Page 206 of New Storm Rising
That muscle in my cheek twitched again. Hastening my steps, I strode away from her. Right now, I had important business to take care of. With swift steps, I made my way around a stack of crates—then abruptly turned around, crouched, and started observing my wife from my new hiding spot.
Like I said, important business. I was observing the state of the ship and ensuring our continued correct course. I was definitelynotsquatting here because I was secretly concerned for my wife and didn’t want her to know. Absolutely not. And my unwillingness to leave most certainly had nothing to do with the way I felt a tug at my heart every time I looked at her. At the life growing inside her.
Our son. My son.
Or daughter?
No, no, no! Definitely a son!
Shaking my head, I decisively ended my inner argument and refocused my attention on the figure of my wife. To tell the truth, I wasn’t even quite sure why I was watching her. Logically, this was completely unnecessary. For pregnancy, her symptoms were perfectly normal. And yet…
And yet, I kept watching her, unable to resist.
Well, at least nobody was seeing me do this.
“Sahib…are you all right?”
Correction.Almostnobody.
Slowly, I turned my head around, only to spot Karim a few feet away.
“You did not see me here, Karim.”
“Err…yes,Sahib.”
“You will not mentionanythingabout this to my wife.”
“Certainly not,Sahib.”
“My concern is perfectly natural. I simply want to make certain that she is safe and does not strain herself.”
“As you say,Sahib. Err…it’s just…”
“Yes?”
“Strain herself…like that, you mean?”
“Hm?” I cocked my head in confusion. It took a few moments to notice that he was looking past me. Immediately, I whirled around and let my gaze sweep the deck—only for it to fall on my wife. My wife, who was now in the middle of the deck, helping the sailors. Helping them withheavy cargo.
My legs were moving before I was aware of it. Three swift strides carried me all the way, and I appeared beside her, looming over her without her appearing to notice. She continued to happily fiddle with the knots that kept several cargo crates in place, totally unaware of my presence.
Let’s change that, shall we?
“Tying the knot, are you, Mr Linton?” I whispered into her ear. “I thought we had already taken care of that recently?”
She jumped at the realisation of my presence, and, more importantly, let go of the crate she had been holding in place. Stretching out a hand without really looking at it, I grabbed the thing and shoved it back where it belonged. The entire time, my eyes did not leave my wife, in case she might decide to run a marathon or start weightlifting. I would not put it past her.
“What, pray,” I demanded, my icy, accusing gaze fixed on my pregnant spouse, “are you doing?”
She blinked. “What do you mean, what am I doing?”
Note for the future: icy, accusing gazes work better when the other party knows what she is being accused of.
“I mean why are youworking?”
“Err…because you pay me for it?”
That was…actually an adequate point. Not that I was going to tell her that. Opening my mouth, I forced my mind to work at lightning speed, hoping to find any reasonable excuse why she shouldn’t strain herself—when I suddenly noticed she was bending down. Bending down topick up a fallen crate!
