Caution to the Wind by Mary Jean Adams

the roundness of his features, and learn to stop blushing like a maid whenever he became nervous. If he could just protect Adam through this awkward time in his life, the boy would learn to fend for himself.
    But how long would this phase last? Will had never experienced anything even remotely similar so he had no way of knowing.
    “Doctor, do you think Adam is, well, developing normally?”
    “As a sailor, you mean?”
    “No, no,” Will waved his hand then tucked it back in the crook of his arm. “I mean as a man. He’s a bit...underdeveloped, don’t you think?”
    “Underdeveloped?” the doctor repeated.
    “Yes. The boy has no noticeable muscle, no facial hair and skin that looks as soft as a baby’s. Don’t you think he’s a bit too...pretty for a man?” Will snorted. “I’ve met women who were less enticing.”
    “Ahh,” the doctor said with that irritating tone that all doctors used when they thought they had their patients figured out. “You think he’s enticing?”
    “Well...you know...interesting.” Will paused, realizing that he might be giving Doctor Miller the wrong impression. “Not to me, of course. But I do wonder the affect that such an attractive boy might have on the rest of the men. Not all men have such leanings, of course, but sailors can be at sea for months at a time with no woman in sight.”
    “Thanks to your rule,” the doctor reminded him.
    “It’s for the good of the ship.” Will shot back. “How would I ever get the men to work as they do if I allowed women aboard ship?”
    “Perhaps women would give the men a reason to work hard, finish their duties in record time, even fight harder to save the ship if it came to that.” Doctor Miller’s chair squeaked as he sat forward. “And perhaps if you allowed wives and sweethearts aboard, you wouldn’t have to worry so much about boys like Adam.”
    Will gave the doctor a lopsided smile. “Have you seen some of the women the men leave behind? An attractive boy like Adam would still need to watch his back.”
    The doctor raised an eyebrow.
    “I mean, I’m not attracted to him,” Will said, realizing the doctor had misunderstood him again.
    The doctor nodded but said nothing.
    Will remembered how the touch of the boy’s thumb on his cheek had sent a ripple of pleasure coursing through him. For one horrifying moment, he had contemplated the softness of the boy’s lips.
    He checked the shudder that ran through him. He would never have acted on the impulse. He had simply been taken aback by the boy’s overt femininity, but he had come to his senses soon enough. Anyone might have had the same reaction. Will’s stomach added another knot. That was precisely the problem. The boy was too damn feminine to serve on a ship full of men.
    “The boy is just too pretty for his own good, Doctor.”
    “Ahh,” the doctor said again, the sound grating on Will’s nerves. The doctor’s grin didn’t sit much better with him. Doctor Miller and several of the men had been witness to Will’s confrontation with Adam. Had they noticed his reaction?
    “How old do you think he is?” Will asked, eager to keep the focus on Adam.
    If Adam weren’t of age, there was the hope that his youth would throw off any men intent on using the boy for their own purulent amusements. He knew some captains looked the other way, but he had always agreed with those who thought men who preyed on younger boys should be strung up by their—
    “I don’t really know. Fourteen? Maybe fifteen?” the doctor said. “Bull usually records that in the logbook for all ship’s boys, doesn’t he?”
    “Yes, but for some reason he did not this time.”
    “And you’re concerned he might be too much of an innocent to fend for himself?”
    “Yes,” Will agreed, relieved the doctor finally understood.
    “Captain, it’s clear you’ve developed an affection for the boy. I wouldn’t worry about it though. It’s only natural when you spend that much time around