By The Sea, Book Three: Laura Read online

  They split up and went back to work. By early evening the last of the lumber was lashed down and the cargo hatch covered with tarpaulins. The wind, which had been blowing hard from the north all day, picked up as it often does when the sun goes down, filling Laura with such misgivings that she hired one of the dockhands on the spot to fill out the Virginia's complement. He had a passing familiarity with boats. His name was Stubby and she got him cheap.

  Their departure from the dock was more dramatic than the day before. There were some awkward moments, and some shouting and screaming, but at last the Virginia was on her way again, backtracking out of Long Island Sound and headed for open water. They had a fair tide and a fair wind, but as the sun's light ebbed, so did Laura's confidence. She'd been insane to think she could assume responsibility for four people's lives, quite insane. She'd been so ambitious, so completely dazzled by the money, and now it was too late to turn back. And it was cold, so much colder than September had a right to be.

  Laura buttoned up her sea-jacket and pulled her watch cap down over her hair. She felt the schooner lift to the following seas—the wind had gone more west—and she headed the Virginia up a little, forcing the seas to break on the boat's quarter. In another hour Billy would relieve her at the helm. And then I can hide below in my cabin and wring my hands like the silly female I am. How she hated to see the last of the sun go down. Now there was only black night, dusted by stars. The dark seemed to her an evil thing, filled with demons that she, and only she, had the responsibility to quell.

  From the dimly lit cabin Laura saw a shadow emerge in the companionway; she jumped. Colin Durant, sensibly bundled in warm clothing, came out and sat beside her at the helm. He took out a pipe and began to fill it.

  "Too bad there isn't a moon," he said, divining her thoughts. "It lets you see all those things that go bump in the night."

  "You too?" she confessed, trying not to chatter. "I thought it was only me."

  He laughed softly. "I doubt that there's a man alive who wouldn't rather leave by moonlight. Or a woman," he amended.

  "Do you think so? And yet my husband seems to take it all in stride. When the weather is foul he never complains, and when it's fair he never rejoices." She was missing Sam tonight.

  "They don't make men like Sam anymore," said Durant. "I don't mean that as a cliché." He put a match to his pipe and sucked it into life. "He's one hell of a man."

  They said nothing for a while: Durant smoked while Laura, her mood lightened by the company, became aware that she was suddenly in no hurry for her watch to end. The sky around her, starrier now, seemed more magical than menacing. Well over to starboard she could see the low lights of Long Island's north shore, the last twinkles of stateside civilization; impossible to believe that they came from cars and houses and street lights. Once they rounded Montauk Point, all that would fall away and they would have only the lights of their kerosene lamps to light their way in the black, black sea.

  "You know," said Laura rather shyly, "your watch isn't for three more hours; you're missing sleep. Or did you come up to take one last look at land?"

  His pipe had gone out. He made a business of relighting it. "I'm always jumpy at the start of a passage," he said gruffly. "Am I bothering you?"

  "Not at all!" She said it more fervently than she'd intended. To change the subject she asked, "Are you sure you'll be happy with Stubby as your watch-mate? Would you rather have Billy?"

  "I'd rather have you," he answered bluntly, making her heart do an unexpected spiral. "Or anyone else with a working knowledge of English."

  "Oh. Well, that can be a—"

  "Damn! This tobacco's sodden. I may as well try smoking sea kelp."

  Wincing, she said, "I suppose you stowed your tobacco pouch on the shelf above your berth?"

  "Right under a major leak," he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance. "There goes my pleasure this trip."

  "Sam keeps his tobacco in a tin in the galley; I think there's some left."

  He said nothing at first. Then: "Thanks. I may have to take you up on that." He stood up; the boat lifted to a quartering sea, and he lurched slightly, his weight brushing against Laura. He snorted self-consciously. "Guess I haven't unpacked my sea legs yet. Sorry."

  Her smile in the darkness was almost bleak. "That's all right. But you should try to get some sleep."

  He yawned and said, "I think I just may. See you in a few hours; if you need me, yell."

  He was halfway down the companionway steps when Laura suddenly called out, "Colin!"

  "Yes?"

  "We can sail close along the shore if you'd rather."

