Benjamin greeted Clara with an offering of a warm beverage and a sheepish smile. "I hope you are not sleeping here because I managed to push you out of bed last night." The bunks were not the largest, barely could they fit one but still he had thought they could make due.
Drinking a sip of tea from the proffered cup, Clara tried to smile. "No, no. I felt restless and feared in moving about too much I would disturb you. So here I am."
"I know the arrangements are not... ideal but I'm certain we will figure a way around them. You were sleeping so peacefully I felt reluctant to wake you but I had promised the Captain we would join him for the morning meal."
Clara coughed and sputtered her next sip of tea. Benjamin gave her a few pats on her back fearful she might be choking. It took a few seconds for the coughing fit to ebb. She had forgotten that Benjamin said they were joining the Captain this morning. The same said Captain she spoke to last night.
"Are you alright?" Benjamin asked concerned.
"I am well, honest," Clara reassured, clearing her throat one last time. How will she ever get up the courage to tell him of her meeting with McCullen last night? Would Benjamin be disappointed or would he be angry? She did not know and instantly regretted that they must start their day with such unrest.
"I must tell you..." Clara began.
"Yes?" Benjamin asked not caring for the look of worry that crossed Clara's features, he hoped whatever she must impart was not too dreadful.
Clara opened her mouth to speak again but there was a knock on the door interrupting her speech.
"Hold that thought, will you?" Benjamin said and rose to answer the door. He only cracked it open as Clara was still in her chemise and therefore indecent.
"The Captain requests your presence, Mr. McAllister?"
"Now? Can't it wait? I am to meet with him in just a few moments?"
The man standing on the other side of the door Clara could not see but she recognized Andrew's voice even though he lowered it. "It is about your wife, Sir. Captain McCullen said it is quite urgent."
The man whispered but Clara could still hear him. Benjamin gave her a passing glance but Clara sat sipping her tea pretending she hadn't heard a word.
"Yes, of course," Benjamin agreed.
"Clara, the Captain wishes to speak with me. I will be back to retrieve you shortly."
"I will be ready," Clara replied, although knowing she might be in a heap of trouble upon Benjamin's return.
Benjamin walked over and kissed her cheek and he left with Andrew to go topside.
Clara drank her tea and paced the room. What would Captain McCullen tell Benjamin? Would he lie or embellish the truth? She knew nothing of this man's character and it infuriated her. She hated not knowing what storm she may be sailing into. Clara realized no matter was what the outcome would be the same. Once again she will have earned Benjamin's disapproval. How could she not?
Clara picked out her best dress, but the box, which held the sari prisoner, called to her. She pulled it onto her lap and lifted the lid.
The mere sight of it made her feel bold, courageous. She needed to call upon the spirit of Claremont if only to get her through these next few moments. It was decided. The dress was packed away and the three pieces of the sari were laid lovingly upon her bunk.
The sari was worn over a tight fitted bodice and petticoat. Her midriff was exposed. She never noticed before how tone to her stomach had become from her month of work at sea. She took her time wrapping the sari in the way she had seen the women of India wearing it. Wrapped around her waist and draped over one shoulder.
Her hair curled wildly after the scrubbing she gave it when she washed up using the water and basin left in the room. There was not much else she could do with it, so she let it be.
Clara was thrilled to discover under the tissue paper a pair of slipper type shoes that were adorned with the same embroidered pattern as her sari. They made the outfit complete and also would give her surer footing on deck.
It was quite some time before she heard a knock on the door and Benjamin came to retrieve her. Clara opened the door only to find it was not Benjamin but Andrew who stood on the other side. Clara frowned but Andrew smiled. He could not take his eyes from her. She was a vision. The captain as right, Clara was no mere miss.
"Sorry to disturb you Lady Bentley McAllister but your husband and the Captain requested I fetch you for the morning meal."
Clara thought it odd that Benjamin did not come himself to collect her but said nothing and followed Andrew through the ship to the Captain's quarters. Two quick raps on the door and they were bid to enter.
