Post by Board Keeper on Sept 25, 2013 20:49:55 GMT -5
Henry
He was barely a man, his skin was soft, his features were delicate, and he was undernourished and obviously parched, his silken lips dried and cracked from the lack of water. His eyes were as deep and blue as the ocean, and his golden hair tumbled gently over his pillow as he slowly opened his eyes. He had rested for a time in the quarters...as if it'd been years since he had felt the comfort of a bed beneath his broken and abused body.
He laid still looking at the ceiling, not feeling the pain of the hot sun apon his skin, or the harsh wooden floor that gave no comfort to his body, not the feeling of salt water that dried out his hands and made them cracked and rough....but insitead the cool shade of a room, the soft touch of a bed...and the lack of the scent of the salt water that burned his nose and lungs from never being away from the scent. He coughed as he sat up...he tasted blood...his eye was swollen shut...and he felt filthy.
He was used to being in the heat of the sun, he was filthy, but he would sweat off his filth until another layer was found. He would then work to sweat off that layer of dirt and filth until another one was found. He now laid down cool, without sweat...smelling himself as he turned his nose at his own scent....the feeling of dried blood on his face making it itch as he looked slowly around the room, partially blind he could only see shadows of things...blobs of light...he speaking in a whisper as he let out a breath of air. "Am I dead...where am I?"
..............
"You're in my room."
She comes out from behind the partition bearing a flask of water, her hat off now, her hair hanging loose about her shoulders. She sits on the edge of the narrow bunk, leaning her hip against his frail shoulder. Is he a boy or a man? Perhaps a little of both.
She holds the water to his lips, waiting for him to purse them so it does not dribble over his neck and chest.
"You were on the deck, beaten and bruised up. I think the deck hands played a game of shuffleboard with you, and didn't stop even when you went unconscious."
She puts the water down when he is done, reaching out to his flaxen hair. "Such a pretty boy." She pushes a lock behind his ear.
"Where did you come from?"
.................
danmanmun
He listened to her, coughing when he took a sip of the water...sitting up slowly as he held his ribs. "They think it is fun to beat me, because I cannot see who is doing it..." he said looking towards Cookie as he blinked...his eye swelled shut, he touching it with a wince as he blinked. "I wish in someways you would have left me to die...would be a lot more peaceful than the pain I feel right now.." he said reaching his hands out to take the water she was giving him. His hands were dried and cracked from the salt in the water he scrubbed the deck with.
He listened to her speak a moment and then he spoke. "I was a stable boy for a farm on the coast. I was out walking a horse...and then I heard a few noises from around me. Next thing I knew they were slaughtering the horse I was walking and I was being beaten up...I woke up on a ship...and have been told to work or I will not get anything to eat or drink...now I don't even get that...I just work..." he said blinking as his eyes teared up, the tear in his swollen eye stinging as he blinked it out the best he could.
"Could you free me...could you return me to my home...I miss my family...I miss my friends..." He said looking down as he grew quiet. "I don't belong here...I'm not strong like these people are..."
................
"I don't have that kind of power. And as far as I can gather we are so far out into the ocean right now, it is best to sit tight, and wait." She doesn't respond to his pitiful remarks, though she empathizes with him. She dips a soft cloth in the bowl of cool water and squeezes the water out, then brings it to his eye, softly dabbing it, knowing it will hurt but wanting to get it clean.
"They call me Cookie. I work the galley. Maybe when you feel better you can work down there. You see there's been some...change of leadership on board. If you are quiet,they might not notice you. You know I got here in much the same way, only I was used in a quite different manner when I got on board. At least I'm the one that found you. I won't hurt you." Her voice is gentle and soothing, like it moves with the motion of the waves.
She dips the rag again and squeezes it out, folding it in a neat rectangle then holding it up to his eye. She gently lifts one of his hands to hold it there. "What's your name boy?
"
...............
SL: Sins
danmanmun
He heared her talk about how she didn't have a lot of power on the ship, she then talked about his plan for survival by sitting tight and waiting and he nodded. "As you wish..." He heard her say her name...andhe repeated it. "Cookie of the galley..." He said smiling a little, he speaking softly as he heard her words. "You sound like a beautiful woman, I can only guess, I cannot see you...I wish I could." He said simply smiling a little bit, his eyes never really wincing as she washed his eye.
"I trust you that you won't hurt me...I will do as you ask..." He said in a gentle voice...he holding the rag over his eye as she pulled his hand up to hold it, his other hand holding that hand a moment as he squeezed it. "You have strong hands..." He said, she could feel his hand's skin cracking and dry...she could see the blood in the cracks of them. When she asked him what is name was...he simply said. "Henry...I do not have a last name..."
...........................
Somehow she missed that, that he was blind. She was so busy getting his body downstairs and keeping him from the bloodthirsty ones. She knows the ones. They can not be trusted with anything and a girl learns to be stronger than she ever thought she would have to be. The ones that kicked him and left him for dead. Stupid men. Don't they know that he can be valuable when treated well and taught what to do.
"I didn't know." She squeezes his hand back and is reminded that she used to have a love on the other ship, the one that was now matchsticks somewhere floating around on the ocean, whatever treasure and secrets she had, deep beneath with the mermaids.
"They are strong from lifting heavy pots, and feeding a ship full of men day in, day out. But when I was stolen and brought to my other ship, I learned to find a place of use, of importance. They started treating me better then. But I do have scars.
"Henry...that's a good, honorable name."
...............
He listened to Cookie, as she spoke of not knowing he was blind, he had no control over it, he was just glad she was nice to him. He listened to her talk of how her hands were strong from lifting heavy pots, and feeding ships full of men day and night, then spoke of her being stolen from the other ship, finding her place of importance. He nodded to her as he spoke. "I hope soon to find my place....I don't want to be killed...I just wanna find a way to get home someday...I will not give up hope..." he said simply.
When she said he hand an honorable name he spoke. "That is what my mother said when she told me why she named me Henry..." he said smiling towards her. He reached up slowly with his hands...his fingers pressing gently over her eyebrows...sliding his fingers over the to her temples...feeling her hair was long. He then slid his finger tips gently over her eyes, closing her eyelids...feeling her nose...feeling her lips...his hands moving over the mental area, sliding across her jaw line. He then slid his hands down her neck..feeling it, his fingers stopping at her collar bones....he holding them there a moment as he smiled...his nose touching her's as he tried to look into her eyes..then leaned back looking down placing his hands back into his lap.
"Your very breautiful..." He said reaching up, pushing a lock of his hair over his ear as it immediately tumbled back down over his face from looking down.
....
Rosemarie never felt such a gentle touch. Her lover, before, they had been very intimate, in galley, on deck, in many different places. But this was not that kind of touch.
