IX
On the ship, Pearl was dancing.
Peter was once again standing in a circle around the dancer, but Pearl was alone. The music was slow and sad, and the look in her eyes almost brought Peter to his knees. She spun and twirled, and every person watching was mesmerized. Peter thought that he had never seen a person move so gracefully, so elegantly. Her movements were fluid, and Peter thought he would melt. He saw the men around him licking their lips, wringing their shirt sleeves in their fingers. He knew what they wanted, and he knew that they wouldn't get it. They wouldn't get her.
He continued to look around and noticed that while he saw Edmund in a trance, Steven looking bored, and Susan and Taylor watching absent-mindedly, he did not see Lucy or Eric. He turned around, searching the deck the best he could in the dark for them, hoping that they weren't getting themselves into trouble. He was about to go look for them when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned around, and Pearl pulled him to the center of the circle. She smiled invitingly, and he let himself go with her. He only heard the whoops and cheers of the crew for a moment, and then they all disappeared. All he saw was her. He felt her hands on his hips, his back, his neck, his chest. She produced a flower in her hands and tucked it behind his ears, giggling. He smiled at her, picked her up at her waist and spun her around. He held her closely to him until he noticed that the music had stopped. For a moment, there was silence. Nobody seemed to move at all, but then a single man began to clap, and the rest of them followed suit.
Peter blushed and took Pearl's hand in his, leading her outside the circle. "Come on," he said to her. "I want you to help me find Lucy."
She nodded and followed him, her head down in embarassment from all the attention.
She followed him down a flight of stairs and through a maze of corridors until they were at the crew's eating quarters. He looked at her with a mischevious look in his eyes and smiled. He was listening. Soon he heard breathing and smacking of lips, and he knew that they were there kissing. He laughed softly. "Well, as long as no one sees them," he said. "Do you want to stay here to make sure they don't get caught?"
She shrugged. "Well, I don't want to make you, Pearl."
She smiled and sat down, pulling on his pant legs. He laughed and sat next to her. Peter didn't talk much while they sat together. By the time Lucy and Eric came out of the kitchen, they were asleep, Pearl's head on his shoulder, and he held her tightly.
"Let's not wake them," Eric said. Lucy nodded and they walked hand in hand back to their rooms, leaving Peter and Pearl together on the floor.
A long time passed before the rocking of the ship woke Peter, and he noticed that Eric and Lucy were no longer there for him to guard. He nudged Pearl awake. She halfway opened her eyes, shielding them from the light.
"It's late, Pearl. I'm going to take you to your room."
She nodded, and yielded herself to him. He lifted her from the ground, and she hung on to his neck, resting her head on his shoulder. Her thumb stroked the back of his neck, and he slowed his pace. His fingers tightened their grip on her, and she pulled herself up higher on him. She looked into his eyes and shook her head smiling. He knew what was coming and made no attempt to stop it. She leaned in and kissed him. He stopped walking and let her kiss him. He could feel her passion, and only slightly kissed her back. It was wrong. He was on his way to meet his possible future wife, and here he was in the corridor of a ship, in plain sight, kissing a mute that he found on the beach. But somehow, none of that mattered to him anymore. It was as if this woman's kiss had released something in him that had been trapped for a long time.
He put her down and touched her face. He saw the dark look pass over it again, but this time it stayed for a few seconds. "What's wrong?"
She shook her head and lifted herself into her toes to kiss him again. Something inside him came alive, and he pushed her against the wall, perhaps a little more roughly than he intended to. She only smiled at him though, and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer to her. She kissed him hungrily and he caught her urgency like a virus. He kissed her with the same hunger she felt, and he was made voracious by her hands on his body.
He was stopped when he heard footsteps above him. He held a finger to her lips. She kissed it softly, holding his hand in hers gingerly, as if afraid to break it. Behind him, he heard a cough. He spun around as fast as he could and saw Susan standing not too far from them, yawning.
"What are you two doing? It's well past midnight."
Peter hoped that her eyes were still blurry with sleep and reached behind him, holding Pearl's hands protectively. "Pearl had a... a nightmare. I was just walking with her until she feels well enough to go back to sleep."
"Okay well, hurry and get back to bed. We'll most likely reach Gales tomorrow. You'll need the sleep."
He watched as she turned around, pulling herself up the stairs. He turned around to Pearl and was about to say something, but then the ship rocked violently, and Peter almost fell over. Fear gripped him, and he gripped her arm. Her touch was calming to him, and soon his heart slowed again, and his fear was a distant memory. Pearl tried to hide her amusement and put her hands through his hair, shaking her head good-naturedly. She patted his shoulder and pulled him back through the maze and to her bedroom. She opened the door and walked in, their hands still clasped tightly, but Peter stopped in the doorway.
"Pearl, I can't. We both need to sleep. Tomorrow... is going to be rough."
Pain entered her eyes again, and he felt the familiar ache deep inside his chest, and he separated their hands. "I'm sorry. Just go to sleep, Pearl." He stepped away from her, and turned to walk to his own room. When he opened his door, he could have sworn he heard her whimper. He shook off the thought, though, and lay in bed, trying to decide what to do. Breaking her heart would break his, but following it would break his family's. He sighed and hummed, the song now vivid in his mind. He preferred to hum himself to sleep than to cry himself to sleep. Crying was weak. He had to stay strong, now more than ever. He couldn't let his guard down again the way he had that night. He resolved to give Petra the chance he'd promised Susan he would, and slept, being endlessly awakened by the sea, and then lulled to sleep by it.
