Shivering had become a regular reaction to being an occupant in the room Kate had been assigned to thirteen years ago, she seemed doomed to freeze to her death year round. She was aware that it was raining before she had even fully awakened due to the crack in the window and the incessant, slow drip of water that had managed to wiggle through. Three years ago she had asked Nance to patch it, but it had obviously never been tended to. Knowing she would be late if she did not immediately roll out of bed, Kate sighed and proceeded to sit up.
The rain was mild, but she knew it would attract every sailor in the area to the shop. No one ever found their way into a ship repair shop unless bad weather was afoot, and all Kate wished for was to not be bothered on this particular day. Three straight days of mending ratlines and sails aboard The Ordway had left her exhausted, and worse, she smelled of every single crew member, simultaneously. The option to wash up had been there last night, but her bed had sung her such a beautiful song of sleep that she had declined the wash bin's offer. She now regretted that decision because she would now reek of thirty-four disgusting seamen around Ben, and the humiliation would be far worse than being late.
Quickly, Kate bounded towards the wash bin and scrubbed the smell away. She settled for pinning up her brown hair haphazardly, it hardly cooperated as it was and she blessed Nance, whom she had previously cursed for the window, for managing to lay out clean clothes. The cost of the kind gesture would be added in with her payment to live in the room, but Kate hardly cared. The entire process had taken less than ten minutes but she knew it was ten minutes well taken from her work day, for Ben's approval was the single reason she dared breathe. Passing the other rooms, she quickly assessed that all the other girls were awake and that they had dispersed to their respective places of employment, which Kate was grateful for. Speaking to others was not something she was fond of.
It was even colder outside than it had been in her room and she crossed her arms over her chest to ward off the chills. Weymouth had a knack for being consistently chilly and although she had never been given a chance to venture across the channel, Kate loathed being a resident there. The one thing she found herself proud of was the town's cobblestone streets. Luckily, the King fancied Weymouth as a summer home every so often and had ordered the streets to be worthy of his presence.
More than a decade ago, she had been found wandering the same streets, a ten year old child with no parents and no real recollection of where they were. She had only the clothes on her back and three names on her tongue; Horace, Tabitha and Katherine Larsson. Turning the corner, Kate's heart began to race as she spied the shop just up the road.
For God's sake Kate, you are not a child. You must control yourself and your emotions! You have seen Benjamin every morning for four years, not a thing has changed and you truly must stop the theatrics.
As she found herself in front of Garner's Repair, she realised that her speech to herself had not aided in slowing the intense beating of her heart. Nothing ever would, every single morning from the day she had met Benjamin Hall, she had been hesitant in entering the shop, and excited at the prospect of seeing him in all his elegance. Despite the chill, her hands were sweaty and turning the knob to the door became a hassle. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she managed to get a grip on the knob and entered her place of employment.
Greeted by no one, Kate shrugged her jacket off and set it across the counter. She found it odd that neither Mr. Garner nor Ben were managing the front of house and begin to wonder if perhaps she was not late afterall. Behind the counter were shelves that had been built into the wall. They held relatively small things; odds and ends, lengths of rope, folded sails and cans filled with a mixture of pine tar, boiled linseed oil, turpentine and beeswax with which to swab the deck of a ship once a week. She looked them over and assessed that nothing was missing. A clatter came from the back and she rushed passed the shelves to peek around a door that led to the storage house only to see Ben, his knees on the ground as he picked up a crate and the contents which had spilled from it. Smiling, Kate cleared her throat before speaking.
"That might aid in your dismissal, Mr. Hall," she said with her hands on her hips.
Ben quickly turned his head and smiled back upon recognition.
"Good morning Katie," he shaking his head, his black hair moving slightly to the rhythm.
Standing up, Ben lifted the crate back up on the top shelf with ease and dusted his hands off on his trousers afterwards. Kate, who watched in awe as his hands moved slowly across the tan material of his pants, heard the faint sound of the bell that was over the front door. Instinctively, she turned to greet whomever had entered, but quickly stopped as her name was hollered from Mr. Garner's office.
"I'll tend to him," Ben said, speaking of the patron up front.
Hesitantly, Kate wandered into the compact office of her employer, whose back was turned to her as he bent down delicately to retrieve something from off the floor. She waited patiently for him to stand upright and acknowledge her, the longer she postponed her reprimanding for arriving late, the better. As the aging man finally turned, he jumped a bit at the sight of Kate and placed his hand over her heart.
