Page 14 of Captain's Orders
From here, Big Major Cay was a strip of white sand about two hundred meters out, fringed with palms and scrubby vegetation. The swimming pigs were the main attraction—a colony of feral pigs that waded into the shallows to greet visiting boats, mostly because tourists had been feeding them for years. The kids had been beside themselves when Dani announced it at breakfast. Even Tyler had taken his earbuds out.
Figures moved near the waterline—the older kids splashing around, pigs wading between them, a couple of adults in beach chairs. It looked peaceful from this distance. Postcard stuff.
Their tender approached and Dani recognized Zoe at the helm. Grace, the nanny, was in the back, hunched over something in her lap. As they got closer, Dani realized thesomething was Bea, and Bea was screaming. It was the kind of full-bodied, end-of-the-world screaming that only a five-year-old could sustain without passing out.
Zoe cut the engine and drifted the tender alongside the swim platform. Her expression saiddon't ask, but Dani asked anyway.
"What happened?"
Grace climbed aboard with Bea clamped to her like a barnacle, the child's face buried in her neck. "One of the pigs nudged her foot."
Dani waited for the rest. "That's it?"
"Well, that and her older brother told her the pigs eat children," Grace added. "So when a small pig put his snout against her ankle, she thought it was trying to bite off her foot." She turned to Bea. "But it really wasn't, sweetie. It was just curious."
Bea lifted her head long enough to reply. "No! It was TASTING me!"
"Oh, sweetheart. It really wasn't trying to eat you. Pigs are friendly. It just wanted to say hello." Dani smiled at Bea. She was still wrapped around Grace's neck like a scarf. "How about an ice cream? Would that help?"
Bea's sobbing paused just long enough for her to consider this.
"Grace, is she okay to have ice cream? Sorry, I know she hasn’t even had lunch yet. I should have asked," Dani said.
"Ice cream's fine." Grace peeled Bea off her and lowered her onto the deck. "I need to head back. The other five are on that beach with the pigs and Tyler's been winding Noah up all morning." She glanced toward the tender, where Zoe was waiting with the engine idling. "Could you keep an eye on her for half an hour? Just until we're back?"
Dani hesitated. She liked kids in theory. In practice, she never quite knew what to do with them. They asked questionsshe couldn't answer and cried for reasons she couldn't fix and they always seemed vaguely disappointed by her efforts.
"Grace, you know our charter policy says minors need to be supervised by a parent or designated guardian at all times. The crew can't take responsibility for?—"
"I know." Grace's face fell. "But Sarah asked me to bring Bea back and also keep an eye on the others, so..." She trailed off and gestured between the yacht and the island, making her point without saying it. "I can't be in two places at the same time, and they don't have their phones on them."
Dani looked at Bea, who had stopped crying and was now standing quietly, sniffing and dripping onto the deck, staring up at her with enormous brown eyes and a trembling lip.
"Okay. Just this once," she said. "But Grace—you need to let the parents know this can't happen again. If that's a difficult conversation, I'm happy to have it for you."
Grace shot her a look of pure gratitude. "Thank you. I'll talk to them. And I won't be long, I promise."
She climbed back into the tender and Zoe pulled away from the platform. Dani watched them go, then looked down at Bea. She was five, soaking wet, and waiting for Dani to do something.
"Right," she said. "Ice cream. Let me get you a robe first and then we'll go and find you something with sprinkles. Does that work?"
Bea nodded. Progress.
Dani fetched one of the guest robes from the pool deck storage. It was adult-sized, which meant Bea disappeared inside it. The hem dragged on the deck and the sleeves hung a good two feet past her hands. She looked like a very small, very sad ghost.
"Can you walk in that?"
Bea took a step and immediately tripped on the fabric. Dani caught her before she went down, hoisted her onto her hip, and carried her down to the galley.
Lindsay looked up from a chopping board. "Bea, what happened?"
"A pig tried to eat her, so she needs ice cream."
"It DID," Bea confirmed.
Lindsay chuckled. "That's outrageous. What flavor ice cream does a person need after a pig attack?"
"Chocolate," Bea said. It was the most decisive she'd been since boarding.
