Sail With Me (A Discovery Series Book) (31 page)

“The baby’s coming! It’s time!”

A voice pierced into my subconscious as I dragged my body from its deep
slumber. My eyes opened in time to see Yaretzi burst into our shelter.

“It’s time,” she shouted again. “Come!” Her hand clamped down on mine,
and she yanked me from the blanket I had slept on. Ghost let out a yowl as I
stepped on his tail.

“Sorry, Ghost. Yaretzi, wait a min—,” I started, but she had pulled me
all the way outside. The awakening dawn cast streaks of pink sunlight across
the white sand. I blinked against the glare rippling on the surface of the
water. Yaretzi led me over to Xochitl and Acalon’s shelter as I shielded my
eyes with one hand. 

“Where’s Daniel?” I managed before Yaretzi could stuff me into Xochitl’s
shelter. Xochitl’s labored breathing reached my ears and suddenly I was very
awake.

“Daniel and Tizoc went fishing so we could all eat this morning, the
first day of our new lives. The rest of the men have gone back to the
Charlotte
for additional supplies.” Yaretzi bustled with contagious energy. “Now,
come
on
!”

She pushed me into the shelter and slid in behind me. Inside, Xochitl was
propped up on some of her family’s sacks with a blanket sprawled out beneath
her. Sweat dotted her dark brow as her mother and sisters hovered around her.
Citlali dabbed a wet cloth to her daughter’s forehead while Teiuc was stationed
at Xochitl’s bent legs. Eréndira was up by Xochitl’s head, chanting something
in their native language.

“What’s she saying?” I asked Yaretzi who kneeled beside Xochitl and
indicated I do the same.

“My sister calls upon the gods to protect Xochitl and her child from the
Hueato
—the
spirits of all those that have died in childbirth.”

Xochitl let out a cry, her entire body convulsing. I wasn’t ready to
actually see a child being born. Swallowing loudly, I shifted away from
Xochitl. Yaretzi put her hand on my thigh to stop me. “We need you,
Cihuapilli
.
You are our sister and—”

Another howl from Xochitl cut off her words. Xochitl’s body tensed, and
lines of pain creased her beautiful face.

“Easy now.” Teiuc unfolded a blanket, getting ready to wrap the baby in
it. “Try to stay relaxed.”

Xochitl let out a ragged scoff as she used her fists to ball up parts of
the blanket beneath her. Eréndira brushed Xochitl’s hair from her forehead and
moved to cradle her sister’s head in her lap. Yaretzi took Xochitl’s hand while
Citlali mopped her daughter’s face and uttered small encouragements in their
native language.

Though I felt part of this family, I was also out of place. The shelter
was cramped with too many women. I was in the way. As I was making up my mind
to leave, Teiuc sucked in a sharp breath.

“What is it?” Citlali said.

“Xochitl is ready to give birth, but the baby… the baby’s feet are coming
first!” Teiuc replied.

“It will have to be turned,” Citlali said. She shifted from her position
and joined Teiuc at Xochitl’s legs. Rolling up her sleeves, Citlali maneuvered
so she could attempt to reposition the baby inside Xochitl.

“Something else is not right,” Citlali said after a moment. Her face was
now pale and full of worry.

Xochitl released a wail that had us all cringing, and she pressed her
knees together, hands to her mounded stomach.

“It hurts…” she rasped.

Eréndira rubbed Xochitl’s shoulders, trying to keep her sister calm, but
the look on her face matched the one on Citlali’s.     

“I can’t turn the baby!” Citlali finally cried. “It’s tangled!”

Eréndira chanted louder now as she stroked Xochitl’s hair and rocked back
and forth. Another shriek from Xochitl echoed in the small shelter.

“We have to do something!” Yaretzi shouted. “We’ve lost so many already.
We can lose no more.”

“You won’t lose them,” a man’s voice said from the door of the shelter.
“Clear out and let me handle it. I’ve delivered a child in this condition
before and lost no one.”

Citlali and her daughters did not move a muscle. They simply stared at
the tall Englishman, with black-gray hair and beard. His piercing green eyes
narrowed at them.

“If you want her to die, I will go.” He turned to leave the shelter.

