Page 42 of Hooked By a Hero
“You are a sight for sore eyes,” Elias said.
Despite the compliment, Caspian’s smile dropped into a confused frown. “You haven’t been gone more than half an hour,” he said.
Elias sighed. He peeked at Miss Winters, then must have decided what he wanted to say could be heard by her as well.“Lady Adelaide spotted some sort of shape on the horizon early this morning, while lighting the signal fire.”
“A ship?” Miss Winters gasped, sitting up straighter with a look of hope.
“Was it a ship?” one of the older survivors, Mr. Reubens, perked up on the other side of the table as well.
“We do not know,” Elias said, addressing everyone. “Neither Mr. Brunning nor I saw what Lady Adelaide saw, though Lady Adelaide is insistent it was something.” Elias turned to Caspian to go on with, “We’ve had reason from the beginning to suspect more of us escaped the wreck of theFortunein the storm. Brunning and I think there is a chance what Lady Adelaide saw might be some of the others.”
“The others might not have perished?” Miss Winters asked, looking delighted at the prospect.
“Perhaps not,” Elias said.
Caspian was less delighted. As hopeful as he was that the few passengers and crewmen who had not made it to the island with the rest of them might have been saved, he thought it was far more likely that men like Tumbrill and Dick had somehow survived and were sharing the island with them.
“Brunning and I think it might be a wise idea for search parties to set out in exploration of the rest of the island sooner than we had planned,” Elias went on.
“I thought we were going to wait to explore the island until our settlement was more firmly established,” Mr. Reubens said.
Elias sent Caspian another pointed look. He did not need words for Caspian to grasp what he meant or what he intended. If Tumbrill and Dick truly had survived and were living on another part of the island, it would be in their best interest to find the blackguards as soon as possible, before they organized and mounted any sort of attack that might cause even more death and destruction.
At the same time, the look in Elias’s eyes seemed to say that it was high time the two of them set off together, well away from the others, both to enjoy each other the way they wanted to and to bring every remaining truth to light.
“Brunning has just told me about the possible boat,” Hunt said, joining them at the table, along with Brunning and Ruby. “And about the necessity of exploring the island.”
“I recommend we form a few, small search parties to set out as soon as possible to have a look,” Elias said with a nod.
“I will go with you,” Caspian said, getting a jump on things and letting Elias know that yes, the time for truth had most definitely come.
Hunt seemed to sense the undercurrent between the two of them. He studied the two of them for a moment before saying, “I recommend you and Dr. Pettigrew head off along the beach in one direction and a second party set off in the other direction. How long it takes for the two of your parties to meet again on the other side will determine how large the island is.”
“What about exploring the jungle?” Ruby asked. “Should parties not be sent deeper into the undergrowth to see what is in the center of the island?”
“At some point, yes,” Hunt replied, his affection for her clear in the way his voice and eyes softened. “But until Dr. Pettigrew is able to do a more comprehensive study of the flora and fauna of this island and which parts of it might be deadly to us, we should stay to clear areas or areas we already know.”
Caspian could tell from what the man was not saying that they would be more likely to find traces of other survivors on the beaches rather than inland. Ruby was clever enough to guess at what they were not saying as well, but the other ladies might have been frightened if they suspected the mutineers’ reign of terror wasn’t over.
They finished up the morning meal of fruit, fish, and the dwindling food supplies from the ship, then Hunt gathered the survivors to let them know what was happening in the vaguest possible terms.
“Caspian and Dr. Pettigrew have volunteered to make the journey in one direction, and Mr. Tennis and Mr. Gerlach have just offered to explore in the other direction,” he said as everyone gathered around the table. “They may be gone for more than one day, so if you could all help in supplying them with packs containing food and whatever implements they might need to fish for or hunt their own food, I am certain they would be appreciative.”
Caspian heard those words as a charge to make certain the best weapons were given to the explorers in case they stumbled across the very people everyone hoped had not survived the storm.
“I hope that if we do come across Tumbrill and Dick and that lot we’re able to keep our distance from them,” Elias said more than an hour later, after all supplies had been gathered and they’d made their way down to the beach to set off. They’d chosen to travel around the island to the west while the other two had set off to the east. “If we stumbled across each other unprepared, it would be two of us against an unknown number of them. And we do not know what weapons they have.”
“We do not know what condition they are in either,” Caspian reasoned. “Though knowing them, I find it hard to believe that they have built shelters and made an attempt at civilization as we have.”
“I doubt it in the extreme,” Elias said, grinning at the very idea.
“Why, our group is so civilized that you’ve even been taking it upon yourself to bathe and shave when you can,” Caspian continued, working to keep the mood light.
Elias laughed. “Yes, I was delighted when you brought back my shaving kit.” He glanced to Caspian, his smile faltering. “I’ve noticed that you do not appear to need to shave at all. In fact, you have no significant body hair of any sort.”
Caspian’s heart thumped harder. Already, Elias was hinting at the revelations that were as much the point of their expedition as discovering whether they were alone on the island.
“I’ve never needed to shave,” he admitted honestly. “My people are smooth-skinned as a rule.”
