He'd avoided her like the plague for a week. When he did speak to her it was brief and impersonal, only to command her to do this or that. He hadn't bothered to touch her at all. If she happened to roll against him in bed, he'donlyroll away from her. And that was when he actually slept. Since they had set sail, he slept very little at all. Vanessa began to wonder if she had said or done something that had overstepped the boundaries, but what could possibly cause the infuriating Stephen Bonnet to retreat from associating with her?

Truth be told, her memories of the first night aboard the Freya were cloudy at best. She had a strong feeling she wept on him, but the only thing she remembered for certain was yelling at him. Which wasn't anything particularly new, but weeping on him might possibly be. Vanessa wondered to herself had any other woman been so bold as to cry on him. Yeah, like any would have dared to get close enough to.

Vanessa snorted as she realized she was dwelling upon his ignoring her yet again. She should be thrilled that he hadn't wanted to spend unbearable amounts of time with her and that he didn't seem to interested in taking advantage of their shared bed. She had even made a few acquaintances above deck, since he was allowing her to leave the cabin finally. There was a couple of young brides aboard, going to the Colonies with their new husbands. There was fair head, tall Amanda, who was only sixteen! Vanessa was aware that they used to marry early, but good God! Then again she was only eighteen herself.

Amanda, along with Suzie and Elizabeth, had instantly bonded with Vanessa. Being a shy person, their approach of Vanessa had been a relief to her; she honestly didn't think she could handle another boring boattrip with only Stephen to talk to, or Stewart and Alec who were constantly suspicious of her. Suzie and Elizabeth were both in their early twenties, and Suzie being the same size as Vanessa had given her a dress to wear on board to keep the blue silk from the damage of sea water.

Vanessa's suspiciously over thoughtful husband had thought to buy some extra material for her to make her own dresses assuming that Vanessa knew how to sew. Elizabeth, Amanda, and Suzie who all did in fact know how, being the true women of the eighteenth century they were, and were ecstatic to have found a task that they could contribute to other than just sitting around. Of all the female passengers, the three of them and Vanessa were the only non-mothers, and were in fact bored out of their minds while the men helped ensure the ship was sailing properly, ropes and sails were secure, and everything was all in order.

Elizabeth was tall, with vivid red hair and pale, freckled skin. She was pretty, but not the drop dead gorgeous that would usually turn a man's head. She had married a Scotsman by the name of Braden Grant. She had a strong Irish lilt to her voice, and Vanessa became unconsciously aware that she was constantly comparing Elizabeth's pronunciations of words with Stephen Bonnet's. She'd been startled to discover that Elizabeth knew she was doing that, and had become flustered when she was called on it a few days earlier.

"Ye are rather fond of how your man talks to ye, eh?"

"W-what do you mean?" Vanessa asked, taken completely by surprise.

"There are times when I will say something and you get a far-away dreamy look on your face." Elizabeth said with an air of supreme intelligence about her that made Vanessa blush. Surely, she was completely all wrong about it.

"Oh really? What words would you say I do that with?"

"Ye did it just the hour past when I called that young lad, Emily's son , Herbert, a 'sweetheart.'"

There was no denying it. Her mind has registered the word "sweetheart" with any hint of an Irish lilt to it as reference to herself. She felt her face flame. "I honestly don't know what you are going on about. I would care less if he fell dead off this ship right now."

Suzie, who had just walked up to the pair of them, who were at the time sitting alone in the galley, gasped in shock. "But lass, your husband is the Captain. Surely he is a frightening man, I'll give ye that, but I have seen the looks he gives ye when ye are not looking at him. He cares for ye. Truly ye do not have such mutiny thoughts about yer own husband?"

Vanessa tried to ignore the comment of his looking at her as though he cared, Suzie was only saying that because she thought it helped. Wasn't she? "Well, perhaps not die until we reach land. I don't believe Alec, the first mate, is particularly fond of me and might make me walk the plank."

Elizabeth snickered. "You make them sound like a ship of pirates."

Suzie added in an undertone. "Well the Captain, no offense lass," she added hastily to Vanessa who shrugged with indifference, "he is big and surly enough to be a pirate. His apparel is a bit fancier than most pirates, but some have been known to appear a perfect gentleman."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Braden would no' have taken us aboard a pirate ship. Captain Bonnet is a frightening man, surely, but I just can't see him as a pirate. Besides, I don't even think this ship has any cannons on it, and everyone knows pirate ships have cannons."

Vanessa had been biting her tongue for the past few exchanges and couldn't bear it any longer. "Well there is one cannon in the cargo hold. It is hidden in case we get ambushed, sowe could fight them back. And my husband," She paused, the word husband still made her feel as though she was imagining it, "he is a skilled swordsman, or so he says. Personally I have never seen him cross swords with anyone, but he looks scary enough without doing so."

Suzie twirled a dark brown curl in her finger and her green eyes shone to show that her overactive imagination was in full gear. "Aye, he would be a fearsome man in a swordfight no doubt. My John would no doubt wet himself if he knew he as to cross swords with that man. No offense lass."

"None taken. The brute is an ogre. Though I have reason to believe he is just using that troll impression he does so well as a façade."

All of them giggled.

Today however, Vanessa was sitting on an empty crate that was near the quarterdeck, along side Suzie, Elizabeth, and Amanda while they worked on one of her dresses. Amanda was in the process of trying to show Vanessa how to sew stockings for herself and Stephen, and how to mend rips. Amanda was constantly moaning on and on about how a married woman of ten and eight could not even mend a rip, while herself at ten and six already finished half of her own shroud. As disturbing as that was, Vanessa didn't comement on it and forced the thought of sewing one's own burial garment out of her mind.

Vanessa's attention however was focused on Stephen Bonnet. He and Stewart had just appeared on the quarterdeck discussing a leak in the cargo. Stephen turned to face starboard, and his eyes looked with hers. Not even five seconds later he ripped his eyes away again, as though he hadn't even seen her there.

That's it. Vanessa wasn't particularly fond of the man, but she wasn't going to sit about ignored either. She was going to get to the bottom of this tonight if it killed her.