An Officer but No Gentleman (9 page)

“How are my men?”

Charlie sobered instantly. All semblance of humor erased from her countenance as she made her report. “Of the five I treated
, four will soon return to duty.  The other, I’m afraid, I could do nothing, but ease his pain before he passed.  Jimmy, I believe his name was.” 

“My cousin,” Jaxon said, quietly.

“I’m sorry.  His injuries were beyond my scope of medicine.  I only trained to assist our doctor.  The British shanghaied….”

Jaxon interrupted her before she could tell him it was earlier in the day when they encountered the warship. “No one could have saved Jimmy.”

He turned to face her and she suddenly realized he held a blood-soaked cloth to his side. “You’re injured?”

He shrugged.  “It’s just a flesh wound
, but I can’t get it to stop bleeding.”

“Let me take a look,” Charlie said approaching him.  “Take off your shirt.”

From the looks of his clothing and the blood-soaked rag, Charlie realized the ship’s captain had lost quite a bit of blood.  He handed her the cloth and gingerly stripped to the waist.

Jaxon may have made light of it
, but it was more than a flesh wound.  “I caught some shrapnel when Jimmy’s gun misfired. The metal was protruding, so I pulled it out.”

She grabbed a lantern from its wall bracket and
lengthened the wick.  Instantly, the flame glowed brighter, flickering off the planes of his muscles, showing every ragged scar that had torn through his flesh.  She more closely examined his wound.  Quickly, she retrieved what she needed from the doctor’s bag.

“Do you have clean towels?  I want you to lie down on your bunk so I can stitch you up.”

He pointed toward one of the built in lockers and he sat on the edge of the bunk until she retrieved the towels.  She left them folded and placed one on the bed directly below the wound as she helped him lie down.  The other she rolled up and placed it against his side.

“This is going to be unpleasant,” she said. “Would you like some laudanum or morphine before I start?”

“No.”

“Alcohol?”

“No,” he said gruffly.  “Can’t you just cauterize it?  Wouldn’t that be faster?”

“It would also be much more painful.”

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves when she realized her hands trembled. What was wrong with her?  She didn’t shake like this when she treated the others.  Maybe she was the one who could use the drink.  Taking a deep breath, she threaded the needle with catgut and set it aside until she was ready for it.  She pulled the wound apart looking for any foreign particles or dirt that might be inside. 

“I see the problem.  You’ve severed a small blood vessel.”  Carefully, she tied off the bleeding end with catgut then washed out the wound with water
, then began sewing the wound closed.

He flinched with every stitch.  “You do that like a real blood-letter,” he bit out.  “It’s every bit as painful.”

Her eyes met his momentarily before returning to her task.  “I offered you laudanum.”

“I prefer not to take opium or drink for that matter.”  He had no intention of telling the young second officer about how he lost himself in opium and drink while recovering from his previous injuries.  The struggle to get back to being clear-headed was long and painful and one he didn’t care to repeat.  “You said you learned this from a doctor?” he said not really wanting to talk
, but needing a distraction from the needle invading his flesh repeatedly.

“When I was thirteen
, Dr. Kirk caught me looking at his anatomy books and thought I was showing an interest in medicine.”

“But, i
n truth you were just a snot-nosed kid trying to figure out the differences between boys and girls.”

Charlie could feel the heat in her face.  She had been trying to understand her menses and was too embarrassed to ask.  “Aye, something like that,” she said.  “The next thing I know, I’m helping him set bones and make poultices and eventually assist in surgeries—a regular loblolly boy.”

“But you’re the second mate not the surgeon’s mate?” Jaxon prompted, the conversation distracting him from his pain.

“I’m a jack-of-all-trades,” Charlie answered, too busy to notice the pun.  “My father brought me aboard when I was six.  As I’m sure you’re aware
, life at sea can get monotonous.  If I get an opportunity to learn something new, I try to learn it.  It’ll make me a better captain if I know as much as I can about every job on the ship. We had a Japanese cook for about three years.  He taught me how to fight.  It always surprises these big tars when I best them in a fight.  It’s true what they say; the big man has the strength, but the little man has the speed.  Yori taught me how to use a bigger man’s size against him.  Have you ever seen the Japanese fight?”

