The Pirate Queen

Chapter 34

Okayyyyy, I think this is actually my favorite chapter. Or at least in the top 5. I just really love my heartsick idiots.

Dinner was a blur in Eric's sleep-fogged mind. The longer he kept moving, the more tired he got. The swaying of his body had nothing to do with his legs and everything to do with the burning need to close his eyes.

When he and Jora had finished gathering all the dirty dishes from dinner, Jora chucked them in the soapy water and fell into his hammock, arm draped over his eyes.

"They can wait," he muttered. "We can rest a while."

He didn't need to tell Eric twice. The prince collapsed into his own hammock, asleep before his head had even hit the pillow.

He woke with a jerk four hours later, the sky dark and full of stars. Jora was still passed out beside him in the same position he'd fallen asleep in. Groaning, Eric sat up and rubbed a hand over his face. What had woken him?

He stood, moving to the sink to splash water on his face when he realized what had woken him wasn't a thing but a recollection. They'd served dinner to the crew, but he hadn't brought anything to Ariel.

Cursing softly, he threw a bottle of wine and a plate of dried cheese, meats, crackers and fruit on a tray, knowing it was absolutely useless for him to try and cook something. He'd never learned to cook much beyond basic meals in the military, and attempting to do anything now would only wake Jora and get him mercilessly teased for even trying to cook.

So he took what he could and hurried up onto the deck bathed in the light of the moon and stars. No one paid him any mind as he knocked on Ariel's cabin door, and was surprised when she called for him to come in. He'd thought she might have been sleeping.

But when he pushed inside the warm candle glow of her cabin, he found her laying on the couch with the baby rattle in her hands.

"When I was a little girl, a toddler really, I had a stuffed fish named Guppy I carried everywhere with me," she said softly without looking at him.

Eric closed the door behind him, balancing the tray in his arms. "I had a blue blanket I called Baba," he answered.

Ariel snorted but didn't look away from the rattle, her fingers tracing over the crest. "I don't know who made Guppy, but he rattled every time I shook him and it delighted me to no end. He was blue with red stitching and I loved him more than anything. Carried him with me everywhere."

Eric set the tray down and found two glasses on Ariel's desk. He poured both of them a glass. "What happened to him?"

"Edward threw it overboard one day to punish me." She sat up, reaching for the wine and taking a long drink. When she pulled back her lips were stained red and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. "It was the first true heartbreak I ever knew, but I think this might be the worst."

Slowly, she lowered the rattle back inside the box next to the tiara with a heavy sigh. "I can't even begin to fathom what my life might have been like if I had been raised in a castle."

Eric swirled the wine in his glass, the fog from sleep gently lifting but not enough to filter his words. "Comfortable in a physical way, constraining in a mental way. Sure, you'd got the highest education available in the world, but what use are your well-informed opinions if you're never allowed to voice them, or you risk being punished? That everything you do, no matter how calculated, is wrong."

Ariel was silent and he flicked his eyes up to see her watching him carefully. "I'm sorry, that's not... Not at all what I meant to say."

She leaned forward, head tilted slightly. "Your father wouldn't let you speak at the meetings?"