And for a fragile moment, the world hushed.The fallen men, the danger, even the blood—faded, leaving only the two of them, bound together by threads neither time nor fate could sever.
♥
Desi sat on a stool beside Caleb’s bed, her skirts spread around her, and a cool cloth in her hand.Patches snuggled up beside her master’s feverish body as if doing so would make him well.Caleb moaned, and Desi reached over to dab his forehead and neck.An infection, Brandt said.The knife wound in his shoulder had not been too deep, but he’d lost a lot of blood.And even though the doctor had cleaned the wound and applied a yarrow poultice, Caleb’s fever still rose.
“You should get some rest,” Alden said from his spot standing at the stern windows.Moonlight shifted over him with the gentle roll of the ship, coating him in silver.“There’s not much we can do except pray.”
Desi dipped the cloth into a pail of water and wrung it out.“I’ll leave that to you.I’ve never been much for praying.”
The quartermaster spun around, lantern light revealing a hint of shock on his face.“Faith now, everyone prays, but not all to the right God.”
“Actually, I’m not even sure He exists.If He does, He must not like me very much.”She patted the cool cloth over Caleb’s feverish brow.
Snorting, Alden gripped his baldric.“Then you don’t know Him at all.”
Desi leaned back.“How can you even know a God you can’t see or hear or touch?”
“Ah, but Miss, we can do all those things, just within our spirit.”
She dropped the cloth in the pail and ran a sleeve over the sweat on her forehead, not wanting to have this conversation.
“You should ask Caleb.”Circling Caleb’s desk, Alden leaned back on the top.“Until recent events, God used Caleb powerfully against evil.”He smiled, his eyes drifting away in memory.“One time, theSentinelhad been caught in a raging storm.Her hold was nearly flooded.We’d lost the foremast yards and were listing heavily to larboard.With all the confidence of Poseidon himself, Caleb leapt onto the bulwarks, clung to the backstay, and shouted.‘In the name of Jesus, be still!’”
Alden clapped his hands.“And just like that, the seas calmed.”
Desi stared at him, baffled.Ridiculous.“The storm was probably just over.”
Alden grinned.“That quickly?From foaming waves as high as mastheads, a black sky growling like a bear, to a sea of glass and blue heaven in a mere minute?”
Frowning, Desi studied Caleb, the way his black, moist hair clung to his feverish skin, the twitch of his eyes beneath his lids, his constant jerking as if he couldn’t find peace.And all because of her.He couldn’t die.He just couldn’t.
“Then, there was the time we anchored at Barbados for supplies,” Alden continued with a chuckle.“And a young lad of no more than six fell overboard from a fishing boat in the harbor.The father’s screams careened over the waters as loud as cannon fire, but it was too late.By the time they found the boy, he was not breathing.”Alden shook his head with a sigh.
“You wouldn’t believe it unless you’d seen it yourself, but Caleb marched down that dock where they were hoisting the lad’s body onto the wooden planks, his father wailing like a sea lion.And Caleb took that boy’s hand and said, ‘In the name of Jesus, rise.’”
Desi’s gaze snapped to Alden, waiting for the punch line, waiting for him to laugh at his own joke.But his expression was one of somber awe.Rubbing the back of her aching neck, she shook her head.Fanciful fables.That was all.
“And there are more tales to add as well.God has granted him the gift of performing miracles.”
“Then why did he use the Ring for the rats?”Desi smirked.
“Because of the tragedy that befell him here on this godforsaken island.”Gripping his baldric, Alden blew out a sigh.“He doesn’t believe in himself anymore or that God will use him.”
Desi didn’t know what to make of all the crazy stories.Maybe that’s all they were, wild sailor yarns full of fancy and fiction.She needed to change the topic.Desperately.
“How did you come to sail with Caleb?”
“The tale does me no credit, Miss.Let’s just say I was about to be locked in irons for thievin’.”He crossed his boots at the ankle and gripped the edge of the desk.“As an orphan of only fifteen, I was hungrier than I was smart.But Caleb’s father, Captain Alexander Hyde paid the cost of the stolen food and brought me aboard his ship, made me a topman.”
“That was kind of him.”
“Aye, he changed my life.Taught me about God, how to be a man of honor, and how to sail a ship.”
“So, you must have grown up with Caleb?You can’t be much older than him.”
“Ten years, and aye, I suppose I was like the older brother he never had.”
“And that scar?”
