Maybe it was the ocean, or the salt breeze on her skin. Or reminded that in games of flirtation, she could not compete with this man. But this time she did not feel self-conscious. He was watching her intently, his every attention on her words, her face. “I can almost imagine the mast breaking through to the heavens.”
“This has to be why the Greeks and Romans devised such fanciful tales of the gods,” she murmured. It was amazingly tall, stabbing the night so majestically she almost thought it could pierce the sky. Poppy walked on, a few steps ahead of the captain, craning her neck to look up the length of one of the masts. Or was it the science of sailing? She didn’t know. She could not imagine how long it took to truly master the art of sailing. Even the items she thought she knew well-ropes, for example-were being used differently than she was used to. She had seen only one small portion of the ship, and already there were so many unfamiliar mechanisms and gadgets. “I see,” she murmured, although in truth she did not. The ropes that do move-or rather, the ones we move in order to control the sails-are called the running rigging.” “The standing rigging refers to the ropes that do not generally move. “As opposed to the running rigging,” he told her. Yet another nautical term she did not know. They are part of the standing rigging, used to support the mast from side to side.” She touched the ropes, marveling at the strength and thickness of the fibers. “It’s called a shroud,” he said, smiling at her impatience. He wore a cheeky grin on his face, making it clear he’d said that to needle her. She smacked his shoulder, and not lightly.
She turned back to Captain James, and he said, “Rope.” She tugged her hand free and touched what looked like a lattice of ropes-something she might have tried to climb when she was a child.Īctually, she’d try to climb it now, except that it didn’t look like it was meant for such a thing.
“What is this?” she asked, just steps into the open air. They emerged into a covered area, and he took her hand again to guide her forward.īut Poppy was not so easily led. “After you.”Īfter they exited the cabin, she followed him up the short flight of stairs to the deck.
“You will certainly need them on deck,” he said. She nodded eagerly, took a step, and then grinned so suddenly it took her by surprise. The captain’s voice wiggled its way into her thoughts, and she blinked, trying to remember what she’d been talking about.
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