“No! Wait!” I stood from my spot next to Yaretzi where the man hadn’t
been able to see me. When he leveled his eyes on me, they widened. The man’s
skin paled as if he had seen a ghost.

I stepped toward him. “You have to save her and the baby,” I pleaded.
“You must, Father.”

I touched his arm, and he stumbled back, shocked that I was not an
apparition. Xochitl cried out in agony again, and my father’s hand went to his
belt where he extracted his dagger.

“You all should leave,” he said.

I helped Citali to her feet. I led her out of the shelter, and Xochitl’s
sisters followed, each with a look of great alarm on their faces. While we
waited in the sand outside the tent, Xochtitl’s screams grew louder and more
frequent. We had difficulty listening to it, and I had to stop Citlali from
going back into the shelter at least three times.

“We have to trust he knows what he’s doing,” I said more for my sake than
for the women around me.

****

When my father emerged from Xochitl’s shelter, blood all over his white
tunic and hands, I almost didn’t notice the small bundle he hugged to his
chest.

“A girl,” he said evenly. “It’s a girl.”

Citlali let out a cry as she rushed forward and accepted the baby from my
father’s arms.

“Oh, she’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!” she sang.

Teiuc, Yaretzi, and Eréndira gathered around their mother, each of them
taking turns cooing and babbling to the baby.

Though I wanted to have a look myself, my feet refused to move any closer
to my father. His feet appeared to have the same affliction for he stayed
exactly where he was, his eyes looking down into the sand.

Citlali passed the baby to Teiuc. “My daughter?” she asked my father.

“She lives as well.”

The sisters headed into the shelter to check on Xochitl. Citlali took a
couple of steps toward my father and rested her hand on his forearm. He turned
his gaze to her and managed a smile.

“Thank you, Captain Denham,” Citlali said, shooting a quick glance toward
me. “I would have surely lost my daughter and grandchild without your
involvement. Children are our most precious gifts, don’t you agree?”  

My father nodded as Citlali went into the shelter. Now the two of us stood
alone, the wide palm leaves rustling in the breeze, the ocean lapping at the
sandy shoreline. After what felt like an agonizing eternity, my father drew in
a deep breath and looked at me.

“Either the hot sun is playing tricks with my eyes,” he began, “or my
daughter, who I have been looking for since September, is standing before me.”

Cripes. His voice didn’t sound particularly friendly, as if he were doing
his best to contain a more powerful, less pleasant emotion.

“Charlotte.” In two wide steps, he was directly in front of me. “You
disobeyed me.” His voice was firm, but a faint quaver of hurt was woven between
his words.

“I did,” I said, my own voice surprisingly confident.  

My father walked toward the water, and I followed beside him. When we
reached the sea, he crouched down and washed the blood off his hands. The
crimson stains were carried away with the current like the memories of a battle
from long ago. As the water ran clear around his fingers and palms, I was
reminded of waiting for him with my mother on the Southampton docks when I was
a little girl. Everything had seemed so simple then.

Splashing some water on his face and raking his thick hair back, my
father stood and turned toward me. “I should have known you would succeed in
your dream to come to the Americas.”

“I had to come,” I said.

“Yes.” My father squinted over the water. “I somehow thought I could stop
you, you know, me being your father and all.”

“Are you angry with me?”

“For going against me, yes.”

“But I—”

My father held up a hand to silence me. “Your mother died and I unloaded
you like cargo to Lady Elizabeth. No wonder you wanted out of Southampton. I
understand that.”

When I didn’t say anything, my father turned to face me.

“Perhaps it was wrong for me to decide your fate, Charlotte, but I wanted
better for you. The life of a sailor is a hard and lonely one.”

“My experience sailing with Captain Finley was hard work, but far from
lonely. I was much lonelier waiting for you to return to Southampton. If I
didn’t have Lady Elizabeth or Benjamin, I’d have gone crazy.”    

“Mmm… Benjamin.” My father’s eyebrows creased as his lips turned down.

“You blame him?”

“Yes,” my father said. “I thought that boy had more sense than to let you—”

“Benjamin was not in charge of me,” I shot back.

“I told him he was.”

“You what?”

“Charlotte, I didn’t leave you in Southampton uncared for. I placed you
in Lady Elizabeth’s care and made arrangements with Benjamin and his father.”

