Her eyes were wide and shocked, ”Torture?“
”Torture,“ I said. ”Don’t be naive. Take a look at Louis, for a practical illustration of what happens to people who know things other people want to know.“
”But-“
”Your daddy has some very special information,“ I said, ”and I happen to be connected with a government agency that has aroused a lot of curiosity over there. They had a lady scheduled to take the trip voluntarily, but she died. Well, you know. You were at the motel that night.“
Teddy glanced at me. ”Did you really kill her, Matt?“
”Let’s not go into that,“ I said. ”It’s complicated and irrelevant. Anyway, I’ve been drafted as a replacement. I’m sure there are long lists of questions just waiting to be asked both Dr. Michaelis and me, and all kinds of fancy drugs and devices to make sure we’re properly co-operative.“
Teddy licked her lips, looking up at me. ”But-but I don’t know anything!“ she cried. ”What do they want with me?“
”Well, you annoyed Mrs. Rosten,“ I said. ”You were a contributing factor in getting her all wet, remember. And then you had the bad judgment to show up just at sailing time; and as I told you, your daddy knows something quite important; and one of the best ways to get information out of a stubborn man is to go to work on somebody he happens to be very fond of.“
”You mean-you mean they’d hurt me just to get him to talk?“ She glanced at me, and looked away. ”I’m sorry. That’s a pretty selfish attitude, I guess. I just-i’ve never been in anything like this before.“
I helped her out of the head, wishing she wouldn’t keep showing flashes of something kind of honest and likable. I mopped some blood off the cabin floor and helped her get settled there with a pillow, since she didn’t want to share the bed with Louis, who was breathing in a funny way and showed no signs of regaining consciousness. I tried to make myself comfortable, sitting on the dresser. It was the only vacant space left. From there, I could look out through the cabin porthole, but the only view was of white-topped waves that occasionally washed up against the glass.
They got higher as the afternoon passed, and the motion got more violent. I wasn’t surprised when at last Teddy got up quickly and vanished into the head. After all, she’d already done it once; she’d have it in mind. She came out looking pale and miserable and curled up with her pillow, but presently she had to rush in there again. This time she stayed so long I finally went in after her.
She was really in bad shape, too sick to give a damn about the humiliation of having me see her and help her. It was a long nightmare afternoon, and it didn’t get much better after it turned into night, with Louis making strange breathing noises in the berth and the kid deathly seasick in the john. It didn’t seem quite fair. What I was going to do to Michaelis was bad enough without my having to prepare for it by holding his little girl’s head and wiping her chin.
I got her out of the head at last, and she was curled up on the floor, moaning, a small, bedraggled ball of misery, when the motion of the schooner changed quite perceptibly. I switched off the electric light by the dresser and looked out through the porthole. Out in the darkness, the waves, that had been marching off at an angle to the schooner’s course, were moving right along with us; we’d changed direction. There were footsteps overhead, and the sounds of ropes being hauled through blocks. I slid off the dresser and bent over the kid.
”Snap out of it, Teddy,“ I said. ”Something’s happening. Brief me.“
I had to shake her a couple of times before she’d let me help her to her feet. She looked out the porthole and listened. ”We’re heading straight down wind,“ she said. ”I think we’re about to jibe.“
”Isn’t that dangerous?“
I’d seen it happen on a small scale, years ago, when one of our group had accidentally jibed a twenty-five-footer in training. The guy had been careless, the wind had got behind the mainsail, and the boom-a toothpick compared to the Freya’s massive spar-had slashed across the cockpit like a scythe; in an instant, the boat had been lying flat on its side, half full of water.
Teddy laughed at me. She seemed to be feeling better, suddenly; perhaps because the motion had lessened, now that we were running straight before the wind.
”Oh, an uncontrolled jibe could dismast the ship, but with that woman at the wheel and Nick to handle the main sheet and backstays-“
”What’s a sheet? I forget.“
She glanced at me over her shoulder. ”You don’t really know very much, do you?“
I said, ”I haven’t been puking all over the damn boat, either, small stuff. Let’s not get into a comparison of our seagoing abilities, huh? What’s a sheet?“
”The main sheet is the line-rope to you-controlling the mainsail.“ Her voice was stiff. ”To jibe under control, or wear ship as they used to call it, Nick’s got to get the sail sheeted flat aft so it can’t swing, and the starboard backstay set up taut; then Mrs. Rosten will bring the stern through the wind… There!“
There was a lurch, and I felt the schooner heel over to the left-excuse me, to port. Above us, blocks squealed and spars creaked; the whole ship seemed to sigh, taking the strain of the masts and rigging a different way.
”Now we’re on the starboard track,“ the kid said. ”Nick’s cast off the port backstay and is slacking off on the mainsheet… You didn’t have to say that!“
”Say what?“
She turned to face me. I could see her vaguely in the yellow glow from the bathroom, where the light was still on. She had a pale, rumpled, wrung-outlook; but she was focusing again. Her voice was shrill.
”Just because I don’t have the stomach of a goat, like some people!“
”Easy, kid,“ I said. ”I didn’t mean-“
”Don’t call me kid,“ she gasped. ”I’m twenty-two years old and I’m not a kid and I know you think I’m an absolute fool, the way I’ve behaved. Theodora the Terrible, the ruthless murderess who can’t bear the thought of blood, the irresistible siren who doesn’t really want to be touched, the nautical expert who can’t even keep her lunch down when it blows. Well, how would you like to be a cute little female Tom Thumb all your life? I’m not a toy, damn it, I’m a person; but try to make people believe it! Just try!“ She drew a long, ragged breath. ”Here we go again!“
There was again that odd stillness as the schooner came dead before the wind, and the lurch as the sails swung across and filled on the new tack.
”We must be maneuvering inshore,“ Teddy said. Her voice was suddenly calm again. She looked out. ”I can’t see anything. I bet they’re sweating up there, just the two of them, working a boat this size in shallow water. I hope that woman knows what she’s doing. If she puts us aground in this wind, she’ll break the ship in two. We’d drown in here before anybody-Matt,“ she whispered, turning. ”Matt, I’m sorry. Be nice to me. I’m so damn scared!“
It was the moment for me to take her into my arms and smooth the matted fair hair back from her small face and kiss her and tell her everything was going to be all right, even if I didn’t mean it. It was what she wanted me to do, and I was damned if I’d do it. She at least could have stayed sick; she didn’t have to get up and explain her lousy little psyche to me, as if I cared.
Abruptly, the schooner turned left for what seemed an hour, leaning over hard; then it came upright. The sound of flapping canvas reached us from above. I looked at Teddy.
”We’ve rounded up into the wind,“ she said. Her voice was strained. ”They must be-taking somebody on board.“
Something thumped against the side of the ship. We heard footsteps overhead. Suddenly Robin Rosten’s voice was speaking in the passageway.