p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The next morning the ocean was easier on her than before, perhaps because they were nearing the open ocean: a place free from obstructions that can cause large swells. Here, the only forces at play were the ship itself and the wind that kept them going; and Hermione appreciated the newfound gentility. Even the captain seemed to appreciate the calmness. Hermione noted seeing him in the cabin more, studying his maps and charts and even below deck, making casual conversation with his crew about the latest whosits and whatsits./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione had set herself on the railing with her feet dangling on the inner side of the railing, looking out at sea without fear of falling from large waves and observed the clouds. They were cumulus clouds: the sort that make for great observation. On the far west horizon, she spotted what she made out to be a lion and she smiled to herself, reminiscing memories as a Gryffindor. The cloud beside it looked like a dog. Another cloud rolled slowly into her view: a gryndelow, she would put it, what with the whispiness of cirrus clouds at its underbelly with the promise of cool air ahead. Of course, these shapes held no meaning beyond their meteorological and seasonal nature, unlike the rubbish Trelawney might have you think./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione sat forward on the rail enough to brace herself with her hands on the wooden 'seat', peering downward at the water that churned beside the ship, regarding it with a moment of perplexity. What was below? She attempted to fathom the many forms of magical creatures what roamed the ocean, waiting ever so patiently for her discovery. What she would do for some gillyweed and a moment to swim; explore./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She was forced back to presentness when the ship reared against the wave as she gripped the railing tighter until she trusted herself to balance without. But, the swells continued and stubborn Hermione sought about staying put. What did she have to fear when she had flown hippogriffs and dragons and broomsticks?/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She shut her eyes and felt the breeze when she felt the abrupt motion of being grabbed. She screamed out in surprise and grabbed onto the hands that held her as they pulled her down. The hands were strong and sturdy. She spun around to face her intervenor, ready to argue, but the Captain spoke (yelled) first./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What did you bloody well think you were doing?" Jack was fuming, his eyes darker than ever as they poured into hers./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Taken aback, she stumbled for a response to his otherwise obvious question. "I was simply looking out. It's a harmless venture,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""It's dangerous!" He was still holding on to her. Realizing this, he released./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I appreciate your concern, but I was emfine/em. Just fine, thank you." She was squinting up at him, the sun in her eyes. He grabbed her by an upper arm and lead her into the shade of the nearest sail before holding the bridge of his nose in frustration./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He huffed, summoning his patience and she crossed her arms, listening. "Hermione, I forget you haven't spent much time at sea but you cannot, and I repeat this with much sincerity, you emcannot/em hang about the rail."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""But,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""No. Have you any idea what would happen if you had fallen?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I can swim,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You would not have the opportunity to swim, Hermione. The likelihood of that is hardly favourable as you would be suctioned beneath the Wench by the wake, carved to bits by the barnacles and, even if you survive that, love, I rather doubt it, by the time you reached the back of the boat to be rescued by line you would have died by suffocation for being held beneath the ship for so long. Am I understood?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She had never seen him irate before, but he was. It was as though he had seen this happen before. She trusted his words. "Yes, Jack."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Captain." He asserted himself to her for the first time and it wasn't until this moment did she fully understand his seriousness. He continued, trying to appeal to her. "I wouldn't be doing my job, Miss Granger, if I did not keep you safe." His gaze softened, but his passion did not. His eyes gazed into hers with a new fierceness and it unsettled her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"*/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The tobacco pipe glowed deep red where the man lit it with a match, his unshaven cheeks emerging from the early night like some dull red theatrical mask before fading back into the blue-hued night. He shook the flame from the match before it had a chance to bite at his fingertips. The man took a long and much needed breath from the pipe, leaned back, and released a pensive plume of smoke into the stilled atmosphere. This night at sea was also much calmer than the first and allowed for some