The touch of a blind man with nothing, nothing to call his own and no where near home. Yet his touch feels kind and her eyes close as Henry feels his way around her face and over her features to 'see' her. Her lips part when he touches them, instinctively, her tongue flicking out to moisten too dry lips. His fingers drop down over her neck when he is finished seeing her face and she shivers at the light touch on her skin. When his nose comes very close and touches hers, their breath is shared for a moment. It is eerie, but she does not move, allowing him to discover what she looks like.
"Thank you, but I have no control over what I look like. I do try to be a good person, but I will tell you Henry, it is hard to be that way in this place. It is hard, it is rough, and it is mean, much of the time. It takes a lot of love in one's heart to not let onesself become mean and hard like them. I just do my work, and stay important. They have to eat. If the men starve, there is no one to get their ship back to land. And when they do, maybe I can help you become free."
She feels badly, making such a promise. She knows the odds. Slim to none. But without hope, there is no chance in hell.
.......................
SL: Sins
danmanmun
He listened to her as she spoke in thanks to what he said, but reminded him she had no control over how she looked, she tried to be a good person and he believed her...and also believed that it would be hard for him to be like that in this place...due to it being rough. "Yes, this place is very rough and mean..." He said listening to her words...but he also spoke again. "I have love in my heart...I hope they do not take it away from me..." he said blinking as he looked back to her, his nose brushing her cheek he was whispering very close to her, hearing her words near his ear as he listened closely.
"Anything you ask for, I will do as you wish...." he said looking towards her. "I believe that if there was a chance for me to return home, you would help me....but I will not say a word, I will trust that someday when that time arises, on that day you will let me know...until then, I will serve you as you wish...anything you ask me I will do without question..." He said looking at her...then he leaned his forehead against her temple and kissed her cheek gently. "I give you a kiss in promise to serve you..."
He said closing his eyes...his arms moving around her as he gave he a hug, lowering his face against her neck as he breathed against it gently, closing his eyes as he held onto her for a while. As he held her he would take a very long deep breath, then let it out slowly...relieving some of the stress he was feeling, as the warm breath washed over her neck, he whispering to her. "Thank you again for saving me..." He said pulling away from the hug, then placing his hands back onto his lap...looking down quietly.
............
"When you talk this way, so trusting and gentle, it makes me want to be gentle. I have lost so much, and left all I had behind. I have fooled myself to believing that this is my life here, and I love it. But I don't. I want the life of a fine lady. I want to have all my things around me, and my home, and not be cold, and not be hungry or ever afraid. Like other ladies back in Brittany, or in the village near Lancastershire where I was born. Those ladies don't think about having only one dress and smelling good, and worried that you will lose the only one friend you ever had."
She quiets now, looking at him, seeing how after they hug he just sits there, docile as a boy.
"I think you really mean it. I think you really truly would give me anything I asked if you had it to give or do. Yer a sweet one you are, a very sweet one. A man that is still a boy."
She makes no apologies because she means no insult. To her, he is a lovely creature she is lucky to find. She takes his rag and rinses it once more, then brings it back up to his hurt eye, holding it there.
"And I will be your back. If anyone tries to hurt you again, they will answer to me. And if I am not strong enough, I will get my friend to help. I have....large, strong friends aboard. They are mean as well, but they know who their friends are."
...............
e listening in might hear...he could never tell if others were around cause he could not see them. "I promise you...on my life...that someday...someday I will help you have things around you....you will not be cold, and never hunger...or fear. To me you are a lady in my eyes...and since I cannot see, no one can take that vision of you away from me..." He said laughing quietly staying very hushed as he whispered, his words brushing against her ear with his lips as he spoke.
He ran the rag over his eyes, she could see blood staining the rag, and his swelling was starting to go down, it appeared a small tear in the skin was letting some of the pressure out from the swollen eye. "I mean all that I say...my word is all I have...because my word is my heart, and my soul...and I have given you my word, so you also have my heart and soul..." he said to her squeezing her hand gently. "If you wish to be my back...then be it...but I would rather you be my front...and my friend...aside from my word, all I have is you..." he said simply.
"Tell me...what do you wish of me...." He blinked as he pulled the rag away...a trickle of blood tracing down his cheek that looked like a blood tear as his eyes blinked looking at her....he licking his lips that were finally beginning to moisten up, the cracks becoming more in the shape of his lips again as the swelling on his eye seemed more and more to start to deflate.
...................................
She is visibly moved, and glad in a way that he can not see her every expression. But then again, oddly she is not embarrassed. She is so used to having to hide anything good and right on this ship, and less so on the bloody blade, but also there. She often felt much like one of the men , in spite of her apparrent assets. They did nothing for her but draw attention. The more she dressed like a man, the less trouble she had, and if she spit and laughed at all the crudeness as they did, then she was left fully alone. But somedays she just couldn't pull it off. She'd pull out her dress and remind herself of the lady that she was....once.
She helps him once more with the rag, then takes away the bowl of bloody water, and opens the small port window, tossing the water out. She closes it and fills it once more with clean water from the pitcher, just a slight tinge of pink left at the bottom of the bowl, in a light swirl with the motion of the water. She dips the rag again, rinses it, and cleans blood off his face.
"There is a doctor here. I don't know, but there is something about her that I would be very careful about. Do not appear too sick. I suspect she might be kind of...dangerous. I know that sounds crazy."
She hears his question and thinks it over. What does she wish of him.
"I have never met anyone that appeared to me so pure and so willing to work. Yet you at the moment are the weakest here. Tonight, just to rest and feel better. Tomorrow, I will start showing you the galley while you are healing. After, when you are ready, you can work sometimes on deck, and learn how to fill the muskets with powder. I will find someone you can work for that will not hurt you."
........................
He listened to the sound of the water being poured out, then water being poured, and soon his face being wiped again...he blinking as he spoke. "I can see light through my swollen eye again..." he said as he blinked once more, blood trickling out of it as the swelling was almost gone now. She spoke of a possible crazed doctor on bored, he was not too fond of the idea of a dangerous doctor, but then he always thought something that seemed funny to him as he spoke it. "I...didn't realize pirates had doctors...I always thought that pirate medicine included a bullet or a plank..." He laughed a little smiling towards her...his breath from laughter falling against her lips he stayed so close to her...even his laugh was whispered.
"I am willing to work...all that I can...I will work hard for you my lady." he said simply. "Anything you wish I will do my best for you...and one day I promise...we will look out for each other on the land....rather than the sea..." he smiled at her...then agrred with her. "Tonight I will rest...I am sorry if I am stinking up your quarters..." he said feeling a little dirty. "I wish I could wash up..." he said as he pulled his shirt off slowly...his ribs on his left side were black and blue...the rest of him ok. His skin was pale and soft...his muscles were firm, yet youthful.
He didn't have a single vein popping, his form was lean and delicate...no aggressive curves, smooth and gentle, his lines and muscles were soft and flowing. He had no hair on his chest or back...thing blond hair on his arms. He laid his shirt on the floor, then held his ribs...laying back slowly on the bed he spoke again. "Do you wish me to sleep on the floor next to you on the bed this night...I refuse that you sleep on the floor, you are a lady..." He said with a simple tone of assuredness...her comfort meant everything to him.
