Free A Different Sort of Perfect by Vivian Roycroft

age
and station. But it was still gorgeous and she yearned, watching
with envy as Long Song handed a bundle of each color, along with
needles and thread, to nine picked sailors, all of them
experienced, headed by Edward Ackers, the coxswain.
    "They're the captain's bargemen," Staunton muttered,
as he'd muttered information to her for the last hour, "they row
the captain about when he needs to leave the ship. Since last
cruise was a good 'un, he's bought material so's they can make
themselves proper bargemen's outfits."
    She couldn't have heard that right. " Make their own clothing? Men?" But even as she sniggered, she remembered
her father's neat, even stitching on the telescope's canvas
covering, the stitches she'd fought to duplicate without success.
Her glee died.
    Staunton gave her an arch look and didn't deign to
answer. Behind him, the mist had begun drawing away, but the cool
air still raised goose flesh on her arms beneath her wrap and only
the barest breeze blew. Her dampened hair clung to her cheeks.
    The last bundle of cloth was tucked beneath a smiling
bargeman's arm and toted away. But Long Song and Hue Bye tossed out
the white cloth again, measuring it between the nails once … twice
… her pulse picked up speed … a third time before they sliced it
from the dwindling bolt. They folded it together, cut off and
folded a similar length of the indigo linen, and handed them to the
purser.
    Who handed them to Staunton.
    Who handed them to Mr. Abbot.
    Who doffed his scraper and handed them to Captain
Fleming.
    She couldn't stand much more of the suspense.
    Captain Fleming hefted the indigo and white cloth.
"Thank you. Pass the word for Wake, Mr. Abbot."
    Her pulse pounded in her ears and she had to look a
whimpering, drooling fool. But she couldn't help it; Diana's
fashion lessons must have taken a far greater hold on her than
she'd realized. Of course she needed clothing. One ink-stained
gown, no matter how good the sarsnet cloth, wouldn't last her the
two months or more to southern Africa's tip. Did she get a wage for
the work she was performing? Could she offer to buy the remaining
indigo linen from Captain Fleming with what credit she could scrape
together? Could he be bribed?
    A scarecrow of a sailor, with a sharp, wrinkled face
and gnarled hands, knuckled his forehead to the captain. "Aye,
sir?"
    "Ah, Wake." Captain Fleming gave him the indigo linen
and white cloth.
    Then he stepped back and turned to her.
    All the mist-damp air seemed to vanish from the
quarterdeck. Or at least she couldn't breathe all of a sudden.
    "Wake, Lady Clara has generously consented to fill in
for Titus Ferry during the voyage."
    Silence fell over the entire ship. Even the whisper
of water along the ship's side seemed to still. Straining eyes, and
surely ears, peered from around every mast, sail, railing, and
rope. Not a wrinkle moved in Jeremiah Wake's face.
    She'd forgotten the staring. But it hadn't gone away.
It had merely waited and now it was back. Her stomach hadn't felt
so tight and cold since she and Harmony had eaten their ices too
quickly during an assembly room ball.
    A strange shade of pinkish-grey rose from Captain
Fleming's collar and crept over his face. He wasn't oblivious to
the staring, either. "I want you to stitch her up a few gowns,
nothing fancy, necessarily—"
    She might argue with that.
    "—something that will fit in with everyone else's
uniforms."
    And she might not. Captain Fleming was serious. He
truly intended for her to be a part of his crew, and the
realization drove her heart to a faster clip.
    So much for understanding the captain's motives; he'd
meant precisely what he'd said. As for understanding the captain
himself… perhaps that would come in time.
    Captain Fleming rocked back on his heels and glanced
over the ship. The peering eyes vanished, to a man.
    "Besides yourself, of course, Wake—"
    For the first time Wake's expression softened. But
only a touch.
    "—who would you say has the best