of my mouth and into the wild water below.
This was not how I had expected to live out my last few hours.
**********
Five days had passed since the storm. It sent us slightly off track, but we were due to arrive at Italy early the following morning, according to Kelly, who had also insisted that I meet him in his cabin right away.
I didn't know what he wanted, but he looked so desperate that I felt I had to go and see what was wrong.
I knocked on his cabin door and entered to find him sitting at his desk, polishing a shiny hook that he seemed to have somehow fitted to the stump at the end of his arm as a replacement for his hand.
He looked up as the door creaked open and immediately stood up to his great height. "Oh, hello Bessie," he said somewhat awkwardly. "How are you today?"
"I'm okay I guess," I replied, studying with peculiarity the hook. Was he going mad? "How are you?"
He put down the cloth and stepped closer to me. "Bessie... there's something I need to tell you."
"What's that?"
"Okay, so... I don't know how you feel towards me anymore, but there's a few things I need to tell you before you leave tomorrow, if that is what you decide to do."
I pressed my lips together and nodded my head, knowing where this conversation was going and not liking it one bit.
"Okay, well..." he dragged his hand through his blond hair and sighed. "I don't know if you and Leonardo are a thing, but I have really liked you since the day I met you and you pointed a pistol at my dick."
He chuckled awkwardly to himself and then stopped suddenly. "I'm acting like a teenager, forgive me. Look, I'm asking you to stay here with me. I would like to court you." His eyes were bright and full of hope.
Oh no, no, no. He wants to be with me.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he beat me to it.
"I'm not expecting you to live here on this ship. I have treasures enough to support us and treat you like a queen when we get back to Britain. You are the only woman I have cared for since Diana, and I can't just let you slip out of my life without at least trying to convince you of the love I hold for you."
My whole body was trembling. This poor man had just handed me his heart, only for me to crumble it like a clump of dried dirt. But the truth was, there was no other option for me.
I cared for Captain Kelly a lot, and perhaps if I'd have met him before I met Leonardo, then things would have turned out differently. But after what Leonardo and I had shared together back at the cannibal island, I knew that the greatest torture for me now would be to give up on that and the unfading hope that I held, that Leonardo was beginning to fall in love with me.
There was a long pause before I finally answered him. "I'm in love with Leonardo."
The words willingly left my lips for the first time, and it felt good to finally say them, but torturing at the same time because of how it was going to make Kelly feel. "I'm so sorry, but it would be unfair to both of us if I stayed."
He nodded his head, and I could see the grief etched into every line that appeared on his face. "I understand."
***
Later that evening, I woke up suddenly from my snooze to the sound of men yelling and shouting.
I sprung out of bed, my initial thoughts being that we had come under attack again, but as I opened the door to the cabin, I could see the whole crew were just gathered quite excitedly around something on the main deck.
I walked closer, curious of what the big deal was about, and that's when I saw with horror what was going on.
"Back off, Kelly," Leonardo warned.
"That's Captain Kelly to you," he spat. "Don't let the fact that I only have one hand put you off, boy. Go on. Give me your best shot."
"Look, Captain Hook, I don't know what this is about, so just go back to whatever it is you do, and let's both just forget about this. I'll be gone tomorrow anyway."
"She loves you, and you don't deserve her," Kelly continued.
Leonardo seemed to pause at the words, and in that same moment, Kelly's arm swung around, his hand connecting with Leo's jaw.
I cried out, but my scream was drowned out by all the men who cheered on their captain.
Kelly was a big man with a lot of strength, and I didn't want to find out what would happen to Leonardo if Kelly let loose on him.
"I'll let you have that one, only because I don't want to fight you," Leonardo said, patting the tender patch on his jaw. "But if you do still insist, let's at least do it properly, aye?" He drew his cutlass from its sheath at his hip and inspected the curve in the blade.
"Well, well. Aren't we brave?" Kelly mocked, drawing his own cutlass.
"Wait! Don't do this!" I yelled from amidst the crowd.
"Bessie, this is between Kelly and I," Leonardo answered. "Stay out of it."
