Chapter Twenty-One

Those Blasted Apparitions!

"You! Again!" Daniel groaned as he stalked up to Applegate, glaring at the cringing ghost. "Why?"

He jerked his face away from Elroy's sudden gusty sigh of bad breath. Drawing back, he looked his crewman up and down with deep disgust. "By the Great Horned Spoon, I cannot believe it! Of all the spirits we could have encountered here!"

In the distance, thunder began to rumble and a flash of lightning cut across the sky. Beneath his Captain's exasperated gaze, the quivering apparition cast a harried look over his shoulder.

"Oh, please don't be mad at me, Captain, Sir!" Applegate gasped, still holding his shaky salute. "Able Seaman Fourth Class Elroy Applegate requesting your permission to come aboard, Sir. I'm so sorry, Sir. Honest! If you please, Sir."

"Well, I do not please!" Daniel glared at him. "You have no business here! Go away immediately!" He waved a dismissing hand in Applegate's face as the storm outside intensified.

"Oh, but, Sir…" Applegate wheedled, beginning a little two-step dance of agitation. "Please, let us stay. You see, me and Mr Peabody, here…" He waved his free hand at the cat. "We've been ever so very lonely without no one to haunt. It's been so quiet around here since the last humans ran away screaming."

His pleading gaze shifted toward Carolyn. "Please, my Captain's pretty lady, can't we stay with you? We can be real quiet. Honest. Quieter than mice. You'll never know we're even here. But, see, we don't have nowhere else to go."

"Well, I don't know…" Carolyn's questioning gaze shifted to her husband. She was trying not to laugh at the comical scene and his deeply frustrated expression. "I mean, I was once nominated as the leader of the ghost pack. I'm really not sure what to say."

She frowned, seeing no easy escape because she was too tender-hearted to hurt Applegate's obviously sensitive feelings. He looked as if he was about to burst into tears or pass out. "I really do think it's up to the Captain…"

Three pairs of pleading eyes turned toward Daniel where he was standing in the open doorway. He folded his arms as he sighed brusquely, shaking his head in slow disbelief at the sudden turn of events that had somehow escaped his iron control.

The storm outside continued to rumble and bluster, making Applegate jump and shudder. "I promise we will be no trouble at all, Sir…"

"I do not believe it…" Daniel sighed in defeat. "A whole weekend of being alone together down the bilge. Blast…" he muttered with real feeling.

Outside the storm dwindled into silence. The whole world seemed to be holding its breath.

Daniel looked from his wife to his erstwhile crewman, ignoring the cat. There was no help in Carolyn's green eyes, just a look of helpless appeal that he couldn't ignore. He was aware she had no real idea of what she was asking.

Watching him, Applegate whimpered, still shifting from one foot to the other in agitation, but managing to hold his shaky salute. He tried a weak smile.

"Oh, at ease, you blithering bilge-blister!" Daniel finally bellowed in deep exasperation. "God give me strength! I don't have the time or the patience to deal with blasted apparitions who don't know their place in the world!"

"Yes, Sir. Oh, thank you, Sir…" Elroy dropped his arm with a grateful sigh.

He turned to Carolyn, spreading his arms wide as if he was about to hug her. "And thank you, my Captain's pretty lady. I just knew you were a good 'un."

He threw his arms around his own body, performing a little jig of delight. The cat sat and stared up at him as if his master had finally lost his mind.

"Do not get too comfortable," Daniel warned, shaking a warning forefinger. "You're only here on sufferance. Until we get the truth out of your miserable hide."

He stopped and frowned. "Why are you here at all, anyway? What happened to that nice, little cottage you had all picked out? That perfect, happy haunting ground you told us about last time? You said you would be content there."

"Um…" Applegate swallowed tightly, looking suddenly very guilty and ill-at-ease. "Ah, you see, it… ah, well, it kinda burned down one night."

He shuddered. "Me and Mr Peabody were lucky to make it out with our hides intact. It was so awful. We both could've been burned alive."

He stopped, frowning. "Well, burned dead, anyway. Same thing, I guess." He shook his head.

"Let me understand you…" Daniel groaned as he passed a weary hand over his eyes. "You burned the cottage down."

