Demons & Pearls (The Razor's Adventures Book 1)

by P. S. Bartlett

  “So, that’s how the Captain and Green fit into all of this. But who the hell is this rich old man? And won’t he be rather angry over not getting what he paid for?”

  “There ain’t no old man—well, none that’s buyin’ girls for pleasure, there ain’t.”

  “Is Willy the old man?”

  River lowered his head and nodded towards the floor. Everything was making sense, finally. River’s ramblings opened every door and window I needed to go through in order to see the truth, but he only showed me the mystery, not how to solve it. I knew now what Rasmus was doing in town, and it undoubtedly explained his shocked expression when he saw where I was staying; it was not the wealth of my hosts.

  He said he’d lost his ship. No doubt he had a lot of enemies in his line of work. That also explained why he was in the Golden Gull. The one piece of this that gave me the smallest bit of comfort was that the incoming pirates were nowhere in sight, which meant I had time to enlist some help.

  “We never had this conversation, River,” I said as I dashed for the door.

  “Miss Ivory, what are ye goin’ ta’ do?” he asked, looking up from his chair.

  “I owe you, River. But when I’m through, you’ll owe me, and I will collect the debt.”

  When I returned to our bedroom, Miranda was seated and watching out the window, and Cass and Keara were asleep. I woke them and told them of the plotting that was taking place against us. I didn’t go into every detail, but I was able to put enough fear in them to gain their compliance. I pulled the stolen dagger from my boot and handed it to Keara. She was a beast with a dagger, and I knew she’d make good use of it if necessary.

  I peeled myself from my damp clothes, and Cass removed my binding and laid everything out on the floor near the hearth and started a small fire to dry them. They assumed I’d been caught in the rain, and for now, I saw no reason to explain my midnight swim.

  “You all need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Tonight, I had the unlikely odd luck to come across a man whom I now believe is the red-haired man River was referring to in our conversation. That same man I believe is here to help us. We are so very fortunate that Captain Bergman is already in Port Royal. Had we had to wait for him, things might have certainly gotten grave for us.”

  “But we could fight them as we’ve done before,” Keara said. Her eyes were wild with golden fire as we sat close together around the lone candle lit in the room. Oh, how I admired her spirit and will and how, despite her stature and her childlike hands, she clutched that dagger tightly and was always at my back.

  “My strong and willful girls,” I whispered. “Remember back in Charles Towne, you asked me if we could best those pirates? I told you, a few yes, many of them, no. We have no weapons but this dagger and my razor. These men have no bargain with us other than stealing our souls, and they’re paying a great deal of gold for what they believe is their right to do it. A man’s lust for what he feels is owed to him, or what he believes he is entitled to have, has no boundaries here. Unless we seize the opportunity to run with Captain Bergman, what is left of our lives will be spent as property, and we’ll be treated with less care than a scrap of food brushed from their tables when they’re through.”

  “What are you planning to do, Ivory?” Cass asked.

  “I’m meeting with the Captain at sunrise. I’ll know more when I return. Until then, River will be watching over you. Now get some rest. We’ll all need it.”

  Chapter Ten

  ~Any Way The Wind Blows~

  “Sunrise, Captain,” I called to Big Red as he lay back in a rigged up hammock made of sail cloth.

  “Aye, and a good morning to you, Mister Razor,” he said. He lifted his cavalier from his face and turned his smile to me. “Come aboard, laddie, and watch yer step. She’s little, but she’s tricky.”

  Hearing his voice again caused that same fluttering feeling in my chest, but I’d decided on my walk to the pier not to allow whatever was happening between us to interfere with my new mission. “I know I’m masquerading again, but you don’t have to call me lad, or Ivan, when aboard ship.”

  “First of all, yer not in proper sailing clothes. Take off that coat.” He motioned to where I could put the Captain’s coat and led me on a tour of the sloop. She was only about fifty feet in length, but her bowsprit appeared to me to be at least the same length as the ship herself. “That binding you’re wearing is gonna rub ye raw, too, so go below and take it off. Ain’t no one gonna notice.”

