"Wait, what are you doing?" She said, trailing off and taking a step back.
With an undeniable coldness that even surprised her, Tavis merely told her that he needed to get some food for the cook. "After all", he said, "we need what we need".
If it was Orianna's imagination, she didn't know, but she could've sworn he looked her straight in the eyes, before running his gaze over her body. A slight shiver prickled her skin as he walked past her and into the store room.
Rebus couldn't hear what his son said to the young girl but he saw the look that Tavis gave her. At that moment, he knew that if Tavis kept acting the way he did around Orianna, then he'd have no problem implementing his plan to keep all the other men away.
A day had already gone by, and as Orianna lay awake in her uncomfortable little makeshift bed early in the morning, she musingly thought about the day before.
Orianna had been given free reign to explore the ship and did so without any hesitation. It was a large ship and just like the Royal Avenue, it had many rooms and hallways beneath the deck to investigate.
Orianna had started from the top and slowly made her way down. She explored anywhere and everywhere until she knew exactly where the kitchen was (food was first priority) and she eventually even knew where the crews' sleeping quarters were --- she got whistles by some of the men as she had walked past.
She had practically scoured the whole entirety of the ship until nothing was left to be searched. By the end of it, Orianna had nothing else to do but wander aimlessly about and start interrogation style conversations with anyone who had the time.
For the most part, she was left much to herself and nobody paid much attention as she had walked on by. Rebus finally approached her in the evening and asked her to follow him. Finding it a strange request, Orianna followed; curiosity getting the better of her.
Rebus calmly and quietly led her back down to the map room or as he told her, "The navigational room". Upon entering, Orianna saw four or five large oaken trunks sitting to one side of the room. Looking at Rebus questioningly, he only smiled kindly and ushered her over to the boxes.
"Although we are men, we do know that women can't exactly go around in the same clothes for weeks on end. So I got a few cabin boys to search through our newly arrived stock to find any trunks belonging to ladies."
Gesturing with his hand he said, "And these are it".
Orianna looked down at the trunks and after some deliberation finally asked, "If I'm to do chores around the ship tomorrow, can I at least wear breeches and a tunic? My father let me wear them at home so could I……?"
Rebus laughed. "You mean could you wear them here? Certainly you could and it's a very logical idea at that. I'll let you go through these first for any dresses and such that you'd want, and later I'll take you to where the other trunks are. Okay?"
Orianna turned back to the boxes before her, and nodded her head. "Okay".
Rebus had left her to search the trunks, and for the next couple of hours she had sorted through and collected a fine collection of dresses, skirts and even the odd shoe.
Back to the present, Orianna had pulled herself out of the stiff little bed, and was starting to sort through the pile of clothes lying simply at the foot of her bed. She had yet to figure out where to put them, so on the floor is where they were to stay until then. Selecting a simple white tunic and black breeches, Orianna eyed a corset lying nearby. It was an evil contraption, but a necessary one especially with all the men around.
Finally putting on the socks and shoes supplied by a young cabin boy the previous day, Orianna was ready. When I say ready, I mean appearance wise, because mentally she was far from ready.
A small sliding bolt had been placed inside the small room for her to lock during the night and now sliding out the heavy metal bar, Orianna stepped outside into the crisp and slightly dark morning. It was early dawn and only a fraction of the men were out on the deck; the rest were still probably having their morning meal which Orianna decided to skip on for today.
Having been given her instructions the day before, Orianna now accordingly set off to the supply room- for a mop and its renowned partner; the bucket.
"What's your story?" Rebus asked out of the blue later that day, startling Orianna from her routine of - mop into bucket onto floor and back into bucket.
"What do you mean?" Orianna asked naively; she knew exactly what he meant but wanted to stall the inevitable.
Rebus rubbed his slight shadow of a beard, trying to decide how to phrase his next choice of words.
"Well it strikes me as a bit odd that a young woman such as yourself, is travelling by herself across an entire ocean".
Orianna nodded her head slightly and decided to go for the simple explanation. "It's a family matter that brought me here."
Rebus became suspicions at her short and indirect answer. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Orianna hesitated briefly. What she could've said is that she was crossing the big blue ocean in order to find and obliterate a demonic like spirit that killed her mother. But under the current circumstances, she decided to leave that part out.
"No not really. It's just something I have to do…to, 'settle a score', as the saying goes."
Hoping that Rebus got the hint at her reluctance to talk about it, Orianna was dismayed when he then asked another question.
"Your family isn't worried that you're out here alone?"
Orianna was quiet for a few moments. "That's a tricky question to answer. Firstly not even I know where I am and secondly, I've only got my father to worry about and well…he…he knows that I need to do this".
Rebus eyed her with doubt. "Nice way of skirting around my question".
Orianna blushed deeply, refusing to look Rebus in the eyes.
"Its personal, that's all".
Rebus made to say something but closed his mouth soon after, a pensive look etched on his features. Nodding thoughtfully, he reached out and gently squeezed Orianna's arm in a fatherly gesture before walking away, humming softly to himself.
Orianna watched him as he went, a hint of a smile sitting on her lips, but a feeling of reservation in her mind. She had come too close to revealing too much to him.
After a few hours had gone by, Orianna was still found mopping away at the oaken floorboards of the deck; grumbling and cursing to herself.
It had taken hours to do just one end since the men kept spilling glue and the odd splash of lacquer while doing reconstruction along the ship, and she still had most of the other end to complete.
Tavis had just finished completing his father's inventory books in the map room, when he decided to go up on the deck and check with the ships navigator for their location.
After travelling so long and so far, they were now getting closer to finding out the location of the deathly shadow…so close that just at the thought of it, anticipation coursed through Tavis' body.