One of the crew grabbed hold of my arms as I tried to push through and held me in place, despite me kicking and thrashing as much as I could in an effort to get loose.
"To the death?" Kelly growled.
"To the death," Leonardo agreed.
I had a clear view of everything that was going on, and as much as I wanted to close my eyes tight, I just couldn't. I didn't want either of them to die, but in my heart, I knew I was rooting for Leonardo to win.
They circled each other like two angry wolves, ready to strike.
Leonardo made the first move, bringing the sword around in line with Kelly's gut, but he was too fast and moved back, parrying Leo's strike.
They moved slowly about each other for what seemed like a lifetime, trying to interpret the other's thoughts, until finally, they both went at the same time, swords crashing into each other with a deafening shrill as one warded off the other over and over in a desperate bid to stay alive. They both moved so fast, it was impossible to keep track, but I watched on with my heart in my mouth.
Kelly struck out at Leonardo with the blade, and missed by mere inches, instead snagging on his cotton shirt and tearing a section out. "You got lucky, boy. Not for much longer though."
They carried on with their deathly squabble, the sound of metal against metal ringing through the air, dulled only by the shouts and cheers of the fifty odd men gathered around.
Next, Leonardo curled his arm towards him as their swords connected and drew Kelly closer to him. "That was just child's play. Now let's get this over with," he snarled breathily.
He pushed Kelly back, putting him a little off balance, but he quickly corrected his stance and came at Leonardo with the ferocity of a raging bull, cutlass back and ready to plunder.
Leonardo countered the furious blow before swiftly rolling on the floor between Kelly's legs and springing up behind him like a cobra.
Kelly was a wisp of a second too slow for his younger and slightly more nimble rival as Leonardo kicked his lower back sending him face first into the floor, and he was over him in a flash, cutlass at his throat as he rolled him onto his back so that he could see into his eyes.
The crew's cheers stopped, and silence prevailed, the only thing breaking it was Leonardo's voice as he spoke to his opponent.
"You underestimate me, Captain. You won't do that again."
Leonardo lifted his cutlass up above Kelly, and my eyes slammed shut as I watched his muscles flex as he was about to bring down the sword.
Suddenly, all the men erupted in cheers, and I opened my eyes through the tears to see the tables completely turned.
Now Kelly was stood holding Leonardo in front of him with the cutlass at his throat.
Leonardo dropped his cutlass to the floor in surrender. "Bessie, just so you know..." he yelled, his voice weird because of the metal blade pressed against his windpipe. "I love you."
A few wolf whistles sounded amongst the crowd, and someone yelled to their captain, "Finish 'im off, Sir!"
Kelly held him there for a few moments, his eyes searching the crowd before they met my own. He must have seen the terror in my eyes, because he removed the blade from Leonardo's neck and roughly kicked him away, leaving him in a heap in the middle of the circle of men.
"Look after her," Kelly growled.
The men all made a parting as Kelly stormed past them back to his cabin, where he remained.
The man holding my arms finally let me go, and I dashed away my tears as I ran over to Leonardo and knelt beside him.
"Did you mean it?" was the first thing I asked.
His jaw tightened. "Yes."
I leaned across and slung my hands around his neck, absolutely ecstatic with that admission.
"I think—" I began, "I think I love you too."
He returned my embrace, pulling me into him as he cradled my sobbing figure, smoothing my back with his hand.
"I thought he was going to kill you," I sobbed.
"Me too." He chuckled. "He's a good man."
The tears refused to stop. It was like someone had broken down a dam, leaving my tears gush down my face like a river. I hated crying in front of people. It was something I had never done before meeting Leonardo. I was stronger than that. But now I had so much going on in my head, and so many mixed thoughts and fears that I just couldn't control when the floodgates could open anymore. I had never had to deal with so much shit before, and I had never felt so upset and depressed before.
But at the same time, I had never felt more happy and full of hope than I did in that moment.
However, now that I essentially had Leonardo, so to speak, that left me open and susceptible to many more fears and possibilities.
The biggest one being, what if he gets bored of me?
Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.