  I made a sour face at him as if I’d sucked on a lime, but did as my Captain commanded and removed the binds Cass had wrapped me in. Oddly, I wondered if he even realized what a rotten remark he’d made—typical pirate. I was, however, overjoyed to be free of that chest vice. I rolled it up and tucked it inside of my coat and reported for duty.

  “My lady, you are standing on the deck of the fastest little vessel in these waters. My little Blue Oyster can outrun any ship from here to Virginia and perhaps even beyond—if we ever go that far north. I haven’t had cause to yet, but in my line of work, I can’t say.”

  “You don’t have a crew?” I asked.

  He tossed a line to me and called out, “Jib top, pull. Pull. Pull. I gave them the day off. I figured we’d see what ye got.”

  I was amazed at how quickly the two of us were able to raise sail and get the Oyster ready to go. However, I’ve never had such an experienced and patient teacher. He only called me a few names and pulled me by the arm a half dozen times—not to mention when he stood and shook his head at me in frustration. I suppose I should admit he did most of the work, although I gave it my best.

  “Mind the boom, unless ye want to take another swim.” He winked. I smiled and wondered to myself how many young women he’d winked at as he rescued them, and how many more had fallen madly in love with him for being their savior.

  “What’s our heading, Captain?” I asked as I pulled myself along the taut, tied-off lines, on my way to stand near him at the rudder.

  “Paradise, m’lady, paradise.”

  I leaned back and swept off my hat and scarf and shook my hair free to allow it to wave with the sails in the wind. I asked, “How long does it take to reach paradise?”

  I waited several seconds when he didn’t answer me, and I looked over at my Big Red, my beautiful Captain. He steered the rudder with his left hand, and with his right, he reached over and swept his hand through my hair as it was carried up and away from my head in the wind and said, “It’s so close I can feel it.”

  His hand slid down from my hair and rested on my cheek for a moment, and then he turned back to his work. From one moment to the next, I couldn’t decide if he liked me or hated me. It seemed every time the wind blew, his mood and manner towards me changed. He returned almost instantly to barking orders at me and shouting at me to watch my footing and to pull this line and not that one. I tried not to care either way.

  By the time we rounded a lush hill out of sight of any other ships or signs of life, I saw it. A pristine beach and a lagoon embraced in shallow water, thick palm trees filled with beautiful birds, and for the first time in days, everything was covered in sun.

  “Weigh anchor, Ivan. We’re rowing ashore.”

  I laughed when he called me Ivan, which he’d done for the duration of our sail to this glorious, hidden paradise. I wondered if he called me Ivan to keep me away from him, but here we were, and I had a ship’s captain all to myself—man or woman.

  He was right. The beach was as soft as silk, and the water was so calm it brushed the beach like a gentle breath in and out. When we reached the shore and secured the dingy, he kicked off his boots and rolled his breeches above his knees. Then, he removed his vest and pulled his shirt out and let it fall loose. “Your turn,” he said as he tossed everything he’d removed into the dingy and began wading in the shallows.

  “How did you find this place?” I asked as I caught up to him.

  “All you have to do is look.”

&n
bsp; “Well, it’s much easier to look when you have a ship.”

  Silence reigned between us for several minutes, as this burley man leaned down and picked up seashells and placed them in a hammock he’d made from the bottom of his shirt. I was amazed at how those big hands were able to pick up small shells so delicately and then rest them gently with the others. I began to join him, but no shell reached his collection without passing his thorough inspection.

  “Rasmus, I know who you are and why you’re in Port Royal.”

  “Oh, you do now, aye?”

  “Not that I’m not capable of protecting my cousins, but I’d be so grateful if we could work together.”

