Traveler Ch. 02

I looked at Cassie and eyed the exit to my boat. She in turn shook her head and continued to hold onto Maddie.

Cindy chose river language; it was the tone that made Cassie lift her head to look at her. "That was Abe, he says you're joining us. You were supposed to arrive in the morning. It's a good thing Abe phoned when he did."

"Please stop."

Her voice was muffled because her head was still buried into Cassie's neck. She used her hand against her to push herself away and look at Cindy.

"You can use whatever language you like, but I hear it in your voice. Cassie is here because I asked her to help me, to help us. At first she refused but I kept on at her; in the end she said she had to seek approval from someone. It wasn't until I was alone with Traveler that I fully realized the hierarchy of the families and I asked him to allow her to be here."

She turned towards Cassie and mouthed 'thank you'.

Watching my wife's demeanor was enough for me to almost shout from the rooftops, 'ladies and gentlemen, enforcer has left the building'. Cindy herself trod a very difficult path; my wife was also godparent to one of Cassie's children. But three of us in this room knew that she was Abe's enforcer first, regardless of any personal connections.

Cassie pulled Maddie so they looked at each other and some invisible signal passed between them, she stood allowing Cassie to stand up.

Cassie once again looked Maddie up and down and smiled. "I see these two are showing you our ways; you should be honored. I have to move my car and then I'll join you."

She once again eyed up a naked and now not worrying about it Maddie and said. "Literally join you."

Of course the girls just had to stand all hands on hips gesture when it was my turn to get naked. Just what I needed, an audience.

*******

For an hour we talked about the location I had last seen Maddie's sister. I had pulled a map out and rested it on the table, Maddie soon realized why we were going by boat, it was a remote part of the country. The mountains in that area meant that any and all roads took the long route; the river followed a different part through the terrain.

Eventually the four of us split into two pairs. I was talking logistics with Cassie at the table, jotting down things we may need and where to get them on the way. Cindy was sorting out bed space with Maddie. Cassie and I noticed when their conversation dropped to a whisper. Even that sort of privacy isn't possible on a canal boat.

Cassie and Maddie had been talking about how everything they wore would be functional; that multi-tasking on a canal boat became second nature. One moment you're stirring soup on the stove, the next you have to switch the stove off and help with getting the boat through a lock before returning to warming the soup again.

The whispering started when Maddie asked my wife how come I had three naked women on a boat and I didn't have a hard-on. Cassie and I looked at each other and smiled before we just got on with the task in hand. We still waited for Cindy's answer though.

Cindy sat on the bed they were both making up and pulled Maddie over to sit next to her. She pointed out that river people don't walk around their boat naked all the time. What we were doing this evening was getting Maddie used to the people she would be with for the duration of this trip. The weather in our state meant that usually the dress code would be shorts and a top, or a bra and shorts. Even swim costumes and shorts, functional and loose in a limited way, so as not to get snagged on anything.

Cindy then leaned closer to Maddie and said. "Also, because he's a man of the water. Erections are for sex, just as women's nipples tighten and their eyes dilate. We also shed pheromones by the bucket load as well and in a confined space like this, that could be 'challenging' if there are two males in the room."

Maddie thought about what had just been said. "So you can switch it all off?"

"No, we can hide it better than land people can."

By now both Cassie and I were watching, as well as listening to the interaction between them. It seems that Maddie was still having a hard time with my wife's explanation.

Still seeing no light of understanding, Cindy rolled her eyes and said. "Okay, just remember, you asked and it's your land people mentality that's holding you back at the moment."

Cindy stood up and walked over to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and we kissed. A true husband and wife kiss, no hurry, just the pleasure of knowing that the one you truly love was being that intimate with you.

When our lips parted Cindy took a step back, once again looking at Maddie. "See, he's as hard as steel now. But, because that was my fault because I needed to show you, I have to pay penance now. Normally I would have bent over the table and let him do me from behind, but we still have a lot to do before we get any sleep so I have to do this."