"Ms. Larsson," he sighed, "you never fail to make my heart soar. What you have failed to do is arrive on time, my dear."
"I apologize," she murmured, unsure of what else to say.
Mr. Garner, took a moment to sit in his chair, his wooden peg-leg slowing him down. Once he was seated, he clasped his hands together and smiled. His face was worn and weathered, a face belonging to a man of fifty-five who had perhaps seen too much. Reginald Garner had once been a Navy sailor, dedicating his life to the throne and the sea. Rising high within the ranks, and quickly, he soon became a promising Commander until a hurricane had run his ship into the depths and had taken his leg, and his career. Kate had been treated to the tale many a time, and it horrified her.
"Katherine, I forgive you," he said, "perhaps the next occasion of your lateness will be accompanied with a reason as why you are late."
"There will be no other occasion, I promise," Kate said, cringing at the usage of her full name.
With that, Mr. Garner was satisfied and ushered her out of his office so that he might catch up on signing documents. Feeling slightly better about the rare occurrence of her tardiness, she made her way back to the front of the shop where Ben was winding rope around a peg to sell to the customer in front of him. Smiling at the man as she came around the counter, Kate took her place next to Ben and accepted the customer's payment. They both thanked the man and sent him on his way.
"Was Mr. Garner terribly angry?" Ben asked, placing the rope back in its cubby.
"Have you ever witnessed Reginald mutter anything in anger?"
Ben chuckled lightly and pushed his dark hair out of his large, brown eyes. Kate often wondered why he chose to keep it free instead of tying it back, but she relished the moments in which he struggled with his locks. His hair fell slightly above his shoulders, and when she had become acquainted with him four years earlier, it had been short, cut above the ears, a style Kate had never before seen.
"Were you able to finish last night, aboard The Ordway? Did you come across any difficulties?"
Kate took a step around the counter and straightened the rug that lay in front of the door, a chore she found herself engaged in multiple times a day.
"The job was arduous, and the crew, annoying, but I completed the task without injury or hardship. And as for your job? Did the shipment of supplies arrive on time this morning?" she asked once she was satisfied with the placement of the rug.
"The ship had already docked before I showed up. It was a momentous occasion, I can count on one hand the amount times that has happened," he laughed.
Kate returned his laugh with vigor as another man walked through the door, the miniature bell chiming as he did.
"Good morning sir," Ben crooned, his full attention on the customer.
"Morning lad," the gruff man said, scratching his chin, "I'm looking for a hired hand, it is off day for my crew but my rudder requires attention and I know if I force a crew member to attend to it today, I'll hear about it for years. I understand the weather may be a factor in finishing in a timely manner, but I plan on paying extra."
Nodding his head, Ben placed his elbows on the counter and leaned closer to the man while Kate fiddled with a crate to make herself look busy.
"I understand sir, that is why Mr. Garner offers his services, so that sailors may have a day to rest. Now, I am available to help, as is Kate," Ben said, pointing to Kate.
The man laughed out loud, slamming his fit on the counter and Kate resisted the urge to throw the crate she was holding in his direction. Ben received a majority of off site work due to men refusing to to let her aboard their ships and near their broken items. It had not always been this way, before Ben had been employed, sailors had no choice but to let Kate use her skills because Mr. Garner could no longer lend his services due to his injury. And when business became too much for only Kate to handle, Ben was hired on. Now, men saw Benjamin and concluded the strong, abled bodied man would be the one to receive the job.
"So, when can you be out?" the man asked after his laughing fit.
"Actually sir, are you sure you would like me to work on your rudder? Miss Larsson is extremely experienced, she has been here longer than I have."
The man looked Kate over once more, and she smiled, nodding her head in agreement with Ben. The man turned angrily back to Benjamin.
"Enough of this foolishness, if this is the sort of business this Mr. Garner is running, I want none of it," he growled.
"No, no, sir. If you wish me to repair your ship, I shall. If you could wait for a moment, I must pop into Mr. Garner's office and let him know that I will be gone. Then we will be free to look over the damage. Excuse me if you will," Ben said, stepping from behind the counter.
The man turned and glared down at Kate, who stared back at him, desperately wishing she could speak her mind but knowing if she did, that it would lose them a customer. Ben grabbed her hand on his way to Mr. Garner's office and led her to the back, out of the customer's range of hearing.
"I'm sorry Katie, I attempted to let you have this job, but…" he trailed off, shrugging his shoulders. He was taller than her, so she looked back up at him with admiration for his effort.