  He didn’t once look over at me but simply shook the shells out of his shirt back into the water and waded back to shore. I followed him and asked him again, “Will you help me save them?”

  He sat down on the sand and leaned back on his elbows. “That’s why I’m here. You said so yourself already. So, once I have you and your cousins aboard the Oyster, I’ll take you all to Nassau and find you safe passage back to wherever they took you from.”

  “No. That isn’t what we want at all. You may not believe this, but…I’m a pirate. We are all pirates. Aboard the Demon Sea, we…did things.”

  “I know who you are. You know they’re calling you the Razor, right? It took all I had not to laugh last night when you named yourself to me.” He finally smiled and I thanked God in my thoughts for the brief moment when he turned those warm blue eyes to me, before he quickly looked down. We had a decent moment where I didn’t think he regretted bringing me.

  “The Razor. That’s odd since I didn’t kill any of them with it. I only used it to kill that one pirate back in Charles Towne the night they showed up at our farm.”

  “I don’t want to talk to you about how many men you’ve killed, Ivory.” He pulled the red scarf from around his neck and laid it across his face to block the sun—or me, I wondered.

  “So, you do know my real name?” I snatched his scarf, threw him a toothy grin, and then used it to smooth the sand from my calves as I pulled my knees to my chest.

  He sat up fast and grabbed my wrist with a quick jerk, startling me. His hands were as big as my face, and he placed one on each side of my head. He gazed into my eyes for a few moments until I relaxed away from the reflex thought of taking his head off—as if I could. His thumbs caressed me at the temples, and he whispered, “You don’t want to be a pirate.” And his eyes traveled from mine to my hair, and then to the sky.

  “I can’t help who I am, Rasmus, any more than you can.”

  “You can let me take you home, back to America. I’ll make sure you’re all safe there. No pirates, no killing, no more blood.” He slid his hands down my shoulders and sat back.

  “We can’t go home. We don’t even have a home to go to. Besides, you hardly know me, so how could you even know what’s best for me?” I tossed his scarf back over his face and waded back into the water to cool off. “I’m a pirate!” I screamed at the top of my lungs like a crazy woman and threw open my arms and spun around, shouting it over and over again at the sky.

  Suddenly, I was scooped up in Rasmus’s arms and carried back to shore where I was firmly seated—dropped on my bum in the sand. He paced back and forth in front of me and pushed me back down every time I tried to stand. “What are you doing?” I shouted at him.

  “Will you just sit there a minute and stop this? I’m trying to think, and in this blasted sun, my head doesn’t work so well,” he said. Although his words were stern, he never raised his voice. “I’ve always considered myself a man who doesn’t hold too tightly to traditions. I once did, but I lost faith in them, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I’m no saint by any means, and like you, I’ve done things I had to do to stay alive. I don’t hold to tradition, but that doesn’t mean I agree with women being pirates.”

  “It’s already done, Razz. Not that I’m foolish enough to believe I can do this on my own, but I believe you showed up last night not only to keep me from getting killed, but so we could help each other. I don’t want to leave here. We don’t want to leave here. I don’t want to leave and never have the chance to know who you are.”

  “I’m nobody. I’m just a sailor who also smuggles women out of the hands of the flesh-peddlers. Other than that, there is nothing worth knowing.”

  I jumped to my feet and grabbed him by his huge forearm. “Help me, and let me help you. I can fight, and I’m a fast learner; you said so yourself. I can help you save these girls.”

  “This may very well be the single most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life, but if you insist on this life, then yes. I will help you.”

  I threw my arms high up and around his neck as he caught me and held me tight. “Oh, Razz! I promise you I won’t do anything stupid, and I’ll follow your orders and do whatever you tell me to do.”

  “I suppose this needs to stop,” he said as he peeled me away from his neck and set me to my feet.

  “You’re right,” I sighed and stepped back. “I don’t suppose it’s the best way to start out in this business. First, you know there are pirates coming for us. Do you have a plan to get us out of the McCormack’s and away before they come?”