My wife dropped to her knees, tilted my intensely hard cock towards her mouth and sunk about half of me into her. Cindy being my wife, gave her an advantage, she knew every button she can push on me and did just that. I had to hold her shoulders as I came in her mouth minutes later.

Cindy sucked me dry, pulled off and then licked me clean before she looked up at me and kissed my now softening cock, before I helped her stand again. In that one second before she leaned into me and kissed my cheek, I saw the love we've had for each other since we had first met, when we were both fifteen.

As she walked back to Maddie I looked over at Cassie, the blush was there, but her smile was even bigger.

"I think I've just been raped."

Cindy laughed, so did Cassie.

My wife once again sat beside Maddie. "Do you understand now? Being naked around each other is sometimes necessary, like getting caught in the rain; and remember, time constraints, changing clothes next to a man, or woman for that matter isn't a first step towards having sex, it may be just a matter of circumstance." Her arm waved the length of the boat. "Such as a boat that only has one room for privacy. Perhaps researching nudists would help you understand better, naked doesn't mean we all just jump each other's bones."

Cindy's example may have been at the top end of extreme, but all three of us saw the understanding come to Maddie's eyes now.

It was then I pointed out we start early in the morning. We needed a water refill on the way out and then had three days of constant travel. Cassie told me that she was sleeping with Maddie; the maths after that statement got a smile from my wife. I locked up the boat, by now Cassie had put on panties, Maddie followed suit and both took the bed toward the bow. My very naked wife followed me to bed in the aft bunk.

*******

I'm normally a light sleeper, I guess the fact that my wife had wrapped herself around me caused me to relax to the point that I actually slept. The smell of coffee woke us both, Maddie noticed us stir and placed two cups of coffee on the side table. Cindy was the first to get up between us, she went to do her morning rituals while I leaned over and hugged the hell out of my cup.

We filled the water tank on the way out of storage and set off. After an hour Cindy came on deck with sun lotion in hand and told Maddie she needed to come down below. The lotion bottle in her hand was self-explanatory; telling her to get naked so that Cindy could put it on, slowed her down a bit. It was the small shrug of her shoulder and then her clothes being a pool around her feet made it feel like she had figured out the lesson my wife was trying to explain to her.

We took a while at the first lock, Cassie set about explaining both the reason for the lock as well as how to open and close it. It only took two locks and Maddie got the hang of it real quick.

Had it been Cassie and I or even if you added my wife into the equation, we would have travelled through the night. The fact we were carrying such a precious cargo put us more on the defensive. So we broke the trip down to eight-hour maximum travel times. One of the three of us could stand watch at all times, protecting Maddie and the boat.

It was halfway through the second day that Cassie casually looked behind us, then did that double take thing and stood up to look harder. She then grabbed my binoculars and looked again. I put the engine into idle and we coasted along the canal. Cindy came out from below and looked at me, she then looked at Cassie with the binoculars to her eyes.

"What's up?"

The binoculars lowered but her face was a giveaway.

Cassie leaned into the boat and said to Cindy that she may need to sunblock Maddie since it looked like being a hot one. My wife looked hard at Cassie and an understanding came to her.

She nodded and Maddie just tutted, the smile never left her face when she said. "Look, if you want to keep seeing my tits, you only have to ask."

Both girls giggled, more so when Cindy told her, that was her husband up there and she had cock on tap anytime she wanted it. Not to mention she had better tits than Maddie had. I blushed, all three girls noticed and a chorus of giggling came from all corners of the boat.

While Cindy was keeping Maddie distracted, Cassie pulled the map out. Water language got involved after that. "Drop me and Cindy off here."

She pointed to a spot on the map that was about two miles away from us at the moment. Then looked at her watch and her finger traveled the same way the river moved, it almost seemed like it doubled back on itself as it followed the contours around the mountain in front of it. She tapped her finger on a spot on the map.

"If you don't see us at this point when you get there, then sit and wait for us."

I nodded and moments later Cindy came up, Maddie was still below putting her clothes back on. "Someone's out there?"

