After the Storm by Chrissy Munder

Author:Chrissy Munder [Munder, Chrissy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: m/m romance, Fantasy/Paranormal
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2010-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

THE jagged teeth of pain had grown sharper and came more often. It wasn’t a good morning. Vincent lay sweating in his bed, unable to drag himself down to the kitchen just yet. There was no rhyme and little reason to the mosaic of pain. Some days were simply better than others now. The days he was trapped, held captive by the gnawing inside him, were increasing.

He didn’t know if he could call what he felt fear anymore. On the bad days, the very bad days, he just wished it were all over. On the better days, he longed for time to extend, to stretch out before him in the same unceasing road he’d glimpsed in his youth but hadn’t known how to appreciate.

“Going to be sluggard today, are yeh lad?” The captain’s rough voice was a welcome distraction and Vincent looked up in surprise.

“Fuck you.” Vincent groaned his welcome.

Amused, the captain snorted. “A century or so ago, I might have taken yeh up on yer offer. I’ve been alone here a long time.”

Vincent could only manage a small smile at the jest before the pain grabbed him again. “Talk to me,” he demanded, as petulant as any small child. “Tell me a story.”

The captain settled down on the end of the bed, pulling out his pipe and inspecting the stem. “What do yeh want to hear about?”

“Something, anything to distract me.”

Jabbing. Stabbing. The pain was growing in strength. He was really going to have to give it a name, Vincent thought as he clenched his teeth again. But at least he wasn’t alone. Fleetingly, he wondered just why it was that he found more comfort from this departed spirit than from any of his living friends.

“Tell me about Caleb.”

The captain sighed. “’Tis a one track mind yeh have. What do yeh want to know?”

“How you met. Who was he?” Even in his current state of mind, Vincent sensed the captain wanted to tell his story almost as much, if not more, than Vincent wanted to hear it.

“Well, now.” The captain settled back against the metal footboard. “That were a long time ago. 1840 it was. I was a passenger on the Aurora. A fine vessel; bound for New Zealand, a wild country I’d only heard about, a place I’d never been. I was to bring another ship back to England; her captain had died of a fever or been killed. Who knew for sure?

“I just thought it to be a fine adventure. My wife was against it, but we’d had our differences out long before and made some manner of peace with it. In the end, our lives were so separate she was happier when I was gone at sea, as was I.”

Vincent watched as a dreamy look came over the craggy face before him. “I’d never seen the like in all my travels. The land was spectacular; the closer we got, the more it called to me.”

Here he looked sheepishly at Vincent, as if daring him to comment.

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