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What was Levka to say? No, he didn’t see them leave because he was too busy enjoying his time with Caitlin? Yes, he saw them slip away, but he was too busy taking pleasure in Caitlin’s company and didn’t want to let her go?
“I didn’t wish to disturb her after the bad night she had and because we woke her so early.”
Stasio gave him one of his all-knowing looks. “Did you want me to check on them?”
“No. If Alicia wants to mess up her life, she’ll do it no matter what Caitlin’s foster parents said. Caitlin isn’t responsible for her foster sister’s actions.”
Ruric finished his conversation with the crewman, then walked under the archway and headed toward Levka and Stasio. He masked his expression so well that Levka hadn’t a clue what he was thinking. In fact, all of them could master that ability which made it impossible for any of them to know who had the best hand of cards during one of their games. Good news? Indifferent? Bad?
Ruric soon joined him, glanced at Caitlin sleeping in Levka’s arms, and smiled. Tying his wild red hair into a tail, he scoffed at the wind. “The constant breeze on this ship makes me wish I’d cut my hair short. In a spaceship, we would have no annoying wind under perfectly-controlled conditions that the most illustrious scientists could create.”
“I remember a time when we were becalmed on a schooner and prayed for a good stiff wind. Now, we are on a ship that has no need of wind, and you’re fussing.” Stasio glanced up at the ship’s Dutch flag, whipped around by the turbulent air.
Ruric smiled. “Everything’s relative. Back then, we were running out of food and water. And, as I recall, the captain was trying to outmaneuver Jean Lafitte, the gentleman pirate.”
“Gentleman, right,” Stasio said. “He was as violent and bloodthirsty as all the rest.”
“But eloquent in his speech,” Ruric said, bowing. “And the young women liked him.”
“But not the men who he stole from,” Arman argued.
“What news have you?” Levka asked, interrupting the history lesson.
Again, Ruric made a non-too subtle observation of Caitlin in Levka’s arms. “I have no worry now that you have found the one for you. ‘Tis good when it has been so long.”
Grinding his teeth, Levka said, “Enough!”
Caitlin stirred. Levka tightened his hold on her. His friends smiled.
“What news from the ship’s crew?” Levka asked privately again, attempting to mask his annoyance.
“Good news. We dine with the ship’s captain this evening.”
Levka stared at him. “You cannot be serious.”
“He was most generous. Though it will be nothing like dining with the captain of a star cruiser in deep space.” Ruric switched to telepathic communication. “Bad news is the ship’s crew is verifying the passenger list, room by room. Initially, I had convinced the teens, now buddying up together with others, that that’s the way their parents had arranged it. Since then, others on the cruise who knew it was not so, began asking questions. Worse, two of the guys do not get along. The other teens know this as well and are insisting the two would never have shared rooms with the kids from our suite. Someone—maybe one of the teens affected—contacted a parent. Now, the crew is trying to determine how we ended up with the larger stateroom and the other boys ended up sharing rooms with someone else from their high school.”
“And you said?”
“It’s easy for me to handle one crewmember at a time. It’s the unraveling of the fragile web of lies we have woven that is causing problems. Too many people to control. Oh, and by the way, Dylan is one of the guys who gave up his room to us.” Ruric gave a sardonic smile.
“So he figured he could get Alicia to his room privately, but now he’s got a roommate?” Levka asked.
“Yep. And his roommate is a guy who could snore a wine cork off its bottle, according to talk I overheard. Not only that, but the guy’s sneakers smell like something that had been dead for several days.”
“I wouldn’t wish Dylan a better roommate,” Levka said. “So what about the room arrangements?”
“They’re leaving them the way it is for now. Unless someone discovers we hadn’t paid for the room.”
“How did you manage to get us into the room?”
Ruric wiggled his fingers. “Computers. I tapped into their billing and room reservations. The only thing I’d like better is if I could just tell the computers verbally what to do and didn’t have to waste my time typing in all the commands. ‘Computer, report on status of room reservation.’ Within seconds the computer would respond favorably. ‘Prince Ruric, your room is now available.’ Typing is not my forte.”
The others groaned.
“Ruric, just tell us what is important,” Levka said.
“I overheard a conversation a deck above us earlier this morning that concerned me. A couple of guys were talking of pulling a prank on other passengers. They didn’t say what or who they wished to cause trouble, but I wanted to make you aware of it.”
