Staring out onto the horizon, Ashe tilted her head back to catch the warmth of the sunlight, and her hair caught in the sea breeze. She'd only ever been on a boat twice before; the first time when she was hiding on a dingy that accidentally went adrift, which is how she ended up on Mr. Kravos' island in the first place, and the second was, of course, when she was held captive on the slaver ship. Needless to say, neither had been pleasant experiences.
But this time was different. Sure, she was still technically on a (repurposed) slaver's ship, and, honestly, this one was less comfortable than the one Ashe had been on earlier. Yet she still felt safe and relaxed, almost like she was back home with Mr. Kravos and Rena. Looking out towards the sun, she felt hopeful for what the future would bring.
Of course, all that hope didn't detract from the fact the two people in charge of the ship didn't actually seem to know what they were doing.
"Alright, I think this thing here is the navigation system," Ms. Natasha said, fiddling with a small console. "And if I... put... in the... location coordinates to the Bakerville farm, then we can drop Westley off there. After that, we can backtrack to your house. I checked out the fuel gauge and I think there will be enough left to make it to your place and then loop around to a Minutemen settlement at Nordhagen Beach. It is a pretty small base but from there I can contact Preston and we can work on a plan to get all these people home safely."
She glanced over from the screen to Mr. Kravos, "Keep the wheel straight. We don't want to drift off course."
Mr. Kravos cocked an eyebrow, "I do know how to steer a ship, you know."
"You've sailed one of these?" Ms. Natasha asked with a grin, tapping a finger against the computer screen.
Ashe fought the urge to snicker at Mr. Kravos' affronted grumbling. The man said nothing, only adjusted his grip on the helm and changed the subject.
"If I recall correctly from when you showed me the map, then some of our new passengers were taken from places between here and the settlement," Mr. Kravos said. "How do you plan on dealing with that?"
"Well, I was considering just coming ashore and dropping them off; however, I'm also worried we might be fired on if we approach some of the larger settlements in an unknown ship," Ms. Natasha admitted. "So maybe it would be better if I just took them all back to Nordhagen first and then got back up to see them home. It would take up more time and resources but would also probably be safer overall."
Mr. Kravos gave a thoughtful nod, "Would you prefer to change up our course and go there first? That way I could be there as protection and a second pair of hands."
Ashe's breath caught in her chest and all of her joy turned to horror. 'What? That wasn't the plan!'
"But I want to go home!" she screamed, hot tears prickling in her eyes. "You said we were going home!"
Her outburst got her a shocked look from both Mr. Kravos and Ms. Natasha, even Rena raised her head from her paws and gave a concerned whine. Their surprised and concerned looks had Ashe flushing as red as her hair.
"I'm sorry," she stuttered, immediately backtracking. "That was bad. I don't want to be selfish, it's just that..."
Mr. Kravos gave her a sad, sympathetic look, "I understand completely, sweetheart."
"Thank you for the offer, Kravos, but that is unnecessary. Getting Westley back safely was my original objective and one I want to see completed quickly. And you really should be getting Ashe home; she has been through a horrible ordeal," Ms. Natasha said, reaching over to smooth a motherly hand down Ashe's hair.
"Of course, she is my primary concern," said the old man, pulling Ashe into a one-armed hug.
Ashe nuzzled into his side, taking comfort in his warmth and the soft arm fabric of his shirt. They silently relished in one another's presence for a moment while Ms. Natasha respectfully returned her focus to the ship's control.
After a moment, Kravos patted Ashe and ruffled her hair. "Now, I need to speak with Lady Natasha about something. Can you help get supper served? After helping me for some long, I trust you more than anyone else to turn out something edible."
Despite the obvious ploy to send her away, Ashe felt a rush of pride at being given the responsibility. She'd once heard Prudence Miller's grandfather, Old Man Octavian, say that keeping people fed was the second most important job while on a ship, and he used to be a cargo ship captain so it must be true.
"You can count on me," she said, standing up straight and jutting her chin out.
The ship was not overly large, probably only a little bigger than the one she'd been brought in. But with fourteen people, two large dogs, and Miss Natasha's truck, it felt crowded. Ashe had only taken a few steps out of the cockpit, Rena trodding along at her side with her claws clicking against the metal boat floor, before she bumped into Westley.
"Hey, Ashe. Going for a walk?" he joked. Now that they were out of immediate danger, the boy's spirits had lifted immensely and he proved himself to be quite the jokester.
