The Dreamer Read Online Free PDF Page B

educational.
    For the first time in my life, my mind did not demand occupation and exertion. I just wanted to be still. Safe and quiet under my warm blanket, in my warm bed, in my cool, dark room with the door safely closed.
    How I longed for home. My small, tidy dorm room, my little desk seemed terribly precious to me then. What a fool I’d been to pursue this work. Headstrong and arrogant and shortsighted. I hated this place. There was nothing for me here.
    I turned and found to my surprise the captain still on the floor. I’d assumed he would have already been up and working, an eighteenth century ship a stern task master. But there he was on his side facing me.
    His angled, chiseled face was flushed and he trembled through the blanket slightly, and when he moved, he coughed. I rose stiffly, pain stabbing at my side if I wasn’t careful, and I made my way to him. I touched his brow. “You’re on fire!”
    He watched me with wide, open eyes, looking oddly like a child, his gaze distant and glazed. He touched the white gown I wore. “Mother?” he whispered.
    I stilled, a chill going through me. Not again. “I told you, I’m not your mother,” I said slowly.
    He looked past me at something through the window, his face fearful. “He is coming.”
    I turned. “But there’s no one there, Captain.”
    The door suddenly opened and Finley hurried in carrying a basin of water and a small vial, seeming not at all surprised to find the great Captain in this condition.
    I began to go to him, but the captain snatched my arm and pulled me close, and I stumbled onto him. It jarred my wound and I cried out in pain.
    “Captain! Let me go.” I tried to pull away, but he held firm.
    He leaned forward and whispered, “He’s coming. He is coming. Hide with me.”
    “Who? Who is coming?”
    “You won’t let him kill you, Mother. Please! Father’s coming.”
    I stilled in horror at his words. And I looked at Finley in desperation.
    He was busy measuring the liquid into the vial, and then he put it into a small glass and added water. At first I didn’t think he had heard what the captain had said, but when he turned back to me, something in his face told me that he had.
    He bent and wordlessly pried the captain’s fingers from my arm, and then half carried, half dragged the large man to the bed. I backed up, bumping into a table behind me, and my wound screamed at me again. I cried out and pressed against my abdomen. I found a chair and collapsed into it. Finley looked up at me and our eyes met.
    “Are you alright?” he asked. “If you need to lie down I can find another cabin for you if you’ll just give me a minute.”
    “I’m fine where I am. I would prefer not to leave the captain. You … you don’t seem surprised to see him like this.”
    “No, miss. He be prone to fevers, unfortunately.”
    I looked at the captain, and he was sound asleep again. Whatever Finley administered had quickly taken effect. “He will sleep now,” the first mate said. “But he’ll need to be watched for the next few days. He needs to be cooled and he needs water.”
    “I can do that,” I said quickly.
    He looked uncertain. “But you’re wounded.”
    “It’s really not that serious. I just need to keep quiet. Please let me help you. He’s done so much for me and I’d like to … to help him, too, if I can.”
    “Very well. It will help … and call me John, miss,” the old man said. And he did look like an old man, stooped and tired but always with that edge of nervousness. “I can’t stay long. We don’t like the crew to know of his condition. As long as I’m out there, it will appear more normal.”
    “Feel free, please. I’ll watch him. Show me the medicine and tell me the dose. I’ll follow your instructions perfectly, I assure you. I’m a quick study.”
    So he did just that. I nodded as he spoke, absorbing everything. I would be sure not to make a single mistake.
    I fingered the bottle in my hand and said