Page 22 of Escaping Pirates (Legends of Neverland #4)
“It’s stuck in some kind of rut,” Harlan said, withdrawing his arm and massaging his shoulder. “My legs are longer, hold on.”
He sat and tried to extend his leg through, but the bars were close enough together that he could only go up to mid-thigh, which was almost close enough, but not quite.
“Are any of the bars loose like the one between our cells?” I asked.
He tried all of them, but again, fortune was against us. Harlan heaved a sigh of frustration. I stared at the bottle. If only Harlan’s legs were thinner…
“Move this bar,” I told Harlan, tapping on the loose bar between our cells.
“I don’t think the bar will come out,” he said, wrenching the bottom of the loose bar to the side. “The top is still stuck fast.”
“I know, but I can get through.”
Once the bar was moved, I squeezed through the gap, noticing that it was significantly easier than the first time I’d tried. How much weight had I lost ?
“My legs are smaller than yours,” I explained. “I might be able to reach it.”
I didn’t even bother getting up off the ground.
I simply pivoted my body around, spinning on my backside, and edged my leg into the next cell.
After a moment’s thought, I pulled my leg back and whipped off my shoe and stocking, praying that my feet didn’t stink.
I might only have one chance at this; I couldn’t blow it by not being able to feel the bottle through my shoes.
“Okay, I can do this,” I said, more to myself than to Harlan, sticking my leg back through the bars. Harlan quickly turned to look the other way as my skirts were hiked up past my thighs, but my leg fit and my toes could just barely reach the far side of the bottle.
“I can feel it,” I whispered gleefully. My entire face screwed up with the effort, but I finally managed to dislodge the bottle from the recess in the floor and roll it back toward the bars by me.
“I got it!” It was a struggle to keep my voice down. I grabbed the bottle before it could get away again, and Harlan held out a hand to help me up from the floor. Once I was raised up to stand, my breath caught. The cell seemed much smaller when I was face to face with Harlan.
“You’re amazing,” he told me softly.
We couldn’t get distracted, not right now. “Let’s see how amazing you are at throwing this time,” I teased, handing over the bottle.
He stared at it. “What if I miss again?”
I placed my hand against his chest. “You won’t.”
“But if I do?”
“Then we’ll figure it out. But I think you can.”
Harlan locked his jaw, stared out the porthole, and inhaled deeply. He stuck his arm back through the bars, swung the bottle a few times, then released.
It was a clean shot.
The bottle sailed directly out the window, and there was a faint splash.
“You did it!” I did my best to keep my voice low, but I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. I flung my arms around Harlan’s neck, and a moment later, he wrapped his arms around my waist and picked me up, twirling me around several times.
This was true happiness.
“You did it,” I said again, breathless with joy.
“We did it,” he corrected me, finally setting me down, but he didn’t release me, and I didn’t let go of my hold around his neck.
We were so close that I could feel his body heat warming the small amount of air between us.
The ship creaked around us, water lapping at the hull like the world was holding its breath.
I looked up. His gaze was on my mouth, just for a second. Just enough to make my pulse trip and any semblance of a rational thought to flee.
“Harlan…”
His fingers brushed against my back, running up and down my spine so lightly that I had to focus to feel it.
I didn’t pull away.
“Elena, when we get out of here, I’d like to see you again, and I don’t mean as just a friend. Here, this is for you.” He pulled out a paper from his back pocket and pressed it into my hand.
It was difficult to read it while standing so close to Harlan, but I didn’t want to move away. I wanted him to hold me forever, so tightly that I would feel safe and protected for the rest of eternity .
I unfolded the paper and held it close to the lantern.
Elena,
I hope you’ll forgive me for writing this on the same parchment I’m supposed to be using for a love letter to Sugar or Blossom. The irony doesn’t escape me. I’m expected to pour out my affections to them when the only person I can think about is you.
Every time I’m made to dance with one of them, I keep wishing you would take their place. You’d probably trip on purpose just to make me laugh. You have the incredible ability to find humor when there shouldn’t be any, and I admire that quality more than you know. It keeps me sane.
Blossom would want sonnets and metaphors that make no sense, but if I’m going to write something honest, it won’t be for them. It’s for you. You’re clever and funny, and strong in ways no one on this ship seems to recognize—but I do.
And I want you to trust that I will get us out of this. Somehow, some way. And when we’re standing under open sky again, not behind bars or beneath sails, we’ll write our own story. One where no one gets to decide what we say or who we say it to.
—Harlan
“Harlan,” I breathed. The raw ache in my chest intensified. My fingers lifted to caress his face. “That was beautiful.”
“Of course it was. You inspired it.” Harlan leaned forward. “I really like you, Elena.”
“I feel the same way about you,” I whispered. There was so much more I wanted to share with Harlan. So much more I wanted to know about him. But right now, I couldn’t ask him any questions. I couldn’t talk any longer. I just wanted him to kiss me.
What did I have to lose? My time aboard the Kraken’s Revenge had taught me that life was too short to live without joy, and kissing Harlan would be joyful.
I tilted my face upward.
A loud banging from just beyond the brig door made both of us leap in fright and spring away from each other. Terrified that someone was about to come in, I scrambled back into my own cell and Harlan wrenched the bar back into place.
We stayed in our respective cells, panting hard, but no one came into the brig.
“I think it was just a barrel falling or something,” Harlan said after a minute.
I held my hand to my heart, which was still racing. “I dub it the most frightening barrel in the world. I nearly jumped out of my skin.”
“It had terrible timing.”
“I agree. Then again, most things on this ship are terrible—other than you, that is.” I tucked Harlan’s letter safely into my bodice. I would carry it with me always. “Tomorrow’s the day.”
“Tomorrow.”
I lay down and stared up at the ceiling. “Goodnight, neighbor. It was nice to get the full tour of your manor house and receive my letter. The mail carrier never visits my estate.”
A small smile ghosted across his lips. “Goodnight, Elena. You’re always welcome to visit.”
The next morning, the shore took up most of the horizon as the sun rose. Harlan was called to have breakfast with Sugar and Blossom, and for once, Blossom offered to have me join them, saying that I’d done such a good job with the soot mess the day before that I had earned a reward.
Each of them took a hold of one of Harlan’s arms as he walked them back to their quarters with me trailing behind, but then Harlan dropped Sugar’s arm so he could open the door for them.
“Daddy told me I should think of others,” Sugar informed me once we were inside, offering me a slice of bread slathered in jam. “Would you like some tea?”
“Yes, thank you,” I told her, surprised at her thoughtfulness.
The idea of going ashore must have put both her and Blossom in an unusually good mood.
They smiled and chatted away, talking about their plans for once they got to port while Harlan and I quietly ate our breakfast, nodding our agreement to anything Sugar and Blossom said.
The rolling waves became soothing the longer the girls talked, and even though it was still morning, I found my eyelids getting heavy.
Each thought became increasingly sluggish as I struggled to fight off the insistent slumber.
Sugar and Blossom would be angry if I neglected my duties. I mustn’t sleep, I mustn’t.
My head rolled, and the last thought before I lost consciousness was that Sugar and Blossom had never taken a single sip of the tea.