The look [i]Mademoiselle[/i] Beauchamp gave him very nearly set the boy back over the edge of the ship's rail he had perched upon. Luc had not the least idea what he may have done to earn her so obvious scowl of disapproval - even disgust. Because he surely had not spoken with her. Ever since the admonishment this morning from Captain Lightfoot, he had said precious little to anyone at all beyond the absolutely necessary, as to [i]Monsieur[/i] Morneau as they cooked and scrubbed. What thrill of joy the captain's small salute had given him was scorched away beneath the First Mate's withering glare.

Yes, he had watched her - but so too had any number of the crew, and surely he was not so obvious as all that? Still, if he had the power Luc would have sunk into the ship's deck and disappeared utterly - maybe to slink away to the galley, or to his hammock - or better yet to the bottom of the ocean if he had truly done something to earn such a contemptuous gaze. 

It was the near tangible power of that [i]look[/i] from someone so beautiful, so obviously angelic, that made the boy take a step backward beneath its weight, in a single terrible moment losing all sense of his natural grace and falling helplessly into thin air, to the churning waves below - 

"[i][b]Ah![/b][/i] Luc! Where do you think you are headed now?" A strong arm snatched the boy back, wrapping quickly about his waist and pulling him to rights aboard the railing. Antonia's heart hammered in her chest, and she fought every instinct in her body not to hold the boy close, to just embrace him and thank a kindly God and all the loa that he had not gone overboard.

In the end, she [i]did[/i] offer up that small, silent prayer of gratitude, but she did not hug him tightly to her as she so desperately wished. The crew would think him a ridiculous, spoilt child - and Luc would not thank her for the humiliation. Instead, she simply joined him on the deck rail, sitting now, her legs swinging lazily as if nothing could have possibly gone awry in the past few moments.

Luc - a happy, healthy child and, even now, just beginning to show the inkling of the man he would become - got over that harrowing moment rather quickly, smiling and content to see his beloved aunt for the first time since the morn. He missed entirely, the nod and the softening features the First Mate sent his way.

"[i]Tante[/i] 'Tonia! I've missed you, and there's so much to tell! I was not sure you would ever come down from your perch up there!"

Antonia laughed, shaking her head. "I cannot spend the [i]entire[/i] voyage aloft in the crow's nest, Luc." She pointed upward into the darkness, toward the height of the mast where the dark outline of another figure could be seen. Barlow had come to give her a respite, though he hadn't looked very happy with the prospect. She had managed a touch of a smile out of the kid, with the promise she would lay a wager for him on the Captain. Antonia was just superstitious enough, that she would do nothing of the sort on her own behalf - but she most [i]certainly[/i] would not have laid a wager down for the helmsman, even if he'd asked it. 

"Even [i]I[/i] must come down on occasion - and besides, there is a contest afoot! The captain and the helmsman it seems, to climb the rigging... Though I must ask Luc, what in heaven's name were you thinking, that you would decide to take a walk off the deck rail?"

At the mention of the helmsman and the captain, Luc's face brightened like the sun - though his visage darkened once more when his aunt asked about his near tragic mishap, falling with the dejection of that remembered moment.

"[i]Mademoiselle[/i] Beauchamp hates me [i]Tante[/i] 'Tonia, and I do not know what I have done. I have not spoken out of turn, as Captain Lightfoot told me this morning. I have not been staring... Well, I mean of course I looked [i]at[/i] her, but not so rudely I thought... " Antonia's heart broke as the boy's voice trailed off, the sadness on a face that should only ever know smiles and laughter making her want to hug Luc to her all over again, though she fought that sudden impulse once more.

"No, no sweet boy, she does not [i]hate[/i] you! She simply does not know you. Not yet!" She glanced to the First Mate, and decided... No. Quite simply [i]no,[/i] this woman could not possibly despise Luc, who was no more nor less than a good boy, [i]her[/i] boy. Surely there had been some mistake, perhaps he was simply overtired and overwrought from his first long day at sea?

Yes, [i]surely[/i] that must be it! Because who could possibly [i]not[/i] love such a good, sincere child?

Luc peered up hopefully to his aunt, listening to her words with a wistful little half-smile. But it was not until he heard [i]Monsieur[/i] Jax's call that Luc's jubilant smile broke like daybreak after a storm. Obviously the helmsman, in his equally obvious moment of distress, did not note the shadowy rogue beside the boy - but that was fine with Antonia. It would not be the first time after all, and she was only grateful to the man for restoring the boy's spirits in a single moment.

"Go on then," Antonia whispered, giving Luc an encouraging pat on his back as he jumped to the deck from the rail and swiftly wound his way through the growing crowd of sailors to Jax. 

He did not dare look toward Nicolette but, without a single word, the boy pulled up in front of the helmsman, smiling so proudly. He reached beneath his shirt as those dark, amber-lit eyes gazed up to Jax, picking up the twine between thumb and forefinger about his neck and holding it out to the helmsman. The shark's tooth gleamed, slightly luminous in the moonlight, from its perch in the makeshift. Luc's grin somehow grew brighter still as he showed [i]Monsieur[/i] Jax irrefutable proof, that the members of the Secret Cabin Boy Club did not simply abandon its own to the whims of fate!

Though honestly, if Captain Lightfoot too was a member of their secret club? Would he be giving Jax far too much of the essential good fortune needed to win? Was that [i]really[/i] fair, or was it... 

Luc shook his head swiftly, as if to clear it, before taking a deep breath and continuing to smile up at Jax expectantly. Some matters were simply too weighty for the ponderings of a young boy's mind. 

Silently and unnoticed by Luc, the rogue approached the small but growing knot of people right behind the little boy, relieved to see his small, sweet spirit was not dampened at all with Jax - even in the presence of the lovely Nicolette who so unnerved him. She lay Barlow's wager of a piece of ivory scrimshaw on the captain, and then stayed back a ways, her arms folded over her chest easily, listening far more to the conversations about her than she ever spoke, as was her wont.