Secrets of the Realm Read Online Free

bottles. Before she could remove it to get a better look, Annie saw the door swing open.
    "Find anything to your liking, Annie?" Doc said as he shuffled in.
    "No." She quickly closed the cabinet. "Please, Doc, you can't call me Annie. If I am to have any chance of staying on this ship, you must call me Andrés"
    Doc waved his arms in the air. "This is my home. I will call you whatever I wish to call you in my home. Is that understood?"
    "Yes." Annie changed the subject. "What did you and the captain talk about?"
    "You, of course, his cabin boy."
    Goose bumps peaked on her arms.
    "The captain is allowing you to sleep here only until your infection is gone."
    "You didn't tell me I had an infection."
    "You don't, but I told him you did. I said you would never make it to the colonies if I didn't treat it vigorously."
    "I'm impressed that you convinced him."
    "Oh, I didn't convince him. He is suspicious, but since I have never caused him any trouble, he said he would indulge me in this bit of folly. But you are not to have a hammock."
    "It won't be the first time I have slept on the floor," Annie said. "I don't care if I have a hammock or not."
    "You should care. The captain doesn't want you to have a hammock, because that would be considered permanent. In the meantime, you will sleep on blankets on the floor. You will slide around when we are in rough seas. Not much we can do about that."
    "As long as I can stay here, that is all I care about," Annie said.
    "And once you are healed , Captain Hawke expects you to sleep in the fo'c'sle with the rest of the sailors."
    Annie couldn't help but utter a nervous giggle.
    "That will never happen. Perhaps, you would like to be a surgeon's mate." Seeing the confused look on her face, he added, "My assistant."
    Remembering the saw in the drawer, Annie shivered. "Thank you for wanting me to be your assistant, but I was hired on as a cabin boy. What will my duties be?"
    "You will bring Captain Hawke his meals, mine, too, clean up after him, like a manservant."
    Annie scrunched up her face. "I don't have to dress the gent, do I?"
    "He would box your ears if you tried."
    Her cheeks cooled.
    "Many of your duties won't involve the captain, like helping the ship's cook."
    "So, I'm to be a servant and a cook? I thought my life as a sailor would be more exciting?"
    "You are not a sailor yet. Just be grateful you have a place to stay."
    She ignored his rebuke. "I saw men climbing the masts. Now that would be exciting. I always liked climbing trees."
     "I hope you were good at it, because the captain is sending you aloft this afternoon with Christopher. He says he doesn't want you hidden away in the bowels of the ship like me." Doc pulled out a flask from his desk drawer and unscrewed the top. "I told him maybe he should make you a gunner's mate and then you could simply blow yourself up, a less painful death than falling off a mast."
    Annie's mouth went dry.
    "The captain's not a patient man." The creases in Doc's brow deepened. "Mustn't keep him waiting. Off with you now."

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    While Annie stood outside Captain Hawke's cabin, the soft rumblings of her stomach became insistent roars. She began to tremble. Whether it was from hunger or nervousness, she didn't know. Annie grasped the door handle for support. Her knuckles barely made a sound when she knocked on the door.
    No answer. She rapped harder.
    "Come in."
    The captain's voice didn't sound inviting, she thought. Annie opened the door. She took several halting steps into the cabin before her eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed on the Turkish rug.
    In her dreamlike state, she heard an unfamiliar name called. She heard it again, this time louder.
    "Andrés!"
    A sharp slap to her uninjured cheek followed. Her head flopped to one side. An even harder slap stung the same cheek. "Leave me alone," was what she wanted to say, but she could only moan.
    Annie heard retreating footsteps and then quicker ones returning. She remained