'Now if only the jokes he told were funny,' Ashe thought to herself, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "Mr. Kravos asked me to help make dinner."
"Oh right, I think one of the ladies is making some sort of soup. I'm not what it is, but it doesn't look all that good," Westley said. "Still, I'm not going to complain. Considering, you know..."
Ashe flinched, her eyes automatically glancing out across the water in the direction of the now-destroyed slaver camp. Westley looked similarly uncomfortable, staring down at his oversized worn work boots and tugging at a loose thread of his shirt. Despite his renewed happiness and hope for life, Wes still looked like he'd been through a rough time, there were still dark bags under his eyes, smudges of dirt and grime behind his ears and around his elbows, and the clothes he was wearing were oversized and mix-matched with there only real benefit being their state of relative cleanliness.
There was a good reason for that. Mr. Kravos had ordered the destroyed camp stripped of anything useful like food, water, medicine, money, and clothes. After being kidnapped, held captive, and stuck in a hot shipping container, Ashe and the other captives' clothing had been dirty, covered in dirt and blood, and drenched in sweat. Everyone had felt absolutely filthy, in more ways than one, and wanted to get clean. Despite this, no one felt comfortable using the slavers' washing facilities and washing off in the ocean risked a dangerous amount of radiation exposure. This meant they all had to resort to sponge baths on the ship, using soap and water scavenged from rain barrels before changing into the best fitting clothes they could find.
Ashe, at the very least, had been lucky in that respect. Mr. Kravos had brought her some clean clothes, including her favorite yellow dress, and putting it on had felt indescribably good. While she always liked the green and gray dress she'd been captured in, she immediately chucked it into one of the barrel fires that had been lit on deck to provide warmth after changing out of it.
'I hope Mr. Kravos won't be mad at me for that. Despite everything, it wasn't nice of me to destroy something that could have belonged to his daughters and granddaughters.'
"So... did you talk to your old man and the Minutelady about what the plan for getting us all home is?" Westley asked, still visibly uncomfortable.
Though he didn't come out and say it directly, it was obvious that he was anxious to get home. Which was understandable, it was all Ashe's fellow former captives could seem to talk about. Everyone wanted to get home first, as selfish as that seemed -including Ashe herself.
"Not really," she admitted. But, when Westley visibly deflated from disappointment, she quickly added, "But I did hear Mr. Kravos and Miss Natasha talking about it. From what I hear, you might be dropped off first!"
Wes immediately perked up, face splitting into a broad grin. "Really?"
"Yes, I think so," Ashe nodded. "You should go talk to them. I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
Westley didn't even bother saying goodbye before rushing by Ashe. In fact, she was pretty sure he was gone before she even finished speaking.
"Boys!" she huffed, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, kid," greeted the ship's self-appointed cook from over the rim of a simmering pot. "What do you need?"
She was one of the older women in the group, though not nearly as old as Mr. Kravos. Ashe didn't know much about her, except that she had the hard, tanned skin and sun-bleached hair of a field worker -Ashe had seen plenty of women with the look back in Tough Seed- and apparently been taken while tending some crops alone. She hadn't even bothered to remember her name -knowing would only make it worse when the time came for everyone to be sold.
"Mr. Kravos said I should come help with dinner," she explained, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet with her arms clasped behind her back. "Is there anything I can do?"
The woman chuckled. "This? I'm not sure I can really call it dinner. Your old man was smart enough to have us collect all the food in the camp before we left and, combined with what he and Green had with them is enough that we aren't in any danger of going hungry but there also aren't enough of any one thing to make a cohesive meal. Honestly, I was just planning on tossing a bunch of odds 'n' ends into the pot and seeing what we end up with."
"Can I see it?"
"I don't see what good that will do," the woman said, cocking an eyebrow.
"Oh, let her do it," Miss Wendy said, looking up from the shirt she was doing her best to patch with a small sewing kit she'd managed to find in Miss Natasha's car. Beside her, Cindy and Ethan slept curled up together on a mat, their breathing coming out in soft, puppy-like pants. "How much harm could it do, Daisy?"
It appeared to Ashe that the school teacher had decided that her role on the ship would be that of a caregiver. After getting Ethan and Cindy calmed, fed, and settled in, she'd gotten to work tending to minor wounds, helping to get all of the scavenged supplies organized and accounted for, cleaning different parents of the boat, and generally fussing over everyone. Some people welcomed her hovering, most tolerated it, and some had already started going out of their way to avoid her.