leisure time./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I swear those things'll kill you, mate." Jack interrupted Gibbs' serenity with a cough, fanning the smoke away with his hands, but the elder man was mostly unphased. Jack was now leaning against the ship's banister where his first mate sat on the steps./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs turned his head ever so barely in order to meet his captain's gaze, the moon illuminating his sardonic expression./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ye sure stick around a lot for someone who has such little faith in me." Jack pressed his right hand against his chest as if hurt, but his smile expressed only amusement./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Joshamee Gibbs held the pipe in his clenched teeth while retrieving a knife from the inside seam of his stockings, casually using the dull side of the blade to pick shovel grease out from beneath his fingernails. Jack could see frustration in the curvature of his colleague's eyebrows that reflected in the face of the metallic blade./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What is it, Gibbsy? There's no time for moping, sailor." Jack gestured with his hands in flamboyant disapproval./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs stopped for a moment, resting his arms on his knees as if to express to Jack his genuine disappointment. "That girl has you wrapped around her finger, ye know."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Beg pardon?" Jack leaned in, forehead wrinkled upward in a challenging expression. The sound of the captain's grey coattails fluttering in the wind seemed to close around them before Gibbs spoke again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ye heard me, Jack," Gibbs gave him a narrow glance. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd bend o'er backward for a lass. I mean, she's fine, Jack, but you bow to 'er every whim."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I do emnot/em." Jack defied loudly, startling even himself./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""When do ye plan to get yer cabin back, then, eh? I told ya we should've left that lass at port. I see you lookin' at her every now and again. I could tell you were bewitched from the start."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Bewitched?" The captain echoed, speaking barely above a whisper. He shook the superstitious nonsense from his thoughts. "What would you rather have me do, Gibbs? Toss 'er over? 'Miss Granger, it's been a pleasure," he acted out the scene theatrically, "but it seems me first mate, the grouchy eunuch, doesn't enjoy women. Sorry, ye prolly won't enjoy the sharks as much as they'll enjoy you." He then gestured out to sea as if tossing something overboard./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Aye, Jack, you're the captain. Tell the lass to give back your cabin space. I needn't be tellin' ye this!" He punctuated this statement by sticking his knife into the banister and leaving it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack frowned, pursing his lips in contemplation. He did miss his bed. But, ever the gentleman, he refused to force her to sleep on emthat/em bloody couch. Jack shifted his posture at the memory of his past nights of unsatisfactory sleep, shook his head, and pulled the knife from it's wooden stand./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What should I do with her then," Jack blinked at him expectantly, "'ave her sleep with the crew? Ye can't trust that lot as far as ye can throw 'em. That's true any way you slice it. 'Specially that Brassteeth."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs rolled his eyes, exasperated. "There be worse things, Jack. Love is a poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill ya all the same… eventually. Ever hear the tale of Davy Jones? The man cut out his own still-beating heart for a woman who could not be with him and he waited forever for her as he still does, only now rabid with hate and vengeance. Doomed with permanent heartache- cursed. Ever hear the story of Adam and Eve? And I'll not let ye be forgettin' sirens, neither. Women are trouble."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack frowned in contemplation before rebutting. "You know I don't believe in such rot."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"*/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Meanwhile, an oil lamp flickered a golden hue that illuminated only the table and the bookcase surrounding Hermione as she carried a quill across the pages of her journal, the ink settling onto the paper before disappearing altogether in the book that had been charmed with disappearing ink. Hermione had been writing all of her diaries and confidential reports this way since her first encounter with Tom Riddle's diary./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In this leather-bound journal Hermione documented her first week at sea: her arrival, meeting Beckett, the Captain, and his crew. Hermione had decided that neither Jack nor any of his crewmen were magical, thank goodness. However, this didn't help her learn anything meaningful or new about the compass in question. Hermione paused in her writing, thinking. Her right hand occupied with a quill, she took a bite from a biscuit that occupied her left hand. She continued again, writing out her plans to find a way