Cecily was sitting down on the deck, arms crossed over her chest. From the moment the two men set her down, she began yelling and cursing very unlady-like. She was angry that they had brought her unwillingly onto the ship, and even more furious at their accusation of her being a male.

"Please, calm down! Before the captain comes out!" The man with the gold tooth pleaded, covering his ears and itching to slap the boy across the face.

"I will not! I demand to see the captain!" screeched Cecily, her face red with frustration.

But alas, the ship had already set sail, the wind blowing gently and the rocking of the ship did not help to improve her mood.

Finally, the door to the captain's cabin burst open and a polished boot stepped out onto the clean deck, followed by another, and revealed a tall, young man, dressed in fine naval uniform with a beaver hat perched on top of his head. Cecily gazed at him, utterly silent and in awe of this new man. At last! Someone at her level with whom she could talk to! But even the prospect of that did nothing to move her suddely frozen mouth.

"Who dares interupt my tea time?" asked the captain quietly. At first, no one spoke. The captain's grey eyes surveyed the crew and down towards Cecily, who was still rendered speechless. "What is a woman doing on my ship?" said the captain, his mouth pressed into a hard line. "I do not recall having passengers aboard."

Aaron reluctantly stepped forward. "Sir, your eyes understandably deceive you. This here is not a woman, but a man! I have been warned that he is a cross dressing fellow-"

"And what made you think he would be acceptable as a member of my crew?" interupted the captain, an eyebrow raised.

Aaron looked nervous. "Well, you see, sir, it was difficult in finding a willing recruit, and when this boy came along, I took the liberty of taking him-"

"And thus forgot that I had stated that I wanted competent men! Not some nancy boy with snot on his chin!" yelled the captain.

Cecily hurriedly wiped at her chin.

The captain focused his attention back on Cecily, who cowered under his intense glare. "Fortunately for you, we have set sail and there is no possibility of returning back, not while we have business to do and no time to waste." He growled. Turning back to the Aaron and the crew, he added, " Since only one addition was made, the lot of you will still be sharing more than one responsibility, and I expect every one of you to help this disgrace become an able man by the time I return!"

The crew nodded quickly and numerously, not at all pleased that the captain was already angry when it had not yet even been a day since the ship left harbor.

"First mate Aaron!" The captain suddenly called.

"Yes, Captain Jaggery!" answered the man with the gold tooth.

"Since you chose him, I expect the most out of you! See to it that this man will have no dearth of sea-sailing skills!"

"Of course, sir!"

And without another word and not even another glance at Cecily, the captain Jaggery spun on his heels and departed back to his room. A hard silence followed his departure. Cecily slowly got to her feet and smoothed down her dress. Her movement distracted Aaron.

"You!" he shouted. "What is your name?"

"Cecily Dosett." replied Cecily.

"Your real name!"

"Cecily Dosett!"

"Must I repeat myself?! What is your real name?!" shouted Aaron, looking very angry indeed.

In her fury, she choked a little on her words and only "Dosett!" came out.

"Finally, we are getting somwhere. Mr. Dosett, I highly recommend you exchange your clothes for appropriate male attire. Mr. Warren!"

"Yes, Mr. Aaron." a man said, stepping towards Aaron. He was an older man with a dark blue rag wrapped around his head. Cecily thought he rather fitted his name, worn for Warren.

"Get Mr. Dosett proper clothing."

"I'll get right on it." And he turned and left the scene. Aaron turned and stared coldy at Cecily.

"I advise you to ditch your girly act and build yourself as a true man would." He said harshly. It seemed that he was still shaken from the captain's outbursts and was determined to pass it onto her. He turned back to the crew. "Let's get to it, mates!"

A hand tapped Cecily's shoulder and she turned to see Warren. "Here." He said gruffly, dumping clothes into Cecilly's arms. "Change into this and throw the dress overboard. You won't be needing it any longer." And he too left with the crew to do whatever it was they were to do. Cecily stared at the bundle of clothes, transfixed.

Now, Cecily had come to resign to her fate. The men were firm in believing she was a transgendered man, and there was absolutely no way she'd expose herself to prove them wrong. Not only would it be inappropriate and ruin what little chance she had at obtaining a suitor, but also she felt they were not worthy enough to be graced by her naked body. They were all peasants. Additionlly, Cecily felt a rush of excitement at being on her own without anyone to boss her and to boss around, which was the downpart of it, but she suddenly felt adventurous.

"Where do I change, then?" She called after Aaron.

Pulling at the ropes controlling the sails, he shouted, "Go down beneath and change in the sleeping quarters! It shouldn't be too hard to find." And without further instructios, he returned to his work. Cecily huffed and walked down the wooden steps into a dim hallway, walking along until she found a small room cramped with hammocks. The room was littered with signs of human occupance; random cpieces of clothing hung on the hammocks and strewn crumbs of food was scattered across the floor. Were these the beds upon which they slept? If so, that was horrible and and lowly.

Closing the door and standing close to the door in case anyone tried to enter, she stripped out of her pretty dress that was wrinkled from being man-handled and stepped into the clothes Warren had provided for her. Certainly enough, they were male clothing. The billowy white shirt was baggy enough to hide her small chest, and the trousers were long to where she had to roll them up. There was no mirror availble, but Cecily was confident that she looked like a street urchin, abeit a clean one. She folded her former clothes into a neat pile. Despite Warren's orders, she would keep these for when they realized who she was. She kept her earrings and necklace on, both being too precious to part with.

And with all that done, she flounced off back up towards deck.