Page 49 of Hooked By a Hero
Hunt and a few of the others, including Elias, glanced to him in surprise. “What do you mean?” Hunt asked.
“He’s evil,” Caspian said, frustrated that the word was not strong enough. “He needs to be held far away from everyone else. He should be put on the wreck of theFortune, where he cannot get away or interfere with the people here.”
“Would that not be cruel?” Mr. Archer asked.
“He’s all bark and no bite,” Mr. Woburn said, though he kept his distance, as if, in fact, he thought Dick was very much bite, until Hunt had clapped the irons around Dick’s wrists and ankles. “Chain him to a tree, if you must. We’ll all be able to watch him that way.”
“He needs to be separated from good people,” Caspian insisted. “Something isn’t right about him.”
Dick sneered at Caspian, but rather than leaving it be or hurling some insult at him, he said, “I’ll tell you who needs tobe kept away from good and decent people. It’s them two.” He nodded sharply at Caspian and Elias.
A quick tension tightened everyone standing by to watch the scene.
“What do you mean?” Mr. Archer asked, but as all eyes shifted from staring warily at Dick to looking at Caspian and Elias, it was clear most people already knew.
“You know what those two are,” Dick said, sneering and showing his teeth in what might have been his version of a smile. “You’ve all known from the start.”
“Dr. Pettigrew and Caspian are friends,” Hunt said, then cleared his throat. “Everyone knows this.”
“Oh, they’re more than just friends,” Dick said, dropping his tone of voice as if he were accusing the two of them of murder.
“They share a hut, that is all,” Ruby said, tilting her head up and crossing her arms, hammer still in one hand. “To imply anything else would be simply untrue.”
“They have often appeared to be quite close,” Mr. Reubens said, rubbing a hand over the bottom half of his face and looking at Caspian and Elias as though they should have been among the convicts locked belowdecks.
“Come on, now,” Hunt said, forcing his tone to be light but clearly uncomfortable. “You all know Dr. Pettigrew and Caspian as well as you know me. If not for them, none of us would have survived the storm.”
For a moment, it seemed as if the others would accept that argument and continue on as they had been, with no one asking too many questions or scrutinizing either of them too closely.
But then Dick said, “Do you really think you lot are in a position to tempt God by allowing these two to defy His rules and order? They’re bloody sodomites! They will bring wrath down on all of us.”
“Do not be ridiculous,” Elias said stiffly, his face flushed and his gaze darting anxiously around at the people who had been so friendly with them up until now. “We have survived and thrived because we have worked together, helping each other against impossible odds.”
“Have you not noticed strange misfortunes befalling you all?” Dick asked, his toothy smile growing as he stared at Caspian and Elias. “Do you not think those things might be God’s own disapproval of the sin in your midst that you tolerate.”
“I do not wish to run afoul of God,” Lady Adelaide murmured, clasping her hands in front of her and lowering her head as if praying.
Elias visibly sagged, which filled Caspian with anger. How could these people turn against them so quickly at the word of a known murderer?
Hunt seemed to agree with his thoughts. “Do not let the poisoned words of a man we all know to be horrid turn you against your friends,” he said.
“But God,” Mr. Reubens said, his face creased with confusion and distress.
“I understand how it is,” Elias said, raising a hand as if he would stop an argument before it could go farther. “Believe me, I have always understood how it is.” He looked frankly at Hunt.
Caspian’s heart broke for his beloved. England could be a cruel and unforgiving place, as he’d learned in his time spent exploring there. He could only imagine the cold treatment and lack of acceptance Elias had known in his native land. It explained why some of the others were so quick to take Dick’s manipulative words to heart rather than coming to the defense of someone who had helped them from the start.
“We will go,” he said, reaching for Elias’s hand and clasping it tightly in solidarity. “If you here are not comfortable with the two of us in your presence, then we will leave.”
Elias glanced to Caspian in surprise, then smiled and squeezed his hand.
“That is not what anyone here wants,” Hunt sighed, rubbing his face.
“Perhaps it would be best if they went away just for a bit?” Mr. Archer suggested, though he looked deeply uncertain.
Even that fanned the flames of Caspian’s anger higher. He wanted to rage at the survivors, throw his arms around Elias to protect him, and tell them that they were on their own if they dared, even for a second, to let their prejudices prevent the two of them from feeling a part of the group.
“We set out to explore the island this morning,” Elias said in a resigned voice. “We could and likely should continue with that mission.” He glanced to Caspian, who smiled at him, then looked around at the others once more. “We’ll go.”