"I understand, Ben," she replied, "We both know how sailors see women. It's impossible to expect them to let me work on their ships. Go and take this job, I'll help Mr. Garner today. Besides, I just had a three day job, I don't need another for quite awhile."
Smiling, Ben winked at her before entering Mr. Garner's office and her heart fluttered, much to her pleading against it.
Ben left quickly afterwards, leaving Kate with the mundane task of shop girl. Men came in from out of the rain, asked her for an item, and she fetched it. The boring exchange continued for near an hour until Ben returned for supplies.
"Will it be an easy job?" she asked, watching him lift crates out of the corner of her eye.
"Terribly easy. You could complete this job with your eyes closed, Katie. That man is an idiot. This should not take me long at all."
And with that, he was off and Mr. Garner emerged from his office, his peg-leg scraping eerily across the wood floor.
"Benjamin should have forfeited that job to you," he grumbled.
"Oh, he attempted to. You know how difficult it has always been trying to convince these sailors to let me work."
Nodding in resignation, Mr. Garner leaned against the counter perked up slightly as a man walked past the windows, but when the man did not enter, he slumped his shoulders again.
"Well, if they observed your work the way I have, they would ask for your assistance regularly," he huffed.
"Thank you, sir. I learned from you, naturally I attempt to do the best work that I can."
"No thanks needed, Katherine. Say, have you made up your mind on the issue of speaking to Benjamin about your feelings yet?" he asked teasingly.
Sighing, Kate shook her head.
"Honestly sir, you're incredibly nosey."
"Oh, dear, you've moped around this old shop for years. Might you feel better if you only did the deed?"
"Have you ever been in love, Mr. Garner?" she asked, stepping close to the window and peering out into the street as rain slid slowly down the glass, "Have you ever ached for someone, with every bone that holds you together and every breath that keeps you alive? Have you ever found yourself utterly lost after being away from that person? I've yet to find a way to convey that feeling to him, sir. I feel a range of emotions intensely, yet, when the time comes to speak of them, I fall flat. Words are not my specialty."
As she turned back to Mr. Garner, she found him staring intensely at the rug, his brow knit together. She did not speak, for he seemed lost. After a moment he realized that she had finished talking and he cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed.
"You're far too good for the man, anyway," he said quietly before leaving for his office.
After the rather strange talk with her employer, several more customers came and managed to bother Kate and try her patience until Ben returned and it began to darken outside.
"Thank God you've returned, I simply hate being stuck in here alone with customers. I hate fetching and I even more so, dealing with men who feel they have a right to speak of my looks," she sighed.
"Thank God you did not work on that man's ship. He was extremely finicky and particular about his rudder. I was forced to stop and start over again three times. It was infuriating, Katie," Ben replied, resting his head and hands against the counter.
Kate reached out, contemplating whether or not to grab his dirty, work worn hand but she settled for resting it alongside his when Mr. Garner shouted for them to lock up. She might have found the courage to do so had he not interrupted her. The command caused Ben to lift up his tired head and smile at Kate. She smiled back as she grabbed the key from under the counter and gladly locked the door. She hoped they would not receive any insane wanders who felt the need to bang on the windows and door until they opened. It happened rarely, but when it did, it was a nightmare.
"There's not much left to do, Ben. I have only to arrange a few crates in the back. I could not find any replacement links for the life of me earlier and I made a bit of a mess," she said on her way to the back.
"Don't bother Kate, I'll close up. You know how this works," Ben said, referring to the deal they had made. Whoever had the unfortunate luck of staying in the store all day was allowed to leave after lock up.
"I never fully agreed to that," Kate replied, "I do not see how it is fair that you worked on a rudder all day and all I did was quietly fetch items, and now you're left to clean up my mess."
"Katie, go home. You will get a great job tomorrow and then you can stay and clean up afterwards."
Kate was aware that there was no arguing with Ben, so she simply nodded and made her way to Mr. Garner's office. She peeked in and saw him scribbling his signature across a piece of parchment.
"Good night, Mr. Garner. I assure you, I will be on time tomorrow," she promised, smiling widely.
He smiled back and dismissed her with a wave of his hand before returning to his papers. Kate peered into the back again to see Ben as he quietly lifted crates back into place. Unsettled with their deal, Kate quickly grabbed the last item and placed it on the highest shelf she could reach.
"Good night, Benjamin," she said, as smiled at her defiance.
