AKAfredandgeorge: computer… good… :strokes laptop lovingly:
DragonDancer219: Thank you so much! Hearing that people enjoy reading my story never gets old, I am glad that it brings you enjoyment.
Starsplash: well, I spent most of the week getting over another double ear infection, but by the end it was gone, so, all-in-all it turned out good. ;)
RushingRiver: thank you! As you will be able to tell by the end of this chapter this is not the last chapter, but then according to my files this is only chapter 58 as I do nit count the profiles as official chapters.
Right, so, this is, according to the website, chapter 60, but, to my own reckoning, it is only 58, as I do not count the profiles. So there will be at least two more chapters after this one, though I might not be able to finish within those two, I am guessing I will be able to.
Once again, if there are any characters or loose ends that I have not addressed and you, as the reader, would like to know what happens with them/the situation, please let me know, and I will try to include that in the following chapters.
As always, enjoy!
--
The outward lock on the cabin door clicked loudly behind Katrina and she stood looking down at the floor for a moment, the conversation with Edmund slowly sinking in. the very thought of the man disgusted her. At the thought of actually marrying the man she felt ill. But her life and Sera's future were on the line. If she just bid her time she could figure a way to be happy, perhaps somehow sneak away with Sera, she hoped. Finally, she lifted her head, only to see a tearful Sera.
"Oh, precious, what is the matter?" Katrina asked, rushing to sit next to the little girl who was sitting on the bed, hugging her knees. Sera snuggled into Katrina's arms and looked up at her.
"Mommy?" the little girl questioned, her sweet voice quavering. Katrina brushed away some of the white blond curls that had fallen over Sera's eyes and studied the face before her. Sera had not cried for her mother in months. Hugging the little form a little tighter, Katrina rocked Sera gently.
"It's all right to cry, sweetie. You cry all you need to." Katrina said, fighting back her own tears. She must never let Sera see her cry. The little girl depended on her for strength.
Sera wriggled for Katrina to loosen her hold and as soon as she could she looked Katrina somberly in the eyes. "New mommy?" she queried.
"Oh." Katrina breathed; the little girl's meaning sank in after a few moments. She had forgotten that Edmund had said that. "You're mommy will always be your mommy, precious. All daddy means is that Kitty will marry daddy." Katrina had to fight to get the nauseating words out.
"Kitty mommy?" Sera's head tilted to the side as if trying out the new idea. "Call you mommy?"
"Only if you want to, precious." Katrina reassured the child.
Sera sat back and solemnly regarded the adult in front of her. She suddenly launched herself at Katrina and hugged her with all her might. "You Kitty." The child said firmly.
"And so I am." Katrina hugged her back.
--
He willed his eyes open, but they didn't listen to him. He tried again, slowly, he wrestled his eyes open. All was dark. He must be dead, he decided, but when he moved his head slightly to the side, stars of light exploded behind his eyes. With a groan that sounded impossibly loud in the silent room he rolled his head back to it's original position and waited until the lights and pain subsided before opening his eyes again. When he did, he could faintly see the rough boards of a deck above him, then he noticed, with panic that he could only see out of one eye!
He gingerly lifted one hand to his head, feeling a bandage he carefully pushed it away from his eye, letting out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding when he realized that he could see out of both eyes. Satisfied with this discovery and oddly exhausted by his small movements he permitted the bandage to settle back into place and allowed his conscience self to slip back into the darkness of sleep.
--
Katrina was nearly in a state of panic when she learned that they had actually passed Charleston. She had told Kipp Charleston. That is where he would go if he was following like she was desperately hoping he was, though Edmund took every opportunity he could to remind her of the note she had written and commenting on how he wouldn't follow. Despite her beginning conviction that Kipp would surely come for her and Sera the constant negation of her hopes by Edmund began to wear away at her conviction.
Katrina was surprised the next morning to feel that the rise and fall of the ship had drastically lessened to a gentle bobbing. All daylong she was not allowed out of the cabin and neither was Sera, which in itself was not entirely extraordinary, but coupled with the decrease of motion made Katrina suspect that they were close to land.
--
Kipp groaned and rolled over. With a sigh he sat up and shook his head free of the cobwebs of sleep. Pulling a clean shirt over his head, he picked up a slightly stale biscuit from the tray he had merely picked at the night before. Quickly pulling on his boots, Kipp made his way onto deck, still munching on the biscuit.
