She gave Rose a wink. “Is there anything you might need my help with, Mrs. Lindson?”
“What?” Mae asked. “Oh, no, thank you, Miss Gregor.”
“Molly,” she said. “Please use my given name. Friends and crew always do.”
“Thank you, Molly,” Mae said. “I can’t see anything else that can be done tonight. And Captain Hink said we might be flying out tomorrow if the Swift is in good repair, so I think sleep might be the best course for us all.”
“He said that, did he?” Molly asked. “Man seems awfully sure of the work he hasn’t even started on yet.”
“Is the ship badly damaged?” Rose asked.
“Oh, no worse than she’s been before,” Molly said. “We’ll fix her up so you wouldn’t even know she’d taken a hit. Whether it will take a day, or maybe two, is more my doubt.”
“But the captain said—,” Rose began.
“Yes, my dear, I know the captain.” She gave Rose a look. “And I know the sorts of things he says.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to say that you didn’t,” Rose said.
Molly closed her eyes for an extra moment, and a kindly smile curved her lips. “You haven’t said anything to bother me, Rose—may I call you Rose?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Molly strolled closer and then glanced over her shoulder toward the men in the room, listening for their snores.
Satisfied that they were sleeping, she said, “I just think the captain very much wants to see you and all of his passengers safely to your destination as quickly as possible. He has a way of promising the moon when his heart’s in it. And just between you and me? When his heart’s in it is when he always manages to come through.”
“Is it?” Rose asked, searching Molly’s face. Molly didn’t carry a heavy resemblance to Mr. Gregor. For one thing, her hair was iron black, whereas the blacksmith’s wild hair was fire red. But there was something to the arc of her cheek, the square of her chin, that reminded her very much of her good friend.
“Is what?” Molly asked.
“His heart … in it?”
Molly’s eyebrows quirked down just a bit, but she was smiling. “Are you asking me if the captain is concerned about the safety of the people who travel with him, or if he’s concerned about you, Miss Rose Small?”
“Both,” Rose said quietly. Yes, she should be much more modest about these sorts of questions. After all, she hardly knew Molly Gregor. But if she didn’t have much time left to her life, Rose figured she would live it as forthrightly as she could.
“Any passenger he agrees to have aboard the Swift—and those are few and far between—the captain has always seen to their safety and comfort. But you?” Molly unbuckled the tool belt around her hips and slung it over one shoulder. “He’s particularly interested in your safety and well-being.”
“Oh,” Rose said.
“And just in case you didn’t understand that, he likes you, Rose, though he’s barely said more than three words to you. I’m not one to tell the captain who to associate with, but I do want you to know that my loyalties will always fall at his side. Treat him kindly.”
Rose just nodded. It might be the medicine and the pain, but it didn’t seem like Molly was threatening her. It almost sounded like she was encouraging Rose’s interest. Maybe glim runners had a different sort of values when it came to a woman’s attraction to a man.
“Good night, Rose Small,” Molly said as she walked off toward her cot. “And good night to you, Mae.”
“Good night, Molly,” Mae said.
Mae came over to Rose and tucked her blanket in around her. “Cold?”
“No.”
“Pain?”
“Still bearable. The tonic helped.”
Mae smiled. “Good, then. Get some sleep. It’s nearly midnight and I think we’ll all want our wits in the morning.”
“Mae?” Rose asked, catching at her hand before she turned away. “Thank you for taking care of me. I’m sorry I’m…well, I’m sorry I’m such a burden.”
“Nonsense,” Mae said. “You’ve certainly looked after my well-being when I’ve needed it.”
Mae turned down the wick on the lantern next to Rose’s bed. Rose could hear her footsteps as she took to her own cot and settled down upon it, taking off her shoes but not her outer dress.
Molly turned out the lantern next to her bed, and the room was filled with the kind of ink black found only in the deep of caves.
“Mae,” Rose whispered.