Chapter Twenty-Nine
Finding both Catherine and Andrássy in her cabin disconcerted Judith a bit when she returned there to change her clothes. A sailor hurrying past her had dropped a bucket of water, which had splashed all over her. The sailor had apologized profusely, but she understood his haste and sudden clumsiness. He’d probably just noticed the storm heading their way and had been startled by the sudden crack of thunder.
Nonetheless, she smiled at her cousin and his stepsister and said, “Time to batten down, as they’re saying topside.”
“And that means?” Andrássy asked.
Judith laughed. “I’m not really sure. But if you haven’t noticed yet, there’s a nasty storm bearing down on us. So you should put away everything in your cabins that might fall when the ship starts rolling and make sure your lanterns are secured and extinguished.”
“But I can’t work in the dark,” Catherine said, annoyed.
Judith ignored the urge to roll her eyes. “A storm isn’t the best time to be plying a needle, I would think. Besides, we’re all meeting in my uncle’s cabin for an early meal. They might be putting out the fire in the galley oven if the weather becomes extreme, so it could be our last hot meal until the storm passes. And do hurry. It’s going to be upon us soon.”
She realized the moment Catherine was gone that she should have asked her to wait a moment to help her into another dress. Getting out of the one she was wearing proved more difficult than she’d expected. At least one fastener tore as she struggled to twist the dress around to reach the others. With Nettie already warned about the storm and helping to secure the galley, and Jack in the captain’s cabin already, getting into another dress was impossible.
She had no choice but to don Jack’s favorite garb. At least she got into the britches and shirt in half the time it would take to put on a dress. And in only a few moments she had grabbed everything that was lying about the room and dropped it all into one of her trunks. She finally doused the two lanterns Catherine had been using, grabbed a cloak in case it was already raining, and hurried back to the main deck, which she had to traverse to reach James’s cabin under the quarterdeck.
The storm was imminent; the only thing that hadn’t yet arrived was the rain. Strong gusts were already upon them, the crew working swiftly to rope down anything that wasn’t secure and to lower the sails. A laugh from overhead drew her eyes and made her pause. Nathan was hanging on to the mainmast, working in tandem with another sailor to tie down one of the bigger sails. His shirt had been blown loose from his britches and was flapping about as wildly as his hair, but he looked exhilarated, completely unconcerned about the dangerous storm that would soon overtake the ship.
“You like storms, do you?” she shouted up at him.
He looked alarmed when he saw her and immediately dropped down to the deck next to her. “Why aren’t you inside?”
“I will be in a moment. Do you?”
He’d already taken her arm to usher her straight to the captain’s cabin. “Love them—at least at sea. On land, I wouldn’t even notice. Here, it’s a fight against the elements, with Mother Nature cracking her whip, and there’s never a certainty who will win in the end. Now—”
The wave cut him off, a huge one that suddenly washed over the deck, knocking them both off their feet. But it actually carried Judith with it. She screamed, her arms flailing wildly, trying desperately to find something to grab onto. She heard her uncle shout her name, but he wasn’t close enough to reach her before . . . oh, God, not into the water! She wasn’t that good a swimmer, would drown before anyone could reach her in the churning water surrounding the ship.
All of that flashed through her mind before she felt a hand on her foot. Spitting out water, she raised her head to see that she was only mere inches from the side of the ship, which was tipped precariously low to the water. She quickly closed her eyes as water rushed over her face, as the wave receded. Her heart was still slamming in her chest when she opened her eyes and saw water draining through the slats of the railing. As high as the railings were, she might not have washed over the side, but she’d almost been smashed against them. That could have killed her or, at the least, seriously hurt her.
She found out who had saved her when Nathan picked her up in his arms. “That was too bleedin’ close.”
“Are you all right, Judy?” James asked from beside them.
Nathan still didn’t set her down! He was holding her so tightly to his chest she could hear the pounding of his heart.
With her uncle peering down at her with a concerned look, she quickly said in a trembling voice, “Yes, I’m fine now.”
“Get her inside, Tremayne,” James said briskly before he started shouting orders to the crew again.
Nathan carried her up to the quarterdeck. “If you leave his cabin—just don’t. You’ve been splashed enough for one day.”
Splashed? Then he’d seen the mishap with the bucket? But she hadn’t noticed him on deck and she’d looked for him. She always looked. It was becoming quite annoying how easily he managed to avoid her within the relatively small confines of the ship.
But he didn’t give her a chance to ask about it; in fact, she barely had enough time to say, “Thank you—for keeping me on board,” before he set her down to open the door to James’s cabin and closed it again the moment she was inside.
Anthony immediately noticed she was soaked and walked over to her. “Are you all right? What happened? It’s not raining yet.”
“No, it’s not, but I was splashed by a little ocean spray.” Judith grinned slightly to alleviate his concern.
Georgina rose from her chair. “Come with me, Judy. I’ll find you something dry to wear.”
She nodded and followed her aunt to the bedroom section of the cabin. She wasn’t going to mention what had happened when Katey, Catherine, and even Andrássy already looked worried, and the worst of the storm hadn’t even arrived yet. She changed quickly with Georgina’s help, then spent a few minutes drying her hair with a towel before she braided it again and joined her family to wait out the storm.
Jacqueline nodded at her, but was already playing a game of whist with her mother, Katey, and Boyd at one of the card tables.
Anthony had been waiting for Judith to start up a game at the other table with Andrássy and Catherine and called her over. “Where have you been? What delayed you, poppet?”
“I had trouble changing.” It was a pet peeve that she couldn’t dress or undress herself without help. “One of these days high fashion will take into account a shortage of maids.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Catherine said with a slight smile before her expression turned tense again.