"How we doing, Taidhgan?" he asked, climbing the stairs to the fore deck.
"By my best guess, we're nearing Charleston, captain." Kipp raised an eyebrow, it wasn't like his first mate to not know exactly where they were. "I didn't want to risk waking you by checking the map." Taidhgan explained a little sheepishly.
Kipp rolled his eyes at his first mate's concern. "How long do you suppose?"
"Around three, four hours I reckon, by the amount of ships we've been passing." Taidhgan shifted the wheel minimally.
"Right." Kipp nodded and turned to head to his cabin, intent on checking his maps of the area.
"Oh, Jace is looking for you." Taidhgan said from behind him. Once again Kipp nodded his head in thanks and continued to his cabin, sure that Jace would show up soon enough without having to actively seek him out.
Kipp was just finished figuring out their approximate position when Jace came banging into his cabin. Kipp frowned. "Even if you've completely forgotten your manners, I'd still expect you to follow proper ship's protocol."
Jace just grinned flippantly at Kipp's comment. "Just thought ya'd wanna know that one of yer wounded men woke up for a right short bit."
"Which one?" Kipp asked, surprised, as none of them had been expected to pull through.
"Well, I don' rightly know his name. The tall one with the dark blond hair." Jace replied.
"Thank you, Jace. Could you relive Alex? He's been in the crow's nest long enough."
"Aw…" Jace started to protest.
"Need I remind you that not only am I your guardian, but also your captain? If you want to work on ships as bad as you say you do, you better get used to taking orders." Kipp crossed his arms and smiled.
"Tyrant." Jace muttered, making Kipp laugh good humoredly, ruffling the boy's hair.
--
A few hours later
Kipp sighed in frustration as he once again studied each ship carefully through his spyglass, Taidhgan beside him, doing the exact same thing. Jace was still in the crow's nest using his own telescope with the near impossible task of trying to see if he could find any of the crew milling among the masses on the docks.
Lowering his telescope, Kipp ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Not one ship was the Ojos Verde. "It just doesn't make any sense, Taidhgan. Charleston. That's what Kitten said. Even if they have gone from the ship already, she'd still be at the dock, restocking."
"Maybe Miss Ellis got it wrong."
"Not where Sera was concerned." Kipp collapsed his spyglass. "They aren't here, and we didn't pass them on our way here, so unless they moved farther out into the waters they must have moved farther north. Where do you think they'd go?"
"I'm not quite sure, either, captain." Taidhgan answered.
"Well, let's just hope my maps are accurate then." Kipp responded grimly.
--
Katrina realized with dismay that her suspicions were confirmed when, later that day both her and Sera were led onto deck and over to the side where they were to climb down over the side to a boat waiting to take them to the shore of the small cove that the ship was anchored in. There, on a stretch of sand a sparse scattering of fires showed in the early morning air.
It was a slight struggle to get Sera down into the boat, she still flatly refused to climb up or down any sort of rope. Edmund was getting rather upset at the child until one of the kinder crewmen offered to carry her down, which then took some convincing from Katrina until Sera agreed to let the man carry her.
Once on the beach Katrina's hands were tied together and she was dumped in front of one of the fires, Sera was promptly at her side and attached herself. They were given a little bit of food but otherwise generally ignored as the bottles of celebratory alcohol were passed about by the majority of the crew as they waited for Edmund to return with their payment. Even though they had no official guard, Katrina knew that Sera and herself were under watch.
Katrina nibbled on her hard sea biscuit tack, watching the men a, vague plan forming in her head. Still under the pretense of eating her unappetizing meal she murmured to Sera. "Sera, I need you to listen to Kitty, ok?" Sera turned big inquisitive eyes to Katrina. "Don't look at Kitty, precious, I don't want the others to know I'm talking to you, because… it's a secret." Sera's eyes grew slightly in realization and appreciation and turned her attention to the fire. "We're going to play a game, when I say to go I want you to run as hard and as long as you can down the beach and hide in some bushes near the edge of the trees. You stay there until I come get you, ok?" Still looking at the fire Sera nodded and Katrina went back to surreptitiously watching the men slowly drink themselves into a stupor though out the day.
