THE CAPTAIN'S LADY

She was raised by a single father who had no idea how to answer feminine questions, and he spent most of puberty on a ship with a bawdy crew. They might be a little awkward, but they're honest and selfless and, let's face it, absolutely perfect for each other. ~ DK

…

Lana was the first down the gangplank, when the ship docked. She snatched up Dalla from the nurse and hugged her daughter tightly.

Shara looked on the reunion with a smile while she made her own descent. And then the solid ground beneath her feet seemed to sway. She'd forgotten about that lovely effect of sea travel. Eyes down to steady herself, she was surprised to see a little ball of white fur come gamboling up to her and then the bluest eyes she had ever seen looked up into hers as it gave a little yip.

"That's right, Portia. Say hello to your new Mummy." Jamos was following behind the adorable creature with a hesitant grin on his face.

He needn't have worried if Shara would like the gift. She scooped the creature up immediately. "What's this?"

"She's a norcog, her name is Portia, and… she's yours." He stood back enjoying her reaction.

Shara cooed at the pup and nuzzled her soft fur. "She's beautiful! Is she really mine?" She cuddled the pup to her chest and looked at Jamos over the fuzzy head.

He nodded happily.

Her smile was thanks enough. "Norcog? That's a... northern cognine, right?" She held out the pup and looked it over. "I didn't think they were this small."

Portia yipped and licked her new mummy's face. Shara giggled.

"Just give her a couple of years." Jamos laughed. "She'll be big as a dalgos."

"She's perfect. Thank you."

…

For about a week and a half the pet parents were every bit as attentive to their new baby girl as Dalla's parents were with her after their long separation. Jamos and Shara shared equally in the responsibility of feeding and training and playing with the norcog, along with cleaning up her messes. It made for a marvelous distraction from waiting around for the day when Shara could send negative test results to Iziz. It also meant that the three of them spent nearly every moment together.

It was a surprize to Jamos, therefore, when he went and knocked on Shara's bedroom door one morning and she didn't want to get out of bed. The door in question had been fixed with a sensor and alarm mechanism so that no one of the male gender could enter. Lana had been the one to help Shara get settled and hang the picture of she and her mother. Shara said she was very comfortable there. Though she hadn't spent much time in her new room other than sleeping, till today.

"Could you get Lana for me?" Shara called through the door.

"Aye, of course." Jamos was away like a shot.

Shara snuggled back into the covers of her warm bed. She had already visited the 'fresher that adjoined her room and gotten all the confirmation she needed. Lana had supplied her with everything necessary. The cramps that cut through her like a knife were actually reassuring.

Equally reassuring were the little yips and barks of the narcog on the floor next to her bed. The pup's name had been officially lengthened to Portia Hadassa Rupingwood-Blackwell. She would grow into it. Shara was glad if she was never fated to have children of her own, she and Jamos would at least have their furbaby.

Shara knew she shouldn't do it. Bringing the pup up onto the bed with her would be setting a precedent and she'd never be able to train her to stay down after this. Still, she couldn't help herself. She scooped up the ball of fluff and settled Portia snugly on her lap.

The relief was immediate, like a living hot water bottle on her aching stomach. Shara sighed. She remembered the first time she had felt those cramps that always signaled the beginning of her cycle. That along with her first show of blood, Shara had been sure she was dying. She'd been so afraid to tell her father that he was going to lose her just like he had lost her mother.

So Shara had run to the only place she could think of, the dalgos barns. It was her father's favorite place and he'd taught her to love it too. She was crying in an empty stall when Edda Gerrera had found her and explained that this was normal, that it was supposed to happen, every month. She had let Shara in on the secret then that she was off the hook for a while. Edda had just found out that she was expecting.

Edda had told Shara that she could always come to her if she had any questions. It was the downside to growing up with a single father. He didn't really discuss things like that with her. She remembered him once, before Edda explained so concisely that human females came into season just like any other creature, telling her that she might feel 'different' after her 13th lifeday.

Perhaps he'd thought that he'd never have to explain things to her, after the plague, the dalgos flu, that had taken her mother and Bremon's parents and so many others. The animals had it first, before it mutated and passed to humonoids. The mares who managed to survive it were all left sterile.

It could be that their fruitless trying wasn't Sanjay's fault at all. But Edda had told her it was a good sign that her cycle was so strong and regular. Just like a chronometer, that was Shara. And the Rashes' midwife droid hadn't been able to find anything wrong with her. Of course she'd never told them she was a plague survivor…

Another knock on the door startled her out of her memories. "Shara, it's Lana. Did you need me for something?"