to get the captain to reveal the compass and its secrets to her. She thought it'd be a long-shot, but it was a necessary one. She tapped the feather against the exterior of her nose as if it would stimulate ideas. It didn't. She shut the journal before returning the quill to its inkwell with a huff./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione was stumped. How should she bring up the compass to him? She sat back against the chair in a frustrated pose before resorting to a change of scenery. She'd been at the writing desk all evening. Maybe a walk around the ship would stimulate ideas, she thought to herself. Besides, she can't get any more sunburnt in the moonlight./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She regarded the chill of frost on the windows and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders in preparation to walk the ship when the Captain entered unexpectedly./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Allo, Miss Granger." He appeared abnormally formal, to which Hermione only raised her eyebrows in surprise. He continued. "I 'ave a proposition for you… an accord to be made, dependent upon some… particular negotiations."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Alright, then." She stated plainly, off-putting him with the way she listened to him, intently, sweetly. Those dark rum colored eyes of hers undid him completely./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"emBewitched, much?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Erm," his perfectly prepared argument fell apart like caramel on his tongue and he was left to scavenge for mere traces of coherency. "I want my spot back. On the bed, I mean." He stood as tall as he could manage. "'Tis all, love. 50%. Bloody fair deal, don't you think?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Jack, I understand but I think it would be, well, awkward if,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What is a bed, really? A bed is sacred to a man, or, erm, woman... humans." He quickly backpedaled, not wanting to tread in a sexual direction. "A bed sees us born; sees us die. It is the… ever changing scene upon which the human race play in turns interesting dramas, laughable farces, fearful tragedies... And, for that, a good and decisive captain needs his bed. Not to mention that bloody sofa is a pain in my arse."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""If I say yes, can I go now?" Hermione wanted to flee the awkwardness of this conversation as promptly as possible, and hoping the Captain might not notice the light blush that heated her cheeks at the mention of them sharing a bed./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack nodded, pleased with her answer, and set about his liquor cabinet when Hermione rushed from the room and out from the cabin where a evening breeze would soon settle her nerves. She looked back at the cabin door hesitantly, condemning the fluttering in her chest that was spurred by the Captain./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione had set herself on the railing with her feet dangling on the inner side of the railing, looking out at sea without fear of falling from large waves and observed the clouds. They were cumulus clouds: the sort that make for great observation. On the far west horizon, she spotted what she made out to be a lion and she smiled to herself, reminiscing memories as a Gryffindor. The cloud beside it looked like a dog. Another cloud rolled slowly into her view: a gryndelow, she would put it, what with the whispiness of cirrus clouds at its underbelly with the promise of cool air ahead. Of course, these shapes held no meaning beyond their meteorological and seasonal nature, unlike the rubbish Trelawney might have you think./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione sat forward on the rail enough to brace herself with her hands on the wooden 'seat', peering downward at the water that churned beside the ship, regarding it with a moment of perplexity. What was below? She attempted to fathom the many forms of magical creatures what roamed the ocean, waiting ever so patiently for her discovery. What she would do for some gillyweed and a moment to swim; explore./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She was forced back to presentness when the ship reared against the wave as she gripped the railing tighter until she trusted herself to balance without. But, the swells continued and stubborn Hermione sought about staying put. What did she have to fear when she had flown hippogriffs and dragons and broomsticks?/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She shut her eyes and felt the breeze when she felt the abrupt motion of being grabbed. She screamed out in surprise and grabbed onto the hands that held her as they pulled her down. The hands were strong and sturdy. She spun around to face her intervenor, ready to argue, but the Captain spoke (yelled) first./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What did you bloody well think you were doing?" Jack was fuming, his eyes darker than ever as they poured into hers./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Taken aback, she stumbled for a response to his otherwise obvious question. "I was simply looking out. It's a harmless venture,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""It's dangerous!" He was still holding on to her. Realizing this, he released./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I appreciate your concern, but I was emfine/em. Just fine, thank you." She was squinting up at him, the sun in her eyes. He grabbed her by an upper arm and lead her into the shade of the nearest sail before holding the bridge of his nose in frustration./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"He huffed, summoning his patience and she crossed her arms, listening. "Hermione, I forget you haven't spent much time at sea but you cannot, and I repeat this with much sincerity, you emcannot/em hang about the rail."