"Hello Absolem," she said smiling at the stunningly blue butterfly that had landed on her shoulder. She blinked in confusion as it took wing flying above her head until it was no longer even a darker speck amongst the blue of the sky. Perhaps if she squinted? No definitely gone. A bit of a shame. It had been so pretty and she would have liked to see it for a moment longer.
Where had that name come from? Probably just another flight of fancy, she reassured herself. But when had her imaginings begun to include names for insects? Nerves of course, she told herself. Just because she wanted this didn't make her any less scared and she had always retreated into her imagination when life became too overwhelming. She continued to smile and wave at the people on the docks, not letting any of her inner confusion show on her face. The last thing she needed was to give her mother and sister any reason to think to she might be reconsidering her decision.
And so she waved and smiled as the sailors bustled around her, calling out unfamiliar terms and tying ropes in different places. One in particular gave her a wink, as if he knew exactly why the smile on her face was as false as knave. She found herself relaxing in response, making it a bit easier to keep smiling. She waved until her arm was stiff and when the dock was out of sight, it was such a relief to simply lean on the side of the boat and stare at the waves.
All right perhaps staring at the waves was not the greatest idea, she realized as her stomach gave a small lurch. She turned around; her eyes searched for a more stable object to watch, but not much seemed to be forthcoming. She closed them, hoping that a lack of any vision would do the trick.
"You'd do best turning back around and keeping your eyes on the horizon, Miss." She jumped in surprise and her eyes flew open. The sailor that had winked at her earlier was now standing next to her, smiling sympathetically.
"From the color of your face right now, I'd say you're a first timer. Captain got a bit worried about you and sent me over to give some help. Your best chance of getting your stomach under control until you grow into your sea legs is to stare as far across as possible where there's going to be the least amount of movement." He gently placed his hands her shoulders and turned her around to face his suggested direction. After a few minutes of staring, her stomach did indeed begin to settle down, all though it was still making occasional jumps for freedom. She smiled at him gratefully.
"Thank you, sir," Alice said, turning to look at her newly acquired helper. He couldn't possibly be more then five years older then her, but his sun darkened skin and the lighter streaks in the shoulder length hair that should have been color of tree bark spoke of someone who had spent a long time at sea. His brown eyes crinkled at her cheerfully as he took his hands away from her shoulders.
"No sir here, Miss," he said, a slightly teasing note in his voice. "M'names Alec Miller, and you would be Miss Kingsleigh, otherwise known as the only person on board besides the captain that could tell me to fetch them a drink and I'd have to get it or face a keelhauling! Course, I'd have to get his drink first. Captain's word be the law aboard a ship. "
"Surely you are exaggerating Mr. Miller," said Alice in the most icily prim and proper way she could come up with. Alec's face dropped upon hearing the lack of humor in her voice.
"I would only have you keelhauled if you brought me the wrong drink." This part said with a saucy smile, the likes of which she hadn't given anyone since before her father passed away. Another wave of confusion came over her. Surely she had given someone that smile since then. A memory danced in the back of her mind, but before she could reach out for it, she was distracted by the hearty laughter of her companion.
"Ha!" laughed Alec as he realized how easily she had tricked him. "I knew it when you first climbed on board. I said to meself, Alec there's a girl that knows how to laugh. Maybe this voyage won't be as dull as it always is with the other lads pissing and moaning about their pay and their…well some things are best left unmentioned, aye?"
He gave her another wink and continued speaking before she could tell him that no it should be mentioned as she hadn't the faintest idea what he meant.
"And there I am contemplating how I'm going to get enough time to talk with you and see if you did have a real smile under that silly mask you were pretending was your face, when lo and behold the captain himself calls me over." He cleared his throat and gave a mocking air of self importance to his voice before continuing.
"Alec, he says, do you see that girl over there up at the bow? That girl is Lord Ascot's new apprentice. That same Lord Ascot what owns this boat and makes sure that we get a good wage at the end of this mess. So Alec, my lad since you're the only dog here that won't be… well anyway he decided that me being as close to your age as I is, I had the best chance of getting you to listen to some good advice before you got so ill you'd be falling off the side. So this makes your welfare my current duty until you or the Captain see fit to say otherwise. And how is your stomach feeling now, Miss?"