Charlie’s eyes darted to the captain’s face.  His eyes were
closed; his mouth was gritted against the pain.

“They call it karate,” Charlie continued as she began the last few stitches.  “I could make short shrift of putting you on the ground.”

The captain opened his eyes.  At Jaxon’s dubious expression Charlie said, “Perhaps someday our ships will meet again after you’re healed and I can demonstrate for you.” Charlie tied off the last suture.  “Have someone remove the stitches in about two weeks and you’ll be fine.”

“About that, under the circumstances, I’d like you to consider staying on.”

“Under the circumstances?”

Jaxon frowned.  Had no one told him?  “Your ship left without you.”

“That’s not funny.”

“I’m not the kind of man who tells jokes,” Jaxon said, gingerly pushing himself up to a sitting position.

She bit back the string of profanities that would have made the saltiest tar blush.  “How long ago?  We have to go after them.  You have to help me.”

His frown deepened.  “I don’t have to do anything. If they want you back, if this was just an oversight, they’ll come back for you. They have at least two hours on us.  The corsair’s mast was damaged so to put out a full set of sails would undoubtedly break its mast in two.  Besides, we’re going the other way.”

“After all I’ve done for you, you would let that cur abandon me?”

“Oh, I do admit I have ulterior motives.  Someone with your medical knowledge would be invaluable.”  Charlie stared at him in disbelief.  “I had actually thought about sailing off with you on board before they departed,” the captain continued as he rose to his feet.  “It seems to
me; we are all in agreement that you should stay here.”

Charlie’s mind began to frantically work.  It was one thing to get away with pretending to be male when she had every advantage her father could give her.  It was another to be on a strange ship.  She already felt panicky.  She had been suffering with a full bladder for an hour and could hardly go on deck to relieve herself over the side like the men did.

“I have to have my own cabin,” she demanded.

“No.  My officers and I are the only ones with our own quarters.  The rest are in the fo’c’sle and steerage.”

“I have earned my rank.”

Jaxon raised a questioning brow.

“So has my second mate.  What would you have me do, demote my blower and give you the job?  No, you’ll have to prove yourself before I would promote you.  My men would never blindly follow some pubescent fledgling officer.”
              “I am hardly a fledgling,” she said as forcefully as she did when she gave and order. “As I said, I have lived on that ship since I was six.  I’ve worked my way up through the ranks in my sixteen years aboard.  The starboard watch ran tighter than the mate’s.  My men knew not to dawdle because they knew I would brook no insubordination.  I am not a cruel man, but I have seen what happens when the blower tries to befriend the crew.  Our captain….”

“Your captain left you here.”

“Our captain was killed this morning when an English warship fired on us.  That man is no more captain than the rats in the hold.  I should have forced the issue and usurped his authority.”

“You know that is mutiny you speak of,” Jaxon Bloodworthy said in a slow, measured tone.

Charlie weighed her words carefully before she spoke.  If she told him her father owned the ship, he would think she owed her position solely to nepotism.

“I did not force the issue because I know I’m not ready for the captaincy
, but if I had, I would have had the crews’ support and loyalty.”  A week ago, she could have made that statement knowing it was completely true.  Now she wasn’t sure.  However, she was half owner and she could do whatever she felt was in the best interest of the ship.

They had gotten off the subject.  She had to have her own cabin.

She looked him in the eye and held his gaze.  He was the captain, but she knew she would have to become more informal with him than ship’s protocol condoned.  Jaxon turned, breaking eye contact with Charlie.

“It really makes you uncomfortable to have me look you in the eyes.”

“The people who look me in the face only do it so they can stare at my scars.  Most people just look at the floor when I talk to them.”

“Over that razor nick?” she asked lightly.  “Here, look at this scar.”

Charlie removed her uniform coat, unbuttoned her shirt sleeve cuff and showed him the burn she had suffered as a tot.  “My clothes caught fire when I was five years old—my arm, my torso.”  The lie had served her well in the past and she was going to use it to her advantage now, only this time the lie was going to be bigger.

“I’m not…whole.”  She gave him a moment to understand what she meant.  “I’ll never father a child.”

