Page 22 of Hooked by a Hero (Tales from the Brotherhood #4)

The Fortune stood in what Elias figured was the same spot out on a shoal where it had run aground during the storm.

It was difficult to tell, but it appeared to be completely stationary.

Surely, if it had not run aground in some way, the remnants of the storm would have blown it away or sunk it entirely.

“Is it still seaworthy?” Ruby asked, squinting into the morning light. “Can it be saved so that it might take us on to, well, anywhere?”

“Likely not as it is,” Hunt said. “I may only be a ship’s surgeon, but I’ve sailed on many voyages over the years.

I’ve heard stories of ships that have wrecked, stranding their passengers and crews on islands such as this one.

There were enough survivors that they were able to rescue the stores from the ship, then salvage what was left and build a new boat to take them on to their intended destination. ”

“Bermuda,” Mr. Woburn, said, coming up behind them. Elias was relieved to see that the sensitive young man had survived the storm. “That is how the colony of Bermuda was founded.”

“Was it?” Ruby asked, raising a hand to her forehead to ward off the sun and blinking at him.

“Yes,” Woburn went on excitedly. “Those people were sailing for America, but their ship wrecked in a storm off of the island of Bermuda. Nearly all of them survived to make it to land, and they remained there, living off the bounty of the island, while the ship’s carpenter and crew salvaged what they could from their ship to build a new one that took them on to their destination. ”

“And how long did it take to build a new ship?” Hunt asked.

Woburn looked a bit crestfallen. “Two years, I believe.”

“Two years?” Ruby exclaimed. “Can we survive on this island for two years?”

They all turned away from the sea and looked inland. The jungle-like vegetation suddenly seemed foreign and foreboding instead of sunny and paradisal.

“There has to be a source of fresh water somewhere,” Elias said. “Otherwise, there would not be so many palm trees and other plants.”

“True,” Ruby said, her shoulders dropping. “And I am quite certain I heard wild animals in the underbrush during the night. They could not survive without fresh water.”

“An astute deduction, my dear,” Hunt said, smiling at Ruby.

“If they can survive, then we can survive,” Caspian said, his confidence seeming to grow by the moment. “And the ocean itself is a bounty of fish, shellfish, and seaweed, all of which are delicious.”

Elias’s suspicions about Caspian flared once more, but there was no time to do anything about them. “We need to find fresh water, first and foremost,” he said.

“Brunning and a few others have already gone to look,” Hunt said. “We might want to gather the others, take stock of who and what we have, and decide how to proceed from there.”

“Agreed,” Elias said.

Their little group broke up as they moved back to the line where the beach met the vegetation to see to the others.

Everyone who had made it to the island seemed to be in reasonable condition, though they were all stunned to one degree or another.

Lady Adelaide was in tears, though the morning had hardly begun, but had Mr. Cartwright to keep her company.

Cartwright had one arm looped around her back as they sat on a fallen tree trunk, staring at the sea.

Elias was pleased to see that all the ladies from the ship had survived the ordeal.

Miss Winters and Emily were already at work.

With the practical ingenuity that women always seemed to have, they had gathered sticks, logs, and dead leaves and were attempting to start a fire in a hollowed-out pit of sand.

The storm had left their materials too damp to easily start said fire, but at least they were attempting it.

Brunning and the others who had gone in search of water returned roughly half an hour later with several carefully balanced leaf baskets filled with water.

“It isn’t much, but I can report that there is a spring about a quarter of a mile inland,” Brunning said, offering the water they found to the ladies first.

“Half a mile?” Ruby asked as the two dozen or so survivors gathered around the firepit to hear what Brunning’s crew had discovered. “Is the island that large?”

“It’s larger still than that,” Brunning reported with cautious confidence. “And it’s filled with a bounty that should be able to sustain us for some time.”

Elias was more relieved than he could say. “We must be cautious in exploring the island’s interior,” he said. “It may give us food and water enough to survive, but it is likely filled with venomous creatures or poisonous plants as well.”

He meant his words to be a valuable caution, but Lady Adelaide burst into tears all over again.