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""But,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""No. Have you any idea what would happen if you had fallen?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I can swim,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""You would not have the opportunity to swim, Hermione. The likelihood of that is hardly favourable as you would be suctioned beneath the Wench by the wake, carved to bits by the barnacles and, even if you survive that, love, I rather doubt it, by the time you reached the back of the boat to be rescued by line you would have died by suffocation for being held beneath the ship for so long. Am I understood?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She had never seen him irate before, but he was. It was as though he had seen this happen before. She trusted his words. "Yes, Jack."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Captain." He asserted himself to her for the first time and it wasn't until this moment did she fully understand his seriousness. He continued, trying to appeal to her. "I wouldn't be doing my job, Miss Granger, if I did not keep you safe." His gaze softened, but his passion did not. His eyes gazed into hers with a new fierceness and it unsettled her./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"*/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The tobacco pipe glowed deep red where the man lit it with a match, his unshaven cheeks emerging from the early night like some dull red theatrical mask before fading back into the blue-hued night. He shook the flame from the match before it had a chance to bite at his fingertips. The man took a long and much needed breath from the pipe, leaned back, and released a pensive plume of smoke into the stilled atmosphere. This night at sea was also much calmer than the first and allowed for some leisure time./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I swear those things'll kill you, mate." Jack interrupted Gibbs' serenity with a cough, fanning the smoke away with his hands, but the elder man was mostly unphased. Jack was now leaning against the ship's banister where his first mate sat on the steps./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs turned his head ever so barely in order to meet his captain's gaze, the moon illuminating his sardonic expression./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ye sure stick around a lot for someone who has such little faith in me." Jack pressed his right hand against his chest as if hurt, but his smile expressed only amusement./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Joshamee Gibbs held the pipe in his clenched teeth while retrieving a knife from the inside seam of his stockings, casually using the dull side of the blade to pick shovel grease out from beneath his fingernails. Jack could see frustration in the curvature of his colleague's eyebrows that reflected in the face of the metallic blade./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What is it, Gibbsy? There's no time for moping, sailor." Jack gestured with his hands in flamboyant disapproval./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs stopped for a moment, resting his arms on his knees as if to express to Jack his genuine disappointment. "That girl has you wrapped around her finger, ye know."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Beg pardon?" Jack leaned in, forehead wrinkled upward in a challenging expression. The sound of the captain's grey coattails fluttering in the wind seemed to close around them before Gibbs spoke again./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ye heard me, Jack," Gibbs gave him a narrow glance. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd bend o'er backward for a lass. I mean, she's fine, Jack, but you bow to 'er every whim."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""I do emnot/em." Jack defied loudly, startling even himself./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""When do ye plan to get yer cabin back, then, eh? I told ya we should've left that lass at port. I see you lookin' at her every now and again. I could tell you were bewitched from the start."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Bewitched?" The captain echoed, speaking barely above a whisper. He shook the superstitious nonsense from his thoughts. "What would you rather have me do, Gibbs? Toss 'er over? 