"Well, yes… in a way… I guess…" Applegate squirmed. "But, it wasn't my fault! You see, it would've been all right if Mr Peabody hadn't been scared up the curtains by that big, nasty, vicious dog my humans brought into the house. And if I hadn't knocked over that oil lamp while I was trying to rescue him from a fate worse than death…"

"Another scaredy-cat." Daniel frowned down at the feline who sat glaring back at him. "I might have known."

He shook his head. "You're both forgetting you're already dead. You cannot be burned alive. Much as the idea appeals greatly."

"Well, yes, I know that now. But it wasn't Mr Peabody's fault," Applegate defended his ghostly companion. "It was that dog's. Mr Peabody doesn't like dogs."

"No animal, however big and mean, can harm a spirit," Daniel pointed out levelly. "No matter how cringing and cowardly. I thought we had trained you to be scary so you wouldn't come back again."

"Yes, well, I know… But you trained me to not be scared of peoples, not dogs…" Applegate sighed. "Mr Peabody was so terrified. If I didn't try to save him, I was afraid he might leave me completely. I couldn't go back to wandering all alone and friendless. I just couldn't!" He wrung his hands in agitation.

"I understand. You were always afraid of being all alone. Right, Elroy?" Carolyn sympathised.

"Oh, Madam, please do not encourage him!" Daniel commanded. "He is nothing more than a quivering blancmange! When he fell overboard I doubted the sharks would have touched his sorry carcass! Tripping over his swab was an act of monumental kindness to all mankind."

"And you!" He turned back to Applegate. "Belay that cursed whining in front of a woman. Have you no pride, man?"

"No, Sir. I mean, yes, Sir…" Applegate began to shake even more. "I don't care what you think of me, Sir. Just don't send me away again, please. I don't wanna be alone. It took me over a hundred years to find you the first time."

He scuttled away to stand beside Carolyn. "As soon I saw it was you, I knew you would understand, my Captain's pretty lady. Please don't let him banish me again."

Daniel stalked after him. "The lady's name is Mrs Muir. You would do well to remember that and the respect you owe to her for helping you the last time we had the displeasure of your noisome company."

"Aye, aye, Sir!" Applegate stiffened and saluted haphazardly again.

"Daniel, he's really quite harmless…" Carolyn put in, doing her best not to laugh. "And he was one of your crew."

"Harmless, maybe…" Her husband shook his head. "But a menace to your life and limb he most certainly is. I will not tolerate having him around us in this cabin. If he's already burned one house down."

He turned back to Applegate. "I don't believe I'm even considering this. For tonight, you and your wretched pet will confine yourselves to the other cabin. That's an order! You will follow it to the letter!"

Daniel stalked around his erstwhile crewman with his hands behind his back. "You will not come over to this cabin unless it is at my express command and bidding. Think yourself very lucky I do not banish you forever. We will deal with what is to become of you in the morning."

Applegate stood speechless, tears glistening on his cheeks. The cat mewed in confusion.

Daniel stopped walking to snap, "Is that understood, you blasted dunderhead!?"

"Aye, aye, Sir! Understood, Sir! Yes, Sir!" Applegate jumped, his hand shooting up and down a few times in a series of terrified salutes.

"Good. Then you have my permission to shove off and leave us in peace. If I so much as smell you before morning I will keel-haul you and feed your miserable carcass to the crows!"

"Oh, I… No… no…" Applegate's worried gaze slid sideways to Carolyn and he began to whimper again. "Yes, Sir…"

He moved uneasily from foot to foot. Mr Peabody inhibited him by moving anxiously around his ankles.

"What's the matter, Elroy?" Carolyn asked sympathetically.

"Leave him to stew, Madam," Daniel warned. "He's only playing on your feminine sympathies. He needs a firm hand and a sharp word to straighten him out. The miserable barnacle always did. I distinctly remember he gave his solemn promise that if we helped him with his fear of humans he would never bother us again. Right now, I am both bothered and annoyed!"

"Oh, but, just look at him. He looks like he needs our help again," Carolyn countered sweetly. "It's just like the last time."

She walked to a nearby couch and threw the covers back. Sitting down, she patted the seat beside her. "Come and sit here and tell your den mother all about it."

"Oh, that's right…" Applegate hurried forward eagerly to seat himself beside her. "You are our den mother." He gave Daniel a small look of triumph.