"Yes, please come in." Shara didn't rise from the bed as Lana entered and shut the door again behind her. She did sit up a little straighter and Portia hopped up and yipped at the newcomer.

"Did you start?" Lana asked in an expectant whisper.

Shara nodded and rolled her eyes. "Right on schedule." Then she winced as a little paw stepped in an uncomfortable spot on her abdomen.

"Do you want a pain stim?" Lana frowned sympathetically.

"Yeah."

Lana gave Portia a pat on the head and a scratch under the chin. "I'll get that for you." She smiled. "And the med scanner. We'll have those test results down to Iziz before breakfast."

"Thank you, so much."

…

After the stim started to take effect and the knowledge that the test results were delivered, Shara felt more like leaving her room and joining the rest of the Blackwells.

Jamos approached her cautiously. "Are you… feeling better?"

"I am, thank you." She smiled shyly at him.

He looked thoughtful. "So, for sure you're not…I mean Lana explained it to me. I'm fracking glad I'm not female." His eyes widened apologetically. "I'm glad you are… not that you have to go through all that, but… you know what I mean."

She nodded, blushing.

Lana had explained to her that Marlon and Jamos's father had given Jamos the Polaris when he was 12. Alon Blackwell had been in the last stages of his disease. He and his wife didn't want their younger son to have to witness it.

He died when Jamos was 13. As such, the aspiring, young captain had spent much of his teen years at sea, as far away from the Hold as he could manage. And most of his education about females, in those formative years, came from the members of his crew.

Lana had had a lot of awkward questions to answer when she and Marlon got married and even more when she became pregnant with Dalla. She assured Shara that she had set Jamos straight. But Shara didn't see anything wrong with that, not when what she didn't learn from Edda, came from watching mating dalgos or personal experience that she didn't care to remember.

"So in… five to seven days you'll be ready to go on that fishing trip?" he asked hopefully.

Shara smiled. "Definitely."

…

The captain was waiting for the beast master as she was winched up to the deck just as he had been after her first amazing catch. This equally successful performance would ensure a grand payout to all of the crew aboard the Polaris and food aplenty for the winter months when the boats were frozen in their harbors.

Shara wasn't thinking about that now. Jamos hadn't presumed to bring a cloak to wrap around her shoulders this time. She almost wished he had as she shivered, smiling up at him. And then he couldn't help himself. He drew her close and kissed her to a rousing chorus of 'The Captain's Lady'. She didn't push him away, even when she heard the booming laugh of Marlon Blackwell somewhere in the crowd of sailors.

"You're not going to slap me this time?" Jamos asked close to her ear.

She shook her head, gazing into his eyes. Something passed wordlessly between them. He took her hand and led her through the chaos and away from their chaperone.

Technically she was free. The test results had been sent to the Rashes. She wasn't carrying their heir. Still, Sanjay had yet to sign the documents that would make their annulment official.

Shara had so badly wanted to go on another fishing voyage before the weather turned cold and all the signs were pointing to a harsh winter. Jamos meant to honor his promise that she could. So the whole family had come.

Lana and Shara were given the Captain's cabin to share with little Dalla as it was the most spacious and comfortable. Jamos slung up his hammock with his brother, who was acting as first mate, in the smaller cabin.

It was this cabin that he led her to now since Lana had opted to keep the baby in the larger one during the confusion of bringing the catch on deck. Shara and Jamos had only Marlon to evade in their flight. They were assisted by the crew who thought it a marvelous game to close ranks behind the couple to aid their escape. Even though the Lord himself didn't make too much of an effort to stop them.

With the door of the first mate's cabin closed and locked behind them, Jamos took her in his arms. "Why is it that forbidding something makes you want it that much more?" He asked.

"I don't know." She breathed.

Their lips fused together and his hands started to slip under her soaked leather fishing tunic. "Your skin is like ice!" He worried.

"Your hands are so warm…"

Her words fueled the desire that was already burning inside him and he groaned against her lips. "Shara, I…"

They were interrupted by a firm knock on the door and Lana's stern voice. "Jamos Emoth Blackwell, take your hands off that girl and unlock this door this instant!"

He growled with frustration. "How about if we just ignore her?"

Shara smiled and touched his bearded cheek tenderly. "We'd better do what she says."

