Burning Bright by Pearl Darling

Author:Pearl Darling
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

They left at speed on the tide, at night, tacking backwards and forwards. The fine day had turned into an early summer thunderstorm. The rain fell incessantly, and the wind whipped the waves up into a frenzy.

James could not stay below. The boat was sailing close to. It heeled out of the water on one side. Her sails were constantly being let out to balance the boat, until the boom hit the water. Then they would have to pull the sails in again as the boom being in the water could drag the boat in. But this in turn made the boat heel even further.

Harriet clung to the rail, her head in the wind. He could see that a number of others were with her too, choking out what little they had eaten previously. Bill hung on to the wheel, keeping the boat on course. James stood like a rock behind him looking out. Despite the rain he could see the stars between the patchy clouds. This was exciting.

“Don’t you think you should go to her?”

“Pardon?” James shouted above the wind.

“Get Harriet, don’t you think you should get her down below?” Bill spun at the wheel turning the boat. A cry came up from the sailors as the boom narrowly missed the waves.

James frowned. Why hadn’t that been his first thought upon seeing her at the rail? Since Harriet had rowed with him back to the Rocket, he had stopped thinking of her as a little girl and more as a grown woman. But he would have hurried a grown woman below as well.

“I rather think,” he paused as the boat gibed, “I rather think she’s enjoying herself.”

“Don’t be stupid. No woman or man could possibly enjoy this weather–“Bill risked a look at James’ face—“apart from you of course.”

James spread his feet a bit wider on the deck to maintain his balance. A vision came to him then, of the young girl on his back, kicking and screaming at him about the gods of the sea as he waded through the waves back to the beach. The anger and excitement in her voice had been surprising.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.”

“Harriet’s a gentlewoman, James, you haven’t been here for the last few years she… well I’ll be blowed.”

Bill and James gazed at the small figure at the prow of the boat who, in the face of all danger, had thrown up her hands to the sky and, with a look of glee, was shouting into the wind.

“She’ll bloody kill herself she will.”

“Very probably,” James murmured. He looked at the back of Bill’s wide neck. “Isn’t she your fiancée? Shouldn’t you be over there?”

He grimaced as Bill took a hand off the wheel, causing the boat to veer wildly. Stepping forward, he grabbed the quivering wheel and pulled the boat back on course. Bill ran a hand through his rain slicked hair.

“She doesn’t want me. Never has, so she says. She’s holding out for someone else.”

“Who?”

Bill looked steadfastly forward into the crashing waves.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.