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“Get out of my way!”
Montague refuses to move. He stands in the companionway, leaning against the rail, unless I choose the bulkhead side to pass him. Then he leans against the bulkhead. A tedious game I have no interest in playing.
“Not unless you tell me where you are going.”
He’s taken to standing midway between the two.
“Not your business,” I say but have suddenly lost his interest.
I look over my shoulder, not surprised to see my husband on the upper deck, watching us. Bother. He will think I’ve gone this way precisely to see Montague, which is not the case.
“Entertainment on the foredeck,” Montague says. “Not your sort. Best stay back.”
“No need, I am meeting someone, we should be safe together.”
He raises an eyebrow but releases me.
“Besides, since when have you cared for my safety?”
“Always!” he protests.
“Ha! And I will tell you right now, if anything happens to my husband… anything at all,” — I narrow my eyes, much as Papa would do to me when he is being stern — “I will track you down and see you tortured to death.”
“Me?”
He is stunned, or pretending to be stunned, because he drops the act quickly enough when we hear a roar of revelry rise from the foredeck.
“What is that?” I ask.
“Nothing for you.” He turns back to me. “And I mean it, don’t go up there. Stay here, nice and safe.”
He leaves me as easily as he tried to block my passage.
Really, men!
But I am glad of his departure. I need to go belowdecks. A cabin boy brought word to Lady E. that Jenny found something in the area of her old cabin. Why she ventured there, I have no clue. Fortunately, the message reached me before Lady E. No reason for an older woman to go traipsing around the ship when a younger woman is perfectly capable.
If Jenny could brave the terrain with her difficulties, I could as well. This will not be an idle request.
The foredeck is overflowing with steerage passengers and sailors, and I have to fight my way through the crowd. No one, however, stands beside the hatch nor, when I look down into it, beneath it. Apparently, they are all above board.
My courage falters as I climb down into the emptiness. The first passageway is abandoned. I can’t remember how many levels I descended to find her before, but Jenny must be on a lower deck. No help for it, I take another ladder down and spot a man, leaning into an open door, his back turned to me.
“Excuse me?” I approach.
Startled, he lurches up, grapples with the door, slamming it shut, and turns to me, revealing three festering scratches down his left cheek.
Jenny’s assailant.
“Attention!” I shout for any to hear. “I need assistance, now!”
His smile ratchets my trepidation. The crowd above is wild and loud. If anyone is belowdecks, they are not making themselves known.
“I’ll help ya,” he claims.
“Will you?”
I try Lady E.’s intimidating tone, fighting instincts to turn and run. He could easily overtake me.
