“What are these marks?” he asked his fingers touching Charlie below the bruise.
“Uh,” the doctor hesitated uncomfortably. “Charlie wraps his chest. Those are just marks from that.”
Keeping her elbows tucked into her sides, Charlie lowered her face into her hands. She didn’t think she could possibly be more humiliated, but she was wrong.
“Oh,” the captain said. “Of course, I—uh. I mean, uh, I just hadn’t thought about it. Francine had…. Of course, Charlie has…. Criminy! That won’t damage… anything, will it?”
The doctor chuckled. “No, I shouldn’t think it would hurt anything.”
“Good,” John Sinclair said tersely then marched forcefully to the door and stopped with his hand on the knob. “Get dressed and come to my cabin.” And then he was gone.
The doctor gathered a few things then vacated the room as well.
Charlie thought about taking her time getting dressed just to put off the stricture she knew was coming, but decided dawdling would just give him time to mentally add points to his lecture.
“Be a man about it,” she said to herself aloud before leaving the doctor’s quarters. She stepped into her father’s cabin closing the door behind her. She stood at attention, her eyes fixed on the opposite wall.
Her father paced the length of the room several times before stopping in front of her and rolling up on the balls of his feet. It always made her feel like he was getting ready to pounce when he stood on his toes and she felt herself shrink back a fraction.
“I told the doctor I’m fit for duty, Captain,” she said before he could speak, hoping to just make it go away. “I’m sorry to put you through this.”
“You told me the last time you got in a brawl; it would be the last time. Now, here we are again.” His face was livid, the veins on his forehead bulging. “I didn’t let Yori teach you to fight so you would go around starting donnybrooks. You were supposed to use it to protect yourself if you were ever attacked. By God, Charlie,” he dropped his voice to hushed tones. “When are you going to accept that you are a maiden? Why would you ever think you could best a man? We may get away with this farce here under my protection, but you are still just a girl. Even the strongest girl in the world could never be able to match the strength of a man. Ever. You could have been killed.”
Charlie held her tongue. He didn’t need to know she fought three men or that Morty had stepped in to save her or even that the last fight he knew about was not her most recent brawl before this one.
She also knew this was not the time to tell him that Morty knew she was female.
“I am sorely tempted to have you flogged as soon you’re healed.” Spittle formed in the corners of his mouth. “If there is a next time, I will flog you myself. Are we understood?”
Charlie saw the anger in his eyes and knew that he spoke sincerely. Even if he had to clear the deck completely to hide her secret, he would do it and he would wield the cat and lay into her.
“Aye.”
“You are confined to quarters until further notice.”
“But my watch . . . ?”
“Until further notice!” he shouted. “Without pay.”
Charlie would have liked to mock that last part. She rarely spent her pay. She had saved a tidy sum; all but $50 was in a bank in Charleston. What did she have to spend it on except alcohol, cigars, wenches and an occasional book? Her father paid the bill for her uniforms. Her food and lodgings were provided for her on the ship. When they would go into the shops at their ports-of-call Charlie could not buy the things that interested her because her father would call them missish or girly. She vividly remembered once when she was little, they were in a store and she looked longingly at a doll on the shelf when he placed his large hand on her head and turned her head away from the doll to a nearby wooden boat. How she would have loved a kimono or a sari or jewelry. While the men were busy looking at knives and pipes, she would surreptitiously look at trinkets made of ivory and jade. Her favorite thing to do was go with the men who had wives and daughters and help them pick out the perfect gift to bring home. But Charlie never purchased those things for herself. And the things the men purchased were of no interest to her. So her money went unspent. She had been on the payroll since she became cabin boy at eight and a half.
“They are going to think I’m weak if you take me off duty. I was well enough to work ‘til now and suddenly I need bed rest? You are mollycoddling me because I am a maiden. If I were your son, you would make sure I worked injured so I would learn a lesson, but because I’m not, you’re babying me.”