The Stowaway

XI

"They say that abandonment is a wound that never heals. I say that only an abandoned child never forgets." Mario Balotelli

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XI.

Captain Tom Buckley stormed out of his cabin and out onto the helm of the ship, slamming the door behind him. He was fuming, shaking with absolute rage at the utter ignorance of that stupid girl.

Had she not seen what was about to unfold? Had she not understood what he had prevented? She ought to be thanking him! Not speaking to him with mocking and contempt!

As soon as he had seen to it that Eliza Banes was safely inside his cabin the night before, Tom had promptly broken Zacky Ellis' nose and threatened him with disembowelment should he ever attempt to seduce an inebriated woman again.

Tom did not think that he had ever before encountered a more infuriating, naïve woman in his life. Eliza Banes simply believed that she was on a jolly holiday and that there were no dangers about. If it weren't for Tom spotting her drunkard behind being escorted back to his cabin by Zacky Ellis then she would have woken up this morning as ...

Tom shook off the thought. He could not entertain it. And he certainly would never condone it.

Why did she think that he had given her his own quarters for the duration of her journey? Did she seriously think that he enjoyed sleeping on a hammock with several dozen unwashed sailors?

And yet he was the villain, or so she claimed. The man who could not have a little fun. The man who did not know how to smile.

Tom tried to control his breathing and his raging temper as he looked down over the deck. He could see Zacky working on the rigging with another sailor, with a large bloody bandage tied around his face.

Tom gripped the rail until his knuckles turned white. Tom was used to feeling angry. Anger felt as though it was a part of him now, something that would never leave him. But he had felt something else when he had watched the cockroach that is Zacky Ellis guiding Eliza to bed. Fear. He had not experienced fear in a very long time.

Clenching his teeth, he uttered, "I am not the villain." Eliza could throw tantrums all she wanted. All Tom did was look after her. All he ever did was look after his people, and this is the thanks he received?

"I see Zacky is sporting a newly crooked nose," Jackie murmured, coming up behind Tom to stand beside him.

"He slipped," muttered Tom in reply.

Jackie scoffed. "Into your fist, Captain?"

"That's about it," Tom snapped, turning on his first mate. "Why?"

Jackie held up his hands defensively. "Now, I merely made a mention as you have never physically punished a member of the crew before now."

"Zacky is lucky I did not damage a different appendage," Tom retorted. Or better yet, remove it.

And yet all she could ask him was if he knew how to smile?

Tom's eyes moved from the lower deck to the horizon. The sea had always been a safe place for him, solace. Home. The sea had given him a life, a purpose, and security. It was all that he had known, all that he had wanted to know for nearly two decades.

But happiness and joy? Such things simply were out of reach for a man such as him. Tom did not walk around, going through life deliberately out to find displeasure. What human being would want that? What sort of man would choose the hand that he had once been dealt?