Sea Change Read Free Page B

laboring forever!" Elizabeth Denham moaned.
    "Your contractions will start to come closer together, as we discussed they would. Now, you lie back and try to rest. Conserve your strength for you have a hard task ahead. I will return shortly."
    Charley stepped out of the cabin and stretched with her hands at the base of her spine, easing the kinks in her back. She knew the babe wasn't going to emerge in the next fifteen minutes, so this was an opportune time for her to use the head and maybe get a cup of tea from the galley.
    When she came above, the only sign that dawn had broken was a shift in the light filtering through the fog, but the gray shroud still covered the Lady Jane. Captain Denham was pacing the deck anxiously, and rushed over when he saw Charley.
    "Elizabeth! What-- How--?"
    "Your wife is well, Captain, and all is progressing as it should."
    "That's good," Denham said in relief, then looked out over water that appeared as bleak and washed out as the mist engulfing them. Droplets of moisture clung to his salt-and-pepper beard and beaded on his shoulders. He lowered his voice. "This damned fog has cut us off from contact with the other vessels. Do not tell Elizabeth."
    "Of course not. She has enough on her mind."
    "I can take a moment to visit with her," Denham said heartily. "That will cheer her."
    Before Charley could stop him he was headed down to his cabin, and she followed behind.
    "I am not sure this is a good idea, Captain. Ladies in Elizabeth's state are not always themselves--"
    But it was too late. Captain Denham threw open the door of the cabin and started to say, "My darling Eliz--"
    "You!"
    His darling Elizabeth was sitting up in the bunk, clutching her belly, glaring at her husband. Lank strands of sweat-dampened hair fell across her face and she looked like a serpent-haired Fury come to deliver retribution.
    And she knew just who to deliver it to.
    "You!" She snarled again, pointing a shaking finger at her husband. "You did this to me, you--"
    And then Captain Denham's demure and shy wife demonstrated exactly how well her vocabulary had been broadened by contact with the Lady Jane's sailors. She ended with a description of what she was going to do to her husband's private parts so that he would never be able to put her in this position again.
    Charley escorted a white-faced Captain Denham from the cabin.
    "Pay it no mind, Captain. Women in the midst of labor will say all sorts of things they do not mean."
    "You don't think she really means it?"
    "Wellll, she does mean it now, but once she's holding her babe she will forget she ever said these things to you."
    Mr. Stuart was calling for the captain, so Charley clapped him on the back, said, "Buck up, sir, this will soon be over," and returned to her patient.
    The contractions were gaining in intensity and Charley monitored Mrs. Denham, even as she heard the noise and commotion increase abovedecks.
    One of the ship's boys threw the door open to reveal the news.
    "Pirates! There are pirates, Doctor! The captain says to stay below while he talks to them!"
    "What else am I going to do?" Charley said in asperity. "We are busy here, Lawton. Your job is to keep pirates--and anyone else--out of this cabin."
    Mrs. Denham moaned, but Charley gave her a brief smile.
    "Do not fear, Mrs. Denham. I know your husband will not do anything to put your life at risk."
    The contractions were close now. Mrs. Denham was propped up against the bulkhead, and Charley was between her legs letting nature take its course. There was no more gunfire, but she could hear yelling and feet thundering through the lower decks.
    "Won't be long now," Charley said cheerfully.
    "That's what you said earlier, you pox-ridden bastard!" Mrs. Denham gritted from between her teeth, arching her back as the next contraction came.
    "No, do not push! Not until I tell you to!"
    The cabin door burst open.
    "Are you the surgeon?"
    Charley glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of a tall, masked