16. In which there are dogloos, a little loaf of ginger cake and captainly tasks
IN WHICH THERE ARE DOGLOOS, A LITTLE LOAF OF GINGER CAKE AND CAPTAINLY TASKS
They were well and truly stuck.
Charlotte fiddled with the hem of her coat as Hester stood, resting her hands on the galley table.
“As the ice has not broken up, we will no longer need to function as a ship, and that means the watches will be disbanded, apart from a night watchperson, who will receive extra rations while on duty.”
A murmur went up at this, and Hester smiled grimly and continued, “The Valour will now serve as a winter base. We will build kennels for the dogs on the ice and begin training with the sleds for the overland journey. My hope is that the ice will break up next summer, and we can reach Vahsel Bay then. But for now, there seems little hope of escape.”
There was silence. Charlotte didn’t blame them for being so downcast. It would mean the expedition would continue for much longer than planned.
She waited for the complaints, for them to blame her for commissioning them to come south, and for what?
The glory of being the first people to cross the continent.
Hardly a worthwhile endeavour in the face of it.
“And the Intrepid?” Betty asked.
“Good news! Also stuck fast. I have agreed a dog-sled derby with them in June, when the ice is thickest. We had best get practising because I do not intend to lose.”
A rousing cheer went up, and Charlotte’s spirits lifted. No one had gotten angry at her, and the dog-sled derby sounded thrilling. She was keen to see the dogs in action, and perhaps even have a go at sled-driving herself.
“I have a cunning plan for the hold,” Winston said, stroking his beard in a sly sort of way. “I’ll need Mei, Betty and Rufus to help me for a couple of days.”
“Oh? Run it past me first before you get too happy with the saw, won’t you?” Hester said. “The rest of you can get to work building the igloos for the dogs.”
“Dogloos,” Charlotte breathed, grinning as the others laughed.
“Dogloos! Excellent. Let’s reconvene at lunch,” Hester said.
“And what, O leader, will you be doing while we’re all working up a sweat?” Fliss asked, hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised.
“I have a few very important captainly tasks. I wouldn’t want to bore you with the details,” Hester said, smirking. “Say, has anyone seen Satan?”
“He was snoozing on my bed this morning. Such a dear little cat,” Charlotte said.
Hester stared. “W—what?”
“He was snoozing on my bed. He’s often in there. Marjorie does cower from him! It’s very funny.” She patted Marjorie on the head. The poor girl was terrified of the cat.
“As do I, Marjorie, as do I,” Hester murmured, shaking her head. “So he hasn’t…done his business on your pillow?”
“Heavens! Of course not!” Charlotte said, laughing.
“Well,” Hester huffed, folding her arms and looking a little put out, “that ungrateful little toad.”
“What do you want with him?” Charlotte asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Hester said, grinning like a devil and making her way out of the galley behind the rest of the crew.
Charlotte left last, following Arnold, Peggy, Valerie and Fliss out onto the icy deck and buttoning up her fur coat.
The wind was bitter, and the cloudless sky meant even colder temperatures.
It was an effort not to slip on the deck.
Valerie stopped by the compass and took up the sextant. “I’ll be with you shortly. I just need to record today’s magnetic variation.”
Charlotte had helped often enough with this daily task, the data stacking up in the logbooks alongside the meteorological recordings and sea-ice movement. She left Valerie to her instruments and then made her way over to the ramp that Winston had made, herding the dogs down it.
“How shall we go about this, then?” Peggy asked, surveying the area around the Valour.
“Perhaps we can use the wood from the store boxes, cut some ice, and then sort of…pack snow over the top?” Fliss suggested with a shrug.
Arnold nodded slowly. “That could work.” He marched back up the ramp to collect the required tools.
“I’m going to make Sailor such a fine house,” Peggy said, the dog in question sitting at her feet and wagging as she said his name. She danced around him and he got up, prancing too. “Yes, my little man! I am!”
Charlotte smiled. This was going to be fun.
Hester had the most devious plan up her sleeve.
With a box under her arm, she opened the door to Charlotte’s cabin and poked her head inside. There sat Satan, like a little loaf of ginger cake.
Hester narrowed her eyes and slipped through the door, shutting it behind her. She leapt on the cat, slamming the box over him before he knew what was happening.
Hissing and spitting came from within, and Hester cawed with glee at the ease of his capture. She had expected to have to attend to at least a few bloody scratches. Sweeping the box the right way up, she snapped the lid closed on the enraged tom.
