I unwrapped my arms from around Olivia. "Excellent! But first, allow me to care for you. Get you bathed and refreshed. Have you clean clothing? Or shall I lend you some?"

Olivia nodded. "I got two sets, and Titus always washed the dirty one for me, so one's now clean." She looked across the cabin to Charles at his desk. "How's we ta do it with him there? He will see me, and that's not right."

"We shall hang a curtain." I pointed to the candle sconce and the bath door hinge. "String a line from there to there and drape a cloth over it.

A few minutes later, with the curtain draped, I showed Olivia how to draw water into the bath, and while it flowed, I said, "After you bathe, we can use your water to do the laundering."

She nodded and removed her shirt, exposing breasts well along in their development, unrestrained and wabbling about. "Oh, my! I had thought you were younger. How have you kept these from showing?"

She hunched her back and thrust her shoulders forward. "By doing this, Ma'am. That and for ever flouncing out my shirt and been careful ta move slow when others are about. And crossing my arms a lot, but it's getting tough, what with them growing so much."

"What age have you?"

"I'll be seventeen next month, Ma'am." She untied the cincture at her waist and let her breeches fall to the floor. As she stepped out of them, I pointed to the cotton rag hanging from her nethers. "Oh, you are at the time of your blood."

Olivia looked down. "Not yet, Ma'am, I don't think. But I stuffed it there jest in case. They's due any day now." She blew out a deep breath. "Another reason it came more and more difficult ta hide."

"You no longer have reason to hide. You can relax and again enjoy being a woman."

She heaved a deep sigh. "It's so good ta have another ta talk with. Titus understands a bit, but he's so different from talking ta Mama and my sisters."

"Had I known earlier, I could have comforted you, shown you how to bind your bosom to hide it. Secreted you into the privy, so you might have worried less."

"I worried less as time passed, Ma'am. But the first day, I feared mightily that I'd be found out afore the ship even sailed. Mistress Granger, the widow what took me in, she tried ta stop me from going. Followed me and Titus ta the ship, and she was telling everyone that there's a woman aboard."

"Oh, my! That must be the old beggar who followed me. I thought she had seen through my ruse, and she was warning me of the curse of a woman aboard."

Olivia nodded as she sat to remove her shoes and hose. "She was telling everyone that when they boarded. Titus said many believe the curse, and that's why I had ta remain hidden. That, and what some a the crew would do ta me if they knew."

I winced as my mind flashed to my brother trying to rape me. "Indeed. Not all men are as respectful as Titus and Charles."

"Who's Charles?"

"The captain." I smiled. "But only I am allowed to call him that. All others must call him Captain."

"Such a handsome man, he is. So strong and confident." Olivia blushed as she looked up. "Jest thinking about him makes me warm below."

"Ssh!" I put a finger to my lips. "The curtain does not block sound, only sight."

She reddened further. Then in a quieter voice, she continued, "From when I first saw him, he's been in my dreams for when I rub." She looked up at me and shrugged. "God's truth, Ma'am. Your brother's my dream man."

I tensed. "My brother? How do you know him?"

"Jest seeing him, that's all, Ma'am. And looking at him every chance these past weeks." Olivia nodded toward the curtain. "And now been here working for him, I can see him more."

When I finally realised, I let out a loud laugh and shook my head. "No, Charles is not my brother. He is my betrothed."

"Oh!" Olivia slapped both hands to her mouth and mumbled through them, "I shouldn'a said what I did."

"Fret not. I would think most women find him attractive." I smiled and shrugged. "I certainly do."

"I'm so embarrassed, Ma'am. But 'tis what Titus said he heard. That the captain jest announced that he brung his sister aboard and that there ain't no curse."

I chuckled. "Ah, the usual way stories change as they pass from mouth to mouth. What starts as small and white at one end of the ship ends as big and black at the other."

"Like the one 'bout no more ale with supper. Started as waiting for the slaves ta be freed."

"Indeed. But to matters at hand." I pointed to the cotton. "There is a better method than stuffing a wad like that, and I shall get one for you after you have bathed. Now, out with it and into the water."

As Olivia stepped into the bath, she said, "Oh, my! The water's warm. How's it do that? Where's it come from?"

I pointed up. "From a barrel on the quarterdeck, painted black, so the sun heats it." I held her arm to steady her as she stepped the other foot in. "Sit there and soak while I fetch a chip of soap."

A while later, as she lathered her hair, she asked, "What kind of soap is this? It smells so different, not stinging in my nose. Like no soap I never smelt afore."

"This comes from Castille in Spain, and it has long been my favourite. They make it with olive oil, and I am told they add laurel leaves to give the spicy aroma."

We rinsed Olivia's hair under the flow from the pipe, and with her body now wet, I washed her back, surprising myself with the pleasure this brought me. Caring for someone. But I delight in caring for Charles. That is different, though. Or is it not? Caring for another, for any other. A nurturing instinct, a motherly one.

While I continued washing her, my mind wandered to the future and to the joys of caring for our children. I was surprised out of my thoughts by Olivia's voice, "Told you I needed this awful bad, Ma'am, but I think I'm all clean now."

"Hmmm! Oh, yes, I think you are. You rinse with water from the pipe, and I will fetch a towel."

I returned a minute later and assisted her as she stepped out. "There are only two bath sheets, so you may use mine. We shall buy you one in Port Royal."

"You are too kind, Ma'am. But 'tis me what should be caring for you."

"In its time, Olivia. We need first to get you comfortably back to being a woman."

While she dried, I went to the night cabin to fetch a mouse, and when she had finished, I handed it to her and nodded down. "You will find this easier and more comfortable."

"Oh, and the string is ta pull it out."

"It is, and I shall show you how they are made, then you can make them for us both." I unrolled my former binding cloth and pointed to her breasts. "Unrestrained and wabbling, those excite men a little too much, so it is best we contain them before Steward arrives to lay the table for dinner."

She looked down and wiggled her shoulders. "This jouncing was my increasing fear, Ma'am. They's near doubled in size since Portsmouth, and they now move so much more than afore."

I nodded, and remembering what Ruth had described, I placed the middle of the cloth strip around the back of Olivia's neck and crossed the ends such that each covered a breast and passed under her arms. Then as I tied them together behind her back, I said, "This should steady them."

"Oh, my!" She shook her shoulders and bounced up and down. "I shoulda thought a doing this. All them cloths we got in the cookery."

"A sempstress in Barbados told me about it. About a lot of other womanly things, as well." I leant closer to her and whispered, "Some of it very exciting, and I shall tell you when he is not so near."

Olivia giggled. "I'm going ta like caring for you, Ma'am."

"Wonderful. Then we shall both enjoy it."