Andrássy didn’t seem relaxed either. Neither Benedek had experienced a storm at sea before. Judith hadn’t either. Her first voyage had been smooth all the way. Georgina looked anxious, too, but then James was still on deck and she wouldn’t relax until he joined them. Jack was her usual exuberant self as if she weren’t even aware of the storm. Boyd seemed calm, apparently only concerned about Katey, whose hand he was holding.
Judith wasn’t worried about the storm anymore, even though she’d almost been swept away in it. Her outlook didn’t change even when the ship started rolling and dipping. Witnessing Nathan’s attitude toward the storm had given her an odd sort of calm now that she was safe and dry in the cabin. But at one moment the table tipped so sharply that the cards slid halfway across it before the ship righted itself—and her mind flew to Nathan, hoping he was holding on during pitches like that. But she merely had to remind herself that he was having fun out there and, with so many years at sea, would know what precautions to take.
The card games, which were supposed to take people’s minds off the weather, succeeded for the most part. Boyd, an old hand at sailing, assured them that the more violent a storm was, the quicker it would blow past them. Judith didn’t find that particularly reassuring, but it held true. The storm was strong enough to pass over them in under an hour, leaving behind a gentle spring rain that didn’t last long either.
There was cause for celebration afterward. Nothing had got damaged and the strong winds preceding the storm had pushed them ahead of course, even though the sails had been down during the rough weather. But celebration meant extra wine at lunch and again at dinner. So Judith was feeling quite sleepy by the time she retired for the night. Wearing a dress once again and waiting for Nettie to arrive to help her out of it, she lay back on her bed and was almost asleep when she heard the knock at the door.
“You don’t need to knock,” she called out to Nettie.
“I think I do” came back in a low baritone.
With a gasp, Judith flew off the bed and to the door to yank it open. Nathan stood there, his clothes neat and dry and his hair combed back but still wet, though apparently from a bath. He looked a little abashed, though she couldn’t imagine why until she noticed one of his arms was behind his back, as if he was hiding something from her.
But her eyes went to his when he asked, “You weathered the storm all right?”
Had he really come to ask that so many hours after the storm had ended? “Yes, quite, but I think I have you to thank for that, too. After seeing how much you were enjoying yourself out in the midst of it, I didn’t find it nearly as frightening as I thought I would.”
“So you weren’t frightened for me?”
She wasn’t going to admit that she had briefly been or that she’d sought out Artie the moment the rain stopped to ask if all hands were accounted for. She raised a brow instead to say, “Are you fishing for a declaration of concern?”
“A bit too obvious, am I?” he said with a grin.
“A little. Now, what have you there that you appear to be hiding?”
“Come closer and you can see,” he suggested with a roguish lift of his brows.
“Or you can just show me,” she retorted.
“But that’s not as fun.”
The man was incorrigible. He wasn’t trying to conceal the humor in his eyes, either. She was no stranger to teasing, her family being quite prone to it, but this sort of teasing wasn’t at all the same and too closely resembled flirting of the more rakish sort. It flustered her. It made her blush. At times it made her feel positively giddy. Tonight she fought the urge to simply laugh, which warned her she might be getting too used to Nathan’s risqué form of teasing.
But then she felt his hand lift hers and the sudden warmth he placed in her palm. She glanced down and blinked at the white ball of fur she was now holding, then laughed a moment later when it uncurled and she realized what it was. Looking up at her was the most distinctive little face, with silver streaks fanning across its cheeks and up its brow, large, green eyes rimmed in black as if painted with kohl, and a black button of a nose. More silver streaks were on its bushy tail, but otherwise, it was all white.
She couldn’t take her eyes off it, even as she wondered aloud, “And what am I supposed to do with a newborn kitten?”
“Feed it, pet it—love it. You know, what you usually do with adorable things.”
That answer sounded a little too personal, as if he weren’t talking about the kitten at all. And she did find his green eyes back on her when she glanced up at him.
She had to clear her throat to say, “Of course I’ll keep it, if you’ll promise to bring me fresh milk each day from that dairy cow in the hold.”
He wasn’t expecting to hear that. “You want me to milk a cow?”
She grinned. “Did you think you wouldn’t have to do that if you took up farming? Farms usually do keep livestock on hand.”
He snorted, but he didn’t refuse the stipulation. Not that she would give him back the little gift if he did. It was too late for that. And she was sure he’d figure out soon enough that he could get the milk from the galley after someone else had milked the cow.
“And what have ye there, hinney?” Nettie asked as she finally arrived.
“A new addition to my cabin.”
That Nettie immediately looked Nathan up and down after that answer had them both laughing. But the old girl took the kitten from Judith and held it up for examination. “Och, what a bonny-looking wee one. I’ll fetch some grain from the galley fer a box that it’ll be needing.”
“Sand works, too,” Nathan mentioned. “And we’ve plenty of that barreled for ballast. I’ll bring you a few buckets full tomorrow.”
Nettie entered the cabin with the kitten cuddled in her arms. Judith took a moment to tell Nathan, “Thank you for the gift.”
He shook his head. “It’s not a gift, but a favor you’re doing me, taking it off my hands.”
“You don’t like cats?”
“Never gave them much thought, but I was starting to like that one a little too much, after caring for it for the last few days.”
“Ah, and it’s not a manly pet, is it?” she guessed.
“You really think that would matter to me? I’ve just got things to do once we land and can’t be taking a kitten along, so better to get rid of it now. And you’re the only one I could be sure would give it proper care.”
“Sure, are you? Why?”
“Because I’ve never met anyone as kind as you are, darlin’. So take good care of our kitten.”
She gasped after that sank in. “Our kitten? I’m not just babysitting it. It’s mine now!”
But whether he’d heard her or not was debatable, since he’d already walked away.