stowaway by lady asha wheeler (best classic books to read txt) 📕

She looked up. Harve and the captain were walking over the sand toward her. She lay in the sand unsure how she got there. Harve knelt down and pulled back the shirt. He poured rum over the wound. Tears burned her eyes and she hissed.
He pulled the edges of skin together. Elle panted as the needle was pushed through her flesh. "Won’t be pretty but it'll heal," he said.
Elle looked at the bloody line that was held together with nothing but a catgut stitch. He poured more rum over the wound and this time Elle passed out.
She woke in her tiny cabin. The sound of the waves slapping at the ship’s hull.
She sat up and groaned. Someone had changed her bloody shirt. Her stomach grumbled. She went out on the deck. The sails bellowed in the wind. She found the captain and Harve on the poop deck.
"Ye look a mite better there lad." Harve said when he spotted her.
"Not sure i feel it." she replied testing the pain by moving her arm.
Harve laughed. "Ye got fifteen stitches and slept for two days," he said.
She nodded. "Where are we going?" she asked.
In a clipped tone, the captain answered. "England."
Ell stared at him. "But we’ve only taken four ships." she countered.
"I know that." he turned and walked away.
Her anger mounted at the harsh dismissal. She looked at Harve. "Because of me?"
Harve nodded. Ell turned and stomped after the captain. He was just lowering into his chair as she came in his cabin and she shut the door behind her. She glared at him.
"Bad luck to have a woman on board." She lifted an eyebrow.
"I’ve been here two years. What bad luck has befallen us?" she demanded. Then she continued. "I cannot go back to England. Sir Travis will kill me if he finds i live."
She watched his eyes. Steal became anger.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She went on to explain and anger became rage.
"You’ve risked your life every time you’ve delivered my messages," he yelled at her. He slammed his fist down on the desk. She cringed. "Get out! I don’t want to see you for the rest of the day." Elle did as he said not caring to find out how angry he was.
For a week, he glared at her. She tried to stay out of his way. She spent a lot of time in the galley working as much as the pain and cook would allow.
She resumed her heaver duties as soon as Harve removed her stitches.
Two days from port, the captain called for her. "What do you want to do about your Sir Travis?" he asked as she stood before his desk.
"He isn’t my Sir Travis and there is nothing I can do," she told him coldly.
"You can let Harve and I take care of him," he told her his voice flat and emotionless.
"You mean kill him? I'll not have either of you become murders because of me." she crossed her arms over her chest.
Slowly he nodded. "Very well. We dock for two weeks. Do you sail when we do?"
Hope flared in her chest. She nodded.
"One condition. The crew has to know the truth and vote. Majority rules." he laid the condition out and her hope sank.
"They won’t let me sail," she said venomously.
"The crew knows much of our success comes from the information you bring. They know that you work just as hard as any of them."
Later that day Captain Talbot told the crew her truth. Shocked and angry cries arose over the deck. At his order, silence fell.
"Elle has worked with some of you for two years. Moreover, all of you know she works as hard as you do. The information she brings has been valuable & profitable. Do any deny it?" None of the men made an objection.
"I thought not. We shall hold a vote to see if she sails with us when we leave England." He then told them about Sir Travis and how she had come aboard ship. Then he added, "Elle you are relieved of duties until further notice."
Elle fumed. Within an hour of being in her cabin, she could stand it no longer. She went to the galley. "Cook could you use some help?" Cook looked at her and shook his head.
"I’m going crazy with nothing to do.," she pleaded.
"You hear the Captain, uh-er- Miss. El." he tripped over her name.
"You’ve known me two years, Cook. I’m Elle." she paused. "Let me help. I need to do something."
He shook his head. "I won’t disregard the capt'ns order not even fer you."
Elle encounter much the same statement all over the ship. Finally, she went to the captain’s cabin.
"Lift your order. I can’t sit with nothing to do." She demanded. "Your being unreasonable."

He lifted an eyebrow. "It’s just two days. I’m sure you can find something to do." He said and started writing again, his head down looking at parchment.
"Yes i could if you lift your order. They won’t disobey it. They won’t so much as let me peel a potato," she said indignant.
He looked up at her. After a moment of glaring at her he pulled a clean sheet of parchment from the small pile and wrote on the new sheet, sanded it to dry the ink, and handed it to her. "Take it to cook."
She knew she was dismissed. She growled under her breath as she spun on her heals and left the cabin.
She looked down at the parchment as she walked down the narrow passage. Anger bubbled threw her but she didn't dare turn and confront him. even angry she knew that this was better then sitting in her cabin hour after hour staring at the plank walls and listening to waves thrash at the ships hull. So she stalked to the galley.
Elle spent the next two hours peeling potatoes. Cook let her use them to make a thick soup with salt pork and flour. Cook watched as she worked. She added handfuls of dried herbs. Cook pulled pans of drop bread out of the oven.
They served the food to the others. Elle noticed that a few of the men didn't meet her eyes. She had known that some wouldn't be happy that there was a woman on the ship or that she had lied to them. She couldn't help that the censure hurt. by the time the last crewmember, other then cook, the captian and herself, had eaten she had stopped meating anyones eyes.
She took the Captian his food, she knocked on the door and waited. Harve stood befor the desk and she forced herself to smile at him as if nothing were bothering her. After placing the large bowl on the desk she turned to leave.
Back in the galley she ate with cook and they both worked to clean up for the night.
"See ye in the morning." Cook said as she was leaving. She raised a hand in a silent acknowledgement without looking back.
The next morning as Elle searched the wooden spice barrels, oats boiled as Cook stirred. Elle spent the day cooking, cleaning the galley, or getting ready to cook or clean. Sleep came slow because she was used to labor that is more physical, still it was not that bad.
Elle was not allowed at the vote that determined her fate. Harve came and told her the number of votes but not who had cast them. By a margin of five votes, she would sail with them when they left England. She was sure that she knew where two maybe three of those five had come from. Cook. Harve and the Captain.
Even in this age of 1712 man was very superstitious, most still believed that having a woman aboard was bad luck. The fact that Elle had been here for two years wouldn't sway most of the die-hard superstitious sailors, be they pirate or no.
The sight of the coast was bitter sweet. It was home yet at the sometime it wasn't. She missed it but the thought of leaving the sea left her cold. Not that she could even had she wanted to. Elle prepared to go ashore with the others.

Update comeing soon........

Text: Sasha Lee Hollomon Wleeler
Publication Date: 06-19-2012

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