........................
"The doctor is for the prisoners. They like them to be good and healed up before they are executed." She smiles, close to his face so he can see it and know that was levity. The humour here is dark, colorless, and it keeps one from giving up in the dank, horrible days to come.
"You just rest, and you can get cleaned up tomorrow. There is a tub in the galley, used to have soup in it. " She smiles again. "Now now don't you worry, I will sleep where I sleep, now you said you would do anything that I told you."
She gets a decidedly motherly tone as she tucks the rough blankets around his lean frame and blows out the candle. She leaves her quarters, saying nothing more, making her way to her real room, the galley, where she spends most of her time.
...............
The night was long and he slept through most of the day, his body reduced in swelling and his lips had gone smooth, his color was returning and his eye looked normal again, the bruises still present but the long night and half a day of rest did the boy some good. He stirred in the bed, yawning...stretching, the sound of his back popping a few times as he sat up. He scratched his stomach and chest as he turned his legs out of the bed slowly...holding his ribs as he stood up slowly.
As he stood up his body slowly went back down, his hands going to both sides, seemed he was still a bit dizzy...he sitting a moment on the edge of the bed, his hands claps over the edge of it as he yawned again and then laid back closing his eyes a moment. He then stood up, feeling around for the bucket of water he found it, knocking the drinking scoop off the table, the metal device clanging and banging on the floor as he reached down to pick it up, bumping his head on the table as he went backwards onto the floor...sitting there a moment on the floor with a grumble as he leaned his back against the side of the bed. "That didn't go so well..."
...................
Breakfast had been uneventful. Rosemarie had spent an odd hour or so meeting with the new smithy, a strapping, gypsy-eyed man who used to be a prisoner. She shouldn't be so ready to scoff at him, she was pressed into service herself, and eventually ate it up, deciding it was better to be treated like a worker than beaten and forced to row. Being a woman, that helped when it came to her fate. Plus the fact that much of the ship was starving to death, including the English. She makes her way to her room, to check on her new 'ward', not sure yet what she will do with him. She had thought it a good turn to help him out. They were 6 against one beating him up on deck, and she'd saved him from further injuries, but she did not know that he was also blind.
She climbs the last ladder and walks to her room, wondering why this one is making her soft. She must get him busy and doing work as soon as possible, whatever he is capable of. Survival of the fittest here, something she normally agrees with. No room for the weak, they are better off swimming with the fishes than trying to survive with these apes on board. But there is something Henry does for her. It both unnerves her and makes it hard to be and advocate of just tossing him off board. He reminds her of something that used to be home. A gentler time with folks that loved her. She had made herself forget about it, and always believed that getting tough and hard as a man was for the best. The only time she'd ever dropped her guard was with Boy and even that was rough and fierce, even in the love of it.
In her room she looks for him on the bed, her eyes immediately finding him on the floor in her tiny room.
"So. You found it more comfortable down on the planks than in my bed?"
................
danmanmun
He blinked as he heard the door open...he quickly scrambling to the bed with his arms, pulling himself onto the edge of it...he heard her voice and his face of worry quickly washed away to a face of...joy. "No my lady, seems the planks found me more comfortable than the bed." He laughed a little as he stood up to his feet...walking towards her voice slowly. Once he reached her, his hands would touch her sides, then he would lean his head in, his forehead bumping her temple as he closed his eyes speaking in a whisper to her. "Good morning."
He didn't speak with the loose draw of pirates, he spoke like a young man of polite bringings. Not a noble or a city bum, but one of basic dialect that grew up on a farm, far away from all the verbalities of the world. He blinked as he held her close whispering to her. "I wanted to thank you today for saving my life, as I will each day..." His eyes opening to look into her eyes, thinking for a moment as he spoke.
"I'm trying to make up a story that makes people think I'm a pirate so maybe they will leave me be..." He said looking down, his hands going to hold her's as he spoke gently. "Here is my story..." He cleared his throat and spoke with the worst pirate accent she had ever heard, sounded more irish then pirate...
"So I was a look out for the Dread Pirate Roberts..." he said smiling as he continued. "One day the look out called from top the mast and said...tis a ship, we be under attack...Captain Roberts asked his first mate for a red shirt...the first mate asked him why...and the Captain said..so incase I am cut during the fight my crew won't see me bleeding and lose moral. So the First Mate got him his red shirt and the ship came in and they defeated it."
He smiled. "The next day, from top the mast two ships were spotted and incoming...and the First Mate said...What me do...and Captain Roberts said...get me my red shirt...so he did, and the two ships came in, and both ships were defeated." He blinked as his eyes got wide in excitement looking blindly forward. "On the third day Dread Pirate Roberts had been heard of for killing 3 ships and the English heard about it...they sent an entire fleet of ships after him. The man top the mast said..."There is an entire fleet of ships headed our way..." and the First Mate looked at the Captain and said. "Shall I get you your red shirt?" And the captain said..."No...get me my brown pants!"
After the punch line Henry would start to laugh, his head leaning against Cookie as he bit his lower lip...hoping she would find a smile from the joke at least.
................
Rosemarie had her hands on her hips when Henry comes over to say good morning, bumping heads with her a little awkwardly. He can see her better than yesterday without the swollen eye but as she understands it, he is still somewhat blind and will not be able to have the judgement of the deck crew, even if she could help him get stronger and more fit. And there again is that voice, the voice of a thousand English countrysides, making her chest ache and long for an old home, one that she has not known in a long time. But her insides reel and fight it, with a silent 'NO!' she can not get weak and sentimental, or she will not be able to handle her life here. She lets him say his gentle good morning then claps him on the shoulder. Y' look good and hearty, almost ready to take a meal perhaps beyond water. Are y' hungry?"
She listens as he tells her this preposterous story, squinting, then tilting her head, trying to follow him. The jokes she usually hears among the crew are told over rum and involve wenching and bloody stories of conquest with anyone that dare come on board, but she listens, and when he gets to the last line she throws her head back and laughs, clapping him on the shoulder again.
"Very good my boy, very funny. But where are we to get you a red shirt? You know I do think you have something there, though it be a joke."
She backs up a step and looks at him, then makes the motion of fingers for him to twirl about and let her get a good look at him. "Bah, a bit scrawny, you look as if you haven't et a bit in the past fortnight. Merely a snack for a passing shark. We need to get you strong and built up a bit, and stay in hiding, and perhaps, maybe we can tell a good story, you seem good at telling a tale, and make them fear you. Tell them of your exploits, and conquerings. Here, shut your bad eye."
She gently pulls down his eyelid and unties the red scarf from around her neck. She wraps it around his head over his eye like a patch. "Along with an outlandish story about how someone put your eye out, and what you did to him. What do you think boy? Do I have a plan to save your life?" She gives him a toothy grin, her sparkling teeth giving away her past, and that she did not come from a poor upbringing at all.
