An Officer but No Gentleman (29 page)

33

Morty felt like a first class fool sitting in the tiny chair inside the cramped dress shop and decided to step outside to smoke his pipe.  He had looked at all the frilly dresses and whatnots as long as he could.

“Charlie, I’m going to wait for you outside.”

“I’m sorry it’s taking so long,” Mabe
l said from behind the curtain. “It’s just that a wedding dress has to be perfect. Miss Charlie’s daughters and granddaughters might want to wear it someday.”

“We’ll be done soon, Morty.  Go stretch your legs.”

As soon as they heard the door close Mabel peeked out the curtain to make sure he was outside.  “Oh, my heavens,” Mabel said.  “He certainly looks strong.”

Charlie smiled.  She had hoped what she glimpsed at lunch was an attraction between Mabel and Morty.  “He is.  He’s a hard worker
, too.”

“Is he married?”

Outside
, Morty smoked his pipe as sat leaning against a post.  He had been there forever and was bored beyond belief.  He had never thought he would be happy to see Jaxon Bloodworthy.

“Have you come to walk Charlie home?”

“Aye.”

Morty’s shoulders slump.  He had waited all afternoon and he wasn’t even going to get to walk her home.

Jaxon pulled the watch out of his pocket and checked the time.  “It’s nearly closing time.  Maybe you should walk Miss Mabel home tonight.  It’s going to be dark in no time.”

“She wouldn’t want a rube like me to walk her home.”

Jaxon sat down on the step beside Morty and spoke facing the street. “Why wouldn’t she?  I trust Charlie’s judgment that you’re a decent fellow and I bet Mabel would feel very safe with you to protect her.”

“But she doesn’t know me.”

“If she doesn’t want you to walk her home, she’ll decline the offer.  But I think you made an impression on her when she saw you at the party.  I mean, you left nearly as soon as you got there, but she was hoping to dance with you.”

“She said there weren’t enough men there to dance with.”

“Good God, man, you are really fighting this.  The woman obviously found you pleasing,” Jaxon said with a grin.

“She did?”

“Aye.  Didn’t you find her pleasing as well?”

“I’m a man, aren’t I?”

Jaxon chuckled.  He had to acknowledge Morty had way of turning a phase that could make anyone laugh.  If circumstances were different, he would find Morty likable.

“The worst that can happen is she can say no.  You’re man enough to handle that, aren’t you?”

Morty folded his arms across his chest. “Aye.”

They sat on the edge of the wooden sidewalk for a few minutes in silence.

“You know I don’t like this friendship you have with Charlie.”

“Aye.”

“You know if you ever try anything with her, I’m going to kill you.”

Morty turned to face Jaxon.  “Aye.”  He looked back over the dusty road.  “When Charlie was still a seaman, it
was easy to ignore we were from different worlds.  I mean, we dressed alike and did the same job basically so we were kind of equal.  But when I saw her at your party all dressed up, I knew she was never going to be with me. She belongs in your world.  I’m just the son of a tenant farmer. I barely passed the sixth grade.  Barely. Charlie, she’s as smart as they come. You’re smart too. I can tell.”

Jaxon shrugged and nodded. He always did just enough to be better than Grayson
, but if he had really applied himself, he could have been first in his class.

“I don’t pick up on things like other people.  Letters get turned around and mixed up when I read.  When I came on that ship, the men would show me a knot once and expect me to know it
, but couldn’t remember them that fast.  Charlie was patient and showed me the knots over and over until I picked them up. She taught me what each knot was called and when to use it. She’d spend a couple of hours on Sunday showing me different things on the ship and telling me what they were for and the proper way everything was supposed to be.”

“It sounds like she was a good friend to you.”

“Aye, the best.  I don’t know if I could have learned it all without him-her.  It’s so hard to think about Charlie back then and remember he was really a girl. It’s like my brain thinks of Charlie as two different people.”

Jaxon leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees.  He knew Charlie wouldn’t like him asking Morty about her childhood
, but he was curious about how others perceived her.

“What was Charlie like back when you first came on the ship?”

“Quiet mostly.  She had a way of looking at the crew that really unnerved the men.  She would look them in the eye and never say a word.  I think they thought she was judging them or just memorizing the moment to use it against them later.  I thought it was as if she wanted to say something and they were supposed to read her mind.  Or even that she just wanted to join the conversation, but she didn’t know how or what she had to say would be unwelcomed.  I don’t think she said a word the first week I was there, except maybe to Dr. Kirk or her father or to say aye-aye when she was given an order.  ‘Course, I just saw her on watch and we weren’t supposed to talk while we were working.  But she never talked in the galley either.  She just sat at the end of the table with her head down.”

“No one liked Charlie?”

“I don’t think they ever tried.  She was just a kid and the captain’s son.  They thought Charlie was a little touched in the head, if you know what I mean.  They told me stories about how she didn’t say a word for the first year or two she was aboard.”

“They said she didn’t start talking until she was eight years old?”

“No.  She stopped talking after the fire for more than two years.  She didn’t say a word to anyone.”

  Jaxon shook his
head.  He knew just by the way she continued to have nightmares, she had been traumatized by the fire, but apparently it was worse than he imagined. 

“Who can blame her,” Morty continued.  “Getting burned
and
losing her mother in the fire like that while her father was out at sea.  It was just too much for a little one to handle.”

Jaxon’s head jerked around and his eyes widened with surprise.  Charlie had
not told him that her mother died in the house fire.  He felt sick.  No wonder she still had nightmares about it.  She had started the fire that killed her mother.  “Has she ever talked to you about that fire?  Do you know how it got started?”