  She could hear the smile in his voice as he said, "You sounded in a hurry to be back with your husband; we'll give your way a shot. What the hell."

  The forty-five minutes that passed before Billy relieved her felt like forty-five hours.

  ****

  During that same forty-five minutes, Sam Powers was chewing on the end of his sharpened pencil, trying to arrange his powerful feelings into thoughtful prose: "4 September, 1934. Feel worse then yesterday. Wrong to let him aboard. She wont know what to do. More crew needed. The races start in 2 weeks. If only she was back by then. God. Hard all nite long. Tired all day long. The work is less fun now. All talk is of the Brit boat. She is faster both upwind & down. But our men are not afraid. Bad feelings on both sides. First their men quit and good men too. And now they say we are too light. It is true the Rainbow is an empty shell. So they have took out their tub and a lot else. They should take off the wife. Send her back to England. A woman belongs at home."

  ****

  By the time the Virginia had gone through her first complete change of the watch, Laura felt better not only about herself but about the crew she had assembled around her. Colin Durant was undeniably skilled in big-boat handling. Billy was reliable, quick as a monkey, and able to follow directions, even if he'd never be able to give any. And Stubby! Stubby turned out to be a find: he was a natural on the helm, and he had no trouble steering a compass course. It turned out that he used to drive a dairy truck before his license was taken away for chronic speeding. There was only one little thing wrong about him, and that was that he tended to get seasick in the hammock they had rigged for him in the very bow of the schooner.

  Laura was able to write, in her diary entry of the fourth of September, "I wonder why I was so afraid before. The weather is superb and the Virginia fairly eats up the miles. The mood aboard is excellent; Stubby has even begun to help with the cooking. He and Billy have become fast friends. Everyone seems to have coupled off but me—the captain's lot is a lonely one," she wrote, not at all certain that she was being ironic.

  There was a banging on her cabin door, which immediately swung open; Neil had taken to not waiting for her "come in" on this trip, reasoning, no doubt, that his mother had little use for privacy.

  "Mama, look what Colin gave me to keep for my own!" he cried, waving a small pouch at her. "A shagreen money pouch, isn't it swell? It's like Colin's ditty bag, only smaller. And that's almost not the best part," he said with breathless intensity, pulling open the drawstring and jamming his small fist to the bottom of the bag.

  "Look. A Swiss centime, and a Turkish piaster," he said, carefully laying out each coin for his mother, pronouncing their names with obvious pride. "And this one is a ... a stotinki from Bulgaria, and this one I don't remember, but it's from India and it sounds like 'no price.' Can you believe it? They're all mine!"

  "And what did you have to give Mr. Durant in return?" Laura asked, smiling despite herself. "Your best fishing rod?"

  "Nothing! That's just it, nothing!" Neil replied, picking up his treasure coin by coin and returning it to his sharkskin bag. "He said that I was a sport for giving him my top drawer to use. Except for you, I love Colin more than anyone in the world," he said fervently. "Except for Dad," he added.

  "Really? What about Billy?" his mother asked innocently.

  A look of pained indecisio
n clouded his sea-blue eyes. "Maybe Colin is a tie with Billy," he murmured, distressed to have to put his benefactor nearly at the bottom of the totem pole of his friends and relations.

  "Neil, sweetheart," began Laura softly. "Colin is very exciting to be around, isn't he?"

  Her son nodded and she said, "But you mustn't forget people who've loved you for years and years, because the chances are those people will love you for years and years more. Chances are they won't go away and leave you all alone after a bit. Do you know what I'm talking about, honey? Loyalty?"

  Neil nodded again and then looked up at his mother, looping the drawstrings of the shagreen pouch around his forefinger. "But I'm not unloyal," he protested.

  "Maybe not, but I don't think you've said three sentences to Billy today. He's your old pal, remember? Maybe he'd like to do a little trolling with you from the stern."

  "He's off watch and napping," said Neil, "and you're here and Stubby's steering, so who else is there?" He was sounding a little petulant, as if it wasn't his fault that fate threw Colin and him together this way.

