“Promise me!” Her tone held both the authority of a command and the helplessness of a plea.
Jordan could not have ignored either. “Of course, Captain, I promise.” She glanced up at him. Two bright crimson patches appeared on her cheeks, flushing her face unnaturally. Her eyes were glazed with a thin wet sheen. Although they were focused on his face he knew she was not seeing him at all.
His answer echoed in her head and she managed a weak response. “Good,” she whispered. “I am going to my cabin. Tell the men to get back to work.” She stood, turning her back on Jordan and the curious stares of her men and took three steps before she could not take another. She turned back to Jordan whose face went white as a gust of wind lifted her cape and he saw the blood covering her hand. “I need some help,” she said a shade guiltily. She drew her hand away from the wound, and Jordan could see an ugly splinter still piercing the black silk of her shirt and beneath that, her flesh.
“Christ!” He started forward as Alexis began to sway, her smile vanishing. Even before he reached her he was aware of another person at his side. He stopped. Cloud went forward and Alexis collapsed into his arms.
Cloud swore as he looked at her pale face. “Mr. Jordan, is there anyone aboard who can attend her?”
“Peters can. He’s in the orlop now.”
“Then get him. I’ll put her in her cabin.” Cloud adjusted Alexis’s weight in his arms and hurried toward her cabin. Peters was beside him by the time he placed her on the bunk.
“Find Peach, Tanner,” Peters said breathlessly. “Tell him to fetch my medicine in the orlop. He’ll know what to bring.” Cloud stood motionless, held immobile by Alexis’s unconscious form. “Hurry!” Peters commanded imperiously.
Cloud moved quickly and did as he was told. When Peach and he returned with supplies, Peters had stopped the steady flow of blood but each time he tried to retrieve a splinter or a thread of material it would start again.
“Peach! Where does the captain keep her liquor?”
The cabin boy brought Peters a bottle of brandy which he used to bathe the edges of the wound. Alexis jerked under this slow onslaught of pain but she did not wake. Peters handed the bottle to Cloud after he took a few gulps. “You need this as much as she does,” he said flatly. “Drink up.”
Cloud took his advice. After the brandy’s warmth fired his veins he passed the bottle to Peach. He was not aware of what he had done until the boy’s choking reached his senses. He snatched the bottle away. “Let me have that! She’d have both our heads.”
Peach nodded and kept his eyes trained on what Peters was doing to his captain.
“Hold her hands down, Tanner,” he ordered. “I’m going to try to get the rest of those splinters. She made this as difficult as it could be.”
Cloud frowned at the man but he placed the brandy on the floor and grasped Alexis’s wrists. Peters saw the look and said, “I can tell she broke off a section of the wood. Probably to keep anyone from seeing it. By doing that, she put pressure on the pieces remaining inside and impaled herself more deeply.”
“Difficult. Of course.” Cloud said softly, feeling himself pale.
“Exactly Hold her still. She won’t wake, thank God, but she’s going to be able to feel this probing anyway.”
Cloud winced as Alexis struggled against the digging. Each moan cut through the three men in the room.
“Peach! Find something for her to bite down on. I can’t work hearing her cry out.” Peters probed again and extracted a shard almost two inches long from her flesh. This time when Alexis opened her mouth Peach jammed a wadded strip of sheet between her teeth and the only sound that came out was muffled considerably.
Peters worked for the next hour, stopping the blood flow long enough to extract some piece of the ship from her body then working frantically to stop the flow again. Above them the repairs continued on theDark Lady.Her men worked with a vengeance, trying to forget what was happening beneath their feet. And back in Charleston, theHancockspread the tale of Alex Danty’s victory over theDrake,unaware of the toll being extracted for breaking the blockade.
Jordan checked on her every fifteen minutes until Peters told him his constant interruptions were no good for anyone’s nerves. On his last visit he shivered seeing Alexis’s lifeless body and the face of the man holding her wrists. Cloud’s features were contorted in a wounded expression more terrible to look upon than his captain’s. He shut the cabin door quietly, fully aware that anything she was suffering was nothing compared to what Cloud was taking upon himself.
“I’ve gotten everything out,” Peters said at last. “I’ll clean it out again before I stitch it. Peach, get me a needle and thread. You can let go of her now, Tanner. She’s beyond pain.” He said the words gently but they exploded in Cloud’s head.
“Is she going to live?” It was a question he had not wanted to ask, but seeing that Peters was right, that Alexis was far beyond them now, he forced the words.
Peters shook his head and took the needle and thread from Peach’s trembling fingers. “I’m not giving up hope, Tanner, but it doesn’t look very good. She’s lost so much blood. I don’t know how she lasted through the battle.”
Peach, who hadn’t been able to speak since he’d entered her cabin, glared venomously at Cloud. Even his words, when they came out, had a hissing quality. “This is your fault! She wouldn’t be dying if she had left you in Washington!”
“Quiet yourself,” Peters said to the boy. “Get out of here if you’re going to talk like that. She’d dismiss you if she could hear you.”
Peach was not intimidated. “And it’s his fault that she’s dying!” He winced at the pain he saw in Cloud’s face but he did not back down. “It is your fault! It is! It is!” Suddenly he realized he was crying.
“Get him out of here,” Peters muttered to Cloud. Peach’s sobs were just as disquieting to him as Alexis’s previous moans. “And don’t listen to what he says. It’s not your fault.”
“I’m not so sure,” Cloud answered. “I’m not so sure at all.” He left Alexis’s side and crossed the room to Peach. He placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders and drew him close. He was glad Peach did not pull away. He didn’t think he could stand the rejection. He needed the closeness of someone who loved Alexis as much as Peach did. “Come on. We’ll go on deck. There is nothing for us to do here. Jordan will come down to be with her.”
Peach wiped his tears. “I’m all right. I don’t want to leave her. I want to be here in case she…” He could not finish and his body shuddered with sobs he held back.