............
He smiled as he looked at her...nodding. "I would like a good meal..." he said gently his eyes blinking as he looked up at her face, he could kind of see it, and he could kind of see the vague impression of what her body looked like, he blinking again as he took a deep breath letting it out, clearing his throat. "And something to drink...it's a bit hot in here..." he said smiling. She would see his cheeks go a faint shade of red as he looked away from her, then he would feel her hands take his head as she began to talk.
She wrapped a piece of red cloth around his head, covering his eye...he didn't know if he looked more like a pirate or if he looked more like someone with a tooth ache without anymore ice to hold his jaw. He trusted her though...as she said he should come up with a story...a story of exploits and conquering and he thought about it for a long moment. He stood there...thinking for the longest moment, and just when he looked like he was going to come up with some great tale...some great and glorious adventure...his eye uncovered looked directly into her's and he spoke with the voice of someone broken. "I miss home...."
He pulled the red scarf from his eye, and then wrapped it down and around his neck, lowering his head as he stood there, the golden locks tumbling over his vision as he kept his head low. "All night and day, I kept washing in and out of a dream." he said looking towards her. "I dreamed that the yearly summer yule festival was in full bloom. That the tall poles were driven in the ground and the girls in their dresses each took a ribbon and rand it candy cane around the poles...and the music was playing a song."
He looked up at her. "I dreamed you were there with me...laughing and dancing...the scent of roasted pork and potatoes and and scent of rum and honeymilk in the air. The scent of the flowers in the cool breeze, the moonlight kissing our faces as we danced and swayed, the touch of grass gentle beneath our feet...knowing that we celebrated more than the others...because we were free..." As he took a deep breath a tear slipped from his eye...the world had stolen a tear from him he could never get back...it sliding down his face, landing on the scarf now around his neck as he spoke. "I wish I were home....and I wish you were there with me."
.....................
"Oh my that is a nice dream. Breakfast was cornmeal mush that is cold now, and herb tea. The herbs would be in place of the coffee that is gone until we reach the southern isles." She does not tell him about the herbs she had mixed with the 'tea' to make it stretch for the entire crew, and the fact that some of them would produce visions and hallucinations, depending on the consitution of the one drinking it, and their present mental stability. She was needing to go about the ship and check on the crew and their reactions to their breakfast. Her hope is that it would keep everyone calm about the short provisions and fortify them to work hard. The fear is that she put way too much into the brew and some onconscionable things could be going on up there on deck. It was enough to deal with the sadistic surgeon on board, their only means of medical help.
"Tell me more about home. Do you have a mother? Do you have a sweetheart there?" She digs in her belongings for old clothes and unused blankets that she could make into a comfortable, or even uncomfortable but passable pallet on the floor for him to sleep on. She would not secure him quarters or even announce his presence until the ruse in in place.
"After you tell me a story, I will go get you some breakfast. I want you to stay here for now. But be sure to clean out the chamberpot through the porthole. I will do anything for you but that."
..............
He listened to her talk, then took her hands, pulling her gently to sit on the edge of the bed with him. "Stay awhile and listen..." he said smiling to her as he looked into her eyes, his forehead near her temple as he began to speak to her. His eyes would look at her lips as he spoke with her, so he could better see them move...he could kind of make out her lips as he blinked trying to focus on them. "Home..." he said with a smile. "My home is on the coast of England....note you that I am no Englishman...but that is where I grew up. I am a son of the country land, free of all the things of this world."
"I grew up on the farms, and at a young age grew ill with something, my eyesight was diminished and over time, my parents wondered if I would be able to see at all someday. They got me good at breaking horses...and grooming them, and riding them...but for me riding them was the hardest part, so I would break them, groom them, shoe them...and then I would walk with them along the fence so that I did not get lost." He thought more on his youth.
"Unfortunately living so far from town there weren't any girls for me to fall in love with....I was delivering a horse at the time of my capture to the coastal home of the princess though, I was hoping she would have fallen in love with me...but I never met her, just a childhood fantasy." He laughed as he thought about it. "Unfortunately it seems that the women my parents told me I would be to pick from, all wished them a man that could take pleasure in their features, that they wished for a man that would please them for their wiles and their features rather than the content of their hearts...they told me that most of the girls that I grew up near were fickle and crude...and that only by fate would I ever fall in the hands of a woman who's depth of character would out weigh her beauty." He said with a sigh.
"I spent my entire life believeing in fate, in dreams...star gazing and hoping that this would come to pass...but it seems that there are no more falling stars for me...all the wishbones have been broken, all the petals cast from the flower...and all I have left to hold to is a stem with thorns to make me bleed when trying to hold on tightly to a dream...that will never come true for me." He had a face of despair as he looked down with sad eyes.
...........................
She is somewhat uncomfortable with Henry's choice of ways of talking, but she tries to be patient, leaving her head pressed against his until he his finished. When he is done and she has listened to every word, she pulls her head away so that she can look at him while they talk.
"Yes when you are away from the bigger cities, I suppose your choices are limited, but I am sure there is a lass out there that will appreciate your fine qualities, if it is to be that either of us will finish this voyage and find our way back into civilized society. I thought for awhile that was the goal, but the longer I stay out to sea, I do wonder how important it is. There is nothing for me back there anymore. Any sweethearts are long ago married, brothers and sisters grown up, if the black fever has not got them. It is a memory of something very lovely, something that is gone. I was pulled from my mother's arms and put to work in the alleys and shipyards and thrust out to sea. It is a very simple, common story with girls like me that go to the streets to try and make money to feed their family."
Her eyes are very knowing, without speaking of the atrocities she performed to support her family. "I regret nothing. I refuse the luxury of missing a home that is not mine. When I am down there in the galley, cooking away for the crew and making someone laugh with th' rum, I am happy. That is enough. Maybe that will not be enough for you and you will find your way back home. But for now, I will help you be safe."
...........
He listened to her talk about the big cities, but let him know there is a lass out ther for him with fine qualities, if he ever made it home. She then spoke of sweethearts long gone for her and married, brothers and sisters grown up, and a fever that probably killed most of them off by now...and then spoke of her work on the streets to feed her family. He listened to her as she spoke and he smiled to her. "You should regret nothing...missing isn't regret, simply acknowledging the preciousness of the time that you once lived, and always remembering that those memories are one thing no one can ever take away from you."
He blinked as he though. "And do not think you do not have honor my lady. To be forced to work on the streets...to feed your family, is a laudable and honorable pursuit....people forced to do bad things are not bad people, they are just people that are trying to struggle through bad situations...as I am doing now..." He said looking up towards her...pulling the scarf back over his eye. "It's time for me...to put away who I am...so that I can find a way home for both of us...whatever that home might be." He held his ribs as he walked towards the door coming to a stop. "Thank you..."
He said turning to look at her. "I envy your strength..." He reaching out to open the door to find his way to the galley to eat.