“We should be safe as long as we keep mostly to the shore and remain aware of our surroundings,” Elias continued, hoping to soothe her.

“We still have the ship as well,” Brunning went on, nodding out to the stationary form of the Fortune in the distance. “And we have four of the lifeboats.”

“We can row back to the ship and salvage its food and water supplies,” Woburn said excitedly.

He was not the only one who seemed enthusiastic about the prospect of playing castaway.

“I cannot think of a better situation for all of us to find ourselves in, given the circumstances,” Caspian said, as if nothing at all were out of the ordinary for him. “We have the island, the ship, and the sea. We could build an entire life here and be quite content.”

A few of the others, including Elias, glanced at him, far less certain than he sounded. Yet again, Elias wondered what sort of home Caspian came from that he could see the predicament they found themselves in as something happy and sustainable.

“I volunteer to lead an expedition back to the ship,” Brunning said, raising his hand. “At the very least, if the ship itself is not salvageable, we should be able to bring barrels and tools and other things ashore that will make it easier for us to sustain ourselves.”

“I will come with you,” Caspian volunteered right away.

Elias’s heart caught in his throat, and he reached for Caspian’s hand before he could think better of it.

After fearing he had lost Caspian to the cruel caprice of Tumbrill and Dick, he was not ready to be parted from his beloved just yet.

But Caspian was more natural on and in the sea, and if anyone would be useful rowing back out to the wreck, it would be him.

“I can stay on land and begin organizing efforts to build sturdier shelters and to find more water,” Elias said.

“It is settled, then,” Hunt said, taking charge as if he’d been appointed their governor. “We will split our efforts to do what is necessary to sustain ourselves in the short term and to prepare for a longer term.”

“If we can start this fire,” Miss Winters said, “the smoke might alert another passing ship to our presence.”

Elias nodded at her. “Very true. And you can manage this on your own?”

Miss Winters looked to Emily and then to Ruby. All three nodded, though they still looked weary and worried.

“Very good,” Elias smiled at them.

He then turned to walk along the beach to where the lifeboats had been pulled up into the surf the night before. Brunning had already selected one that would be easiest to push back into the water and rowed to the Fortune . He and half a dozen others were preparing for that mission.

“You look concerned,” Caspian said before Elias could express his thoughts.

“I am deeply concerned,” he confessed in a quiet voice.

He and Caspian were close enough to one of the other lifeboats that, after searching around to be certain none of the others were watching him, he grasped Caspian’s hand and pulled him into the shade of that boat, hoping it would conceal them for a moment.

“I have never found myself in this sort of predicament before,” he said in a near whisper, even though the constant rush of waves against the shore covered their words.

Caspian grinned and rested a hand on Elias’s shoulder. “I have not been in this exact situation before, but I’ve survived on an island such as this once or twice in the past.”

Elias frowned slightly. “That is precisely what I mean,” he whispered. “I do not know who you are, Caspian.”

Caspian’s smile vanished into worry and longing, but Elias went on before he could say anything.

“I do not care for you any less because you are an utter mystery to me,” he said, taking Caspian’s hand, “but I know you are hiding things from me. Crucial things. Essential things.”

Caspian’s expression said everything as he lowered his head, then peeked at Elias through his long lashes. “I do not know how to explain what you want to know,” he said. “I…I fear that the truth would change everything.”

“It would not,” Elias insisted. “It could never change the way I have come to feel about you or the way I?—”

“Caspian!” Brunning’s shout interrupted them. “Are you coming?”

They both turned to find that Brunning’s efforts to dislodge the lifeboat from the sandy shallows had been successful far faster than any of them would have imagined.

“Coming!” Caspian called out. He stepped away from Elias, but turned back and said, “We will discuss this when I return.”

Elias smiled uncertainly and watched his sweetheart dash out through the surf to join the others climbing into the lifeboat.

He certainly hoped they would discuss it and bring the truth to light soon.

He wasn’t certain how much longer he could go on just guessing at the strangeness that seemed to surround Caspian.