“My men care about me a little more than the Navy. None of them know who I am except by name.” She said. Elissa walked unsteadily beside Joseph to his cabin. She nearly stumbled a few times but managed to catch herself and keep her balance. Her stomach grumbled slightly, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since the night before. As they entered the room Elissa looked around, a relieved look coming to her face as she observed the multiple windows in the cabin. She’d spent a year in the mental asylum,Bedlam and in that year had spent an uncertain amount of time locked away from light. It was a year that haunted her and a year that she’d never forgive her father for. He had admitted her believing that she was crazy. She’d only been fourteen years old. She wondered over to the windows, looking out of them as if this were her first time seeing the ocean. For a brief moment there was a look of pure joy and contentment on her face. Like many on the ship she found freedom and home on the sea.

Elissa whirled around to look to him in shock when he pointed to the bed. “Are you sure? I don’t want to impose, I just can’t be locked away in the dark again. I don’t mind sleeping on the couch or even the floor. I just need a pillow and a blanket. I could sleep outside in a hammock and be perfectly happy,” She told him. “I’m used to sleeping on a ship, one has been my home for the last three years.” She looked around the room as if comparing it to what she was used to. It was neater than her cabin, her’s had always been a mess, it was more comfortable that way. She’d been raised mostly by servants and nannies, her father being gone on business most of the time, and they demanded neatness. It had always made her feel like she was a guest in someone’s house and not living in her own home. “So what did you want to talk about?” Elissa turned to face him, still holding his coat tightly around her. The fever that Adam had warned Joseph about had set in. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that it wouldn’t just be about her father. He’d been in the room when she had woken, meaning he must have stayed while the doctor tended to her. He would have seen her multitude of wounds and surely there would be questions. 

Elissa wasn’t like most high society women, in fact high society practically shunned her due to her choice in life style and her father’s occupation. They had money from working for it, not from an inherited birth. Most people did not consider them to be part of true proper high society, not that Elissa cared. She preferred sailing, fighting, bargaining, and living a life outside of the confines of high society. She hated being told how to behave, she just wanted to be herself. Even if being herself had gotten her into some trouble in the past.