Chapter 50: Drydock Part 4
"I don't think so." Cal took one of Crysabel's hands and pulled her around in front. "Sit." She pointed at the other chair. The girl sat with a natural grace, and bit of a pout on her lips.
"You want adventure, you want to rebel against all the things which keep you from living that adventure. But it isn't that easy. I visited the engine room out of boredom. Then a man was killed horribly. I started helping out seriously because I could, and there was no one else." Cal's lips quirked. "I never had a problem getting dirty, much to my mother and father's dismay. Anyway, they trained another man to do the job and I went back to being an artist. Then when our ship got damaged, another man was hurt. A friend of mine. He's blind from being knocked face first onto hot coals."
Crysabel gasped and put her hand to her mouth.
"That's terrible, the poor man."
"It meant I needed to go back to work in the engine room, even though Pentam was terrified I'd be the next one. When I wouldn't listen, he got angry. He's still angry."
"But you love each other! I can hear in how he talks about you. I can see it in your eyes now." Crysabel's own eyes glistened with tears.
"We do." Cal sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Sometimes it isn't enough."
"That's so sad." The girl pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. Then leaned over and hugged Cal tight.
***
Cal worked on the engine room every day until it looked naked.
"Tomorrow, I'll look at the shaft. I need something as straight as you can find it, and one or two muscular sailors wouldn't hurt. We're going to turn the shaft by hand."
They'd finished earlier than usual. Cal washed up as much as possible, then picked up a couple of things from the cargo hold.
"Captain Cully, is there a uniform for an engineer?"
"Monky never asked for one, but that doesn't mean we can't make one up. What is this about?"
"There's a fancy-dress ball tomorrow night. I thought a formal uniform would be interesting."
"Let's go raid the Purser's stores."
"He won't be happy." Cal held her hands up.
"I'm the Captain, he'll have to live with it."
Cal shrugged and followed the captain. They found innumerable sets of whites and Cal found a set which fit well enough. The captain dug up a blue jacket.
"Try this on."
"Not bad." Cal moved her arms around. "This could work."
"Needs some insignia. Come to the bridge."
Cal followed him. He was digging around in a drawer when she stepped onto the bridge.
"Ah here it is. Good thing I'm sentimental." Captain Cully held up a pin. A tiny pair of gears hung from a bar. All of it in gold. "The engineer before Monky wore this on his dress uniform. Poor blighter caught some sickness and died. Had no family so most of his stuff was tossed. I kept this to remember him. That was my first steamship."
The Captain stepped forward and pinned it to Cal's jacket.
"Been meaning to make that Engineer Second Class official, but I think I'll skip it. Wear it in good health, Engineer First Class Cal Shillingsworth." Captain Cully saluted and Cal returned it. "Engineers never could salute worth a damn." The Captain enfolded Cal in a powerful hug.
He stepped back and looked at her.
"You sure you won't take that boat home? I'll manage somehow."
"Right, I take your engine room to pieces, and you think I'm going to leave it that way? I'm not leaving until this ship is ready to steam out of here, and I'll be running the engine room."
"No work tomorrow. Take the day off, have fun at the ball, I may drop in myself and claim a dance from you."
"I'll hold you to that." Cal grinned. "The next day we start the real work."
"Slave-driver." Captain Cully grinned back at Cal. "Get out of here."
Cal picked up her bundles from the cargo hold, added the uniform to the bundles then headed up to the hotel.
In the hotel room, she hid her uniform and one bundle beneath her bed, then rang for a bath. Once clean, she put on the dress Meireka had given her, picked up her satchel and headed down to the lounge.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
