My Dearest

My Dearest

by

Susan Sizemore

"Come to bed, woman."

Having just started the letter, Megere finished writing the salutation -
"My Dearest Mother"
- before she answered. "Is it love, or are your feet cold, my dear?"

"Both," Adrew Osprey, Admiral of the Fleet and Lord of the North answered without hesitation.

She did not put down her pen and fly to his side, even though she found his reply endearing. She did not even turn from her place at the folding desk to look at the bunk behind her. "An albatross leaves the
Ironbound
for Ang in the morning," she reminded the man whose flagship the
Ironbound
was. "I wish for at least one letter to my family to be in the mail packet on board that courier boat."

"Considering the size of your family you could be up all night."

"True. But my correspondence will not take up as much cargo room as I might wish on board
your
albatross. I write to my mother. She may spread the news that I yet live through the massed population of Cliffs and Owls, and all their friends, neighbors and in-laws."

He grunted. Then after a moment said thoughtfully, "Your mother. Your mother the cleric. Your mother the professor of theology and philosophy. Your mother the author of sermons and books concerning ethics and all other matters pertaining to the moral fiber of the Ang Empire."

He padded across the cabin to stand over her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Are you planning on discussing matters of an esoteric sort in this letter to your admirable mother?"

Megere turned her head to gaze up at North's sharp-featured face. To her he was a most handsome man, especially when his wide mouth arched in a smile. His touch warmed and distracted her, as he knew it would. She bumped her head back against his flat stomach.

"If you wish me to join you in our warm, comfortable bunk, let me get on with this. You know I will not be distracted when I have a pen in my hand."

He drew her up out of the chair and took the pen from her. He tossed it onto the desk and put his arms around her, drawing her against his wiry frame. The thin material of his nightshirt left no doubt of his arousal. "Let us make love, my dearest." His hands caressed her back.

Megere sighed, more with contentment than frustration at being thwarted. No matter what difficulties might occur aboard the
Ironbound
the relationship between the two of them in the privacy of this cabin remained strong and stable.

Which was something she wanted to tell her mother.

She looked up and met his gaze. His blue eyes were full of mischief, and the hunger that always aroused a heated response from her. "You do know that I will make such strenuous love to you that you will be asleep soon after, and then I will continue my correspondence."

He spun her around, and onto their bunk. "We shall soon see which of us is more weary and sated when we are done, madam."

Several hours later Megere woke from a brief, happy slumber. She turned her head toward the man sleeping beside her and kissed his cheek. She found her nightgown at the foot of the bunk, drew it on, and pulled a blanket over North's long, lean form before returning to the desk and the task she had set herself.

The moss in the lamp had gone dormant, so Megere took a second globe of glow moss out of the lights cabinet and put the other lamp in the dark for a renewing rest. She took up her pen and put it to paper.

The sea is quite calm tonight, and the weather warm since we are far south of where I penned my last letter to you. Though that letter was sent in haste to let you know we had survived the violent encounter with the Framin fleet over possession of a large iron stone. Since my brother Alix's ship was one of those dispatched to bring the iron meteorite we won to the smelting facility at the port of Seyemouth, perhaps he is home on leave at last and has told you more of that adventure than I can relate in a few words.

Megere glanced up, and her attention was caught by the night sky beyond the cabin's octagonal side port. Not only was the sea calm, as she had told her mother, it was an absolutely beautiful night. She rose to look out the thick glass pane. Two of the three moons
were high in the sky. Gray Moon was half full, much larger Green moon was on the wan. Green Moon had a misty sheen to it tonight. She peered intently at it, knowing she could make out no details without a spyglass, and even then she'd only be able to see the faintest of swirls that
might
be clouds on the distant moonscape. Some said there was life on Green Moon. Why else would the surface be green? Some astronomers, looking through large crystal lenses, claimed that they could sometimes make out lights on the moon, but most people scoffed at these claims. Megere had not thought much about the moons - other than that they were always
there
and Red Moon's pull on the tides made the seas dangerous for navigation every dozen generations or so. They were safe from the danger of Red Moon for her lifetime, at least.

She went back to her letter.

I was just looking at the sky arching grandly over the middle of the ocean. I have not thought much about what goes on over our heads until recently. I have voyaged out on the wide seas before, but it is only within the last few days that I have
seen
the vision of infinity that we only have to look up to encounter. You often speak of the Infinite, and the All, but I am only beginning to realize the hugeness these concepts encompass.

Megere put the pen down. She read what she had just written. For a moment she was tempted to scratch the words out. She was tempted to start the letter over altogether. She was tempted to tell all she had seen and experienced in the last several days.

Which was exactly what Lord Adrew Osprey, her commander as much as her lover, did not want her to say.