He was barely a man, his skin was soft, his features were delicate, and he was undernourished and obviously parched, his silken lips dried and cracked from the lack of water. His eyes were as deep and blue as the ocean, and his golden hair tumbled gently over his pillow as he slowly opened his eyes. He had rested for a time in the quarters...as if it'd been years since he had felt the comfort of a bed beneath his broken and abused body.
He laid still looking at the ceiling, not feeling the pain of the hot sun apon his skin, or the harsh wooden floor that gave no comfort to his body, not the feeling of salt water that dried out his hands and made them cracked and rough....but insitead the cool shade of a room, the soft touch of a bed...and the lack of the scent of the salt water that burned his nose and lungs from never being away from the scent. He coughed as he sat up...he tasted blood...his eye was swollen shut...and he felt filthy.
He was used to being in the heat of the sun, he was filthy, but he would sweat off his filth until another layer was found. He would then work to sweat off that layer of dirt and filth until another one was found. He now laid down cool, without sweat...smelling himself as he turned his nose at his own scent....the feeling of dried blood on his face making it itch as he looked slowly around the room, partially blind he could only see shadows of things...blobs of light...he speaking in a whisper as he let out a breath of air. "Am I dead...where am I?"
..............
"You're in my room."
She comes out from behind the partition bearing a flask of water, her hat off now, her hair hanging loose about her shoulders. She sits on the edge of the narrow bunk, leaning her hip against his frail shoulder. Is he a boy or a man? Perhaps a little of both.
She holds the water to his lips, waiting for him to purse them so it does not dribble over his neck and chest.
"You were on the deck, beaten and bruised up. I think the deck hands played a game of shuffleboard with you, and didn't stop even when you went unconscious."
She puts the water down when he is done, reaching out to his flaxen hair. "Such a pretty boy." She pushes a lock behind his ear.
"Where did you come from?"
.................
danmanmun
He listened to her, coughing when he took a sip of the water...sitting up slowly as he held his ribs. "They think it is fun to beat me, because I cannot see who is doing it..." he said looking towards Cookie as he blinked...his eye swelled shut, he touching it with a wince as he blinked. "I wish in someways you would have left me to die...would be a lot more peaceful than the pain I feel right now.." he said reaching his hands out to take the water she was giving him. His hands were dried and cracked from the salt in the water he scrubbed the deck with.
He listened to her speak a moment and then he spoke. "I was a stable boy for a farm on the coast. I was out walking a horse...and then I heard a few noises from around me. Next thing I knew they were slaughtering the horse I was walking and I was being beaten up...I woke up on a ship...and have been told to work or I will not get anything to eat or drink...now I don't even get that...I just work..." he said blinking as his eyes teared up, the tear in his swollen eye stinging as he blinked it out the best he could.
"Could you free me...could you return me to my home...I miss my family...I miss my friends..." He said looking down as he grew quiet. "I don't belong here...I'm not strong like these people are..."
................
"I don't have that kind of power. And as far as I can gather we are so far out into the ocean right now, it is best to sit tight, and wait." She doesn't respond to his pitiful remarks, though she empathizes with him. She dips a soft cloth in the bowl of cool water and squeezes the water out, then brings it to his eye, softly dabbing it, knowing it will hurt but wanting to get it clean.
"They call me Cookie. I work the galley. Maybe when you feel better you can work down there. You see there's been some...change of leadership on board. If you are quiet,they might not notice you. You know I got here in much the same way, only I was used in a quite different manner when I got on board. At least I'm the one that found you. I won't hurt you." Her voice is gentle and soothing, like it moves with the motion of the waves.
She dips the rag again and squeezes it out, folding it in a neat rectangle then holding it up to his eye. She gently lifts one of his hands to hold it there. "What's your name boy?
"
...............
SL: Sins
danmanmun
He heared her talk about how she didn't have a lot of power on the ship, she then talked about his plan for survival by sitting tight and waiting and he nodded. "As you wish..." He heard her say her name...andhe repeated it. "Cookie of the galley..." He said smiling a little, he speaking softly as he heard her words. "You sound like a beautiful woman, I can only guess, I cannot see you...I wish I could." He said simply smiling a little bit, his eyes never really wincing as she washed his eye.
"I trust you that you won't hurt me...I will do as you ask..." He said in a gentle voice...he holding the rag over his eye as she pulled his hand up to hold it, his other hand holding that hand a moment as he squeezed it. "You have strong hands..." He said, she could feel his hand's skin cracking and dry...she could see the blood in the cracks of them. When she asked him what is name was...he simply said. "Henry...I do not have a last name..."
...........................
Somehow she missed that, that he was blind. She was so busy getting his body downstairs and keeping him from the bloodthirsty ones. She knows the ones. They can not be trusted with anything and a girl learns to be stronger than she ever thought she would have to be. The ones that kicked him and left him for dead. Stupid men. Don't they know that he can be valuable when treated well and taught what to do.
"I didn't know." She squeezes his hand back and is reminded that she used to have a love on the other ship, the one that was now matchsticks somewhere floating around on the ocean, whatever treasure and secrets she had, deep beneath with the mermaids.
"They are strong from lifting heavy pots, and feeding a ship full of men day in, day out. But when I was stolen and brought to my other ship, I learned to find a place of use, of importance. They started treating me better then. But I do have scars.
"Henry...that's a good, honorable name."
...............
He listened to Cookie, as she spoke of not knowing he was blind, he had no control over it, he was just glad she was nice to him. He listened to her talk of how her hands were strong from lifting heavy pots, and feeding ships full of men day and night, then spoke of her being stolen from the other ship, finding her place of importance. He nodded to her as he spoke. "I hope soon to find my place....I don't want to be killed...I just wanna find a way to get home someday...I will not give up hope..." he said simply.
When she said he hand an honorable name he spoke. "That is what my mother said when she told me why she named me Henry..." he said smiling towards her. He reached up slowly with his hands...his fingers pressing gently over her eyebrows...sliding his fingers over the to her temples...feeling her hair was long. He then slid his finger tips gently over her eyes, closing her eyelids...feeling her nose...feeling her lips...his hands moving over the mental area, sliding across her jaw line. He then slid his hands down her neck..feeling it, his fingers stopping at her collar bones....he holding them there a moment as he smiled...his nose touching her's as he tried to look into her eyes..then leaned back looking down placing his hands back into his lap.
"Your very breautiful..." He said reaching up, pushing a lock of his hair over his ear as it immediately tumbled back down over his face from looking down.
....
Rosemarie never felt such a gentle touch. Her lover, before, they had been very intimate, in galley, on deck, in many different places. But this was not that kind of touch.
The touch of a blind man with nothing, nothing to call his own and no where near home. Yet his touch feels kind and her eyes close as Henry feels his way around her face and over her features to 'see' her. Her lips part when he touches them, instinctively, her tongue flicking out to moisten too dry lips. His fingers drop down over her neck when he is finished seeing her face and she shivers at the light touch on her skin. When his nose comes very close and touches hers, their breath is shared for a moment. It is eerie, but she does not move, allowing him to discover what she looks like.
