The spray from the bow splashed Harriet as she stood peered into the sea, watching dolphins play their secret games. Behind her the ship was lazy, quiet and calm. The sailors were sitting around on deck making ropes or whittling wood pieces of wood. Five burly men had a game of dice set up against the cabin. The Captain was standing at the tiller watching the waves ahead. Julian Wentworth was sitting with his back to the mast reading a book. Harriet was getting used to life onboard ship. She was learning quickly and the Captain was pleased that she was putting herself to use. In the beginning, two weeks previously, there had been some unpleasant situations when the crew cornered her, but she got used to it. After all, it was better to be moving to a new world than be getting the same treatment back in Portsmouth. She had been well fed for her troubles, the ration for a sailor plenty to keep her in fine shape. The sea breeze and constant sun had bleached her hair to the colour of rope and her clothes had been patched over and over again by a sailor called Fingers. He wasn’t as coarse a most of the others, though he didn’t speak of his own accord. There ere a few members of he crew, mainly those who tended the three cannons on board, who scared her. She hated herself for being easily scared by men, but these three had look about them, the same look that she had seen in the Captains eyes before he was going to throw her overboard. He had given up that fetish in a few days, preferring to shout at her no more or less than he berated the rest of the crew. All in all, her time on the ship had been the best time she could remember since her mother left.

The gentle rise and fall of the ship seemed utterly natural to her now. In the beginning she had felt sick constantly, feeling wretched as the sea took her meals, but now she could anticipate the roll of the deck as a wave hit the side.

There had been a great storm five nights ago, the whole sky lit with lances of lightning, the sea raging at the tick of a boat crawling across its vast back. She had clung tightly to her hammock, listening to the yells from above deck as the crew battled with Neptune to right their vessel. The sea had washed under the door, covering the floor of her cabin. She listened as the men fought, and there was an almighty crack and a flurry of shouts. Gritting her teeth she stomped through the freezing water onto the deck. She saw a line of men fighting with a rope, so she joined them and pulled the rough material with all her might, her face a mask of determination. The crew slowly beat back the elements. In the silence afterwards she sat, exhausted, with the men, even receiving some slaps on her back. She didn’t smile at them. She had fought the storm so they didn’t all die here in the middle of nowhere. The feeling had been growing within her that she was meant to go somewhere, and she was not going to let anything get in her way. Walking in terribly tired steps back to her cabin she rubbed her bloody, chilled hands on her skirt, leaving long smears down her legs.

The breeze from the sea was warm, and she raised her head to the sun, closing her eyes and feeling the warmth seep into her. When she opened her eyes again she had to blink because she saw another ship far to the right of them. She looked again, and was not mistaken. She turned to look at the captain, to see if he had noticed. He was walking the deck, chatting to the crew. The wheel was held in position by a rope. Unsure of why she did it, because she had no idea how one treated a ship met on the seas, she thought it wise to tell the captain.

Harriet ran over the boards of the ship, the crew watching her flight. She tugged the Captains elbow and as he raised his hand to strike her she pointed and shouted, ‘There’s a ship over yonder, cap’n!’

He held his hand, seizing his eyeglass. His face hardened and he stormed up to the wheel, yanking the ropes off.

‘It’s riches, lads, a private trader, and heavy too. Up and at ‘em.’

Harriet stood amidst a whirlwind of activity, confused as to what they were preparing for. Her stomach knotted and became as ice when she saw the crew priming muskets and tucking long knives into their belts. She skulked away to her cabin and sat in the hammock, wondering what she had done to deserve finding her way onto a pirate vessel.