Benjamin's eyes widened as he took in Clara and her new state of dress. She could only be described as exotic. His pulse quickened at the sight of her. He looked over to McCullen who wore a similar expression of appreciation and frowned.
"Thank you, Mr. Hodgkin," Benjamin said taking Clara's hand, the man bowed and left to attend to his duties.
"You're stunning!" Benjamin leaned in to whisper in Clara's ear and she was surprised to find he was not the least bit miffed at her and although grateful, could not help but wonder why.
Benjamin led her over to Captain McCullen who had not broken eye contact with her since she entered the room. "May I present to you Captain James McCullen of the Black Star."
So that was the reason, McCullen had not told Benjamin they had already met. Then what had he wanted to talk to Benjamin about regarding her? Clara gave a deep curtsey and lowered her eyes demurely.
"Enchanted," Captain McCullen said and grinned as Clara colored.
When her eyes rose and met his, Clara noted McCullen's eyes held a challenge. He was keeping her secret but what would be the price? Clara did not know much about him but as a privateer, she knew one thing for certain, nothing this man did would be for free.
"Captain." Clara rose and took her husband's arm, in a clear display of to whom she belonged to incase the Captain was in doubt of that.
Benjamin smiled at her as her rest his hand over hers.
"Ah Benji, your description of her beauty did not do her justice in the slightest. Shame on you," McCullen mocked and Benjamin's look soured.
"If I had that would only be because there are no words to adequately describe what beauty the lady holds is both inside and out."
Clara breath caught at his words and she smiled up at him grateful he spoke so highly of her. Perhaps she was wrong to be so worried.
Benjamin's looked turned downright threatening as his gaze pierced the Captain. "And you'd do well to remember she is a married woman and more importantly to whom she is wed," Benjamin warned.
McCullen let out a hearty chuckle. "Cease and desist, Benjamin. I'm well aware, and will not overstep my boundaries. But you must forgive my envy of your possession of such a rare and exotic flower as Mrs. McAllister."
Clara's had to resist the unladylike urge to snort at such empty flattery, but could not resist her urge to speak out. "I am neither possession nor a flower, dear Captain. I'm just a woman as ordinary as any other."
"You must pardon my metaphors, Mrs. McAllister. I do tend to get carried away, but I find it highly unlikely you are so... ordinary as you propose. No ordinary woman could have snagged Benji in her matrimonial snare. And as you are his wife you belong to him, do you not?"
To deny this would be to deny, Benjamin, which Clara was not about to do. "I do, heart and soul," Clara said looking up to Benjamin with such love in her eyes it made Benjamin's heart flutter and stole the breath from his lungs. Benjamin gave a slight cough to cover the gasp for air that escaped his lips.
He led her over to the table where the feast had already been laid out for them. It was a sumptuous fare, quite overdone, obviously made to impress though Clara thought it a waste of supplies as they had quite a long journey home.
Benjamin made up a plate for her and then one for himself. Clara thought it sweet that he wished to wait on her in this way. "The Captain had an idea I think you might like, Clara."
"Yes, and what might that be?" Clara inquired, curious if this was the reason the Captain had been so secretive, retrieving her husband before they all met. Or was it just that McCullen obviously enjoyed toying with her. Evident by the way he was grinning at her over his cup of rum.
"Do tell," Clara said with the proper amount of enthusiasm though to the well-trained ear one could pick up a hint of sarcasm, which McCullen obviously detected, as his grin grew wider still.
"He has offered his quarters for you to work in as you finish Lord Fitton's research."
Captain McCullen was forcing her to mingle with him and his crew. What was he playing at? Clara fumed. His offer would negate her plan to hide below deck until the end of the voyage. She could not allow it.
"It is a generous offer, to be certain, but completely unnecessary. I believe it best that I complete Lord Fitton's work below deck without becoming a nuisance to both Captain and crew."
"Nonsense, Mrs. McAllister. You'd be tucked away, safely in my quarters and in no way an imposition."
Clara didn't care for how the Captain's turn of phrase always seemed to imply something most inappropriate. "Well, even if that be so, I must decline."