Mr Peabody stalked over to jump up onto the back of the couch where he patrolled from one end to the other, still mewling his discontent. He cast Daniel a look of dislike.

Daniel glared back at the feline. He frowned at their unwanted visitors with a look of utter disgust on his face. But he knew the decision had been taken from his hands. He kicked the door shut with the heel of his left boot before walking over to the empty fireplace. He began to lay paper and kindling to light the fire to warm the chill from the cabin's stone walls.

"You see…" Elroy wrung his hands together. "I used to think it was only peoples I was afraid of." He sniffed dolefully. "Now I know I can handle being around peoples. It's being all alone I'm afraid of, now." He sniffed. "I died alone…"

He stared at Carolyn; his gaze pitiful. "If it hadn't been for Mr Peabody…"

"But you scared away everyone who came to holiday in this camp," Carolyn replied reasonably. "You made yourself lonely."

"Well, yeah. I kinda got used to scaring people," Applegate admitted. "It was fun. And they always came back for more. My peoples back at my cottage, they didn't seem to mind. Me and Mr Peabody got on fine with them. A little scare here or there now and then. Mr Peabody does a nice line in disembodied howling."

Daniel regarded him with resignation. "If you were so happy there, how did you end up here after the cottage burned down?"

Applegate brightened. "Oh, that's easy. Mr Peabody lived here for years when he was alive. But, after he died, he got so lonely when his own peoples died too and the place got sold to strangers he didn't like. He did try to stay and scare the new ones but it wasn't the same. His heart wasn't in it. So, he wandered around until he found me in my snug, little cottage."

Carolyn frowned at him. "So why are you afraid to be alone if you have Mr Peabody to keep you company?"

Applegate blinked at her in confusion. "Because he's just a cat," he replied reasonably. "He don't talk much. I miss hearing peoples talking. I liked to listen. Made me feel as if I had a family all my own."

He glanced at Daniel. "Just like the Captain has you for his family."

"Well, don't get too comfortable with that thought," Daniel warned, setting a match to his assemblage of paper and kindling. "We are not your family. There's only room for one spirit in my house!"

"Well, you were his captain, Captain," Carolyn pointed out reasonably. "He does have some call on your patience."

Daniel straightened to regard her with exasperation. "That's as may be, my dear. But I was not, and never will be, his blasted babysitter!"

"Yes, Sir, thank you, Sir…" Applegate saluted miserably. "I know that, Sir."

He looked back at Carolyn. "You see, I never had no family. I was born an orphan cause my mother died then. And I was made to be a cabin boy before I was six." He sniffed. "But, I always got seasick."

"That does sound rather harsh, even for those times," Carolyn sympathised.

"Balderdash," Daniel told her roundly. "I first went to sea, the very day I turned ten years of age. It did me a world of good to learn discipline and the way of orderly living. It's stood me in good stead for all the years."

"But you were not Elroy Applegate," his wife pointed out quietly.

"Thank God for that small mercy." Daniel shrugged brusquely, turning back to his fire, stirring it into brisk life with the poker. "Well, there's one thing. It seems the chimney works. It's drawing nicely."

"Oh yes," Applegate brightened happily. "I made sure I kept everything ship-shape and in the best Bristol fashion. Just like you taught me to, Sir. Your ship was the best!"

"I don't believe it…" Daniel stared at him in consternation. "In the three years, you were aboard my ship I couldn't even teach you how to swab a deck properly. Now you're telling me you have maintained this camp in a reasonable fashion without any orders or advice about what to do and how to do it."

"Well, you see, I learned 'cause I wanted my peoples to come back." Applegate shrugged. "I thought if I made it all nice and tidy, they would. I never expected my Captain and his pretty lady would be my new peoples."

"We are not your peoples!" Daniel drew himself up to his full height before shaking his head in disgust. "I mean, people! Oh, and belay that whimpering, you spineless jellyfish!"

"You don't want to be my peoples?" Applegate's bottom lip quivered despite the command. "Oh, but I want you to be my peoples. I promise I will abide by all of your commands, my captain, Sir. Just give me a chance to prove myself. I can follow orders."

"This is getting us nowhere…" Daniel threw his arms wide. "You will begone to the other cabin right now and I don't want to hear another word out of either of you!"