“No, she won’t talk
about it at all.  I only knew because the crew told me.  I’ve never heard anyone say how it started.”

Jaxon tried to remember what she said about the fire.  She said she was responsible for the fire not that she set it.  Was there a difference?  He suspected
, to her, there was not.  No wonder she didn’t talk for two years.

“But after she started talking again, they still thought she was strange?”

“Not strange. Mad. They blamed her for every misfortune on the ship; hurricanes, broken ropes, injuries. I think if she had slept in the fo’c’sle, it might have been different because they would have gotten to know her. Of course,
she
couldn’t have done that,” Morty continued.  “They all thought Charlie ran back and told her father everything they said or did.”

“But she didn’t, did she?”

“She barely talked to him at all.  I think Charlie would spend all week trying to think up some question to ask her father when she dined with him on Sundays.  She’d ask her question at the beginning of dinner and she’d spend the rest of the meal listening to him explain.  She’d ask a few more questions.  But that was their routine.  As far as I could tell, that was the only time they spoke other than the old man telling her to eat her ships’ biscuit as he left the galley.  She usually gave it to me.”

“Not even when they were alone in their cabin?”

“She’d go in and he’d come out.”

“You didn’t think that was strange?”

“We thought Charlie was so sensitive about his scars, he didn’t even let his father see them.  Now, I realize he was giving her privacy before bed.”

Jaxon smiled remembering when Charlie had told him about her “scars”.  What a fool he had been. 
He had no trouble believing the crew had fallen for the lie hook, line and sinker just as he had.

Jaxon sighed.  He really felt like Morty and Charlie’s bond was unique and he suspected Morty had taught Charlie more about interacting with others than she had taught him about the ship.  He knew he was only beginning to understand the depth and complexity of their friendship.  Each was what the other needed.

On the other hand, he was going to be a laughingstock if his wife had a male best friend.  The rumor mill would call him a cuckold; say his leg wasn’t the only thing gimpy after he had been keelhauled.  If only Charlie and Morty were related.  No one would bat an eye at that.

“Look, Morty.  I want you and Charlie to remain friends because I know there is a special place in her heart for you
, but I hate the way this appears. I don’t want Charlie to be the subject of gossip when she is new to this life.  She is so naïve about what life ashore is like. You grew up on land.  You know how vicious society can be.  I have a former fiancée who has already shown her claws once with Charlie.”

“Aye, I was one of the poorest kids in town.  I know exactly what you mean.”  Morty tapped his pipe on the ground, emptying it.  “Is this where you tell me that I can only talk to her in your presence?”

“That’s an idea,” Jaxon said with a wry grin.

“Or you and I pretend to be friends.”

Jaxon made an annoyed face.  “I’m not like Charlie.  I can’t hide what I’m feeling.”

“Then what?”

“When is it all right for a woman to be alone with a man who’s not her husband?”

“It isn’t… unless they are related.”

Jaxon looked him straight in the eye and waited until Morty figured out what he was suggesting.  “If you were her cousin, no one would say a word.  You tell the crew of the
Arcadia
to play along and there is no reason you can’t spend a little time with her when you’re in port.”

It was about ten minutes after their usual closing time when Charlie, Mabel and Mrs. Jenkins emerged from the store.  As Mrs. Jenkins locked the door, Mabel inventoried the basket she carried to insure she had everything she needed to work on Charlie’s wedding gown when she got home.

“Jaxon!” Charlie said when she saw him standing next to the walk in the street.  “How long have you been waiting?”

“Maybe twenty minutes.”

“I was hoping Jaxon would come for you, cousin, so I could ask Miss Mabel if she might allow me to see her home.”

Mabel’s auburn head jerked up from her task.  “Me?  I couldn’t ask you to walk me home.  We live outside of town.  It’s a long walk.”

“Well, then I certainly can’t let you walk that far alone.  It’s nearly dark now,” Morty said, crossing his arms stubbornly across his broad chest.

Mabel smiled sweetly and blushed.  “Thank you. I’d like that very much.”

Mrs. Jenkins turned to Charlie.  “I didn’t realize Miss Sinclair and Mr. Ness were cousins.”

“They only recently found out themselves,” Jaxon interjected quickly before Charlie could say otherwise. “Charlie’s mother lost track of her sister when her sister eloped.”

Both Charlie and Morty turned to h
im.  He gave Charlie a look she and her father had shared many times over the years.  Charlie would ask for an explanation later, but for now she would not contradict him. 

“My mother made a terrible choice and was too ashamed to go home to her family,” Morty said.  “We don’t like to talk about it.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Jenkins said.  “We all have our family secrets.”

Morty stepped up to the petite seamstress and held his hand out. “May I carry that for you, Miss Mabel?”

Mabel hesitated. The contents were invaluable.  Morty noticed her reaction.

“I promise
, I will guard it with my life.  If a runaway horse comes barreling at us, after I push you to safety, I will fall on this basket to keep it safe from harm.”

Jaxon rolled his eyes
, but all the women laughed at the absurdity of it and Mabel handed him the basket.

“Which way?” Morty asked.

She pointed up the street and they set off in that direction.

As Charlie and Jaxon walked in the opposite direction, Charlie slipped her hand into his.  “Are you coming home with me tonight?” he asked, raising her hand to his lips. “You have your new captain.”

She shyly glanced at him and nodded. “Aye.”

“Do you want to get something to eat before we go home?”

“No,” she said simply. “Maybe after.”

“After?”

Charlie looked him directly in the eye and waited.  “After.”