Mrs. Pease rolled her eyes at her husband. “You always jump to conclusions. You didn’t hear they were getting married. You heard they were-” She stopped and flushed. “You heard they were very close friends.”
Mr. Pease winked at Ivan. “Must be something to have pirate blood in you, huh?”
Ivan forced a tight grin. “Mmmm.”
Melody looked up from her rolls. “So are you two sleeping together, or what?”
“We’re just ‘or what,’ ” Stephanie told her. She took a deep breath. “I really do need air.”
Ivan followed her up and put a steadying arm around her while she hung on the ropes. When the color had returned to her face, and he could see she was taking some interest in the whitecaps skidding past them, he kissed the back of her neck.
“That’s how rumors are started,” Stephanie said.
“No one saw. I was very careful. And besides, rumors are started by Ace. I accidentally pulled your panties out of my pocket while I was giving him a lecture on morals last night.”
Her first reaction was surprise. She’d forgotten about the panties. And then her sense of the ridiculous took over. She tipped her head back and whooped with laughter.
Ivan pretended to look serious. “This is no laughing matter. My honor has been compromised.”
“Nonsense. Pirates are supposed to carry panties in their pockets.”
“How about your honor?”
Good question. She thought about it for a moment and decided her panties had a legitimate reason for being in his pocket, so her honor was untarnished. The only possible repercussion might be that her image was prematurely improved. And a new image was pretty much inevitable. She’d been contemplating a shift in outlook. Her attitudes about permissive sex hadn’t changed, but her qualifications for a partner had become more flexible. She had very special feelings for Ivan and wanted to explore those feelings further. She wasn’t ready to make a decision yet, but she felt certain she’d know when the time was right to sleep with a man, and it wouldn’t necessarily be the result of a marriage certificate.
She leaned back against the ropes and flashed him a brazen smile. “I’ll just look at this as a trial run to see if I like being a fallen woman.”
Ivan rested his head against hers and talked into her hair in the soft, rumbling voice that Stephanie had come to love. “Let me know what you decide.”
Stephanie felt her mind go slack for a moment, then pull back. He wasn’t just carelessly flirting anymore. He was making a serious overture at moving the boundaries of their relationship. And it was scary. She turned from him to give herself some space and studied the horizon.
Ivan pointed to a stretch of land dead ahead in the distance. “That’s Holbrook Island. Castine is almost due north on the mainland. I’m taking a more inland route for the rest of the trip so we can see the autumn foliage and have some protection from the storm.”
“Do you think the storm will be bad?”
“No. It’s veering out to sea, but it will make the water choppy for a few days.” He leaned back against the roof. “My great-great-grandfather sailed these waters in a schooner very much like the Savage. He transported lumber down the Penobscot River and throughout the bay. He’s one of my favorite ancestors. He was a little boring compared to some others, but I think he must have led a quality life. I know from his diary that he took the time to see the sun set, and he enjoyed his family, and he built Haben.”
Stephanie sat beside him, drawing her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “Would you rather be hauling lumber than human cargo?”
He grinned. “Hauling lumber sounds like a job, and I’m a bum at heart. This is like being on a continuous vacation.”
“What do you do in the winter?”
“Make repairs and improvements. Last winter I built the yawl.” And last spring I worked twelve hours a day in a shoe factory, he thought. Not a memory he cherished. He wasn’t a man who felt comfortable in large brick buildings. He hated ties, shaving, telephones, and pretty secretaries who called him Mr. Rasmussen.
A loud crash came from the galley. Stephanie and Ivan exchanged grimaces. A headful of blue-and-green hair popped out of the galley hatch, and Melody waved at Stephanie. “Don’t worry. Everything’s fine,” Melody called. “I think we can still eat the turkey.”
Stephanie waved back. “Keep up the good work.”
Ivan smiled at Stephanie. “Melody makes you look like Betty Crocker.”
“I feel as if I’m back doing police work.”
“Does it bother you to have Melody on board? I can make more of an effort to get rid of her-”
“No. She really wants to finish the cruise. She lied to Ace about her age. She’s only eighteen. Graduated from high school in June. But she was telling the truth about the band. She’s from Scranton, and I don’t think she saw too many options open to her. Her dad works in the mines, and her mother works as a grocery clerk. Several conservatories offered her a partial scholarship, but being on the road with a rock band sounded a lot more glamorous. From the way she’s clinging to this ship, I’d guess she was relieved when the bus broke.”
“You mean under all that blue-and-green hair we’ve got Julie Andrews?”
“Not exactly. Maybe Cher with a touch of Bette Midler and Shirley Temple.”
“So you think we should keep her, huh?”
Stephanie sighed. “I’m a real sucker, I know. She’s driving me nuts in the kitchen, but there’s this little-kid vulnerability to her. I’ve seen so many teenagers just like her. They get hurt and feel helpless, and they rebel. They go out looking for easy answers to hard problems.”
Ivan watched her, hoping she’d go on. He knew she was thinking about herself and her life as a cop. As a kid she’d probably taken in stray cats and rescued baby birds that had fallen from their nests. She was one of those people who stopped to remove turtles from the middle of the road and gave money to street people. And now she had another foundling, and it had to remind her of the life she’d tried to escape. “You’re not thinking of adopting her, are you?”
Stephanie laughed. “She’s too old to adopt, but I think I could share my fresh air with her for a while. Three months ago I couldn’t have managed it. It’s a little like looking in the rearview mirror and seeing where I’ve been-and deciding it wasn’t such an awful place. Not necessarily a place I’d want to return to, but a place I’m glad to have seen. And I’m a little shocked at how remote that previous life has become. I still have some bad dreams, and I haven’t entirely lost the wary attitude I developed after years of undercover work, but I’ve discovered the top layer of disgust and burnout has all peeled away.”
And a lot of it had happened since she came aboard the Savage, she thought. She was working hard, she was exhausted, and she was challenged. She liked the sea, the Savage, and everyone around her. She’d come to realize a lot about herself in the past two days. She wasn’t a loner type. She liked noise and people and hugs and kisses. She felt terrifically alive and self-indulgent.
There was another crash, and Stephanie winced. “I’d better get back to the galley.”
He held her wrist. “I’d like to continue our conversation later.”
Stephanie wondered which part of the conversation he wanted to continue and felt a twinge of panic.
“Uh-oh, you look like you need to be talked into this,” Ivan said, grinning. “Tell you what, if you come to my cabin at ten tonight, I’ll show you my gyroscope.”
“Gee, how could anyone refuse an offer like that?”
The sun was low, hidden behind a thick cloud cover when everyone sat down to the turkey dinner. The ship’s anchor had been dropped in a protected cove, and the Savage lay motionless as a fine rain pelted against the windows and roofs. The gray dreariness of the sea and sky made the interior of the ship seem rich with creature comforts and alive with the energy of its inhabitants. Every lantern had been lit in the forward cabin. The air was heavy with the smell of roast turkey and sage dressing, and conversation and laughter filled the room, rising and falling like the comforting slap of waves against the wooden hull. Stephanie took her place at the table and almost went faint at the sight of the feast she’d created. It was wonderful. All modesty aside, she didn’t think Lucy could have done a better job.