Cassie nodded. "At the moment I can only sense something. Then I thought I saw something, but when I took a really good look, it had gone."

Maddie had joined us now. "What's up?"

I let Cassie lead on this as I concentrated on the boat.

"Cindy and I are jumping ship; we're going to be collecting wild herbs for a stew later. Cindy reckons that if we come across a sheep on our travels, she's going to kill that with her bare hands and bring that along as well."

Maddie was still laughing when she went back into the boat to make herself and me a coffee. The girls left a few minutes later, I pulled closer to the bank and they jumped, I didn't even stop, just pulled back into the center of the river and carried on.

I saw the coffees first. Maddie appeared with a smile on her lips and joined me. My map was on the deck, so I could see it, even at a glance. She sat and watched me for a while, then the scenery, it was obvious she was building up to asking a question that I figure she didn't want the answer too.

"Since the girls aren't here, will you tell me what's going on?"

She was perceptive, I'll give her that.

"A while ago, Cassie thought she saw something behind us. When her brain got the message from her eyes, she looked again, only longer this time. The thing is she can't be a hundred percent sure. So we're continuing for about another two hours and then stop. The girls are going to scout around and then cut across country to us later in the day."

"So the sunscreen was an excuse, I didn't need screening?"

I looked at her and smiled. "You're a pasty-faced land girl, you need sunscreen twenty-four seven."

At least that made her laugh.

"I'm going to slow the boat a little more, I need you to come over here and steer the boat while I go below for a minute."

She visibly shuddered. "What if I hit something?"

"Then I will never speak to you again."

That got a smile from her, the panic still stayed behind her eyes. The quick course in steering a canal boat lasted for twenty minutes. She soon realized that she was a natural at it. I went below and came back with my shotgun in hand and laid it out of sight, but still within arm's reach.

We arrived at our agreed stopping point and I dropped anchor in the middle of the river. At first Maddie looked confused, then the conversation we had had and the shotgun close to hand began to make sense.

When it started to get dark, I sent Maddie below. Then closed the door and padlocked it. I heard her crying but she didn't try to get out. Once done I sat against the door, my shotgun laid across my lap, not once was there less than one hand on it from then on.

The one sense that was almost useless to me was sight. With no moon, very few stars and being miles from any town, no street lights. So I closed my eyes, shutting down a sense that had little or no use to me at the moment, meant that my body automatically heightened my other senses. Smell and hearing became sharper; my breathing calmed and bolstered my other senses.

My hand moved on my shotgun, my other hand joined it and I slowly stood. In one movement I racked a round in and now looked at the back of the boat, the boat tilted slightly and I took aim.

"Just us, husband of mine. Make the shotgun safe and let us board."

I made the shotgun safe, laid it on the seat I had vacated, stepped forward and pulled Cindy aboard, the boat tilted again and I took a pace to my left and helped Cassie board. Then I unlocked the door and opened it; Maddie met Cindy on the three steps into the boat. She got the hug of a scared young lady.

Cassie explained while they both stood by the bathroom, wet clothes were being tossed into the shower and Maddie handed them both towels.

"We are being followed; we found a boat a couple of miles back from where you dropped us off. It has no name and nothing on board to tell of its identity. From what we've pieced together, one person was on it, but they have gone to ground."

By now Maddie had made coffee for us all; the girls held theirs in both hands. For the sake of their health, I stopped them there and sent them to shower. River water may look safe, but no one in their right mind drinks it without boiling it; these two had been swimming in it. They showered and Maddie got some dry clothes for them, while I started the fire. I would have to move the boat soon, whoever was out there would be able to smell the smoke and zero in on us.

Once Cassie emerged from her shower I said. "I'm moving us for her safety. Tell Maddie everything, when Cindy has had her shower tell her to come up and let me know what happened to you both."

I put a foot on the steps and then stopped. "By the way, what did you do with the boat?"

Cassie smiled, and then winked at me. Once they had finished searching for clues they had thought to torch the boat, the fall-out of that would be the mess that the waterways authority would have to deal with. Especially if the flames touched earth and went rampant at the fields around it.