"Thank you, but I have no control over what I look like. I do try to be a good person, but I will tell you Henry, it is hard to be that way in this place. It is hard, it is rough, and it is mean, much of the time. It takes a lot of love in one's heart to not let onesself become mean and hard like them. I just do my work, and stay important. They have to eat. If the men starve, there is no one to get their ship back to land. And when they do, maybe I can help you become free."
She feels badly, making such a promise. She knows the odds. Slim to none. But without hope, there is no chance in hell.
.......................
SL: Sins
danmanmun
He listened to her as she spoke in thanks to what he said, but reminded him she had no control over how she looked, she tried to be a good person and he believed her...and also believed that it would be hard for him to be like that in this place...due to it being rough. "Yes, this place is very rough and mean..." He said listening to her words...but he also spoke again. "I have love in my heart...I hope they do not take it away from me..." he said blinking as he looked back to her, his nose brushing her cheek he was whispering very close to her, hearing her words near his ear as he listened closely.
"Anything you ask for, I will do as you wish...." he said looking towards her. "I believe that if there was a chance for me to return home, you would help me....but I will not say a word, I will trust that someday when that time arises, on that day you will let me know...until then, I will serve you as you wish...anything you ask me I will do without question..." He said looking at her...then he leaned his forehead against her temple and kissed her cheek gently. "I give you a kiss in promise to serve you..."
He said closing his eyes...his arms moving around her as he gave he a hug, lowering his face against her neck as he breathed against it gently, closing his eyes as he held onto her for a while. As he held her he would take a very long deep breath, then let it out slowly...relieving some of the stress he was feeling, as the warm breath washed over her neck, he whispering to her. "Thank you again for saving me..." He said pulling away from the hug, then placing his hands back onto his lap...looking down quietly.
............
"When you talk this way, so trusting and gentle, it makes me want to be gentle. I have lost so much, and left all I had behind. I have fooled myself to believing that this is my life here, and I love it. But I don't. I want the life of a fine lady. I want to have all my things around me, and my home, and not be cold, and not be hungry or ever afraid. Like other ladies back in Brittany, or in the village near Lancastershire where I was born. Those ladies don't think about having only one dress and smelling good, and worried that you will lose the only one friend you ever had."
She quiets now, looking at him, seeing how after they hug he just sits there, docile as a boy.
"I think you really mean it. I think you really truly would give me anything I asked if you had it to give or do. Yer a sweet one you are, a very sweet one. A man that is still a boy."
She makes no apologies because she means no insult. To her, he is a lovely creature she is lucky to find. She takes his rag and rinses it once more, then brings it back up to his hurt eye, holding it there.
"And I will be your back. If anyone tries to hurt you again, they will answer to me. And if I am not strong enough, I will get my friend to help. I have....large, strong friends aboard. They are mean as well, but they know who their friends are."
...............
e listening in might hear...he could never tell if others were around cause he could not see them. "I promise you...on my life...that someday...someday I will help you have things around you....you will not be cold, and never hunger...or fear. To me you are a lady in my eyes...and since I cannot see, no one can take that vision of you away from me..." He said laughing quietly staying very hushed as he whispered, his words brushing against her ear with his lips as he spoke.
He ran the rag over his eyes, she could see blood staining the rag, and his swelling was starting to go down, it appeared a small tear in the skin was letting some of the pressure out from the swollen eye. "I mean all that I say...my word is all I have...because my word is my heart, and my soul...and I have given you my word, so you also have my heart and soul..." he said to her squeezing her hand gently. "If you wish to be my back...then be it...but I would rather you be my front...and my friend...aside from my word, all I have is you..." he said simply.
"Tell me...what do you wish of me...." He blinked as he pulled the rag away...a trickle of blood tracing down his cheek that looked like a blood tear as his eyes blinked looking at her....he licking his lips that were finally beginning to moisten up, the cracks becoming more in the shape of his lips again as the swelling on his eye seemed more and more to start to deflate.
...................................
She is visibly moved, and glad in a way that he can not see her every expression. But then again, oddly she is not embarrassed. She is so used to having to hide anything good and right on this ship, and less so on the bloody blade, but also there. She often felt much like one of the men , in spite of her apparrent assets. They did nothing for her but draw attention. The more she dressed like a man, the less trouble she had, and if she spit and laughed at all the crudeness as they did, then she was left fully alone. But somedays she just couldn't pull it off. She'd pull out her dress and remind herself of the lady that she was....once.
She helps him once more with the rag, then takes away the bowl of bloody water, and opens the small port window, tossing the water out. She closes it and fills it once more with clean water from the pitcher, just a slight tinge of pink left at the bottom of the bowl, in a light swirl with the motion of the water. She dips the rag again, rinses it, and cleans blood off his face.
"There is a doctor here. I don't know, but there is something about her that I would be very careful about. Do not appear too sick. I suspect she might be kind of...dangerous. I know that sounds crazy."
She hears his question and thinks it over. What does she wish of him.
"I have never met anyone that appeared to me so pure and so willing to work. Yet you at the moment are the weakest here. Tonight, just to rest and feel better. Tomorrow, I will start showing you the galley while you are healing. After, when you are ready, you can work sometimes on deck, and learn how to fill the muskets with powder. I will find someone you can work for that will not hurt you."
........................
He listened to the sound of the water being poured out, then water being poured, and soon his face being wiped again...he blinking as he spoke. "I can see light through my swollen eye again..." he said as he blinked once more, blood trickling out of it as the swelling was almost gone now. She spoke of a possible crazed doctor on bored, he was not too fond of the idea of a dangerous doctor, but then he always thought something that seemed funny to him as he spoke it. "I...didn't realize pirates had doctors...I always thought that pirate medicine included a bullet or a plank..." He laughed a little smiling towards her...his breath from laughter falling against her lips he stayed so close to her...even his laugh was whispered.
"I am willing to work...all that I can...I will work hard for you my lady." he said simply. "Anything you wish I will do my best for you...and one day I promise...we will look out for each other on the land....rather than the sea..." he smiled at her...then agrred with her. "Tonight I will rest...I am sorry if I am stinking up your quarters..." he said feeling a little dirty. "I wish I could wash up..." he said as he pulled his shirt off slowly...his ribs on his left side were black and blue...the rest of him ok. His skin was pale and soft...his muscles were firm, yet youthful.
He didn't have a single vein popping, his form was lean and delicate...no aggressive curves, smooth and gentle, his lines and muscles were soft and flowing. He had no hair on his chest or back...thing blond hair on his arms. He laid his shirt on the floor, then held his ribs...laying back slowly on the bed he spoke again. "Do you wish me to sleep on the floor next to you on the bed this night...I refuse that you sleep on the floor, you are a lady..." He said with a simple tone of assuredness...her comfort meant everything to him.