She knew she was going to plant the cat on board the Intrepid, but she couldn’t decide who to target, Septimus or Victor.
The thought of Satan scratching Victor’s eyes out was one that gave Hester tremendous satisfaction, but she also didn’t want to waste such a fine trick on the likes of his good-for-nothing ass.
And she had a craving she hardly knew what to do with.
A craving to be chased by Septimus, like he used to do in Havenport.
So that settled it.
She stowed the box under her arm and headed for the deck, then down the rope ladder on the opposite side of the ship to where Charlotte and company were building the dogloos, cursing as Satan rattled the box and yowled his fury.
Once at the bottom of the ladder, Hester ran across the ice, clutching the box to her side.
She had dressed in her white hunting overall in an attempt to camouflage herself, and dodged between the icy hummocks that littered the short distance between the Valour and the Intrepid, her eyes saved from the dazzling brilliance by the snow goggles.
“Hush now, you scurvy cur,” Hester muttered to the box, hefting it higher under her arm as she pressed against the side of the Intrepid.
It wouldn’t do to be discovered. She set the box on the ice and tucked her hair under her woollen hat, then pulled the hood of the overall over that.
It was possible she would pass as one of the Intrepid’s crew if she ran into anyone. The engineer was a scrawny enough man.
She picked the box up, then shuffled along the side of the ship, staying in the shadow cast by the morning sun.
She climbed the ladder with difficulty, then raced across the deck and hid under a tarpaulin.
Her heartbeat quickened deliciously as she closed her eyes and imagined Septimus’s rage when she unleashed Satan in his cabin.
She shivered with delight and snapped her eyes open, then pulled the drawstring of the hood tight.
With only her goggled eyes showing, Hester crept out from her hiding place.
Down the companionway she went, every step making her giddier and giddier until she could barely contain herself.
Her fingers tightened on the box as footsteps approached, and she darted into a shadowy nook just as Emlyn stalked past, grumbling to himself.
Hester let out the breath she’d been holding, then continued towards Septimus’s cabin.
She flattened herself against the wall next to his door. Should she knock? Or just fling the door open and set the cat loose? Would he be inside? She hoped he was.
She rapped on the door and waited a few beats.
There was no answer, no sound of movement.
How disappointing. She opened the door with a soft creak of the hinges and slipped inside, closing it behind her.
It would have been much more satisfying if he’d been inside.
She would have to lie in wait for him to return.
Hester set the box on the bed and gave it a pat.
The door opened behind her.
Charlotte stood back, admiring her handiwork.
They had built ten dogloos already, and Valerie had improved their design by pouring water over the top, which froze to make the structures even more sturdy.
Peggy had even built a church spire for Sailor’s dogloo, singing to herself as she fashioned the roof higher and higher.
“The others will be jealous,” Valerie said, grinning and leaning against a shovel, her coat discarded on the pile of wooden crates they were using.
Charlotte wiped sweat from her brow. “I shall miss them being on the ship.”
“I won’t,” Fliss huffed. “I slipped on frozen dog urine two days ago and my back hasn’t been the same since.”
Charlotte grimaced. “Perhaps this is for the best, then.”
“It must be lunchtime now,” Arnold groaned, rubbing his stomach.
“I can hear your belly growling louder than the dogs!” Charlotte beamed at him as she put down her shovel and collected her coat from the pile. She was ravenous too after working so hard all morning. “Let’s go and see what Mei has prepared.”
They staked the dogs to the ice outside the dogloos, pouring water to freeze the leashes in place, and filed back up the ramp onto the deck.
“Smell that?” Peggy said, inhaling deeply as they walked to the companionway and down to the galley.
“I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s ready to eat,” Arnold said. Charlotte agreed wholeheartedly.
Mei stood at the stove, stirring the pot, her straight black hair covered in sawdust.
“Pemmicin again?” Valerie asked, taking a seat at the table.
Mei brandished a wooden spoon at her. “Enjoy it while you can. We’re down to the last stocks of it now. Then it’ll be seal and penguin forevermore.”
Valerie held her hands up. “I wasn’t complaining!”
Charlotte laughed and sat in her usual spot at the head of the table. Arnold took the spot next to her, his leg touching hers briefly under the table before she tucked her feet away, heat flushing her cheeks. A part of her very much wanted to keep her leg pressed against his.
