July 8, Clementine Boat, @harry-cadogan
The first hour was always the worst. Trying to find her sea legs, trying not to lose her breakfast over the side of the boat, trying to remember if she’d packed everything and hadn’t, in fact, left anything important behind at her cousin’s home. It all melded together and swirled up into a veritable storm of anxiety and nauseousness, and Delilah was ready for it all to be over. Once she’d had time to settle in, her nerves and her stomach would surely calm down –– they had to, or else this journey would feel a lot longer than eight hours. She tried taking a seat, hoping that remaining steady would help, but it seemed to make things worse, so she stood, pacing and rocking slightly with the movement of the water with each step. That was even worse than sitting, if possible, and she was sure it made her look rather ridiculous, so she headed for the edge and began to walk alongside the railing, taking deep and steady inhales of the fresh air as she did. That helped, at least. She knew she could flag down her gracious hosts for a ginger candy if needs be, but Delilah was...stubborn, to say the least, and was certain she could conquer this with her own wits and fortitude.
Another few steps, then another, and yes, there, she was definitely starting to feel a little better. In fact, she was actually starting to feel excitement again, colored slightly blue with the slightest bit of regret that her charges could not attend. Not that she wanted to work, of course not, but still –– Emma loved the water, always had. Delilah was half convinced her young cousin was part fish, sometimes, and Emma and Adam loved to play little games where Adam was Odysseus on a ship home and Emma was one of the sirens trying to lure him astray. Granted, the effect was rather lost when they were playing in a bathtub, and it did complicate bath time a bit, but still. Thinking of them made her smile, and she was so caught up in the thought and still trying to find her sea legs that she was entirely unprepared for when a particularly sizable wave knocked against the side of the barge. Delilah pitched forward suddenly, the deck seeming to drop out from beneath her, leaving her floating for a moment before hurtling down, only to –– whump!
She landed rather solidly against a gentleman with one arm full of flowers, and the other arm full of –– well, her. His arm wrapped around her waist instantly, his grip strong and his stance steady, and she reached up instinctively to steady his hat, which looked perilously close to flying off into the water below after having been knocked against her own. Delilah blinked once, twice, startled, and then said, without thinking: “Good catch.”