Page 26 of Hooked by a Hero (Tales from the Brotherhood #4)
He finished dressing, brushed his already overlong hair, then stepped over to the hut’s door, which had been woven from palm fronds found nearer to the beach.
It was affixed to the doorway with bits of rope taken from the ship, and as soon as Elias untied the part he considered the lock, it swung open.
“Perhaps we could venture out around the island today ourselves,” he suggested. “There are so many parts of our new home that have yet to be explored and mapped. We could find a cozy quay apart from the others where we might enjoy each other’s company more fully for a few days.”
Caspian’s smile grew broad and tempting. “Perhaps we could,” he said.
Elias’s heart skipped a beat, and even though he’d found satisfaction just a short time before, his cock was in danger of filling again. He winked at Caspian, then stepped out of the hut and into the fresh, morning light, putting the door back into place behind him.
It was utterly mad, but Elias was filled with pride and promise at the sight of the camp he and the other survivors had built in just a short time. He breathed in deep lungfuls of fresh, tropical air and stepped away from the hut.
In the first few days after landing on the island, as soon as the freshwater spring had been discovered, the survivors had decided to build their settlement not on the beach, where they would be able to see the wreck of the Fortune , but a quarter of a mile inland, surrounding the spring.
They had spent the last fortnight with one crew clearing the area and building the huts, which still had a great deal of construction left on them before they could be considered permanent, and another crew making multiple daily trips out to the Fortune to bring back supplies that would be useful in making their new home as comfortable and secure as possible.
They still had a very long way to go to reach comfort.
The huts looked more like haphazard piles of crates and debris than homes, though Mr. Salisbury had been hard at work sourcing and cutting down trees that were suitable for creating logs to build sturdier houses with.
He was only one man working alone, however, because at present, every other set of hands was required at some other task.
That reminded Elias that his primary occupation on the island since their arrival had been surveying the island’s flora to catalog and retrieve any medicinal plants the survivors might need, and treating everything from insect bites to sunburn to minor injuries sustained in the course of the others’ endeavors.
He’d even had to find a way to heal a particularly nasty scorpion sting that he’d very much feared would take Mr. Unger’s life the week before.
Unger had pulled through, but they’d all learned to be a great deal more careful when walking through thick undergrowth.
Elias had left his medicinal basket, which Lady Adelaide had kindly woven for him from palm fronds, inside the hut. He turned back to retrieve it, pushing aside the hut’s door.
The sight that met him when he caught Caspian unawares inside had Elias’s heart pounding and senses bristling.
Caspian had shucked his trousers and stood fully naked beside the barrel holding the washbasin.
His form was as beautiful and muscular as Elias had always imagined it would be, and that he’d been able to feel through the fabric of Caspian’s trousers.
What came as a completely unexpected shock was the fact that Caspian’s legs were covered nearly completely with vibrant tattoos in the form of fish scales.
Caspian gasped and jerked, moving like he would hide himself, his eyes going wide.
“I beg your pardon,” Elias stammered, falling back onto politeness that had been drilled into him from an early age.
He hurried out of the hut, making certain the door slipped into place behind him, then turned and walked swiftly toward the spring, putting as much distance as he could between himself and his beloved.
Was that what Caspian had been trying to hide from him all this time?
Extensive tattoos? Tattoos were not entirely abnormal in England, but ones of that extent and so expertly done might have been.
He had long suspected that Caspian was part of some distant, foreign, and perhaps unique culture that inhabited the islands somewhere far from what he considered civilization.
That culture clearly worshiped the sea in some way.
Were the tattoos a symbol of that way of life?
“Dr. Pettigrew! Dr. Pettigrew!” Lady Adelaide’s cry snapped Elias’s attention from his thoughts.
He turned to find the distraught young woman racing toward him from the path that had been constructed leading to the beach.
She wore one of her dresses, which had been recovered from the wreck, and Elias had it on good authority from Ruby that she was greatly relieved not to have to dress like a boy any longer.
