Chapter 7

Shane stretched out along the deck and yawned. The bright morning sun shown down directly onto her and stirred her from sleep. She glanced to her left expecting to find Carmen but found nothing but their rum bottle and Shane’s now discarded coat.

She cracked her back and sat up grabbing her coat and throwing it on before picking the rum bottle up and taking a swig. She felt her head spin from dehydration and made her way into the dark forecastle. She squinted her eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden dark. She tripped over a pile of canvas and rigging that someone had carelessly left on the floor. Aboard a man-of-war ship everything would have been stowed away properly or you’d be met with a stinging whip.

Shane smiled a little, when she had first left England she had served aboard a man-of-war and all the strict rules had been engrained into her head to the point where she couldn’t even imagine a ship that could be so poorly kept. Her first time on a pirate ship she had addressed everyone formally as Sir and had been laughed at. It took a good fortnight before Shane had finally been able to cut the Sir bullshit.

She made her way around the hammocks to the back of the forecastle where they stored the food and rummaged through an open barrel finding it full of fruit. Most likely it had been one of the barrels they had managed to take from the slave vessel. She took two apples from the barrel and once again made her way through the maze of hammocks and sleeping men. She tripped again over the same pile of canvas and rigging and ended up kicking a bucket while trying to catch herself from falling. One man, still in his hammock mumbled just a bit in his sleep from the loud clanging. Shane cringed a little, trying to be quite as she made her way out of the forecastle and back onto the main deck again.

Shane glanced around the deck looking for Carmen but didn’t find her. She didn’t think Carmen would be the kind of girl to hang around under deck. If she was under deck it would most likely be against her own will. At that thought Shane nearly panicked. The idea that someone might actually be forcing himself on her Carmen brought anger into the back of Shane’s throat.