Mutineer Read Online Free PDF Page B

writing to her grandfather and read.
     
    Grandfather,
     
    I know I should see things through and persevere, but I cannot. Life aboard Hermione is too hard. It is a living hell that you could not comprehend and I cannot bring myself to describe to you.
    I’ve decided that I must leave — for my sanity and safety, for I fear what will happen if I remain.
    When next we make port, I will resign my position and take passage upon some merchant vessel back to Dalthus.
    The prize money I was awarded aboard Merlin will certainly cover the cost of my passage home and allow me, even should I never hold our lands, some modest life. It will surely be enough and must be better than this.
     
    There was a soft knock at the hatchway. Alexis set the tablet aside and sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bunk.
    “Yes?”
    The hatch slid open and Boxer, the gunroom steward, entered. He glanced once at Alexis, then down at the deck.
    “Beggin’ yer pardon, sir.” He held out a cloth-covered plate to her. “But I’ve brought you some’at.” Alexis hopped down from the bunk. “It’s not much, sir, but …”
    “Boxer,” she whispered, reaching out to raise the cloth. Underneath was a bit of chicken and a ship’s biscuit covered in gravy.
    “It’s my bit, Mister Carew,” he said quickly. “No more’n would be my due, you understand.”
    Alexis stared at him. There was an unwritten rule that the men who did extra work as servants for the gunroom, wardroom, and captain would pilfer a small amount of each meal, as a bit more compensation than the few extra coins they earned for the service.
    “Not right what they doin’ to you, sir.”
    She laid a hand on his forearm. “Nothing aboard this ship is right.” She gently pushed the plate toward him. “But you can’t do this, Boxer.”
    “My bit, sir,” he insisted, his face set and stubborn. “Can do what I like with it, I ‘spect.”
    “No. I’m grateful, Boxer, I truly, truly am, but if they find out …”
    “Checked, sir. They’s all left the gunroom and —”
    “They’ll find out, Boxer. If I accept this once, you’ll do it again, and one time they’ll find out and they’ll see it goes hard on you. I won’t have you lose your place over me … or worse.” She nodded toward the hatchway. “Off with you now. Enjoy your bit yourself … and thank you.”
    Alexis waited until he’d left, then slid the hatch closed and climbed to her bunk again. She took up her tablet and reread the words she’d written, then erased them as she’d written and erased similar words so many times over, and started again .
     
    Grandfather,
     
    I wish you to know I am well and hope you and all those I love at home are as well.
    I have not received any messages from you since boarding Hermione , but we have been traveling and patrolling so widely that I suspect they have simply not caught up to us yet. My own to you, I am certain, have a much surer route to travel, as Dalthus does not move about nearly so much as a warship.
    Hermione is not so happy a ship as Merlin , and Captain Neals is certainly not so kind as Captain Grantham was, but I am determined to persevere. As with my time on Merlin , my time aboard Hermione will pass, as well. I am given to understand that she is due to pay off in some six months or a year, at which time her officers and crew will be disbursed to other ships while she is refitted. This is no more than twice or thrice the time I have already been aboard, so it can be no greater hardship to wait out my time on this ship.
    The men have a saying they use when facing even the most trying of times:
    ‘You shouldn’t have joined if you can’t take a joke,’ they say.
    I often feel that, for all their roughness and the violence of their trade, the crews of these ships must certainly be the most tolerant … and kindest … of men. I truly hope that I will one day be worthy of leading their like.
    Despite the war, please do not concern yourself as