When Mr. Grady came over, Alex was sure he’d be on his side. But Grady said to Cay, “I can see that you’re an afficionado of Mr. Bartram.”
“Yes, sir, I am,” she said firmly.
“Carry on, then,” Grady said as he went back to his maps and charts.
Cay looked at Alex as he pulled his head back just in time to keep the angry bird from taking a beak to his jaw. “Don’t even bother to ask me who Mr. Bartram is. I have no idea. So why do people say you’re a magician with animals?”
Narrowing his eyes at her, Alex mumbled about her ingratitude. It was one thing to spend time and effort gentling an animal that was about to run a race, but this was a bird that . . . that was frightened half to death. For a moment he was ashamed that he’d forgotten all he’d learned as a child. With a childhood as lonely as his, he’d had to turn to the animals around him for companionship.
He looked down at the bird he held firmly in his arms and gave all his attention to it. Long ago, he’d found that if he closed out the external world from his mind, it often did the same thing to whatever animal he was touching. He felt the bird’s wildly beating heart begin to quieten, and as it did, Alex touched its head. The feathers were warm and smooth, and he worked with his mind to project peace to the creature. His mother used to say that the gift Alex had inherited from her family extended to what he could make animals feel.
Slowly, the bird began to relax and stop fighting.
When it was still, Alex looked up and saw that the other passengers were watching him.
“How did you do that?” Cay whispered.
Alex shrugged, his hand never stopping as he stroked the wings of the big bird.
She looked at the nearest person, who happened to be Tim, to ask if he’d seen it, but the boy turned away. When she caught Eli’s eyes, the older man said, “I guess we won’t be eating that bird tonight.”
“No, I think he’s going to marry her,” Cay said with a sigh. She sounded so much like a lovesick female that both Eli and Mr. Grady laughed.
Alex shook his head in warning, but he, too, was smiling. “Would you get on with your drawing now before her mate comes and wakes her up?”
Cay started sketching as quickly as she could. These weren’t finished drawings by any means, but she needed to get the details down now. “How do you know it isn’t a male?”
“Do you insult me?” Alex asked, and he sounded so genuinely offended that she laughed.
“You two should speak English,” Tim said.
“So you can eavesdrop?” Cay asked.
“So the captain will know what to tell you not to do,” he shot back at her, then laughed, obviously thinking he’d said something witty.
Cay said a Scottish slang word that made Alex tell her to keep her mouth closed. He sounded shocked.
While she worked, she told him, “I want to do what Uncle T.C. does and show the birds in their natural state. When you hand them to me dead, I draw them so they look lifeless, but if I could put a bug or a plant near them, they’d look more alive.”
“Why don’t you put down your pen and look at where you are?”
“I can’t. Mr. Grady will—”
“When he sees how good your drawings are, I’m sure he’ll do nothing but praise you,” Alex said, but he wasn’t sure that was true. From the moment they’d left the dock, Grady had been the stern captain of the ship. You would have thought they were a crew aboard a frigate. And Grady seemed to want everything they saw recorded, and Cay wanted to oblige him. Alex thought that it was a wonder Grady hadn’t arrived with half a dozen artists. “He could afford them,” Alex said under his breath, and even he realized that some of his bitterness at the rich people he’d thought of as his friends had been transferred to Grady.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, lass. I—”
She gave him a sharp look. Obviously, she’d heard what he said and knew who he meant.
“Sorry, it was a slip. I promise I won’t do it again if you’ll come with me and look at this place. It’s beautiful.”
Cay gave a glance to Mr. Grady, but he seemed to be absorbed in the papers set on a little table and was ignoring all of them. When Cay tried to get up, she found her legs had gone to sleep, and she tumbled against Alex when she stood up. Her hands landed on his chest, and for a moment she left them there. She could feel the muscles under his shirt. “You’ve gained some weight since I met you.”
Alex put his hands on her shoulders and set her a foot away from him. “Now’s not the time for that.” He looked about quickly, to see if anyone had seen her, but they were all busy with other things.
“I was just concerned for your health. What have you been eating that’s made you put on weight?”