"I was conscious and I helped her." Jim spoke up from beside me.
I shook my head wryly, "I hate when you do that!" I said in response to him seemingly reading the unspoken thoughts right out of my mind.
He gave a small smile, but said nothing.
"How are you feeling?" I asked.
"Better. When do we go back to free the slaves?" He asked somberly.
I shrugged, "That kind of depends on her people."
Both of us watched curiously as Keturah began to make way, only she wasn't. She expertly let the sale furrow downward and secured it with some tie offs. Jim and I glanced at each other blankly. We weren't going anywhere without the sail up!
Granted we hadn't been going much of anywhere with it spread out to catch what meager amount of wind that there was, but at least we had been moving slightly. Jim appeared to be in the dark as much as I was as to the girl's motivations.
I was curious about a lot of things. Where did the wood for this boat come from? Why was a beautiful young woman like her out here alone?
Was she to be trusted?
Something deep inside of me said yes.
She was at the forward prow of one of the dugout canoes that lay beneath the netted platform we were on, when she suddenly bent down at the waist to pick up what looked like a leather plaited rope. My eyes quickly darted away from her, but unfortunately I glanced in Jim's direction and his eyes were full of unexpressed mirth at my expense.
He looked about ready to say something, but I reached out and touched his arm, "Not you too old friend. Please!"
The mirth in his eyes went away and he nodded to indicate that he understood the torment that I was under. Maybe he did. I knew very little about Jim's past before he'd come to work for me.
Both of our attentions were pulled back to Keturah as she spiraled around in an arching curve and let go of the leather plaited rope, which sailed out through the air to land with a splash in the water in the distance.
I blinked appreciably at the distance of the splash down of the rope and idly wondered if I could've thrown it so far myself. That had been quite the toss, but for what purpose had it been done?
I tried to get past my attraction for this girl of the sea for a moment in order to better understand her. This was most definitely her boat as her familiarity with it testified to long use of it.