He glared at the cat who stared right back at him. "Or I will make sure you become the loneliest ghost for all eternity!"

"Oh, no. Don't do that, Sir. Please, Sir!" Applegate jumped up quickly, his chin lowered toward his chest. "I'm going. I guess I'll see you both in the morning then…"

He trudged toward the door, sighing deeply. Carolyn made to get up from the couch but her husband's quick hand on her shoulder restrained her.

"If you give in to him now he will be here all night, whining and snivelling. Do you truly wish for that to happen?" he asked.

"I…" Carolyn frowned worriedly. "No, I guess not." She sighed.

"Then let him go. They'll be fine. You'll see. There is no such thing as a cowardly ghost. I proved that."

"Good night, Sir and Lady…" Applegate paused before the closed door, casting a sorrowful look back over his shoulder at the cosy room and its cheery fire.

Mr Peabody followed him, giving a plaintive wail that sounded like a question. "I don't know…" Applegate suddenly frowned.

"Ah…" He looked back at the pair beside the fire. "Mr Peabody wants to know, why are you here? I mean, together. A lady human and a ghost. Shouldn't be."

"I… well…" Daniel ran a frustrated hand up and around the back of his neck, unsure of his answer.

Their recent marriage wasn't a secret in the world of spirits. But he disliked giving Applegate any information that could detain him longer while he puzzled over it all. In life, the man had not been known for his grasp of complicated circumstances. The ghost would be no different. He would want to stay, worrying as he tried to unravel every detail.

"Yes, um, well… The Captain and I…" Carolyn shook her head. Then a portion of the truth occurred to her. "We came here because we wanted to test the limits of his powers. To see just how far he could travel."

"But my Captain is a super spirit," Applegate puzzled over their answers. "He can go anywhere, do anything. Right, my Captain?"

"Get you gone, before I change my mind about allowing you to stay!" Daniel barked in frustration.

"All right, all right. I'm going, I'm going…" Applegate sighed, bending down to pick up the cat sitting at his feet.

"Good night…" He sighed again, waving a weak hand at Carolyn.

"Go on…" Daniel encouraged. "We will talk again in the morning. You will await my summons or it'll be the worse for you."

"Oh, very well…" Applegate exhaled deeply as he slowly and haphazardly dematerialised, whimpering as he went.

Looking back at them over Applegate's shoulder, the cat also vanished slowly. The last thing to disappear was its feline stare of discontent.

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Carolyn lay watching the sunlight rising through the trees beyond the cabin's un-curtained windows. She sighed as she rested with her back smug and warm against Daniel's chest, his arm thrown across her body in the casual possession of sleep.

Not that they had done much sleeping until the early hours of the morning. The main bedroom had revealed a four-poster bed that was wide, soft and deep. They didn't bother with the sheets Martha had packed. They had shaken out the thick patchwork quilt from the foot of the bed before falling onto the mattress together and pulling the cover up over themselves.

Despite the distraction of an errant ghost and his feline companion in the other cabin, they had made good use of their first night of being completely alone together. Sleeping had been the last thing on both their minds.

Now that the daylight had fully arrived, Carolyn didn't want to move. She wished she could stay this way forever with her love and shut out all the cares and trials of the world that would never understand.

But she knew that was impossible. Besides, the growing demands of her empty stomach were starting to assert themselves audibly.

"Hungry?" Daniel awoke to kiss her cheek before he stretched his body lazily. "For food, I mean…"

He pulled her closer to him, moulding every inch of her body against his with the flat of his roaming hand. "From those sounds of complaint, I know you must be, but I don't want to get up just yet…"

"Ah ha…" Carolyn smiled as her protesting tummy rumbled again. "I think we forgot to eat last night."

"You forgot to eat…" Daniel countered with an intimate laugh. "When I mentioned preparing us some food, you said you had other, more pressing, things on your mind."

"Yes… Well, this is supposed to be our honeymoon…" Carolyn's cheeks warmed as she moved against him. "But I doubt I'll be able to look at that bearskin rug before the fire in quite the same way again."

"Nor will I…" Daniel agreed, rolling her over to face him. "I never knew my love could be quite that adventurous. It was a revelation." He kissed the tip of her nose.