The look of shock on his face almost made her crack a smile.  She rubbed the back of her crooked fingers on her cheek.  “I can’t grow a beard,” she said dropping her hand.  “Nor will my voice deepen.  That is why I need my own cabin.”

Silently, Charlie congratulated herself.  No longer would she have to pretend to shave or pay a barmaid for her silence.

“That explains why, when I first saw you I thought you were a wench.” Jax winced realizing that wasn’t what a young man wanted to hear.  “Uh, from a distance of course.  Up close, I would never make that mistake.  I think I may need spectacles soon.”

Charlie turned around repacking the doctor’s bag to keep him from seeing her expression.  He had thought she looked like a girl.  Although it amused her to see him flustered, it also scared her to know how close he was to her secret.

Jaxon now understood why the young man did not shy away from his scars like other people. Charlie’s disfigurement although mostly hidden, was worse than Jaxon’s. He actually felt sorry for him.
Criminy! Gelded by fire
. Charlie was right; he couldn’t sleep with the other men. But Jaxon already had two sets of officers, one for his ship and one to be in charge of their captured prizes. As it was, they didn’t have cabins for everyone.

“I’m not going to kick one of my men out,” he said.  “I’ll have the carpenter put a hammock in here and we’ll share my cabin for now.  I’ll leave when you need privacy.”

A knock at the door drew Jaxon’s attention.  He stepped out into the passageway to speak with his brother, Daniel, first mate of
The Dragon’s Lair
.

“We have sails in pursuit.  It looks to be the loblolly boy’s ship, coming back for him.”

“I think I’d like to keep young Charlie with us,” he said pressing his hand to his wound.  “Charlie and Jimmy are about the same size wouldn’t you say.”

“I’d say Jimmy’s a bit stouter.”

“Bloating….”  Jaxon met his brother’s gaze.  One corner of his mouth lifted.  “Take a couple of men with you in case Charlie gives you trouble.  Strip him, put his clothes on Jimmy then send his body to the corsair to give the corpse to his ship.  Tell them he wanted to learn to shoot and it misfired killing him.  Meanwhile, we go back without the corsair slowing us down.  There is no way for that merchant ship to keep up with
The Dragon’s Lair
.”

8

The three men stood outside the door in the cramped corridor eyeing each other.  The largest of the three sported a black eye that was rapidly swelling shut.  The youngest man rubbed his jaw, opening and closing his mouth to test the hinge.  And the third alternately was rubbing his left shoulder and his ribs.

Suddenly, the three broke out into laughter.

“Oh, please, you have to let me tell him.  I’ve got to see his face when he finds out,” Daniel choked out, his eye barely open.

“Are you mad?  Do you want everyone to know a woman gave you that black eye?  I think we should keep this to ourselves,” Romy said.

Daniel flashed a quick dimpled grin.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’m sure my baby brother here head-butted me in the melee.  I only pretended to get kicked in the face.”  He mussed his brother’s hair affectionately.  “Damn, have you ever seen anything like that?”

Levi pushed his brother’s hand aside.  “All I know is I’m in love.  I lay my claim to her.”

Daniel shoved him into the wall.  “Tis not as though she would be interested in a boy too young to grow a real beard.”

Romy held out the clothes they took off of Charlie.  “So what are we supposed to do with these?”

Daniel sobered instantly.  He guided the men down the passageway and up onto the deck before he spoke.  He didn’t want Charlie over-hearing through the door.  “Our cousin Jimmy died—“ 

“Oh, God, man, I hadn’t heard.  I’m sorry,” Romy cut in quickly.

“I think Jaxon is going to pass off Jimmy’s body as Charlie.”

“He what!”  Levi hadn’t known why they were getting Charlie’s clothes.

“Look, Levi, we are too far out to take him home to the family plot.  He’s going to be buried at sea no matter who does it.  If it was you who died, wouldn’t you want to help the ship?  We need Charlie and his—her medical knowledge.  Quincy might still be alive if Charlie had been aboard a month ago.” 

Levi nodded remembering how Quincy had died from a festering cut on his foot.

“Jaxon promised me if Charlie wanted to leave when we got to shore, he would pay him and let him go.  I don’t think this changes anything.”

