Cloudy Climes and Starless Skies by Alexis Hall

Author:Alexis Hall [Hall, Alexis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2014-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

I was with the Valiant for a little over a year, and I was blissfully happy. I worked harder than I’d ever worked in my life before, but I held true to the promise I’d made Edward that day on the docks: I never shirked, never flinched, never complained. But, truthfully, it was an easy promise to keep. When my back ached, and my hands grew calluses, and the wind seared my eyes, and the rain stung my skin, I rejoiced simply to be alive, to own my body and all its pain and pleasures, and live a life I had chosen.

A life which suited me.

Where I didn’t feel strange at all.

I learned anything anyone wanted to teach me. How to plot a course, how to use a sextant, how to name the stars, how to tie a knot, how to sew a sailcloth, how to fasten a corset, how to play the bandoneon. And, at night, with Edward I learned . . . I learned . . .

Bonking?

Love. I learned love.

But there was bonking, right?

Yes, there was . . . bonking, and in abundance.

Was it bene?

Um, yes, it was lovely.

Ain’t you going to tell me?

It’s not really . . . necessary, to the story.

Course it’s necessary. Ain’t a proper story without no sexy times.

Yes, but I’m . . . embarrassed.

What’s to be embarrassed over? ’Tis only good ol’-fashioned clicketing. Most natural thing in the world.

No, I know that, but trying to—

I’m just funning. It’s for my mind’s eye, dontcha know, making sure I’m picturing it right: dimber ol’ you and a likerous skypirate all tangled up like socks on laundry day.

Dil! Don’t picture it! And I’m not . . . I’m not pretty like that.

You ain’t looking at you.

Are you . . . you . . . flirting with me?

I’m trying to flirt with you. Ain’t the same thing, believe me.

But why?

Cos I want to, nidgit.

Oh . . . oh . . . but why?

Right now, I have no fucking idea, cos I reckon I’d have more luck sticking my wang through a hole in a bucket. I thought you liked me. You used to anyways.

Of course I like you . . . I . . . I more than like you.

Aye, and I more than like you too. Captain Edward, though—he was good with you?

He was . . . very good. Rough and tender and thorough. Beneath his hands, I felt precious. It was . . . it was flying without need for wings. I loved being with him. Not just in those intimate ways, though I treasured them, but at his side, part of his crew. They all knew I was his sweetheart, but nobody resented me for it. In the sky, everything is touched by transience, so you hold fast to each other, lovers and friends and family. And . . . and . . . all those people are dead now. My family. My Ned.

I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. We don’t have to talk about any of it.

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