Merry Read online

  Chapter three

  As fate would have it, the decision of what to do or where to go did not fall to me.

  Having resided under the dock longer for so long, I felt I was going to go mad if I did not get a change of scenery.  I walked through the crowded marketplace for a short while before noticing two of Fitch’s men watching me.  Immediately I turned and walked the other way, toward the shipyard.  Weaving through the crowd to avoid people, I chanced a look over my shoulder to see them following me at a steady pace.  I realized they were waiting until we reached a place where there would be fewer people around while they captured me, and I was leading them to the perfect place.  By the time I realized this, I was on the pier, and I had no way to go back without running straight into my pursuers.  I dashed ahead and tried to lose them in the maze of ships and docks, but they stayed close behind me.  The only thing keeping them from catching me was their bulk; I was smaller and faster.  With only the ocean in front of me, I ran onto a ship that appeared to have no one on board, and dove behind some barrels.  I heard my pursuers pound by.  I thought I had made it to safety, but then I heard people moving across the ship deck.  Peeking out of my hiding place, I saw sailors preparing for launch, and I shrank further into the shadows.  If they found me, they would throw me off of the ship for Lord Fitch’s men to find me.  When the ship gave a jolt and began moving, my heart started pounding.  What would they do with me when they found me?  A girl on her own on a ship full of men?  The possibilities were not good.  Would they buy my disguise?  I hid there until nightfall, cramped in the small space.  I heard some of the crew begin talking.

   “The captain’s foolin’ himself.  We’re on a fool’s errand, and everyone knows it.”

  “You talkin’ about the fountain?”

  “We been searchin’ two years!  There ain’t no way we gonna find it!”

  “Shut your pie-hole ‘fore Capt’n hears you gripin’.”

  “We’re goin’ farther than we gone before, this time.  Capt’n heard rumor of an island over there that has the water.”

  “But how many rumors has he heard ‘fore now?  They ain’t come to nothin’.”

  “There ain’t no point grumblin’.  We ain’t goin’ nowhere till we find the water.”

   “Can’t we just fill a canteen of ocean water?”

   “You know that won’t work.”

  Footsteps approached my hiding place and suddenly a lantern shone in my face, causing me to shrink back.  I heard an exclamation of surprise.

   “What’re you doin’ back there?!”

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me out roughly.  Some of the crew came to see the cause of the disturbance.

   “Fetch the Capt’n,” the man holding my arm said.  “We got a stowaway.”

  Before anyone moved, the captain appeared, towering over everybody.  He looked about three times as thick as me, and his eyebrows came low over his eyes, fixing his face into permanent scowl.

   “Where did you find him?” he asked.

   “He was ‘hind those barrels there,” said the man who held me.

   “And what are you doing on my ship?” he addressed me.

   “I—I was hiding,” I stammered.

   “I can see that!” he shouted.  “My question is why?”

  I just shook my head, and he scoffed.  “Put him in a cell below.  I will decide what to do with him later.”

  My captor marched me downstairs, threw me into a cell, and slammed the door behind me.  I sat against the wall and waited.  Would they turn the ship around and take me back to port, or would they wait until the next one?  Would they kill me?  My questions were not answered that sleepless night, and I wondered if things might have gone better for me if I had simply done what my father expected of me.  Then I remembered the bodies I saw behind Lord Fitch’s house and shuddered.  No.  Dying here was better than being bound to a man who treated people like that.

  I jumped when I heard footsteps on the stairs.  I scrambled to my feet as one of the crew unlocked the door.  “Cap wants to see you,” he said.

  He took me up to the deck and toward the captain’s quarters.  The captain stood outside with a boy as young as me.

  “As payment for trespassing on my ship you will serve as cabin boy until I see fit to release you from my service,” the captain said.

  Not sure whether to feel relief or dread, I waited for him to continue.

  “You will serve alongside Tanner,” he motioned to the boy beside him.  “You are expected to follow orders, and respect the officers.  Remember, you are a trespasser, and nothing more to us.  We hold your life in our hands.”

  “Yes sir,” I said.

  “Now get to work.”

  “Come on,” Tanner said.  “You got a lot to learn.”

  The first day we did a variety of things for the maintenance of the ship.  By that I mean Tanner basically dumped everything on me and stood back to criticize.  He enjoyed his elevated status a bit too much, in my opinion.  I was relieved to find that my disguise worked.  Nobody seemed to suspect that I was a girl, but I was still worried.  What if I slipped up?

  A few days after my employment began, I went to the kitchen on my own on an errand.  When I entered, Cook crossed his arms over his belly.

  “Now, what’s your name?” he asked.

  “Uh…Cole,” I up with a name on the spot.

  “No, your real name.”

  “That is my name.”

  “Sweetheart, I got a wife and three daughters.  I know a girl when I see one.”

  I felt my face go pale.  “Are you going to tell the captain?” I asked.

   “What?  Hell no.  I know what’d happen if he found out.  But you’d better give me a darned good reason.”

  I was not sure if I could trust him, but I did not like the alternative.  I told him that I was running away from my ‘master,’ who I did not name.  He did not say much about my tale, but promised not to give me away.  Later, he even helped keep anyone else from finding out.