“Boss first,” Mei said, ladling the pounded beef mixture into Charlotte’s bowl. She toyed with her fork while the others were served, and then Winston, Rufus and Betty appeared, equally covered in sawdust.
“What have you been doing down there?” Fliss asked, picking bits of wood out of Winston’s hair. “Don’t shake. You’ll get bits in my food.”
Winston smiled and raked a hand through his hair. “Come and see after lunch.”
There was silence around the table as the food was devoured, and then the scraping back of chairs.
“I spend so long cooking, all for it to disappear in a blink,” Mei muttered as the bowls were passed down.
“It’s only because it’s so good,” Betty said. “I’ll help you wash up.”
“Come on, then. Let’s go and see what you’ve been doing,” Arnold said, letting Winston lead the way down to the hold.
Charlotte gasped as they reached the lower level of the ship, and Winston smiled proudly.
“Welcome to the Ritz,” he said, sweeping an arm out.
They had remodelled the interior of the ship into a large space, the stores having been cleared to the ice. There was much more room to move than in the galley. The change was wonderful.
“We’ll bring the table down when we’re finished, and we can eat and drink here,” he said.
“How splendid!” Peggy said, spinning in the space with her arms stretched wide.
“I’m glad you like it! Now—I want to see your dogloos,” Winston said, and Fliss linked her arm through his to lead the way upstairs.
“Who—” Septimus shouted in surprise.
Hester spun, stepping backwards, her eyes wide. A grin spread over her face. She whipped the lid off the box, and Satan sprang out.
“Oh no,” Septimus started to say before the cat landed at his feet, back arched, tail erect. He narrowed his eyes at the cat. “I’ve seen you before.”
The look on his face had been worth it. Oh, yes. Totally worth the effort. Hester laughed raucously and slapped her thigh, then made for the cabin window over the bed.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Septimus said, springing forwards and grabbing her by the back of the overall. She pulled against him, grasping the window frame and pushing it open. She could shimmy along to the ladder from here, if she could only—
With one sharp tug, Septimus had her away from the window and in a heap on the floor. Satan had leaped onto the pillow and was hunkering down. Hester cackled madly. It was perfect. Septimus yanked her up and pulled her hood down, then snapped her goggles onto her forehead.
“Hester,” he said, voice low, taking her wrists tightly and backing her into the closed door. He pinned her hands by her head with a smack of skin on wood, and she stopped laughing, her heart thumping against her ribs as his sapphire eyes locked onto hers.
Oh.
“What is it that you want from me, little witch?” he said, his voice like thunder, pressing his body against hers to stop her from wriggling. Hester’s breathing hitched, heat racing south.
“Do you want me to chase you?” He leant so close that his breath hit her ear, and she stilled. “To capture you?” And then his voice dropped as he pressed against her more firmly, and her head felt light as blood rushed elsewhere. “To punish you?”
His voice reverberated through her, and she let out a strangled whimper as her loins burned. Yes, she wanted that. She wanted all of that, and more.
He huffed a laugh, the deep sound sending shivers down her spine. The smell of him, the weight of him against her. It was almost too much to bear. She knew it was ridiculous. Knew she was being absurd. And she melted all the same.
“Take your cat,” he rumbled, “and go back to your ship. I’ll give you a head start.” He released her wrists and drew his pistol. “Ten, nine—”
Oh, yes. Hester darted across the small cabin to swipe Satan from the bed, cackling again as she saw he had done the necessary business on the pillow, and bolted for the door, the cat scratching wildly as she tucked him under her arm.
She crashed into Victor in the corridor, sending him flying into the wall, and she did not stop, sliding out on the icy deck and skidding to a halt by the ladder.
Hester bundled Satan into her overall and raced down the rungs and out onto the ice, pelting over it.
Shots fired, bullets exploding into the ice either side of her, and she shrieked, cursed at the top of her lungs, and laughed with delirious joy all the way back to the Valour.
She released Satan from her overall on the deck, then went down below and slammed the door of her cabin shut.
Charlotte walked side by side along the corridor with Arnold, past the door to Hester’s cabin. Muffled sounds were coming from inside, and then a fractured shout of “OH YES” rang out.
Charlotte frowned, turning to Arnold.
“What on Earth is she doing in there?” she asked.
Arnold laughed. “I think the captain is having some alone time.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened, her cheeks flushing. “Is that what she’s calling captainly tasks?”