It was nearly a week after we'd set sail that the young nobleman who actually commanded my bunkmates approached me on deck. By that time I knew who he was. I'd seen him watching me while i was bent over the rail of the ship several times, but aside from showing me that curtain the first night, he'd never gotten within ten feet of me, much less started a conversation.
Jona didn't look that much older than I was, really, a lot younger than the men he was supposed to be in charge of, and if he'd acted like that back in the tavern, I'd have supposed it was all about him being shy around girls, but my friend Kevin said he had a way with the ladies, which struck me as odd. He still seemed a little nervous as he came up to me that morning, but I did see, as soon as he flashed a smile at me, how a girl could fall for him.
"Good morning Fiona" he said, "it seems you're getting your sea legs finally."
"Yes sir," I replied with a tentative smile. I was feeling better, but didn't want to push my luck by bragging about it.
After that, we talked for awhile, about the ship, Alcatia, and himself. He was some sort of minor nobleman, a third son who'd gotten a commission with the guard and was making a career out of it. I liked him at once, because he looked me in the eyes and spoke nicely and freely about himself, and when we got around to talking about me, he didn't seem judgmental or patronizing.
He asked a lot of questions about me, and not so much about the battle, which was nice, because that still made me uncomfortable. Then he asked me if the men were behaving themselves and I told him they were. He seemed a little surprised, and then, I got the feeling I put my big old foot in my mouth when I said it didn't bother me to sleep in the room with the men.
As I explained why, on account of knowing how men are, he seemed to get nervous again, and then, when I told him how I wasn't afraid of even the lot of them, he didn’t seem to believe me although he changed the subject quickly enough, which I was more than fine with on a beautiful sunny day.
I started to think of mornings as our special time after that. By the time the sun came up, I was usually more than ready to stretch after being cooped up all night and Jona even brought me breakfast sometimes, which I really liked. I’m a big girl with a big appetite, and I'd spent the last week or so losing every bite of food I'd consumed.
With the benefit of years of experience, I see that Jona was doing his job, making sure that his cargo and his men were safe. I'm sure he didn't mind that his cargo was a young girl busting out of a small dress, as well, but I didn't see the duty side of what he was doing at all at the time.
In fact, there was a great deal more to Jona that I didn't appreciate at the time. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I suppose, the import of this part of my story was that I felt like I'd made a friend, and not just a drinking buddy, which more aptly summed up my relationship with his men.
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