........................
"The doctor is for the prisoners. They like them to be good and healed up before they are executed." She smiles, close to his face so he can see it and know that was levity. The humour here is dark, colorless, and it keeps one from giving up in the dank, horrible days to come.
"You just rest, and you can get cleaned up tomorrow. There is a tub in the galley, used to have soup in it. " She smiles again. "Now now don't you worry, I will sleep where I sleep, now you said you would do anything that I told you."
She gets a decidedly motherly tone as she tucks the rough blankets around his lean frame and blows out the candle. She leaves her quarters, saying nothing more, making her way to her real room, the galley, where she spends most of her time.
...............
The night was long and he slept through most of the day, his body reduced in swelling and his lips had gone smooth, his color was returning and his eye looked normal again, the bruises still present but the long night and half a day of rest did the boy some good. He stirred in the bed, yawning...stretching, the sound of his back popping a few times as he sat up. He scratched his stomach and chest as he turned his legs out of the bed slowly...holding his ribs as he stood up slowly.
As he stood up his body slowly went back down, his hands going to both sides, seemed he was still a bit dizzy...he sitting a moment on the edge of the bed, his hands claps over the edge of it as he yawned again and then laid back closing his eyes a moment. He then stood up, feeling around for the bucket of water he found it, knocking the drinking scoop off the table, the metal device clanging and banging on the floor as he reached down to pick it up, bumping his head on the table as he went backwards onto the floor...sitting there a moment on the floor with a grumble as he leaned his back against the side of the bed. "That didn't go so well..."
...................
Breakfast had been uneventful. Rosemarie had spent an odd hour or so meeting with the new smithy, a strapping, gypsy-eyed man who used to be a prisoner. She shouldn't be so ready to scoff at him, she was pressed into service herself, and eventually ate it up, deciding it was better to be treated like a worker than beaten and forced to row. Being a woman, that helped when it came to her fate. Plus the fact that much of the ship was starving to death, including the English. She makes her way to her room, to check on her new 'ward', not sure yet what she will do with him. She had thought it a good turn to help him out. They were 6 against one beating him up on deck, and she'd saved him from further injuries, but she did not know that he was also blind.
She climbs the last ladder and walks to her room, wondering why this one is making her soft. She must get him busy and doing work as soon as possible, whatever he is capable of. Survival of the fittest here, something she normally agrees with. No room for the weak, they are better off swimming with the fishes than trying to survive with these apes on board. But there is something Henry does for her. It both unnerves her and makes it hard to be and advocate of just tossing him off board. He reminds her of something that used to be home. A gentler time with folks that loved her. She had made herself forget about it, and always believed that getting tough and hard as a man was for the best. The only time she'd ever dropped her guard was with Boy and even that was rough and fierce, even in the love of it.
In her room she looks for him on the bed, her eyes immediately finding him on the floor in her tiny room.
"So. You found it more comfortable down on the planks than in my bed?"
................
danmanmun
He blinked as he heard the door open...he quickly scrambling to the bed with his arms, pulling himself onto the edge of it...he heard her voice and his face of worry quickly washed away to a face of...joy. "No my lady, seems the planks found me more comfortable than the bed." He laughed a little as he stood up to his feet...walking towards her voice slowly. Once he reached her, his hands would touch her sides, then he would lean his head in, his forehead bumping her temple as he closed his eyes speaking in a whisper to her. "Good morning."
He didn't speak with the loose draw of pirates, he spoke like a young man of polite bringings. Not a noble or a city bum, but one of basic dialect that grew up on a farm, far away from all the verbalities of the world. He blinked as he held her close whispering to her. "I wanted to thank you today for saving my life, as I will each day..." His eyes opening to look into her eyes, thinking for a moment as he spoke.
"I'm trying to make up a story that makes people think I'm a pirate so maybe they will leave me be..." He said looking down, his hands going to hold her's as he spoke gently. "Here is my story..." He cleared his throat and spoke with the worst pirate accent she had ever heard, sounded more irish then pirate...
"So I was a look out for the Dread Pirate Roberts..." he said smiling as he continued. "One day the look out called from top the mast and said...tis a ship, we be under attack...Captain Roberts asked his first mate for a red shirt...the first mate asked him why...and the Captain said..so incase I am cut during the fight my crew won't see me bleeding and lose moral. So the First Mate got him his red shirt and the ship came in and they defeated it."
He smiled. "The next day, from top the mast two ships were spotted and incoming...and the First Mate said...What me do...and Captain Roberts said...get me my red shirt...so he did, and the two ships came in, and both ships were defeated." He blinked as his eyes got wide in excitement looking blindly forward. "On the third day Dread Pirate Roberts had been heard of for killing 3 ships and the English heard about it...they sent an entire fleet of ships after him. The man top the mast said..."There is an entire fleet of ships headed our way..." and the First Mate looked at the Captain and said. "Shall I get you your red shirt?" And the captain said..."No...get me my brown pants!"
After the punch line Henry would start to laugh, his head leaning against Cookie as he bit his lower lip...hoping she would find a smile from the joke at least.
................
Rosemarie had her hands on her hips when Henry comes over to say good morning, bumping heads with her a little awkwardly. He can see her better than yesterday without the swollen eye but as she understands it, he is still somewhat blind and will not be able to have the judgement of the deck crew, even if she could help him get stronger and more fit. And there again is that voice, the voice of a thousand English countrysides, making her chest ache and long for an old home, one that she has not known in a long time. But her insides reel and fight it, with a silent 'NO!' she can not get weak and sentimental, or she will not be able to handle her life here. She lets him say his gentle good morning then claps him on the shoulder. Y' look good and hearty, almost ready to take a meal perhaps beyond water. Are y' hungry?"
She listens as he tells her this preposterous story, squinting, then tilting her head, trying to follow him. The jokes she usually hears among the crew are told over rum and involve wenching and bloody stories of conquest with anyone that dare come on board, but she listens, and when he gets to the last line she throws her head back and laughs, clapping him on the shoulder again.
"Very good my boy, very funny. But where are we to get you a red shirt? You know I do think you have something there, though it be a joke."
She backs up a step and looks at him, then makes the motion of fingers for him to twirl about and let her get a good look at him. "Bah, a bit scrawny, you look as if you haven't et a bit in the past fortnight. Merely a snack for a passing shark. We need to get you strong and built up a bit, and stay in hiding, and perhaps, maybe we can tell a good story, you seem good at telling a tale, and make them fear you. Tell them of your exploits, and conquerings. Here, shut your bad eye."
She gently pulls down his eyelid and unties the red scarf from around her neck. She wraps it around his head over his eye like a patch. "Along with an outlandish story about how someone put your eye out, and what you did to him. What do you think boy? Do I have a plan to save your life?" She gives him a toothy grin, her sparkling teeth giving away her past, and that she did not come from a poor upbringing at all.