On his way, he had caught sight of Orianna looking darkly at the floor while mopping away. Seeing an opportunity to provoke the woman, Tavis casually walked over to her.
"Try not to spill too much water onto the wood; it takes too long to dry and it's a waste of the lather", Said a familiar voice from behind her.
Realizing who it was, Orianna turned and looked darkly at Tavis, while he only smirked back.
"Anything…else?" .She grumbled through clenched teeth.
Tavis half smiled and tapped his lip in mock thought. "Well now that you mention it, you could be a little faster. I know you're a woman and all, but even a blind, one armed old man would be finished by now".
She was tempted to smack him over the head with the mop; her mind was savouring the delectable image.
"If you don't mind, I've got work to do", she stated in annoyance. With that, Orianna calmly picked up the wooden bucket, placed the mop under her arm and set of in a straight posture (as some women tend to do when angry) to the other end of the ship.
Tavis stared at her retreating form, taking pleasure in the way her hips would sway gently as she walked.
As Orianna walked along, she knew Tavis had watched her walk away. Although she scolded herself for it, her mind kept wandering to thoughts of the irritable man in question.
He was down right infuriating, but, and to her dismay, he was as handsome as anything. Even as they had fought, Orianna's eyes had kept wandering over his face, lingering over his mouth and his eyes.
Mentally shaking herself, Orianna took in a deep breath of the fresh sea air.
"Watch out miss", said a burly looking man as he carefully walked past her with a large plank of wood balancing precariously on his shoulder.
"Hold on, I'll help", Orianna called out, wanting a distraction from thinking of Tavis.
Dropping her mop, she rushed over to him and held the back end of the heavy plank, and for the next few hours, she to some extent, helped some of the men to repair a broken section of the ship's side.
Although she was mainly used to fetch things for the men, Orianna had kept at it until the job was finished, mainly to wear her-self out. She wanted nothing more than to pass the next couple of weeks in a state of work and sleep.
She didn't want to feel or to think because to do either would be dangerous when mixed with boredom.
Once that job was completed, Orianna had wandered back over to the sad looking mop to resume her previous task.
As she prepared to plunge the mop back into the bucket for more lather, Orianna's eye caught sight of a shadowy figure lurking near the store room…her room.
Thinking that it was just her imagination, Orianna looked again to prove her-self right.
Catching a quick glimpse at the shape, her whole body constricted in frozen fear. 'It's…it's him', she thought numbly. Coming to her senses, Orianna turned her head searchingly for anyone nearby.
As fate should have it, no one was so close as to call out for. Turning back to the store room, Orianna was shocked to find that the man had disappeared. Shaking her head slightly, Orianna slowly walked over to where she had seen the figure and was dismayed to find no sign of him.
Now at this point of the story, you as the reader might think that she should go straightaway and tell Rebus of this strange occurrence, but what you should know is that Orianna didn't know what to believe. Her logic told her it was just her tired mind playing tricks on her, but something inside told her it was much more…
A bit shaken and confused, Orianna walked back over to her bucket and with her mind still on the shadowy figure of her attacker, she mindlessly attempted to put the mop into the pail. This resulted in the mop hitting the edge of the bucket and tipping it over, spilling the soapy contents around her feet.
Tavis had chanced to see this scene unfold and walked over to her, mumbling to himself words along the line of , "Hopeless…that woman I tell you….I knew she was going to be a problem….why didn't anyone listen".
Upon reaching her, Travis was troubled to find that she had barely registered the water soaking at her feet; a blank expression clouded over her pale face. Concerned, Tavis reached out and lifted her chin so that her eyes were now level with his.
"What happened?" he asked demandingly.
Orianna vacantly looked Tavis in the eyes and seeing the intensity of which he was staring back at her, realised he had asked her a question.
"Pardon?"
"What's going on with you?" He asked again, letting his hand drop from her face; a gentle shiver had run up his arm.
"Oh …nothing, I just…I just got lost inside my head, that's all…why?"
Tavis motioned towards the damp puddled ground around them. "That's why".
Orianna felt mortification rise to her cheeks in the form of a deep flush as she realised what she'd done.
"I didn't realize, I…" She let her words fade into nothingness as she didn't know how to explain it to him.
Tavis didn't say anything; he only shook his head and turned to walk away.
As he walked, Tavis shook his arm slightly, trying to convince himself that the slight shiver when he had touched her face…never happened.
The man who had been lurking about and who had also been the cause of Orianna's fear was none other than Kirk, the brute of a man (if you could call him a man) who had bruised up Orianna in the hallways of Royal Avenue.
Having successfully evaded Orianna's sight for a day and a half, he was now set to go on the rampage. To his twisted, small, small mind, Orianna had bruised his manhood (in more ways than one) and now, he had his own plan to get back at her.
After Orianna had turned her attention from him to look for help, Kirk had slinked into the shadowy depth of the store room, planning to maliciously surprise the young woman when she went in for the night.
'If all goes well', Kirk thought snidely to himself, 'then by the morning, the little lass will know whose boss".
Dun, Dun, Dun… what will happen? To all the extremely patient readers of this story, I'll let you on a little secret. Next chapter Orianna will have her first kiss (I wonder with who) as well as the announcement of Rebus' little plan. I know this chapter took a long time to come, but school had once again started (tear) and I'm afraid the next few chapter will be taking their time to be posted. (I apologize in advance). Please, PLEASE review and just tell me what you think and anything you want me to explain more about (such as Orianna's past or even the raid), or any chapters I should go over and fix/ add more to. See youse later. Bye
(P.S) sorry if this chapter rambled on a bit in places; I rushed to finish it...but I hope you all noticed the hint about what Tavis is searching for (does it remind you of something? hmmm)