Beyond Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

head as it carried her down into the eternal depths; free at last.
    But then, she reminded herself, her uncle would win. She had come too far and borne too much to give him that victory. There was no option but to endure.
    She lifted her head and turned as the captain stepped through the doorway.
    “God in heaven! Who did this to you?” he slammed his fist hard against the bulkhead.
    “It was entirely my fault. I fell,” she said.
    “Do you take me for a fool? I want their names. I won’t have you hurt. Do you hear me?” His voice faltered with his last words.
    She started at the betrayal of his previously well-hidden feelings for her. There had been occasions over the past weeks when the captain had held her gaze overlong, or brushed her hand as he reached for an object. She had begun to suspect his interest had gone beyond that of a friendship. However, she had given him no encouragement and so he had never spoken of his attraction.
    “Please captain, you know any punishment will make it worse for me.” She reached for his arm. He shook her away but his eyes told her he understood. “You can’t save me from this. I have to earn my place according to their rules.”
    Her eyes followed his rigid back as he strode to the other side of the room. He faced the window and growled, “Any further injuries and they will be flogged. I have my limits.”
    • • •
    For reasons she could not divine, since the attack, the overt hostility of the women had shifted to small jibes or indifference. Perhaps in the fight she had acquitted herself to their satisfaction. Or more likely, as there had been no repercussions, they knew she had not exposed them to the captain. It didn’t matter why: she was grateful nonetheless.
    One day as she hurried to the quarterdeck, she stopped in mid-stride as a loud rip sounded from her skirt. She bent down to free the fabric from a nail that protruded from a large wooden crate. As Electra straightened, she spied Critchley trudging toward her and crouched behind the crate until he passed. He and another seaman stopped feet away to check the bowlines on the mainmast.
    Critchley hiked up his breeches and wiped spittle off his mouth, then turned to the small, ferret-faced man beside him. “That one, the duchess, thinks she’s a bit good, eh Sneed?”
    Her breath caught; they could only mean her.
    Sneed giggled. “Out o’ your league, Critchley. Cor, even the whores down the docks won’t let yer near ’em. Not after yer roughed that ’un up an’ all.”
    “Shut up yer whoreson. The slattern wouldn’t put up a struggle, she lay there all open like. They knows I likes ‘em ter fight a bit.” He slapped Sneed on the back. “That ’un would fight though. Yar, I’d like ter break that ’un. Pity she’s the captain’s whore.”
    Revulsion overcame fear; she jumped up from her hiding place and ran toward the captain’s cabin.
    Critchley cackled and yelled, “Yer can run but yer ain’t goin’ ter escape what I got for yer.”
    She slammed the door shut and stood against it, desperate to put a barrier between herself and the vile seaman. Her heart hammered her chest and she had to fight to draw breath. It took some minutes before her heartbeat slowed and her mind began to think coherently again. A shiver ran down her spine. What was the horrid creature capable of? Maybe the captain would know more.
    She took up her pen and let the calm logic of the numbers on the page before her ease her tension until he made his morning visit. When the captain entered the cabin some time later, she laid down her pen and cleared her throat.
    “You have something you wish to say, Miss Shipley?”
    Electra started at his tone, sharp and to the point. Ever since his slip of emotion days ago, he demonstrated a defensive aloofness toward her. “I wondered what you knew of Seaman Critchley. Do you trust him?”
    He stiffened. “Why? What has he done to you?”
    “No, please, you mustn’t be concerned,”