in preparation for their visitations.
Her staff would soon be completely loyal to her. Making the soup was a giant step in that direction, anyway. Why, by nightfall they would all think she was very, very worthy.
Chapter Seven
By nightfall they thought she was trying to kill them.
The watch turned at six that evening. The first group filed into the galley to collect their dinner just a few minutes later. The men had put in a hard day's work. The decks had been scoured, the hammocks scrubbed, netting mended, and half the cannons had been given another thorough cleaning. The seamen were weary, and their hunger was fierce. Most ate two full bowls of the heavily flavored soup before they were appeased.
They didn't start getting sick until the second watch had just eaten their share.
Sara had no idea the men were ill. She was getting impatient, though, for no one had come along to tell her what a fine job she'd done.
When a hard knock sounded at her door she rushed to answer it. Jimbo stood at the entrance, frowning at her. Her smile faltered.
'Good evening, Jimbo,' she began. 'Is something wrong? You look very unhappy.'
'You haven't had any soup yet, have you, Lady Sara?' he asked.
His obvious concern didn't make any sense to her. She shook her head. 'I was waiting to share my dinner with Nora,' she explained. 'Jimbo, what is that horrid sound I'm hearing?'
She looked out the door to see if she could locate the sound.
'The men.'
'The men?'
Nathan suddenly appeared at Jimbo's side. The look on her husband's face made her breath catch in the back of her throat. He looked bloody furious. Sara instinctively backed up. 'What's the matter, Nathan?' she asked, her alarm obvious. 'Is something wrong? Is it Nora? Is she all right?'
'Nora's fine,' Jimbo interjected.
Nathan motioned Jimbo out of the way, then stalked into the cabin. Sara continued to back away from him. She noticed his jaw was clenched tight. That was a bad sign.
'Are you upset about something?' she asked Nathan in a faint whisper.
He nodded.
She decided to be more specific. 'Are you upset with me?'
He nodded again. Then he kicked the door shut.
'Why?' she asked, trying desperately not to let him see her fear.
'The soup.' Nathan's voice was low, controlled, furious.
She was more confused by his answer than frightened. 'The men didn't care for my soup?'
'It wasn't deliberate?'
Since she didn't have any idea what he meant by that question, she didn't answer. He could see the confusion in her eyes. He closed his own and counted to ten. 'Then you didn't deliberately try to kill them?'
She let out a loud gasp. 'Of course I didn't try to kill them. How could you think such a vile thing? The men are all part of my staff now, and I certainly wouldn't try to harm them. If they didn't like my soup, I'm sorry. I had no idea they were such persnickety eaters.'
'Persnickety eaters?' He repeated those words in a roar. 'Twenty of my men are now hanging over the sides of my ship. They're retching up the soup you prepared for them. Another ten are writhing in agony in their hammocks. They're not dead yet, but they sure as hell are wishing they were.'
She was appalled by what he was telling her. 'I don't understand,' she cried out. 'Do you mean to suggest that my soup wasn't any good? The men are ill because of me? Oh, God, I must go and comfort them.'
He grabbed hold of her shoulders when she tried to rush past him. 'Comfort them? Sara, one or two of them just might comfort you right off the ship.'
'They wouldn't throw me overboard. I'm their mistress.'
He felt like shouting. Then he realized he already was. He took a quick breath. 'The hell they wouldn't toss you overboard,' he muttered.
Nathan dragged her over to the bed and pushed her down on the quilt. 'Now, wife, you're going to tell me just how you made that damned soup.'
She burst into tears. It took Nathan almost twenty minutes to find the cause, and it wasn't Sara who finally gave him sufficient information. He couldn't make head or tail out of her incoherent explanation. Ivan remembered the tainted meat he'd left on the sidebar. He remembered, too, that he hadn't told Sara it was bad.
Nathan locked Sara inside the cabin so she couldn't cause any more mischief. She was furious with him because he wouldn't let her go and apologize to the men.
He didn't come to bed that night, as he and the other healthy men had to take over the next watch. Sara didn't understand that duty called and believed he was still too angry with her to want to sleep next to her.
She didn't know how she was ever going to find the courage to face her staff again. How could she convince them that she hadn't deliberately tried to do them in? That worry turned to anger in short time. How could the men believe such a sinful thing about their mistress anyway? Why, they besmirched her character by believing she would hurt them. Sara determined that once she won their trust again she would sit them all down and have a firm talk with them about their tendency to jump to conclusions.
Nathan was slow to forgive her error, too. He came down to the cabin the following morning. He glared at her but didn't speak a word. He fell asleep on top of the covers and slept the morning away.
She couldn't stand the confinement long. She couldn't stand his snoring either. It was half past the noon hour when she slipped out of the room. She went up on deck, opened her blue parasol, and set out for a brisk walk.
It turned out to be a humiliating experience. Each man she approached turned his back on her. Most still had a gray cast to their complexions. All of them had scowls. She was in tears by the time she reached the narrow steps to the highest deck. She was scarcely aware of where she was going and only wanted to get as far away from the dark frowns as possible, if only for just a few minutes.
The highest level was filled with ropes and masts. There was barely room to walk. Sara found a corner near the tallest sail, sat down, and put her opened parasol between two fat ropes.
She didn't know how long she sat there trying to think of a plan to persuade the men to like her again. Her face and arms soon turned pink from the sun. It wasn't at all fashionable for a lady to walk around with a bronzed complexion. Sara decided she'd better go back down and look in on her Aunt Nora.
It would be nice to visit with someone who cared about her. Nora wouldn't blame her. Yes, a pleasant visit was just the thing she needed. She stood up and tugged on her parasol only to find that the delicate spokes had become caught up in ropes. It took her a good five minutes to loosen the knots in the ropes enough to work the parasol partially free. The wind was high again, making the task more difficult. The sound of the sails slapping against the posts was loud enough to drown out her frustrated mutters. She gave up on the task when the material of her parasol tore. She decided then to ask Matthew or Jimbo for assistance.
Sara left the parasol dangling in the ropes and made her way back down the steps.
The crash, when it came, nearly toppled her over the side of the ship. Chester caught her in the nick of time. Both of them turned to the noise on the upper deck just in time to see one of the masts slam into a larger one.
Chester took off running, shouting for assistance as he raced up the steps. Sara decided she'd better get out of the way of the sudden chaos around her. She waited until several more men had rushed past her, then made her way down to Nora's cabin. Matthew was just coming out of the room when Sara strode past him.
'Good day, Matthew,' she said in greeting. She paused to curtsy, then added, 'I'll only stay a few minutes. I just wanted to see how my aunt is doing today. I promise I won't wear her out.'
Matthew grinned. 'I believe you,' he replied. 'But I'm still coming back in a half hour's time to check on Nora.'
