Free Voyage of the Dreadnaught: Four Stella Madison Capers by Lilly Maytree

fire in the engine room, or
something.
    “ We gotta turn the boat around!” He
was headed for the wheelhouse, on his way out the other door that
led to the decks. “Lou's Gone!”
    After that, a near panic ensued.
    No one objected to turning around—of course
they would turn around—but what had gotten into the girl? She left
the ship without permission. Something that was a near sin, in
Captain Stuart's estimation. Besides that, he informed them all, it
was no small thing to turn around. This because they couldn't just
chug back through Seymour Narrows without waiting for the tide to
turn.
    “ Why can't we shove it full throttle
and push right on through, Stuart?” Gerald had lost all color in
his face at the news, and was shaking with worry as he turned the
wheel over to more capable hands. “Blast! It's an
emergency!”
    “ Because of the blasted nineteen-knot
current roaring through there about now, Gerald. We only do ten.
When she's in top condition.” The Captain checked fore and aft, to
make sure there were no other nearby vessels, then gave the wheel
an expert spin to start the turn.
    He didn't look like a captain should, with
that mop of gray hair sticking out in all directions, and those
bushy black eyebrows that nearly made a strait line across his
forehead when he squinted his eyes to look at something. And he
didn't dress like one, either. But Stella had to admit his
threadbare (oversized) black sweater, faded jeans, and tennis shoes
with no socks, did not seem to effect his expertise in handling his
own boat.
    “ Oh, that girl's going to be the death
of me!” Millie sank down onto one of two deck chairs that were at
either end of the wheelhouse. The left side of her auburn twist was
falling out of the hair-clip, since she had been roused from her
nap.
    All seven of them were crowded into the
small enclosure, not counting the Senator, who was seated
comfortably on Stella's hip, avidly watching the drama unfold, and
mirroring each speaker's expression as they spoke.
    “ It's not like Shortcake to up and
leave without saying anything” Mason pushed his fisherman's cap
farther back on his head and ran a thoughtless hand over the
three-day stubble on his chin. “She lies ninety percent of the time
about where she's going, but she always tells us she's
going.”
    “ Did anyone mention to her we were
leaving early this morning?” Even the colonel had left his desk to
see what was happening. “I thought I heard somebody on deck around
five-thirty, just after I started work. But I assumed it was
Stuart, or Cole, getting things ready for departure.”
    “ Where on earth would she be going at
five-thirty in the morning?” Stella wondered out loud.
    The question caused a heavy silence to fall
over the group until, one by one, all eyes finally settled on Cole.
He was leaning against the chart table in the back corner, his
troubled face in a turmoil as to whether, or not, he was going to
tell everything he knew. His gaze met Stella's and he took a deep
breath. She had been silently willing him to speak up, and he read
the message as if she said it right to him. However, rather than
explain, he simply pulled a folded piece of note paper out of his
back pocket and handed it over to Millie.
    Dear Family,
    I am not fit to be a decent mother, or
anything else. Please take good care of my boy.
    Lou
    At which point Millie burst into tears, and
the baby right after.
    “ She's a deuce of a good mother!”
Gerald smacked a fist into his palm as if it might somehow help him
think. “It's the only thing she is good at!”
    “ A good mother doesn't desert her own
child, no matter what the circumstances,” The colonel intoned. And
looking up at him from the side, with that rather Grecian profile
and wavy silver hair, Stella thought how he resembled one of those
ancient prophets whose word was always law. Then, again, he never
did have much patience for Lou Edna and all her lies.
    “ Oh, why do all my children end