"I seem to remember there was a lot of impatience on your part, too," Carolyn teased, her fingertips doing a slow march up his chest toward his smiling mouth. "I believe it was you who said, 'who needs to eat?'"

She laughed as she stretched up to kiss him, long and slow, wrapping herself around him once more. Daniel responded in kind and for a long time, there was silence in the bedroom.

When they finally fell apart once more both were short of breath and low on strength. Carolyn nestled close against his side, her cheek on his chest. "I love you," she whispered. "We don't have to get up just yet if you don't want to…"

"I love you, too…" Daniel sighed as he smoothed his palm over her flushed cheek. "But if we don't appear soon, that blasted Applegate will pounce on us the moment we step from this room. If we were truly alone we could have some breakfast and then go for a walk. I am keen to look that boat over. See if it's seaworthy. It would be ideal for teaching the children to sail in the summertime."

"Poor Applegate…" Carolyn sighed. "He is so desperate to find himself a new home and some new peoples."

"Well, he is not about to have us as his new people. I refuse to play his foolish games. That craven ninny is a menace to both life and limb. He can find somewhere else to haunt."

Carolyn stroked his chest. "But he did manage to maintain this camp rather well. That must have taken some doing. Maybe he has learned his lesson."

"Yes, maybe. I'm still at a loss to know how."

"Perhaps you taught him better than you knew. He's very keen to make amends for all the trouble he's caused you in the last hundred years."

"He is also very capable of burning the place down around us if he gets distracted from his task at hand," Daniel replied hardly. "I told you how he tripped over his swab and fell over the side of my ship. He was watching the gulls diving for fish. He wandered to the side of the ship and fell over. I had never met a more incompetent seaman."

"Then we'd better take out a good insurance policy…" Carolyn shook her head as she sat up reluctantly. "We do need to make a move. We only have one more day before we must drive back to Gull Cottage."

"Back into that infernal machine…" Daniel shook his head as he swung his legs over the side of the mattress and stood up. "Something to look forward to, I suppose."

"There are other things to look forward to before then," Carolyn countered, getting up to walk to him.

Daniel looked down at her with sensual intent. "I do believe you mentioned that there are two other bedrooms in this cabin..."

"Why, Captain Gregg…" Carolyn brushed the length of his forearm with the back of her hand. "Whatever could you be suggesting?"

"Oh, I don't know…" Daniel drew her against him, moving his lips against the side of her neck toward her ear with the intent of telling her.

But, whatever he had been about to suggest, was suddenly stymied by the sound of a cat's plaintive wail coming from the living room and the noise of an opening door. Slow footsteps could be heard shuffling across the main living area.

"Um, Captain, Sir…" a hesitant voice called, sounding just as melancholy as the cat. "Are you awake, Sir? We did like you asked and stayed in the other cabin all night. But the morning watch is near gone and you always used to be up on deck before the last bell."

"Blast…" Daniel muttered with feeling.

An undercurrent of pride strengthened Applegate's hesitant tone. "You know you always said I was to awaken you if you wasn't already abroad. Remember your orders, Sir? I try to follow them to the letter. Honest, I do."

"Those blasted apparitions…" Daniel rested his forehead against Carolyn's and his gusty sigh of discontent blended with hers. "Why can't they just stay where they were put? I did try to warn you about indulging him…"

"Yes, you did…" Carolyn trembled with laughter as she stepped back, turning away to find her clothing. "I guess we will just have to make the best of it. He is lonely and harmless."

"The children have more sense than that cowardly codfish!" Daniel grumbled as he reached for his discarded clothing. "He is no more than a mewling baby but harmless he is not!"

"Shhh, he'll hear you," Carolyn whispered urgently as she danced around on one foot trying to put on the fresh underwear she'd pulled from her overnight bag.

"Let him!" her husband fired back as he dragged his sweater over his head. "He needs to hear the whole truth before he's very much older!"

Carolyn sat down on the side of the bed to put on her slacks and shoes. "But he is trying very hard to be helpful. You could cut him some slack just this once."

"I'll give him just enough slack so I may have the pleasure of keelhauling him the first time he fails in any one of his self-appointed duties," Daniel grumbled, as he finished dressing and then waited for her to brush her hair in the mirror before they left the bedroom together.

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