  Laura sighed and kissed his forehead. "I'll let you work it out," she said softly, and patted his behind as she shooed him out of her cabin. She could use a nap herself. She stripped down to her ribbed undershirt and cotton drawers and threw herself onto the covers of her berth.

  It was ten in the morning. Bright sunlight streamed through the round porthole of her cabin, promising another fair day and easy wind. Her morning sun-fix put the Virginia nearly abreast of Bermuda. Once they got a couple of hundred miles farther south, they would be out of the gale zone and the rest of the trip would be a milk run. She had done her homework and studied her charts, alone and with Colin during the few minutes they overlapped at each changing of the watch. They did have to consider the possibility of a hurricane, but Laura was convinced that without an engine they would be in far more danger along the coast than out at sea. And besides, Laura knew in her heart that they would not encounter one. She knew it in her heart.

  ****

  The hours between noon and one-thirty were everyone's favorite. The crew all congregated around the helm for lunch, and Laura made a point of serving some treat—fresh oranges, or hardtack covered with blackberry preserves, or sticky saltwater taffy. Billy and Stubby played checkers, with Stubby directing his own moves from behind the wheel, which he rarely gave up. Laura and Colin attacked the crossword puzzle book she'd brought along, and Neil was in charge of the dictionary. It was a pleasant time, a time to chat and tease and mingle.

  "I've been saving this puzzle; it has a nautical theme," Laura announced, crossing her legs underneath her and settling in. "We ought to be able to whip through it in thirty seconds. All set? One across: small space in the bows of a ship aft of the hawsepipes. Six letters. Good lord, this is going to be—'

  "Manger," said Colin.

  "—pretty easy," she said, winking to Neil and penciling in the word.

  "How did you know that?" asked Neil. "I didn't know that."

  "Lucky guess," said Colin with a smile. He was sitting opposite Laura, with his knees pulled up in front of him and his arms wrapped around his shins. He had taken to shaving again, and he wasn't wearing his watch cap. His black hair tumbled over his brow in a way that made Laura afraid to lift her gaze to him.

  "Ah, here's one for you, Neil," she said. "Six letters: the transverse seat in a rowing boat."

  "Thwart! It's 'thwart,'" he crowed, jingling the coins in his shagreen bag excitedly.

  "Right." She wrote it in. "Another six-letter one: hero of A Thousand and One Nights."

  "Sinbad. Of course it's Sinbad!" cried Neil, hugging himself. He turned to Colin, incredulous. "Didn't you know that?"

  "Hmn?" Colin turned with reluctance away from Laura. "I guess you're too fast for me, mate."

  "I'll slow down," Neil said eagerly. "Now you try."

  "All right. Shoot, Laura," said Colin.

  He might have been presenting her with three dozen roses. She blushed, then faltered. "I ... no, wait, here's one. Four letters: the leading edge of a fore-and-aft sail."

  "Luff," Colin said quietly.

  "Love? My goodness, no," she said, her face shining crimson through her tan. "What could you be thinking of?"

  "He said 'luff,' Mama, not love," said Neil, wrinkling his nose the way small boys do. "What could you be thinking of?"

  "Oh! I'm sorry. I think the wind is in my ears," she said, blushing, if possible, even more deeply. "Um ... all right. Five letters: a Biblical figure who is said to bring ill fortune to a ship."

  "C-o-l-i-n," spelled Neil with a merry giggle.

  "B-i-l-l-y," said Laura, reaching over to tug Billy's hair.

  "N-e-i-l-y," volunteered Stubby, getting into the act.

  "Laura?" murmured Colin, in a way that made her heart turn over once, then pause, waiting.

  "That's not it, either," she whispered at last, unable to take her eyes away from his.

  His eyes shaded dark, terrifying in their heat. "No, that isn't what—"

  "What about that guy who got swallowed by a whale?" piped up Billy.

  "Jonah!" shouted Neil with glee. "Five letters! Jonah! That's right, isn't it, Colin?"

  Without taking his gaze from Laura, Colin answered, "I'm not sure what's right anymore, mate." He stood up abruptly and went below.

  Chapter 9

  "I'll be right back," said Laura, scrambling to her feet and thrusting the crossword puzzle book into her son's lap. "You keep going."

