On A Lee Shore by Elin Gregory

Author:Elin Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: M/M Historical Romance
Publisher: Etopia Press
Published: 2012-12-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Kit was comfortable in his new quarters before the pain and stiffness in his back had eased. Griffin kept his things and his person as neat as Kit could have wished, and Denny seemed to relish having somebody else to look out for. Kit soon got used to his mild grumbling as he swept the floor and aired the cabin. Kit found it amusing that he should be sitting with Denny cleaning Denny’s shoes—“A bet’s a bet, Mr. Kit!”—while Denny cleaned his and the captain’s.

For the first few days even shoe cleaning was beyond him. The damage done to the muscles of his back made even breathing something to be done with care. Apart from trips to the heads, Kit barely left the cabin. He recalled seeing recently flogged sailors moving with the same upright stance and exaggerated caution and how he had dismissed their frailty as malingering. After all, flogging was a fine old tradition of the Navy. Now he knew how they had felt and was filled with shame. But because of that he made himself get up and move and was on deck to observe Griffin taking the readings on the second morning.

“Glad to see you up and about,” O’Neill said and feigned slapping him on the back, roaring with laughter as Kit flinched.

Valliere’s greeting was more cautious but warmed when Kit whispered his thanks before asking all the usual questions about their course, currents, and what the weather might have in store.

They worked on a more extended watch system than Kit had been used to in the Navy. Griffin had suggested they split the hours of darkness evenly, he taking the first stint and handing over to Kit after midnight. Kit found no fault in this because he loved to be on deck at dawn. He was also used to snatching sleep when he could. He would take four solid hours once the sun was up and headings had been taken, which could be augmented with a nap in the afternoon to keep him going.

Griffin’s prediction about Wigram was correct. He was laid up for a week, which made the atmosphere a good deal lighter apart from among his friends. Hussey and Lucas were Scots from Leith who had abandoned the herring fisheries for life on the account. Muddiford was from Barnstaple. Kit hadn’t yet heard how he came to be a pirate but suspected it had something to do with the long knife at his waist and his readiness to use it. Then there was John Longland, who gave himself the airs of a gentleman but whose conversation about women fell a long way short of the mark. He had been most vocal in his protests at the way Wigram had been treated, but all four had made sure that Kit got to hear that they felt he should have minded his own business.

“Any man who takes up with a Portsmouth whore should expect to have to blink at the occasional gentleman caller,” Longland said.

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