She put pen to paper again.

A year ago I was not certain I would take up the duties of a ship's surgeon. The surprise Framin attack on Seyemouth resulted in my being pressed into service on board the
Ironbound
and I have not regretted this despite the complications it forced upon our family at home. Though I had no doubt of my medical abilities before circumstances put me in my current positions, I was not sure I had the strength of character to act as the advisor and conscience to the commander of the ship I was assigned to. Well, I have learned that I can dispute as strenuously as is necessary in the line of duty as I must.

Technically, I do not report to Captain Ram, the master of the
Ironbound,
but am assigned to Admiral North's flag staff. But since I am the only accredited surgeon on board, the sickbay is mine. Dr. Vine has the care of Captain Ram's conscience in his purview. I work well with Dr. Vine - who tells me he is a relation of the admirable Mr. Vine, who you will recall designed our best gowns for the Seeker Season. I also have an apprentice I am training in surgery - this is the position I held myself not so long ago on my tour of duty aboard the
Moonrunner.
I sometimes think I am living a dream, what with all the sudden changes in my life

The last few days had certainly had a dreamlike quality at times, Megere reflected as she paused to rest her wrist for a moment. A scratch on the door between the bedroom and the Admiral's office caught her attention. She went to the door to let in her terrier, Star. While Lord North was nearly as fond of her pet as Megere, he preferred the humans be alone when they went to bed. He claimed having Star watching them make love put him off. Since one or the other of them was likely to get up during the night, due to the call of duty or the call of nature, Star rarely spent the whole night in her basket in the office.

Megere sat back at the desk, and Star immediately jumped into her lap. A cold nose and a paw patting her cheek followed instantly. Star's persistence made it evident there would be no more writing for her mistress until the dog had a thorough petting.

After a while Megere's hands moved automatically, running through Star's fur, patting her head and belly. the petting was comforting to them both, and Megere's thoughts drifted back to the extraordinary incident which had filled the last days.

It started with a dinner party, which was not the normal way for a crisis to commence on board a warship. But it was hardly an ordinary crisis, now was it?

Megere held up her black lace frock, critically studying the embellishments of jet beads that had been added to the bodice. The
Ironbound
boasted a tailor and a seamstress, a married couple. They and their assistants manned a fifty-pounder during battles as the cannon crew. She had liked the dress very much in it's original form, but since her father had been promoted to the minor noble rank of esquire, she now needed to adjust her wardrobe to match her family's new rank. The beading had turned out quite well, she decided.

She was happy for the chance to wear something besides her contractor's uniform, practical though it was for day-to-day wear.

"Fanatic to fashion as I am, why did I take up a profession that doesn't allow me finery?" she asked.

"It likely has something to do with your unladylike enjoyment of rooting around the exposed insides of your fellow humans," Lord North responded.

He was rather brutally correct in his assessment. Female doctors were not allowed to practice surgery in civilian life, but their skills were developed, honed and valued by the military branches of the Ang Empire. Hence, she spent much of her life deprived of fashionable clothing.

North was already wearing his dress uniform, along with an appropriate selection of his decorations and medals.

"You look splendid," Megere told him, but couldn't help a teasing, "The light that shines from you is nearly enough to blind one in the small space of this cabin."

He arched a brow, glanced at the bunk, then to her wearing only her underthings. "Hmmm..."

Megere swiftly pulled the black dress over her head. She turned her back to Lord North. "I'll need you to do up the bodice buttons."

This time he humphed rather than hmmed. "You need a lady's maid," he told her.

He'd made the suggestion before, but she would have none of it.

"What about that apprentice of yours, Dr. Ratcatcher? It would keep her humble, and give her something else to sneer at you for."

"Dr. Redcat," Megere corrected.

That young woman had openly made the assumption that the surgeon she'd been assigned to study under held her position on the
Ironbound
due solely to her relationship with Admiral Lord North. Megere confessed that she would have felt the same had she been in RedCat's shoes. North was not so understanding.

"Don't keep chiding the girl," Megere told her lover. "She learned quickly enough that I know my business once we were dealing with bloodied bodies and smashed bones. It's a good thing to acquire knowledge under fire."

"If that were necessary, the
Ironbound
would be sinking and we'd all have to abandon ship," he replied sternly.

"If you were to marry me there would be no questions of your being at my side wherever I am. As it is, I suppose I would have to toss you over my shoulder and bear you where I will."

It was on her tongue to flippantly answer that this was why she had not yet wed him, but there was nothing flippant about their complicated situation. Only, Adrew North did not see it as complicated at all. His argument was that they had wooed as Seekers during the Season. Seeker Season was all about finding a marriage partner. They had found each other and should fulfill their Seekers' vows.