She opened her mouth to respond and with a shock realized that her stomach was fine. Had been fine for several minutes, but she had been so caught up listening to him speak (and oh how did she want to find a way to lure those censored parts out of him) that she hadn't even been paying attention to it.
"I believe, Mr. Miller that you have worked a bit of seafaring magic on me. What is your secret?"
"No secret at all Miss. It's a well known sailing fact that distraction is one of the best tricks for a mild case. And believe me you are a mild case."
"And what makes me a mild case?" Alice asked raising her eyebrows curiously. Alec leaned forward and beckoned her closer with a finger as if to tell a secret. She leaned in and he whispered softly in her ear.
"You haven't collapsed on the floor and needed to be carried down to your quarters like Lady Ascot did when her husband made her come on one of his voyages."
A shocked laugh burst out of Alice, the kind of loud, boisterous laugh that ladies weren't supposed to make in public. She waiting for a moment for some kind of scolding or scowl to come from her new found friend, but instead he was laughing right along with her. Oh the image of ludicrously proper Lady Ascot confined to her bed with bouts of seasickness. She knew it was mean spirited of her, but she simply could not stop giggling.
"Are you telling the truth or just trying to make me laugh?" she suspiciously asked in between giggles.
"As the good Lord is my witness," Alec said, solemnly laying a hand across his heart, "It happened just as I said. You laughing was just a nice side effect to it, Miss."
"Oh you simply cannot share a story like that with me and keep calling me Miss. Alice will do quite fine." She expected him to smile and address her by her given name. Instead he stopped smiling and took a step back from her.
"Now Miss, you should know better then that. Twouldn't be right for someone like me to be addressing someone like you in a familiar way."
"Someone like me? And what exactly would that be?" Her hands went to her hips, a show of defiance that no matter how hard Helen had tried, she had never been able to break her daughter of it. Alec squirmed a bit under her gaze, but continued to hold his ground.
"You are a right proper lady and I am a sailor. Not even an officer, just a sailor. Now I wasn't raised with no proper manners, but even a sea dog like meself knows enough to understand that someone like me can't be familiar with someone like you." He crossed his arms across his chest. She supposed it was some sort male version of her hands on her hips.
"Well Mr. Miller. Let me ask you this. What kind of a "right proper lady" takes off on a sea voyage to the other side of the world with no male escort in site?" He squirmed a bit, looking more and more uncomfortable. "They didn't tell you, did they?"
"Tell me what?"
"That I am absolutely mad. Gone completely round the bend." She watched his eyes move back up to hers, interest peaked. "After all, Mr. Miller, what kind of proper lady comes aboard a ship to travel to halfway around the world, with no escort and her hair unbound?"
"Begging your pardon, Miss Kingsleigh, but being strange doesn't make you mad. Met plenty of strange folks in my life, specially with some of the places I've been to. And besides, being odd doesn't change the trouble I'd be getting in for stepping on any toes."
Alice pursed her lips in frustration. She wanted, no needed a friend on this voyage. She hadn't even realized how dreadfully lonely she until this cheerfully honest person had started talking to her. She was so very tired of feeling alone.
And perhaps he sensed this, as when he began to speak again, his tone was more sympathetic. "Now then Miss, would you rather go down to your cabin to take a lie down or are you feeling up to staying here?"
She easily recognized it for the olive branch it was. If she went down to her cabin, he would go back to whatever normal duties he had on the deck. If she stayed up top, they could continue to talk.
"I think, Mr. Miller," she said solemnly, "That your conversational skills are a wonderful cure for seasickness and my stomach would be much safer if you stayed to distract me a while longer." He smiled and led her over a few wooden boxes that were just the right size to sit on.
"Well all right then. But I would like to know, well if it ain't going to be intruding on your privacy too much…" he trailed off. She waited curious about what he was going to ask. "How does a lady like yourself end up sailing on a ship to negotiate silk prices with China men?"
She smiled as she settled herself on top of new seat. "Well it all started on the day that I received my first and well quite probably last marriage proposal."
Alice gave herself over to the simple pleasure of making a new friend as home slowly grew further and further away. She should have been sad. She should have been homesick. She should have missed her family. Yet she found herself smiling more in the first few hours of her journey then she had in years.