Truth to tell, it was amazing how vast the ship suddenly seemed, despite that she shared his cabin each night. He came only when he was certain she slept... and then, on the third night, he didn’t come at all. She learned from Ben the next morning that Hawk had begun to share their cabin. “He’s in a foul temper,” Ben told her as she came upon him. He sat, whittling the crude piece of oak Jessie had found him clutching that first morn. It was beginning, despite Ben’s amateur strokes, to take on the shape of a walking cane. “Who?” she asked much too innocently. Taking a moment’s pause from his sculpting, Ben peered down at her, his brown eyes troubled. “You know very well to whom I am referring.” He nodded in Christian’s direction, nonetheless. Jessie didn’t bother to turn. She knew he was there. She needn’t look to know he was watching them. “Tell me,” she said, changing the topic, “how is your leg? Does it pain you still?” “Here and there,” he confessed somewhat reluctantly.