"Alright." He kissed her forehead. "If that's what you want?"

Another impatient knock sounded on the door.

"In a minute!" Jamos called out and then raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Shara nodded, lowering her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jamos . I know…"

"No." He gently lifted her chin so she would look at him again. "If you're not ready then… Shara, you are worth waiting for."

"Jamos!" Lana called from outside the door.

"Coming!" He yelled back.

Shara giggled.

He grinned at her and kissed her once more before unlocking and opening the door.

Shara stepped out and made sure to stay between Jamos and his angry sister-in-law. "Don't be too hard on him. I went willingly ."

Lana touched her arm and tutted. "You're freezing. We really should get you out of those wet things…"

"Well I was trying…" Jamos smirked.

Lana glared at him. "Shara could do with a hot bath and you…" she shoved him away, "need a cold shower."

...

A half hour later, after the promised bath and a cup of hot cocoa 'n caf, dressed in a soft dry tunic and skirt and a shawl around her shoulders, Shara found the captain at the rail looking dejectedly out over the sea. She went to stand beside him but not too close and glanced back to see that they were still being observed from across the deck.

He noticed her but didn't let his gaze linger too long. "Are you warmer now?" He asked with honest concern.

"I am, thank you." She watched him out of the corner of her eye wondering if Lana had told him off or if he was just beating himself up for some imagined misstep.

"I'm sorry, Shara. I…"

"What ever are you apologizing for?"

"If you'd let me finish." He gave her a look of annoyance.

She bit her lip and nodded.

"Earlier when we…" he tried and then sighed and started over. "When you were… you tried for so long with… and I thought that if you weren't able …" he rushed on to the end. "That if you and I were together it wouldn't matter because there wouldn't be anything to show for it."

He stared at her for a moment until his meaning suddenly dawned on her. "Oh!"

"It was selfish of me and unfeeling and of course I know that it was most likely all his fault that you never… and that if you and I … that there still is the possibility…" she could hear the smile come into his voice. "And as much as I might like… I wouldn't want him to make trouble because you turned up…"

"Jamos." Her voice was soft but it put an end to his tirade. "You're not the only one who's had those thoughts." Shara had wondered the same thing. If it was impossible for her to get pregnant, then why did it matter if they waited? "But I want to do things right this time. I made such a mess of my first… relationship. You did say that I was, worth the wait?"

"And I meant it!" He assured her.

Shara smiled and nodded then she glanced behind them. Some of the crew had noticed them standing there talking and gradually while they were having their conversation they had gained a bit of an audience. Then softly one of them had begun to play a tune on his flute.

"That song!" Jamos growled angrily. "I'm sorry, Shara. I've asked them not to. I'll talk to them again, dole out some punishment if I…" but then he stopped. He noticed that she was smiling and what's more she was humming along.

He watched her curiously. "You know, in the song… the Captain's Lady is the name of a ship so when it says…"

The song said a lot of things and she was perfectly aware that most of them had double meanings concerning the captain and the ship he'd taken a fancy to and the girl with whom he was supposedly discussing the matter. "At least they know I'm already spoken for."

Jamos grunted in agreement and glared at no specific member of his crew in particular.

Shara grinned as she took up the verse along with the provided accompaniment,

"Aye, she said when he said he adored her.

Aye, she said when he said he would board her.

Aye, she said but he'd never afford her.

All for the Captain's Lady."

"You can sing."

"Well, don't act so surprised. We beast riders do have songs of our own. A few of them far worse than any of the bawdy sailors' ballads I've heard from your crew."

Jamos smirked out at the waves. "I did ask them to clean it up a bit with you and Lana and Dalla aboard."

"Ah," said Shara. "That explains it. My father's friends never did when they were 'round the campfire at the Summer Fete and thought I'd gone to sleep with my head on his shoulder." It was a bittersweet memory with her father so recently gone. He had always rather had her at his side than alone in the tent, no matter how colorful the song lyrics had gotten in her presence.

"I could ask them to teach you the other verses." Jamos turned to look at her offering it like a challenge.

She accepted with a nod. "I'd like to hear the whole story."

While they'd been talking the piper had been joined by a few other amature musicians among the men. Shara's foot was already tapping along. "But that can wait." Impulsively she reached out and took Jamos's hand. "Can you dance as well, Captain?"

His free hand went to her waist and he spun her in time to the music. "I thought you'd never ask."

...

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