Phileas woke up from a fogged haze hearing voices. The room was moving. Someone was calling his name. He pulled himself to consciousness, following the sound of the voice. It was a woman's voice. "Rebecca?"
"Phileas," the voice spoke again.
Not Rebecca, someone else.
His sight cleared from center to edges. He looked up into the intent gaze of a lady. She had a wet cloth on his face. She was sitting on the edge of a cot he was lying on. Phileas tried to sit up, only to have his head explode for the doing.
"Where are we?"
"We are on a ship; I don't know what heading. It's night," Katharine said. "I woke a few hours ago to find you here on this cot. The headache clears. Was Andrew with you when you were taken?"
"He isn't with us?" Despite the pain, he forced himself to a sitting position, gently evicting her from his cot to do so. Katharine moved to a cot on the other side of the room.
Why are we in the same room? The League knows she is married. If the intention was to separate the Earl from his wife, to hold her unknown safety over him, should she not be in a cabin by herself? Even the League should understand proprieties at this level.
"Yes, he was with me," Phileas said. "We were taken together."
"I have asked the one who brought me water. He wouldn't answer my questions. I haven't heard anything outside the door. It's locked," Katharine said unnecessarily.
Even to her own ears, she sounded frightened. She had reason to be, but her emotional state was more on the lines of anger. She had been furious when she first woke. Abducted, dropped in a box, and secreted off to a ship. That was enough to be angered about. But she was also without her husband, and Phileas Fogg seemed intended to be her roommate. That was totally out of order.
Katharine didn't know how long this voyage would take, but her captors hadn't had the decency to bring the trunk of her belongings. If they had, they had not brought it to her. She didn't know what to make of this. Hoping Phileas wasn't as in the dark, she waited quietly for him to come fully to himself.
The pain went away. He rose to take a moving measure of his surroundings. There was a small table on his side of the room with a basin of water and a half-filled pitcher. There were two glasses. The room was eight by six feet, large enough to house the two cots, the table and have a space for him to pace in. If they both stood, they would have to give each other way. As it was, Phileas had to maneuver carefully so as not to step on the lady's skirts.
A small lavatory was found off her side of the room behind a light door. It boasted only a sink, a water closet, and a few towels. There was one porthole. It was too small to do more than stand or sit in. Light came from a lantern hanging from the ceiling. It was burning low. Katharine was watching his examination of the room. She no doubt had already done the same thing. He sat down again and asked her how she was taken.
Katharine told him of the two men who came to her room and the fight with her parasol. He kept a near straight face. She saw it and grinned a bit in retrospect. Phileas looked off, trying not to embarrass her. "You attacked them with a parasol?"
Katharine said, "The boys taught me to fence with a cane. I wanted to learn to fence along with Andrew and James, but this father wouldn't allow it. They later had a special parasol made for me to approximate a practice sword. I'm evidently out of practice."
Phileas had recollections of Erasmus teaching Rebecca the same way. Her parasols, when she carried one, had metal tips. When twisted a certain way, they unsheathed short swords. Somehow it never occurred to him other women were taught to consider a parasol a weapon.
"We were led to your rooms and overcome," Phileas said without elaboration.
Details weren't necessary. Considering what Katharine knew of Phileas's background and the strength and skill Andrew possessed. It must have been quite a fight. "Who are these people?" she said. "What do they want with us?"
Phileas didn't offer more than the who with base explanations. He wasn't sure yet what the League could want of her merchant ship and didn't want to alarm her with suspicions. Their intended targets had been Katharine and the captain in the beginning. Now, they want Katharine and her husband. I was an unexpected bonus. What could they have done to get the League's attention? Is there a connection with the pirate?
A key turned in the door and two men in League uniforms came in. One held a gun. The other put two trays of food on the table after removing the basin of water. The pitcher was refilled. They were left to their meal without a word. There were no chairs, so Katharine moved her cot closer to the table and sat on that.
"Water?" she said, as if she were serving in her own parlor.
"Please, thank you," Phileas said.
She poured drinks for them both. They ate in silence over the small table.
Twenty minutes later, the same two men came for the trays and left without a word.
After eating, Phileas discovered his watch was missing. He assumed it to be late. Katharine excused herself into the lavatory. She came out again, carrying her hoops and petticoats. She stuffed the petticoats under the cot, and the hoops behind her cot against the wall. With that, she bid him goodnight and laid down on the cot facing the wall.
Phileas followed her lead. He turned off the lamp, removed his coat and vest, and laid down. In the darkened silence, he thought of Rebecca and Verne back in Egypt. They would know of his capture by now. Rebecca had been depending on his contacts in the Middle East to help with her mission. He hadn't given her the information yet. She would still have the Aurora and Passepartout's help. That would allow her to track him down. He still didn't understand why the earl wasn't with them. After a time, rolling the situation in his mind, he slept.