............
He smiled as he looked at her...nodding. "I would like a good meal..." he said gently his eyes blinking as he looked up at her face, he could kind of see it, and he could kind of see the vague impression of what her body looked like, he blinking again as he took a deep breath letting it out, clearing his throat. "And something to drink...it's a bit hot in here..." he said smiling. She would see his cheeks go a faint shade of red as he looked away from her, then he would feel her hands take his head as she began to talk.
She wrapped a piece of red cloth around his head, covering his eye...he didn't know if he looked more like a pirate or if he looked more like someone with a tooth ache without anymore ice to hold his jaw. He trusted her though...as she said he should come up with a story...a story of exploits and conquering and he thought about it for a long moment. He stood there...thinking for the longest moment, and just when he looked like he was going to come up with some great tale...some great and glorious adventure...his eye uncovered looked directly into her's and he spoke with the voice of someone broken. "I miss home...."
He pulled the red scarf from his eye, and then wrapped it down and around his neck, lowering his head as he stood there, the golden locks tumbling over his vision as he kept his head low. "All night and day, I kept washing in and out of a dream." he said looking towards her. "I dreamed that the yearly summer yule festival was in full bloom. That the tall poles were driven in the ground and the girls in their dresses each took a ribbon and rand it candy cane around the poles...and the music was playing a song."
He looked up at her. "I dreamed you were there with me...laughing and dancing...the scent of roasted pork and potatoes and and scent of rum and honeymilk in the air. The scent of the flowers in the cool breeze, the moonlight kissing our faces as we danced and swayed, the touch of grass gentle beneath our feet...knowing that we celebrated more than the others...because we were free..." As he took a deep breath a tear slipped from his eye...the world had stolen a tear from him he could never get back...it sliding down his face, landing on the scarf now around his neck as he spoke. "I wish I were home....and I wish you were there with me."
.....................
"Oh my that is a nice dream. Breakfast was cornmeal mush that is cold now, and herb tea. The herbs would be in place of the coffee that is gone until we reach the southern isles." She does not tell him about the herbs she had mixed with the 'tea' to make it stretch for the entire crew, and the fact that some of them would produce visions and hallucinations, depending on the consitution of the one drinking it, and their present mental stability. She was needing to go about the ship and check on the crew and their reactions to their breakfast. Her hope is that it would keep everyone calm about the short provisions and fortify them to work hard. The fear is that she put way too much into the brew and some onconscionable things could be going on up there on deck. It was enough to deal with the sadistic surgeon on board, their only means of medical help.
"Tell me more about home. Do you have a mother? Do you have a sweetheart there?" She digs in her belongings for old clothes and unused blankets that she could make into a comfortable, or even uncomfortable but passable pallet on the floor for him to sleep on. She would not secure him quarters or even announce his presence until the ruse in in place.
"After you tell me a story, I will go get you some breakfast. I want you to stay here for now. But be sure to clean out the chamberpot through the porthole. I will do anything for you but that."
..............
He listened to her talk, then took her hands, pulling her gently to sit on the edge of the bed with him. "Stay awhile and listen..." he said smiling to her as he looked into her eyes, his forehead near her temple as he began to speak to her. His eyes would look at her lips as he spoke with her, so he could better see them move...he could kind of make out her lips as he blinked trying to focus on them. "Home..." he said with a smile. "My home is on the coast of England....note you that I am no Englishman...but that is where I grew up. I am a son of the country land, free of all the things of this world."
"I grew up on the farms, and at a young age grew ill with something, my eyesight was diminished and over time, my parents wondered if I would be able to see at all someday. They got me good at breaking horses...and grooming them, and riding them...but for me riding them was the hardest part, so I would break them, groom them, shoe them...and then I would walk with them along the fence so that I did not get lost." He thought more on his youth.
"Unfortunately living so far from town there weren't any girls for me to fall in love with....I was delivering a horse at the time of my capture to the coastal home of the princess though, I was hoping she would have fallen in love with me...but I never met her, just a childhood fantasy." He laughed as he thought about it. "Unfortunately it seems that the women my parents told me I would be to pick from, all wished them a man that could take pleasure in their features, that they wished for a man that would please them for their wiles and their features rather than the content of their hearts...they told me that most of the girls that I grew up near were fickle and crude...and that only by fate would I ever fall in the hands of a woman who's depth of character would out weigh her beauty." He said with a sigh.
"I spent my entire life believeing in fate, in dreams...star gazing and hoping that this would come to pass...but it seems that there are no more falling stars for me...all the wishbones have been broken, all the petals cast from the flower...and all I have left to hold to is a stem with thorns to make me bleed when trying to hold on tightly to a dream...that will never come true for me." He had a face of despair as he looked down with sad eyes.
...........................
She is somewhat uncomfortable with Henry's choice of ways of talking, but she tries to be patient, leaving her head pressed against his until he his finished. When he is done and she has listened to every word, she pulls her head away so that she can look at him while they talk.
"Yes when you are away from the bigger cities, I suppose your choices are limited, but I am sure there is a lass out there that will appreciate your fine qualities, if it is to be that either of us will finish this voyage and find our way back into civilized society. I thought for awhile that was the goal, but the longer I stay out to sea, I do wonder how important it is. There is nothing for me back there anymore. Any sweethearts are long ago married, brothers and sisters grown up, if the black fever has not got them. It is a memory of something very lovely, something that is gone. I was pulled from my mother's arms and put to work in the alleys and shipyards and thrust out to sea. It is a very simple, common story with girls like me that go to the streets to try and make money to feed their family."
Her eyes are very knowing, without speaking of the atrocities she performed to support her family. "I regret nothing. I refuse the luxury of missing a home that is not mine. When I am down there in the galley, cooking away for the crew and making someone laugh with th' rum, I am happy. That is enough. Maybe that will not be enough for you and you will find your way back home. But for now, I will help you be safe."
...........
He listened to her talk about the big cities, but let him know there is a lass out ther for him with fine qualities, if he ever made it home. She then spoke of sweethearts long gone for her and married, brothers and sisters grown up, and a fever that probably killed most of them off by now...and then spoke of her work on the streets to feed her family. He listened to her as she spoke and he smiled to her. "You should regret nothing...missing isn't regret, simply acknowledging the preciousness of the time that you once lived, and always remembering that those memories are one thing no one can ever take away from you."
He blinked as he though. "And do not think you do not have honor my lady. To be forced to work on the streets...to feed your family, is a laudable and honorable pursuit....people forced to do bad things are not bad people, they are just people that are trying to struggle through bad situations...as I am doing now..." He said looking up towards her...pulling the scarf back over his eye. "It's time for me...to put away who I am...so that I can find a way home for both of us...whatever that home might be." He held his ribs as he walked towards the door coming to a stop. "Thank you..."
He said turning to look at her. "I envy your strength..." He reaching out to open the door to find his way to the galley to eat.