Captain McCullen was quite the actor, as he looked almost genuine in his disappointment. "Might I ask why? I was told that the work you are doing is of great importance to our King. I'm only trying to help."
Clara silently fumed. Help? Ha! Help him perhaps? But she will not put herself in a position that could compromise her further with Benjamin. They already had too much ground the must regain, to add another wedge.
Benjamin frowned at the altercation happening before him. The tension was palpable. "Clara, wouldn't it be easier if you had a desk. Our room is so small, where would you set up to write, to draw, certainly this would be better?"
Clara looked at Benjamin and then at McCullen who wore the smirk of a winner. She somehow had become checkmated and she was an excellent player at chess. "Yes. Of course, Benjamin, that would be better," Clara conceded.
"Wonderful! All settled then," Benjamin moved on to small talk about the voyage ahead. Clara played with her food, eating little, wanting to go sulk back in her room and rethink this situation. She needed a chance to plan.
"Is the food not to your liking?" Captain McCullen asked.
"I had been on such a strict diet at the Center that I must admit I find this food a bit... excessive," Clara said and Benjamin looked at her with concern. She had become so thin and after that last fainting spell, he wondered about how much "good" the Center really had done for her.
McCullen however knew that she wasn't speaking of the food. It was a warning that he was pushing too hard. He'll need to back down and tread more lightly where she was concerned.
"How did you find India, Mrs. McAllister?"
"It was a delight, to the senses," Clara began, "the beauty of the country captivates the soul, the smells, the tastes, the sounds. Such pageantry one does not know which experience to delight in first."
"A very poetic and accurate description, I should think. I've found this also to be true. Every time we enter their ports, it continues to surprise me."
Clara's eyes had brightened. "What was your favorite thing about your time there?"
Her question surprised him but knowing her to have a writer's mind it should not have, Clara of course was inquisitive by nature. "Hmm, you pose an interesting query, Mrs. McAllister. I find it hard to choose. The colors, the music, the way spice fills the air. I find it an invigorating place to be."
"Yes!" Clara agreed enthusiastically, "the way those spices permeate the air was one of the first things I experienced in my travels through Port Cochin." Clara sighed just thinking of all those things the Captain had mentioned.
Then Clara frowned, the music... "The music is something I had not had the opportunity to hear, I would have enjoyed the experience. I've heard their instruments are quite different than our own."
"Yes, quite," Captain McCullen had got up from the table and pulled out a sitar. He sat back down not at the table but on the floor and began to play. As his fingers deftly plucked at the instrument, Clara's eyes closed and she swayed with the music almost as if entranced by it.
Benjamin watched as Clara swayed back and forth with a smile gracing her lips. She was beautiful, breathtaking, vibrant, and alive. He then glanced at the man who was drawing this from her. So easily McCullen brought this part of Clara to the surface. She has been so subdued since his first meeting with her after their long journey apart. Benjamin couldn't help feeling envy.
He clapped loudly when the song had finished breaking both the player and listener out of their reverie and back to reality. "I never knew you were so accomplished."
"I am a man of many talents," Captain McCullen replied but rose to put the instrument away much to Clara's disappointment. She would have loved to have heard more.
"I've never heard it like before," she told the captain. "It's music, it practically sings to you. You can feel it."
Captain McCullen smiled. "Yes, it does. It's a long journey home. Perhaps if your husband does not object, I could teach you how to play."
Clara once again felt she walked right into a trap. How does this pirate keep muddling her mind? Clara began to realize she needed to be more vigilant in her defense against him.
"I will leave that to Clara to decide?" Benjamin said, not that he wished to encourage McCullen to spend more time with his wife but at the same time the look upon her face, such rapture, and enjoyment, he could not deny her of it either.
"I have much work to do. Perhaps if the journey allows but my duties to the Crown and Lord Fitton, must come first."
Benjamin was relieved by her answer. McCullen was disappointed. Clara's shell would be hard to crack but crack it he would, for there was a pearl hidden inside. A pearl he wished to expose for the world to see.