Chapter 16

"P-please, Miss Hawthorn," Elias's quivering voice forced her eyes off Hainsworth's disappearing frame, and she turned back to the boy. "Please d-don't leave me."

The boy's frightened eyes clawed at her heart. She shook at the image of the screaming boy being dragged over the railing and into the churning sea. "I won't leave you, Elias." She caught his hand, his fingers icy against hers. "I'll be here with you."

Elias winced when the ship heaved and tossed beneath their feet as the Ranger struggled to ride out the vehement swells.

Avaline turned to Mr. Scott. "Will, I need strips of cloth to bind his shoulder."

"Yes, miss. Straightaway." If he questioned her authority, he kept it to himself and hastened to obey her orders.

"Let's see here." Freddie unhooked a hammock from the wall. "Ye best sleep delicate tonight, or yer shoulder may pop back out." He cursed as he struggled to secure the hammock between two beams in the galley. "There ye go, now the frothy sea won't make a mess of ye. As soon as ye be patched up, lad, me will muster some good ol'e rum to extinguish yer mind."

"Freddie, do you also have an extra shirt for him?"

Freddie sent Elias a quick look. "Hrmf! Bloody wet like a pup, ye are," the big man grumbled as if he only now noticed how soaking wet Elias was, but he had a worried look in his eyes as he turned to sift through a hemp sack hanging from the ceiling. He pulled out an oversized shirt and a pair of breeches. "'Ere ye go."

"I'll wait in the companionway while you change your breeches," Avaline said.

Elias's eyes latched onto hers. "No, don't leave me, Miss Hawthorn."

"I won't leave you. I'll be right outside–"

"No, goddammit!"

"All right, fine. There is no need to swear, Elias. I'll be right here."

She turned to grant Elias some modesty, supporting herself on the cold bricks of the stove. The boy was a tad unrefined, but what could one expect when he lived among pirates?

"Here, let me lend ye a hand, lad," Freddie muttered, but she caught the hint of worry in the cook's rumbling voice.

The damp chemise clung to her skin beneath the captain's coat, the chill penetrating her core. Each motion seared her waist as if a fiery iron had pierced her, and her palms throbbed from the burn of the rope. Yet, amid her injuries, she felt only Elias's agony as the boy winced.

How could Hainsworth force him into the shrouds in a gale like this? Was there no limit to his thirst for vengeance?

Mr. Scott returned with a trove of cloth. "This was all I could find that is dry and as clean as can be."

"Thank you, Will. This will do just fine."

Mr. Scott supported Elias, and Freddie watched and learned as Avaline wrapped Elias's shoulder and upper body in a taut binding.

Once she had wrapped Elias tightly, Freddie helped the boy into the way-too-big shirt and then into the hammock before opening the lid of the scuttlebutt. He ladled a scoop of grog and held it up to Elias's lips, some of it spilling over as the Ranger staggered. "Now swill this, and that'll be lights out for ye."

Elias gulped down a mouthful, gagged and coughed, tears sprinkling his eyes, and swallowed again until Freddie was satisfied.

It was a miracle the boy was still alive. He should never have seen such horror. That black, furious vortex closing its deadly jaws around the little boy…

Her back quivered with an unsettling tremor. The image would haunt her until the day she died.

"Miss Hawthorn," Mr. Scott said. "You should get that wound tended and put on some dry clothes. You're trembling with cold."

"Miss Hawthorn, p-please don't go." Elias's free hand latched onto her arm. "I don't want you to l-leave!"

"I won't leave, Elias. I'll be here, right next to you, I promise." She turned to Mr. Scott. "I'll be fine for now. The wound is but a small cut."

He didn't look convinced as his brows peaked toward each other above his nose. "Very well. We must return to duty. Let Ainsley know if you need anything; he is on watch."

"Of course, thank you for your help."

Avaline eased herself into the hammock next to Elias, mindful of his injury, and he nestled into her like a lost duckling seeking shelter.

Elias sought safety and belonging, just like she had done as a child.

Just like she still did.

Shaping a life and a family with Lord Francis was a vital milestone on that path, though it couldn't fill the void of her mother's absence and the family she had longed for growing up.

She pulled at Hainsworth's coat, forcing her spasms to ease so the boy wouldn't notice as the liquor and the rocking hammock lulled him to sleep.

"Miss Hawthorn?" Elias mumbled, and she leaned closer to hear his words through the gale and the creaking ship.

"I'm right here."

"I heard you fight with Adrian. He didn't order me onto the rigging. It isn't his fault. I wanted to show him that I'm a worthy crew member."

A tumult of conflicting emotions swept through her. Hainsworth hadn't forced Elias to toil in the shrouds as he had asserted himself. That was a relief, yet he couldn't ignore that his hard and merciless ways had driven Elias to take a huge risk to earn his captain's favor.

"Thank you for telling me. I don't know Adrian that well," she admitted. It felt odd to say his name. "But I promise you, he already thinks you're a worthy crew member. It is adequate to be yourself, Elias. You don't have to pretend to be anything else for him to like or accept you."

"Adrian doesn't get as angry when I fail as my stepfather did. He would hit me, and sometimes, he would lock me into the shed for days with no food. I never want Adrian to be mad at me."

Avaline covered his hand with hers and squeezed gently. "Adrian would never hit you, Elias. He might be brutal and rough around the edges, but he would never hurt you."

Though she disapproved of Elias being on board the ship, Adrian obviously cared about the boy, and in the end, he wasn't the one who pushed Elias onto the shrouds. It was the boy's cruel stepfather.

"My stepfather used to say I'll never be any good. I don't want Adrian to notice that I'm no good."

"You have your strengths and qualities as well as weaknesses, Elias, like everybody else, including Captain Hainsworth. He is a leader, so he knows that. He sees the good in you."

"He was one of the best captains in the Royal Navy," Elias slurred.

The Royal Navy?

A chill spurring from inside rather than from her wet clothes chased across her flesh.

Adrian was English and had been a captain in the Navy. Lord Francis, too, had worn the blue uniform before he rose to govern Barbados.

Had something happened between Adrian and Lord Francis in the navy?

A tight grip clutched Avaline's heart. Her hand sought her engagement ring, twirling it around her finger. What if Adrian was right about Lord Francis?

"I'm sure he was." She stifled the urge to question Elias about Adrian. It didn't feel right. "I'm quite sure he was."