Honour

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

February 3, four months earlier

The cold hung heavy in the air, leeching past every attempt to layer in body heat. Not even the fur that trimmed Emmett’s neck and lined his black military jacket did much to offset the ever-searching fingers of winter. His tailored breeches, slimmed without respect to fashion, as he found it far easier to move with them close to his legs than the bouffant styles of late, nor the tights underneath them, did much to protect against the bite. While it had been a warmer than usual season, the last three days had seen the return of bitter temperatures and icy passages that frustrated souls and destroyed fingers and toes. Certainly not weather favourable for ship travel. It had been the unseasonable fairness that had spurred Emmett’s father into an early voyage; the promise of reward too great a seduction for his father to forego. The potential for poor weather had been a point Emmett had belaboured, and easily lost, before they left. The cold turn had left their crew feeble, beaten, and ill tempered—and Emmett didn’t blame them for their dispositions in the least. Perhaps it made Emmett an evil man to silently thrill in his father’s loss of the smallest toe on his right foot. Yet every man onboard had suffered to no end; his father would not have deserved to go unscathed. Fate had been just at least.

“Emmett!” the high voice of their youngest crewmember called for Emmett’s attention and he turned with a smile.

“Aleyn?”

Cheeks reddened, even on the darker skin, showed the boy’s chill but Aleyn’s vibrant smile was warm. “May I go ashore with you?” Aleyn opened his palm to display a single silver coin. “I have funds. And the Captain said it would be all right so long as I was in your care.”

Emmett reached for the coin and a flash of panic crossed Aleyn’s face. Emmett ignored the expression and c****d an eyebrow, “One wonders the circumstances that proffered such a coin.” The blush brought by weather was heightened and Aleyn looked up with wide-eyed silence. “No,” Emmett waved the requested reply away. “Better still for my heart that you don’t say. I will be a happier man to assume you found it whilst you scrubbed the deck.” He pressed the silver back into Aleyn’s palm. “Aye?”

Aleyn nodded and dropped his eyes. “Aye.” Emmett’s turn to the left to survey the shore was immediately mistaken and Emmett felt a clutch on his sleeve. “Please, Emmett. I’ve never seen England. And the Captain said we’d be docked for at least a week. The ship is so cold.”

The fingers that gripped Emmett’s jacket were already losing their tan and Emmett took a moment to grieve its loss. The boy had come from Greece—a gift, an exchange, a perk—the semantics of the trade unknown to Emmett and he was grateful for the lack of knowing it. Too young, too small, too unaccustomed to the weather and the hardships of a cabin boy’s life; they always were. But Emmett’s place was not Captain. Not yet. His father still bore that title and until circumstances changed it, Emmett had no say in the details of the crew but for the little he might be able sway here and there. All he could do was what he always did—the best he could manage at any given instance.

“Of course you can come ashore with me, Aleyn.” He smiled at Aleyn, removed his cape, and flung it over Aleyn’s shoulders. “Who else will carry back the items I might find to purchase?”

Aleyn snuggled gratefully into the tall, fur-lined collar, his eyes mirroring the grin hidden behind fabric. “Step quickly,” Emmett told him. “Let’s see if we can’t beat the rats to the sand shall we?”