“What arrangements? What are you talking about?” Was this why Benjamin
had been suddenly interested in being more than friends before I left?

“I wanted to make sure you learned what you needed to know—things your
mother would have taught you—so you could be a good wife.”

“To Benjamin?” My voice rose in disbelief. How could all of these
arrangements
have been made without my knowledge? Was I so consumed with my desire to sail
that I had missed things happening right under my nose?

“What’s wrong with Benjamin?” My father held up his hand before I could
answer. “Never mind. I know what’s wrong with Benjamin. He doesn’t do what he
says he’ll do.”

“He’s always done what I’ve asked him to do,” I said, thinking of
Benjamin helping me with my disguise, cutting my hair, warning me that my
father was back in Southampton.

“Yes, I should have known his loyalties were with you, Charlotte.” My
father dug his hand into the pocket of his breeches. “After he told us where
you had gone, he gave me this. Made me promise to give it to you.”

I took the folded square of parchment my father held out to me. Breaking
the wax seal, I opened the square to find a single sentence in Benjamin’s
careful handwriting inside.

Rachel Carnigan says hello.

Laughter bubbled from inside me despite the situation. Even thousands of
miles away, Benjamin was still my best friend. I looked forward to the day when
I told him of my experiences in the New World.

My father cleared his throat, bringing me back to the present moment. He
wasn’t done defending himself.            

“I hoped Lady Elizabeth would teach you—”

“She wasn’t teaching me anything I wanted to know, Father.” I paced away
from him, slapping my bare feet onto the sand. “I didn’t want to know how to
set a table with French tea cups, or how to prepare a dinner for twenty
prestigious guests, or how to arrange daffodils and sunflowers in a crystal
vase. All I wanted was to be on the water, on a ship,
your
ship. I
wanted to come here to the Americas and see the world… with you.”

“I wanted to keep you safe, Charlotte. The sea is a dangerous place,” my
father shot back. “When I found out you’d hopped onto Finley’s ship, do you
know what my first thought was?”

“I’m going to kill her?” I offered.

My father grunted and ground his teeth. “No. I thought, ‘Oh, God, don’t
take her too.’ I didn’t want to think about what could happen to you out
there.” He thrust his arm out over the water in front of us. “You’re a piece of
your mother, a piece of my Emily. You’re a treasure, Charlotte.”

“So better to box me up in Southampton, is that it? Box me up for
safekeeping, marry me off to Benjamin, and leave me to wither!”

My voice must have risen louder than I had realized because when I paced
away from my father, I caught sight of Daniel and Tizoc running toward me.
Tizoc veered off toward Xochitl’s shelter when Citlali called him, but Daniel
continued to the shore.

“Charlotte!” He called as he cleared the distance between us. Sucking in
a breath and resting his hand on my shoulder, he leveled his blue eyes on mine.
“Everything all right here?” He cast a hard look over my shoulder toward my
father.

“This is business between my daughter and me, son,” my father said
impatiently.

“No.” Daniel stepped around me to stand in front of my father. He was of
equal height and could look my father in the eye. “Everything about Charlotte
is my business.”

My father regarded Daniel, shocked by his tone and words. His eyes grazed
over Daniel’s empty sleeve, and recognition washed over my father’s face.

“You. I’ve seen you before.”

“Yes, and you didn’t deem me fit for your crew at the time.” The muscles
in his jaw tightened, his feet firmly planted in the sand between my father and
me.

“The boy that was with you,” my father continued, looking around Daniel
at me. “You were the boy?”

“I was.”

“I didn’t know it was you, Charlotte. How could I not know my own
daughter?” Though he said the words more to himself than to me, he sounded
truly penitent.

Something tugged in my chest.

“You should have taken a good look at her as your daughter,” Daniel said
before I had a chance to speak. “How could you bear to be away from her? I
don’t understand how a man with your business sense and sailing brilliance
could make such a blunder as… as stupid as ignoring the dreams of the most
beautiful, most loving, most wonderful, most beautiful person ever created.”
Daniel huffed out a long breath.

“You said ‘most beautiful’ twice,” my father said.

“What?”

“Most beautiful. You said it twice.”