Jaxon Bloodworthy stood on the quarterdeck of
The Dragon’s Lair
and watched as his cousin’s body was taken by rowboat to the French corsair.  The body had been dressed in Charlie’s clothing and sewn into a burial shroud.  He was disgusted with himself over it.  He hoped the crew of the
Arcadia
would treat the body reverently, but that was not the crux of his self-loathing.  He was no better than the English.  Jax tried to convince himself that because the
Arcadia
had left without Charlie if they had he sailed immediately; he would have never known Charlie’s ship had come back for him.  He knew he should tell Charlie, let him decide for himself, but he just didn’t want to risk it.

As soon as his crew climbed back aboard
The Dragon’s Lair
, Jaxon gave the order to set sail.  He wondered if the
Arcadia’s
crew would believe the story they concocted.  Jaxon had seen the body and knew Jimmy was unrecognizable. 

Before the evening meal, they would have a memorial service for Jimmy.  This was part of his job that he hated.  Hopefully, having Charlie aboard would prevent this from happening again
, but did the ends justify the means?

Jax watched in the spyglass as the sta
tionary corsair disappeared beyond the horizon.

“What do you want, Daniel?” Jaxon growled, not turning around.  He recognized the sound of Daniel’s footsteps.  “I take it you had no problems getting Charlie’s clothes from him?”

“Actually, he put up quite a fight, which you would know if you turned around and looked at me,” Daniel said, his eye little more than a slit.

Jaxon looked over his shoulder at his brother before turning around and chuckling.  “I should have warned you.  He said he could handle himself in a fight
, but I thought he was just boasting.  He did that to you?”

“Charlie
kicked
me in the face.”

“Kicked you?”

“Swear to you, kicked me.”

“Were you on the ground?”

“I was standing and I’m quite a bit taller than
Mr
. Sinclair.”

“Hardly seems sporting,” Jaxon drawled looking disinterested.

“Neither is three against one,” Daniel conceded as he moved closer to his brother, scanning the horizon for Charlie’s ship.

“True,” he said, nodding.

“But I’m not sure your plan is going to work.  There’s a bit of a snag.”

“Are you talking about his burns?  He said they’re pretty extensive
, but they’re hidden under his clothes.  You don’t think they would strip a corpse to check his identity?”

“Burns?  Is that what Charlie told you?”  Daniel couldn’t keep a straight face.  “Charlie’s got a secret
, but it’s not burns.”

Jaxon could see Daniel’s inappropriate reaction and he didn’t like it.  This kind of infirmity was not funny.

“Aye, I know.  He didn’t come right out and tell me, but he implied that he’s….” Jaxon didn’t want to break Sinclair’s confidence, but it was obvious that Daniel already knew.  He lowered his voice.  No reason the whole ship should know. “…That he’s a eunuch.”

Daniel didn’t even attempt to hide his smile.  This was so much more fun than he had anticipated.  “Is that what Charlie told you?”

“It’s not true?”

“It’s not true.”

“Sinclair is
not
a eunuch?”

“No, not a eunuch,” Daniel said shaking his head, a crooked smile forcing only one dimple to the surface.

“So he does, you know, have all his…parts.”  Jaxon was beginning to lose his temper.  “That son-of-a-bitch lied to me so I’d give him his own cabin.”

“Well, yes and no,” Daniel hedged.  “Charlie didn’t lie to you if he told you he had no testicles.  That part is true.”

“Do you not understand what a eunuch is?  It’s a man with no testicles?”

“Right.  Charlie is not a eunuch because to be a eunuch you have to first be a man.  My dear, dense brother, Charlie is not a man.  She’s a woman.”

Jaxon Bloodworthy had such a perplexed look on his face that Daniel laughed.  His whole body shook with guffaws that started in his belly and exploded out of his mouth like water from a whale’s spout.

“Charlie, the junior officer from the
Arcadia
, is not a man?”

“Do you think her shipmates will notice if we send Jimmy’s body?”

Daniel’s laughter followed him halfway across the ship.  His strides were as long as his uneven gait could accommodate.  That had been his first instinct when he saw her and yet it was so farfetched he dismissed the idea immediately.  Jaxon cursed under his breath.  How had it seemed more plausible to him that Charlie was a eunuch than a woman?