The few that were not drinking heavily, Katrina watched with more intensity, they seemed to be the guards. Where their crewmates were passing out from overindulgence, they merely grew tipsy, talking loudly in slightly slurred words and laughing boisterously.
Katrina kept check on her and Sera's little fire, it had not been very large to begin with, and it was slowly dwindling down, as none of their captors had thought to add more fuel to it for hours. The sun had now sunk into the water, leaving a deep blue velvet hanging in the sky and a faint light that showed little more than outlines visible. Time was short before Edmund returned.
--
Kipp's fist fiercely came down on the maps spread on his desk, making both of his companions jump at the sudden sound.
"There isn't a possible port, according to these maps!" he fumed.
"That doesn't mean that there isn't one." Jace commented from where he was studying a map on Kipp's bed.
Kipp's only answer to this was a scowl at the young boy and running a frustrated hand through his hair.
"We'll just have to check them all as we sail by." Jace continued, not concerned about Kipp's foul mood.
"We don't have the time for it!"
"No." agreed Taidhgan calmly, speaking for the first time in hours from where he was bent over the desk, studying a map. "There is one place they might be. There." He pointed to a straight stretch of shore on the map."
"There isn't anything there." Kipp eyed his firstmate.
"Not on this map there isn't, but I spent the first eight years of my life around these parts. And I remember smugglers talking about a hidden cove where it was so deep you could almost pull the ship up to shore. I'm almost sure that is where they are." He looked up at Kipp.
"I thought you grew up in Boston." Was his captain's only response before moving over to study the cove that Taidhgan had marked.
--
The fire at Katrina's feet had reduced into flickering flames amide glowing embers. Sneaking a covert glance at the inebriated guards Katrina nudged a dosing Sera. "Go." She whispered. The little girl rubbed her eyes. "Time to play our secret game. Go." Katrina said again. Sera looked up at Katrina with a smile and hurried off into the darkness.
Katrina watched the fire for a while more. The disappearance of a small child might go unnoticed for hours, but the disappearance of an adult would be more obvious, she had to wait until the flames died completely down. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the last flame guttered out. Slowly, Katrina crept back from the glow of the smoldering remains of the fire. Once she was sure she was out of range of the deceptively soft glowing ring of light cast by the glowing embers, she rose from her crouch and turned, only to come face to face with the captain of the Ojos Verde.
He grabbed her upper arm. "Trying to escape, were we?" he asked in what would have been a conversational tone if not for the warning glint in his eye. "Where is the little one?" he asked, suddenly glancing toward the fire. Katrina was tempted to collapse in relief that Sera had gotten away. Her nerves were frayed but her face stayed impassive, staring at the man before her. He lifted his hand as if to backhand her.
"Hold!" a voice called, a voice Katrina thought she would never be glad to hear. "What id the meaning of this?" Edmund asked, striding up to them.
"Caught her trying to escape, I did." The captain explained.
Edmund made a quick survey of the camp. "Where is Seraphima?" Katrina favored him with the same stony look she had given the captain, only this time the look was laced with scorn and venom. "Where is she!?" Edmund demanded, Katrina stared at him, her expression not changing. "Captain, I want your men to scour every inch of the surrounding area until that child is found. And I want her unharmed!" Edmund demanded then turned back to Katrina. "One last chance." He jerked her bound wrists so that her face was mere inches from his. "Where. Is. She?' he ground out, deadly calm. Katrina smirked lightly, raising a sardonic eyebrow. With a snarl, Edmund dealt her a stinging backhand, the force of the blow driving her head to the side, and then he gave her wrists a violent shove so that she was once again sitting near her fire.
"Is that anyway to treat a future countess?" a voice rang over the camp, the commanding tone making men freeze and look around apprehensively. But Katrina had a different reaction; she closed her eyes for a moment and allowed the sound to wash over her. To her, that voice was the most wondrous sound she had ever heard.
Kipp stepped forward, his form materializing from the shadows. His officers were behind him, ranging themselves for swordplay, should the situation call for it.
--
Oooooo, I'm quite happy with how this one turned out. I had been waiting to write this last scene, or rather the last couple lines of the last scene (they were stuck I my head since nearly the very beginning), for at least 5 chapters now. But I had to get to it first.