  She found Colin rummaging through the galley cupboard "Are you still hungry?" she asked in some confusion.

  "The tobacco. Sam's tobacco. I'd like it now," he replied without looking at her. "You said it was in a tin."

  "In front of you," she said, coming alongside and reaching up to the dark green can labeled Kentucky Standard. She handed it to him, but he avoided her look. "Is something wrong?"

  He was staring at the tin can. "Yeah. I prefer Captain Jack's."

  "Colin—" Laura touched her hand to his sleeve. "That isn't what's bothering you."

  "You're right." He tossed the tobacco can on the maple countertop and took hold of her wrist. "You like crosswords," he said in a husky voice. "What's a five-letter word for temptress?" He dropped a kiss on the open palm of her hand.

  "Give up? Siren."

  He let go of her wrist to trail his fingertips across her breasts in a featherlight skim that wrenched her nerve endings. "Try this one: name of a spinnaker sail used in America's Cup racing, seven letters." He smiled and whispered, "Mae West. Too easy?"

  He slid his hand along the curve of her waist and around behind, and Laura let him, mesmerized by the combination of his quick wit and scalding touch.

  "How about this one, then: the part of a ship where her hull rounds into her stern. Eight letters."

  She shook her head, signaling her ignorance.

  "Buttocks."

  "Don't do this to me," she pleaded, her own voice a soft caress. "My brain is working on the puzzles—"

  "—leaving your body free to respond to me. I know. That's the plan. One more and I'll stop: the ability to glow when excited; mermaids have it. Lots and lots of letters." His fingers glided across her hair, skimmed the outline of her face, lit her up from within.

  "I... I don't know," she whispered, tears of sheer tension filling her eyes. "I can't think."

  "Phosphorescence," he said softly. "God, Laura. Right now you're like a bright star—"

  "Mama?"

  Laura jumped away from Colin to see Neil crouch down in the companionway. "Are you coming back up, Mama? Billy wants to tell you something, and he won't tell me what."

  "Yes, yes ... I'm coming!" She turned to Colin and in a voice low with agony whispered, "I don't know what to say, what's happening ...."

  "You know, all right," he answered, the muscles in his temples working.

  "It's not what you think, Colin," she whispered, glancing back at her son, who was just out of v
iew. "It's the boat, the situation ... we're the only adults and naturally ... I'm married," she finally blurted out. "You know I'm married."

  "I know you're afraid to want me. That's all I know." He lifted her hand and touched his lips again to her open palm. Then he left her listening to the sound of her hammering heart and went back on deck.

  Laura pulled herself together and joined the group; immediately she was accosted by Billy.

  "Stubby won't eat," he complained. "Not only that, but he ain't eaten for days. Lookit 'im. He don't look too good, that's for sure." He pointed an accusing finger at his friend who, as usual, had the helm.

  Distracted as she was, Laura could see that Stubby did indeed look sallow. "Don't you like your own cooking, Stubbs?" she asked with a bleak smile.

  Stubby, wan but cheerful, said, "Sure I do. But I chuck it up soon's I hit that blessed hammock. It's easier not to swallow it down in the first place."

  "Stubby! Why didn't you say something?" Laura demanded, dismayed.

  He grinned. "Didn't want you turning the Ginny around and dumping me."

  "As if we could! Well, we'll have to work something out."

  "And I know what," Billy chimed in. "Stubbs can take over Colin's berth, and Colin can sleep in the one in the main saloon. You'll like that one, Colin. We get to stay there when we're sick. Laura won't let us use it any other time 'cause she says we leave a mess."

  Billy turned to Laura to plead his case. "Colin cleans up after hisself, Laur. Ask the guys."

  A door and about eight feet separated the saloon berth from Laura's. "I ... I'll have to think about that," she said vaguely.

  "It'll be great, Stubbs," said Billy enthusiastically. "You'll be right above me and I can kick your butt if you snore."

  Ned didn't like the plan at all. "But then Colin won't be with us," he said tragically. "With the crew. He's crew. He should stay with the crew."

  "He's not crew, noodlehead," said Billy. "He's first mate. Laura's the master, and he's the mate. He's between Laura and us."