"We sugared the engine and started it until it didn't want to work anymore. Whoever it is out there is on foot now. We both scouted around, but whoever is out there must have moved away from the boat when we got there."

I smiled and breathed out in relief, even with the river bending and twisting its way across the countryside, we would pull a good lead on this person. Confrontation would come, that was inevitable, but not today.

*******

Cassie relieved me when the sun came up; I told her I was planning on a fuel and water replenishment at the next town. She was to wake me then. She nodded and took over, Maddie joined her, Cindy was in bed watching me, her naked form as desirable to me now as the day she said 'yes' to marrying me.

I undressed and me and my hard-on got into bed.

Her arm wrapped around me as I backed into her warm body. "Any other time my husband, I would have drained that for you. We both know that's not possible right now, I owe you one and you know I always pay my debts."

Her leg came over my hip and I felt her lips kiss the back of my neck.

It only felt like minutes later when my now clothed wife was shaking me awake with one hand, while holding a coffee for me with the other. The kiss was welcomed and for the minute it lasted, encouraged.

"Cassie is bringing the boat over to the fuel point, she thinks ten minutes since the fuel point is occupied at the moment."

I nodded and took the opportunity of gaining another kiss, then got dressed and followed her. As Cassie and I fueled and then refilled the water tank, Cindy and Maddie did some shopping. We departed the fuel point an hour later. Once we cleared the populated area, I decided to hold a committee meeting.

"By my reckoning we could reach the spot I last talked to your sister late tomorrow. I want to hold back a little and get there for early morning the next day."

Maddie knew she had to put her keenness on a back burner and nodded her agreement.

I then turned to Cindy and said. "I know I promised you I would never do this again, but I need to show her."

A flash of anger crossed her face, the stare between us was inevitable as our own body language told its story to each other, then a tear slid down her cheek.

"You're my husband, I may be Abe's enforcer but you are my husband. I will obey your wishes. Please take a moment and consider what the doctor said to you the last time you did this."

I nodded, Cindy got up, wrapped her arms around me and kissed me. Her forehead was the last part of her head to leave me. She then went back inside the boat. Cassie looked daggers at me, then shrugged and followed my wife below. Maddie stared as we continued our journey, and then went below with the others. I was left alone with my thoughts and the highly possible repercussions of my actions.

*******

For so long now I've felt such guilt. I was told by the Police when they eventually found and interviewed me, that I was the last person to see her, although few were brave enough to add the word, 'alive'. I had often wondered about not only Maddie's sister, but her family, now it was time to pay my debt.

Hindsight may be a wonderful thing, but had I known then that the woman sitting by that lock, getting wet in the light rain that was coming down now, would soon disappear, leaving a family to forever wonder the who, where or even when, I would have sat with her, even offered her a lift to the next town. Yes, hindsight can be judge, jury and executioner in everyone's life.

I was paying back that debt as best I could. Cassie Marshal was Traveler back then; she knew from her own sources that the police weren't looking at me as a suspect. Regardless of the fact that by my own actions, it still left a family without a daughter and a sister, it seems now, in danger of the person who might have those answers.

I moored the boat a couple of hours later, the girls had food ready when I did, we ate in silence, each of us in our own thoughts. With dinner over I asked Cindy to walk with me.

Hand in hand was a must, nature and the fading daylight as our company and background music.

"I've loved you from the day I first met you. At first you scared me." Then I smiled as she looked at me, that cheeky little grin of hers, only ever meant for me. "I was the weird kid, remember?"

Cindy squeezed my hand in answer. "People said that you talked to yourself, when they figured it out, they then said you talk to dead people. You have the most beautiful blue eyes. I mean how can someone with eyes like that, be a freak."

I understood that to the outside world, we both had a very unusual relationship. If anything, our marriage has survived because we are water people and we fully understood duty. Cindy was Abe's enforcer and had been since just before he became Traveler; what she did wasn't my business. That was between Abe and Cindy. My wife and I live our lives parallel with each other until we are able to be a married couple.