Ruby herself, of course, continued to dress in trousers.
“Dr. Pettigrew! You must come quickly,” Lady Adelaide said, out of breath, as she reached Elias. “There is something on the horizon.”
Every other thought flew from Elias’s head. “At sea?” he asked, launching into motion and following Lady Adelaide as she turned around and started along the path to the beach once more.
“It must be,” she said. “I had gone to the beach at dawn to reignite our signal fire, as it was my turn this morning. Once that was finished, I stayed behind to enjoy one of the fruits I was able to pick from those trees near the beach. I was gazing out over the ocean, attempting to appreciate the beauty of our new home, when I saw the dark shape moving across the waters.”
They were at the edge of the encampment when Brunning emerged from his hut to ask, “What is the matter?”
“Lady Adelaide thinks she has spotted a ship on the horizon,” Elias informed him.
Brunning hissed something under his breath that was likely entirely inappropriate for a lady to hear, then ducked back into his hut.
Elias continued on with Lady Adelaide, and a minute or so later, they were joined on the path by Brunning, who carried the captains’ spyglass from the Fortune .
“It would be a lucky thing if we were to be rescued so soon after landing here,” Brunning said in a tone that indicated he was trying not to get his hopes up.
“So soon?” Lady Adelaide exclaimed, falling a bit behind the men. “We have been here for what seems like an age.”
Elias felt sorry for Lady Adelaide, but he had no time to indulge her. They rushed the rest of the way to the beach, and once there, he asked Lady Adelaide to point out where she had seen the ship on the horizon.
“I believe it was that way,” she said, pointing out to a spot several degrees to the right of where the Fortune continued to sit listing on its sandy shoal.
Brunning raised his spyglass and looked out, but as soon as he did, Lady Adelaide bit her lip, made an anxious sound, then said, “Or perhaps it was farther over that way.” She pointed in the opposite direction.
“Thank you for being so observant, Lady Adelaide,” Elias said gently to the distraught woman to cover up Brunning’s sigh of irritation.
They were all silent for a moment as they scanned the empty horizon. Brunning kept the spyglass to his eye, but as the silence dragged on, Elias was certain Brunning could not see anything any more than he could with his naked eye.
“Something moved, I swear it,” Lady Adelaide said. “I am not going mad already.”
“I am quite certain you are perfectly sane,” Elias reassured her. “With so many waves and shadows on the ocean, it is very possible you saw something. We merely need to ascertain what it was.”
“It could have been a whale,” Brunning said, lowering the spyglass and giving up his search.
He stared at Elias as if he wished to say more.
“Perhaps we should return to the encampment to share our morning repast with the others and to alert them to what you have seen,” Elias said.
“Yes,” Lady Adelaide said with an uncertain frown. “I know I saw something.”
“I’ve no doubt you did,” Elias said, offering his arm to escort her back as if they were in London.
Lady Adelaide declined his arm, choosing to walk ahead of them so that she might return to the camp and her friends as swiftly as possible. Brunning reached out to tug Elias’s sleeve indicating that he should hang back a bit.
“I’ve no doubt Lady Adelaide saw something,” he murmured to Elias as they walked. “I fear what that something might be.”
Elias frowned, wondering if Brunning shared the same suspicions. “Tumbrill, Dick, and the others?” he suggested.
“Could be,” Brunning said with a nod. “There’s no guarantee their lot all perished in the wreck.
You’ve noticed that not a one of the men loyal to Tumbrill found their way into our camp.
Surely, if Tumbrill had all merely perished, one or two of his followers would be groveling at our feet and begging us to take them in. ”
“I have noticed,” Elias said.
“They must be out there,” Brunning said. “They’ve got the other two lifeboats. They could be making trips out to the Fortune at night, when our lot aren’t there.”
“It’s possible,” Elias said, rubbing the bottom half of his face with a frown. “We need to find out for certain.”
“We need to find them,” Brunning agreed, “before they find us.”