Page 7 of Measure of the Stars

Wes froze.

“Funny that Cecil didn’t mention it,” Delauney said.“How long before there’s a proper mutiny on that ship, do you think?”

“The others weren’t involved,” Wes said.He wasn’t about to rat out his mates, especially not to a well-meaning busybody who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“Of course they weren’t,” Delauney said.His smile was too bright for a man talking about potential mutiny.“Just a friendly inquiry.”He picked up an envelope and fished out a yellowing sheet of paper.After a few seconds, he pulled a face and handed it to Wes.“This handwriting is terrible.Read this aloud while I sort through the rest, will you?”

“I thought you didn’t want me to read anything.”

Delauney’s cheeks went pink again.“I meant these,” he said, waving one of the pages full of numbers.

“Wouldn’t be able to understand that anyway,” Wes said, smoothing out the letter in his hands.“Never got that far in maths.”

“Really?Neither did I, officially.My tutors gave up on me early.”Delauney’s eyes twinkled.They actually twinkled.Wes thought that only happened in copper-a-piece serials, but it was like someone had dunked Delauney in a vat of stars and lit him up.How did he do it?What was remotely amusing about tutors giving up on a kid?Wes would have killed to have tutors who cared more about math than mimicking noble etiquette.“So I filched my brother’s old schoolbooks.Or the ones I liked, in any case.”

“What are these papers all for, though?”Wes asked.Delauney went pinker still.Wes hadn’t known that particular shade was possible on someone so pale.

“Oh.You know.Something to pass the time.”

A pile of papers filled to the margins with numbers wasn’t something to pass the time.Wes shouldn’t care, regardless.Delauney was a strange fellow, but he was also a true noble.He was wealthy, flighty, and with no sense of the world outside his little bubble.Wes had no reason to care what his scribbles meant.

Except, as Wes read aloud from a letter by Delauney’s older brother about crops and tenant disputes, he couldn’t help noticing how Delauney’s gaze lingered on some of the pages.The sparkle in his eyes strengthened, turning into something more substantial.There was real, genuine interest there, something Wes hadn’t seen in most of his commanding officers since he’d joined the navy.It made him want to rattle Delauney and see what spilled out.

Instead, he finished the letter, which had perfectly legible handwriting, and gathered a bag of Delauney’s clothes while Delauney was distracted with the papers.

He stepped out of the captain’s quarters to find that the girl with the book had been joined by Delauney’s first mate, who gave Wes a calculating look.There was something familiar about him that Wes couldn’t quite figure out at first.He had dark brown skin like Wes and a touch of silver in his hair, and the arch of his nose and his sharp jaw dragged Wes back to the ancient schoolroom of his childhood, where his parents had lined up wooden tablets of every noble family worth knowing.

De Burre,he thought.Of course that was what he remembered.His parents couldn’t have made him memorize history or science.They’d filled his head with noble faces instead, and what good did that do out at sea?

“He actually let you clean up?”De Burre asked.“Impressive.His last valet gave up and joined the crew on the gun deck.What was your name again?”

“Leonhart, sir,” Wes said.“Wes.”

De Burre nodded.“Go about your business, then.”

That was the sort of noble Wes was used to.Officers weren’t supposed to get too involved.They could be friendly, but they knew they couldn’t be actual friends.Delauney must have forgotten that rule.It was utterly bewildering, and Wes was relieved to find that the rest of the ship operated properly.He scrubbed Delauney’s clothes on deck with soap, and other enlisted sailors came wandering by, curious to find a new member of the crew.

“Who tricked you into being a steward for the captain?”a woman asked, kneeling down to scrub her clothes on the deck next to him.She had wispy blond hair and a stocky frame, and she wore a gold necklace with a claw wrapped in wire at the end.

Wes shrugged.“Transferred from Captain Lennox’s crew.There was some trouble there and I had the chance to leave, so I took it.”

“Oh, yeah, Janey said someone whipped the captain.”The woman whistled low.“Did you see it happen?”

Wes gave her a sidelong look.If people were already talking about it, he wondered if anyone knew Wes had been the one at fault.“Would’ve been obligated to stop it if I did, yeah?”

“Maybe.Doesn’t seem like anyone else did, though.You won’t catch that happening here.Delauney’s a soft touch.A bit eccentric, maybe, but he’s nice enough.Ned’s the one who really runs things, though.Officer de Burre,” she added, when Wes gave her an odd look.“But he would run things anyway, wouldn’t he?Being a dom and all.”

Wes wondered if that ever bothered Delauney, or if he appreciated having less on his plate.It was hard to tell if anything truly bothered him.The most he seemed to get was mildly flustered.“He’s better than Lennox, at least.”

The woman snorted.“So’s a rabid dog.The name’s Vee, by the way.Don’t ask what it’s short for and we’ll get along just fine.”

More sailors came by to introduce themselves as Wes hung up clothes to dry and scrubbed through the rest.There were more idle hands aboard theManateethan Wes expected, and a group of people were already gathering on one of the lower decks to play a game of cards.Vee came by with dinner, which they ate in the shadows of the clotheslines, and Wes couldn’t help but feel like he was getting away with something.It wasn’t as though work wasn’t getting done.The crew of theManateesimply didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to do it.

The sun was sinking into the horizon when a young girl ran up to Wes.She had the typical de Burre nose and wasn’t wearing a uniform, so Wes supposed she was the sister of the girl who had strong opinions about sirens.Unlike her sister, she wore a full dress with ruffles on the sleeves and an enormous bow.

“Hey, Duck,” Vee said.

The girl twisted her hands together anxiously.Wes sincerely hoped Duck was only a nickname.