Or before that even, when she had seen the ship on the horizon stealing in towards the land, she had known then that this thing was to happen, that nothing could prevent it; she was part of his body and part of his mind, they belonged to each other, both wanderers, both fugitives, cast in the same mould.
CHAPTER XI
It was about seven o'clock in the evening, and Dona, coming up on deck, found that the ship had altered course again, and was now standing in once more towards the coast.
The land was a blur as yet upon the horizon, no clearer than a wisp of cloud.
All day they had remained at sea, and in mid-channel, with never a sight of another vessel, while a spanking breeze had held them for the full twelve hours, causing La Mouette to jump and dance like a live thing.
Dona understood that the plan was to stay out of sight of land until dusk, and when evening came to creep in-shore under cover of darkness.
The day therefore had been little more than a filling up of time, with the added chance, of course, of meeting with some merchant vessel carrying a cargo up-channel, which might offer itself for plunder, but such a ship had not been encountered, and the crew, enlivened by the long day at sea, found their appetites whipped now for the adventure that lay before them, and the unknown hazard of the night.
One and all seemed possessed by a sense of excitement, a spirit of devilry, they were like boys setting forth upon some foolhardy venture, and Dona, leaning over the rail of the poop-deck to watch them, would hear them laugh and sing, cracking jokes with one another, and now and again glancing up in her direction, throwing her a look, a smile, all with a conscious air of gallantry, intensely aware of the presence on board of a woman, who had never sailed with them before.
Even the day was infectious, the hot sun, the fresh westerly breeze, the blue water, and Dona had a ridiculous longing to be a man amongst them, to handle ropes and blocks, to climb aloft up the tall raking spars and trim the sails, to handle the spokes of the great wheel.
Now and again the spray broke on the deck, splashing her face and her hands, soaking her gown, but she did not care, the sun would soon dry her clothes, and she found a little patch of dry deck to leeward of the wheel where she sat cross-legged like a gypsy, her shawl tucked into her sash, and the wind playing havoc with her hair.
By noon, she was prodigiously hungry, and there came to her, from the bows of the ship, the smell of hot burnt bread and bitter black coffee, and presently she saw Pierre Blanc climb the ladder to the poop, bearing in his hands a tray.
She took it from him, almost ashamed of her eagerness, and he - winking at her with an absurd familiarity which made her laugh, rolled his eyes to heaven and rubbed his stomach.
"Monsieur will join you directly," he said, smiling like an accomplice, and she thought how like William they all were in their linking of two together, and how they accepted it as natural, light-hearted and lovely.
She fell upon the loaf of bread like a creature ravenous for food, cutting a chunk off the black crust, and there was butter, too, and cheese, and the heart of a lettuce.
Presently she heard a step behind her and glancing up she saw the captain of La Mouette looking down upon her.
He sat by her side and reached for the loaf of bread.
"The ship can take care of herself," he said, "and anyway this is her weather, she would keep to her course all day, with a finger to the wheel now and again.
Give me some coffee."
She poured out the steaming brew into two cups, and they drank greedily, watching each other over the rims.
"What do you think of my ship?" he asked.
"I think she is bewitched, and is not a ship at all, for I feel as though I had never been alive before."
"That is the effect she first had upon me, when I turned to piracy.
What is the cheese like?"
"The cheese is also enchanted."
"And you do not feel sick?"
"I have not felt better in my life."
"Eat all you can now, because tonight there will be little time for food.
Do you want another crust of bread?"
"Please."
"This wind will hold all day, but this evening it will fall light, and we shall have to creep along the coast, taking full advantage of the tide.
Are you happy?"
"Yes… Why do you ask?"
"Because I am happy too.
Give me some more coffee."
"The men are very gay today," she said, reaching for the jug, "is it because of tonight, or because they are at sea again?"
"A mixture of both.
And they are gay, too, because of you."
"Why should I make any difference?"
"You are an added stimulation.
They will work all the better tonight because of you."
"Why did you not have a woman on board before?"
He smiled, his mouth full of bread and cheese, but he did not answer.
"I forgot to tell you," she said, "what Godolphin said the other day."
"And what did he say?"
"He told me that there were ugly rumours about the countryside, because of the men belonging to your ship. He said that he had heard of cases of women in distress."
"In distress about what?"
"The very thing I asked him.
And he replied, to my choking delight, that he feared some of the countrywomen had suffered at the hands of your damned scoundrels."
"I doubt if they suffered."
"So do I."