'Miss Granger, it's been a pleasure," he acted out the scene theatrically, "but it seems me first mate, the grouchy eunuch, doesn't enjoy women. Sorry, ye prolly won't enjoy the sharks as much as they'll enjoy you." He then gestured out to sea as if tossing something overboard./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Aye, Jack, you're the captain. Tell the lass to give back your cabin space. I needn't be tellin' ye this!" He punctuated this statement by sticking his knife into the banister and leaving it./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack frowned, pursing his lips in contemplation. He did miss his bed. But, ever the gentleman, he refused to force her to sleep on emthat/em bloody couch. Jack shifted his posture at the memory of his past nights of unsatisfactory sleep, shook his head, and pulled the knife from it's wooden stand./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What should I do with her then," Jack blinked at him expectantly, "'ave her sleep with the crew? Ye can't trust that lot as far as ye can throw 'em. That's true any way you slice it. 'Specially that Brassteeth."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Gibbs rolled his eyes, exasperated. "There be worse things, Jack. Love is a poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill ya all the same… eventually. Ever hear the tale of Davy Jones? The man cut out his own still-beating heart for a woman who could not be with him and he waited forever for her as he still does, only now rabid with hate and vengeance. Doomed with permanent heartache- cursed. Ever hear the story of Adam and Eve? And I'll not let ye be forgettin' sirens, neither. Women are trouble."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack frowned in contemplation before rebutting. "You know I don't believe in such rot."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"*/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Meanwhile, an oil lamp flickered a golden hue that illuminated only the table and the bookcase surrounding Hermione as she carried a quill across the pages of her journal, the ink settling onto the paper before disappearing altogether in the book that had been charmed with disappearing ink. Hermione had been writing all of her diaries and confidential reports this way since her first encounter with Tom Riddle's diary./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"In this leather-bound journal Hermione documented her first week at sea: her arrival, meeting Beckett, the Captain, and his crew. Hermione had decided that neither Jack nor any of his crewmen were magical, thank goodness. However, this didn't help her learn anything meaningful or new about the compass in question. Hermione paused in her writing, thinking. Her right hand occupied with a quill, she took a bite from a biscuit that occupied her left hand. She continued again, writing out her plans to find a way to get the captain to reveal the compass and its secrets to her. She thought it'd be a long-shot, but it was a necessary one. She tapped the feather against the exterior of her nose as if it would stimulate ideas. It didn't. She shut the journal before returning the quill to its inkwell with a huff./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hermione was stumped. How should she bring up the compass to him? She sat back against the chair in a frustrated pose before resorting to a change of scenery. She'd been at the writing desk all evening. Maybe a walk around the ship would stimulate ideas, she thought to herself. Besides, she can't get any more sunburnt in the moonlight./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"She regarded the chill of frost on the windows and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders in preparation to walk the ship when the Captain entered unexpectedly./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Allo, Miss Granger." He appeared abnormally formal, to which Hermione only raised her eyebrows in surprise. He continued. "I 'ave a proposition for you… an accord to be made, dependent upon some… particular negotiations."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Alright, then." She stated plainly, off-putting him with the way she listened to him, intently, sweetly. Those dark rum colored eyes of hers undid him completely./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"emBewitched, much?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Erm," his perfectly prepared argument fell apart like caramel on his tongue and he was left to scavenge for mere traces of coherency. "I want my spot back. On the bed, I mean." He stood as tall as he could manage. "'Tis all, love. 50%. Bloody fair deal, don't you think?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Jack, I understand but I think it would be, well, awkward if,"/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""What is a bed, really? A bed is sacred to a man, or, erm, woman... humans." He quickly backpedaled, not wanting to tread in a sexual direction. "A bed sees us born; sees us die. It is the… ever changing scene upon which the human race play in turns interesting dramas, laughable farces, fearful tragedies... And, for that, a good and decisive captain needs his bed. Not to mention that bloody sofa is a pain in my arse."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""If I say yes, can I go now?" Hermione wanted to flee the awkwardness of this conversation as promptly as possible, and hoping the Captain might not notice the light blush that heated her cheeks at the mention of them sharing a bed./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Jack nodded, pleased with her answer, and set about his liquor cabinet when Hermione rushed from the room and out from the cabin where a evening breeze would soon settle her nerves. She looked back at the cabin door hesitantly, condemning the fluttering in her chest that was spurred by the Captain./p