"Well... I guess if your old man asked you to help then it isn't my place to stand in your way," the woman, Daisy, eventually said. "Come hop up here and take a look. Maybe all this stuff will jog something in your noggin."
No waiting around for permission to be revoked, Ashe didn't hesitate to climb up onto the counter. Miss Daisy had laid all of the ingredients out and, after looking them over for a moment, she could understand why the woman had been so incredulous!
'It looks like Mr. Kravos just threw one of everything he had in a bag,' she thought.
But Ashe had studied Mr. Kravos' recipe books more vigorously than her math books and she'd watched the man cook elaborate meals out of what appeared to be the most random of ingredients.
'I can do this,' she told herself, scanning ingredients once more.
It wasn't long before something clicked.
"Oh, we have the stuff to make mushroom and vegetable risotto," she said.
"Risotto?" Miss Daisy laughed. "I think you're doing some wishful thinking there, kiddo."
"No, seriously! We have everything here!" Ashe insisted. "Rice, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, and an onion. Sure, we're missing vegetable stock and some seasonings, so it won't taste quite the same but it should still be good."
"It has been a long time since I had a good rice dish," Miss Wendy commented, grinning a little in Ashe's direction. "Probably since... Oh, it must have been before I got married."
Miss Daisy bit her lip, "It's been years for me too but I'm not sure everyone will be satisfied with just that for dinner, especially after everything."
"We can add some meat too," Ashe said. "It would probably even give it more flavor! I think that salted horker loaf would probably work."
"What's a horker?" Ethan asked, barely lifting his head off the mat to blink at her sleepily.
Ashe shrugged, "Some sort of big animal. Mr. Kravos says they are dangerous to hunt but their meat and hide are really valuable. I don't really like it that much but it's better than nothing."
"Alright, alright!" Miss Daisy said, holding her hands up. "I give! We'll have risotto for dinner! But you're going to have to take the lead here, kid. I haven't the slightest clue how to make something like that."
"I can handle it," the girl said with a firm nod. Balancing on an overturned crate, she pulled over a small cloth sack. "Well, first we have to boil the rice. While that is going we can work on chopping up the vegetables, mushrooms, and meat. You'll have to help me with that though. Mr. Kravos won't let me use a knife yet."
"So where do you and the kids call home, Wendy?" Miss Daisy asked.
"A little town called Grathston," the other woman explained. "I doubt you've heard of it but it's situated in this rocky outcrop of a small bay. It doesn't have much in the way of luxuries but is a nice place to live; we've got quite a few families which meant that my skills as a teacher were well-appreciated."
Miss Daisy nodded and, not looking up from stirring the rise, continued, "And your husband? What does he do?"
"Oh, Matthew... isn't working at the moment due to some health issues. But he used to be the best electrician in town."
"He must be worrying about the three of you," Miss Daisy said. "And I can't imagine how excited you and the kids must be to get back to him. I lost my Edgar two years ago and I know I'd give anything to see him again."
Out of the corner of Ashe's eyes, she watched as Miss Wendy wrung her hands together, lips pressed tightly shut. At her feet, Ethan and Cindy both went still under their blankets, similarly silent.
'What is happening there?' she wondered. 'Do they not want to see their dad again? I mean, I don't want to see my dad either but...'
Could that mean...
Oh.
'Yeah, I guess that makes sense.'
"We all have Ashe here to thank for this wonderful dinner so you all better be grateful to her," Miss Daisy said, spooning heapfuls of steaming risotto onto plates to be passed out.
"Indeed, this all smells delicious, Ashe," Mr. Kravos said. "I'm very impressed."
Ashe blushed, "I just did what you asked me to, Mr. Kravos. Nothing special."
"Yes, but you did it very well," the old man said. "And that itself is worthy of praise."
"Yeah, kid, you should be proud of yourself," one of the men chimed in.
"This smells amazing," another spoke up.
Miss Natasha stood up, raising her glass, "So we're all in agreement? Alright, TO ASHE!"
"TO ASHE!"
With cheers echoing around her, Ashe's felt a smile threaten to split her face. She felt so happy! So loved! So important!
And yet, out of the corner of her eye, she couldn't help but watch Miss Wendy fiddling with her wedding ring, a fearful look on her face.