The temperature was colder than I remembered—or perhaps my body felt cool from the water—and I began to shiver.
“Are you alright?” Marcus asked as the crew began to pull the diving bell out of the water and onto the launch.
I nodded. “Just a little cold and dizzy.”
I sat on the floor of the boat and wrapped my arms around my knees, setting my forehead on top of them. I couldn’t seem to stop shaking, and soon my stomach began to turn with nausea.
Without warning, I needed to vomit, so I leaned over the side of the boat and let the contents of my stomach release. But I didn’t feel any better when I was done. The world was spinning faster and faster.
Marcus knelt beside me, calling orders to his men to make haste to the ship.
And then my world went black.
The next thing I knew, my eyes fluttered open, and I was in Marcus’s alcove bed on board theOcean Curse. My head pounded, and my stomach was still nauseous, but not nearly as bad. Everything hurt. My muscles, my joints, and my chest as I tried to take a deep breath.
He sat on one of his chairs, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head bent, as if in prayer. Outside, it was dark, but in his cabin, the soft glow of the lantern gave me the opportunity to see the anguished lines of his body.
“What happened?” I whispered, finding my voice didn’t want to work.
He looked up quickly. His face was just as ravaged by fear as the rest of him. He took my hand in his and brought it to his lips. “I didn’t know if you’d live. Dr. Hartville was here to see you. He bled you and told me that if you didn’t wake up by morning, you wouldn’t ever wake up again.”
I felt the bandage around my left arm where he’d likely bled me. It was a practice rarely used in 1927 and for good reason. But I’d woken up. Perhaps it had been useful.
“How long have I been unconscious?”
“Only a few hours.”
“What happened?” I asked again.
“Dr. Hartville called it diving sickness. Some people get ill minutes or even hours after they come to the surface. He doesn’t know why it happens to some and not others, but ’tis more common the longer you stay beneath the water. And if you have it once, you’re more likely to get it a second time. He said you can’t dive again, or it would kill you.”
I tried to absorb all he was telling me, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the pressure of his hand, or how thankful I was that he had stayed by my side. I felt too weak to fight the emotions that were welling up inside me, afraid I would say something I shouldn’t.
Instead, I pulled my hand from his and placed it on my clammy brow. “Did Dr. Hartville discover—”
“Aye. He knows you’re a woman now. It was impossible to keep it from him as he examined you. But you needn’t worry. Your secret is safe with him. He won’t tell the captain, though he gave me a stern lecture.”
“A lecture?” I frowned.
Marcus slowly lifted his hand to my brow and moved aside a tendril of my hair. When his gaze met mine, I lost my breath, and this time, it scared me more than being beneath the ocean waves.
“He said I’m to take care of you, to not mistreat you, or—” He paused as embarrassment colored his voice. “Let’s just say he has nothing to worry about.”
A noise outside Marcus’s cabin made him pull away from me. A second later, the door opened, and Captain Zale appeared. He wore his black, formidable clothing and his sword at his side.
My pulse pounded hard, and I wondered if Dr. Hartville had told the captain after all.
Marcus stood as the captain walked in, uninvited.
“Is he awake?” the captain demanded.
“Aye. Just now.” There was venom in Marcus’s voice, directed at the captain.
“Good. I need to know everything I can about theCapitana.”
“Did Dr. Hartville tell you that Carl can never dive again?”
“Bah,” the captain said as he approached me. “What does Hartville know? He still hasn’t cured what ails me. I’ve thought of tossing him overboard many times.”