  “I’m still working on that. A plan did come to me early this morning, but I need you to get those girls to the Oyster when I tell you to.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder like a mate, and I connected us full circle by holding his hand as it hung down over my chest.

  “I know you can fight, but can you lie?” he asked.

  “I pretend to be a man, remember? How much time do you think we have before the smugglers arrive?”

  “When the need strikes them. So, the answer is, whenever they please.”

  He pulled away from me and started off down the beach, wading along the shallows and tying his red scarf on his head. “Wait for me!” I shouted at him. “What’s wrong with your head?”

  “It’s broken.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with it?” I asked, pulling my hair to the side and braiding it tightly as I ran to catch up to him.

  “I bumped it once, a while back.”

  “So that explains it,” I said with a laugh as I kicked the water with my foot and splashed him. He didn’t even flinch as it hit him in the back of his calves. “Sorry, Razz. I was just having a bit of fun. I don’t have much fun anymore, you know.”

  “At my expense,” he said as he continued his pace. He walked so fast through the few inches of water that he created a wake behind him.

  “Razz, can you slow down just a little?”

  “No. Can you keep up?”

  I did just that. With the sun beating down on us, the heat was searing our skin. “How about we take a rest? Over there in the shade looks good.” I pointed out a thicket of trees that leaned out a bit as if reaching for a drop of water that they could never have.

  Without a word, he turned and headed towards them. He sat down and leaned back against a fat one. I stood and watched him as he pulled the scarf from his head to wipe the sweat from his face. “Here,” he said as he drew what appeared to be a large goat skin bag from around his shoulder and handed it to me.

  “Rum?” I asked.

  “Rum and the sun don’t go well together, lass.”

  “Oh, water then,” I said with a frown, but I pulled the top and took a long drink. “Thank you,” I said with a sigh and handed it down to him.

  “Have a seat, lass. It’s bearable here in the shade.” He scooted to the side a bit to make room for me next to him. I sat down and leaned back against the wide base of the palm tree, but I left space enough so we didn’t touch. Several minutes of silence passed, and I peeked to see if he was asleep. His head was back and his eyes were closed, but as I leaned within a forearm’s length of him, his left eye peeked open at me.

  “I’m sorry, were you napping?” I asked.

  “Why would I even make an attempt knowing you’re gonna talk to me? Besides, pirates sl
eep with one eye open. You’ll need to learn that.”

  “I already knew that, and I’ve been doing it most of my life, anyway,” I snapped at him and sat back and folded my arms, same as him. But the urge to speak was too much. “You never told me how you hurt your head.”

  “Ye didn’t ask.”

  “Well then, Captain Bergman,” I said trying not to sound like the smart-ass he thought I was. “How did you hurt your head? Was it in a battle or a fight?”

  “A battle.”

  I struggled to contain my excitement, and I reached over and asked for another drink of water before proceeding with my inquiries. After a long drink, I wiped the water from my lips and asked, “Was it another pirate ship, or were you taking a merchantman?”

  “God himself.”

  “God! No man can battle God. You’re being ridiculous. Just tell me how it happened, please?” I was literally on my knees begging, but he barely moved and his eyes stayed closed as he spoke.

  “It was a storm. A storm the likes I hope ye never see. We didn’t bring her about quick enough, and as we headed into a swell, she hit the inside of the curl almost broadside and the wave came aboard. I can’t remember much after it tossed me into the mast backwards,” he said, never opening his eyes.

  “You were lucky,” I said softly and placed the water back in his hands.

  “Since then, my brains get a little scrambled now and then. Nothing to worry about.”

  “I’ve never been through a storm, but I’ve been in a few good battles.”

  “The one I know of was more than enough, even for a man. I suppose I’ve been hard on ye, lass. I don’t mean to be. It’s my nature, ye see. I was just sitting here thinking about how you done in old Barclay. I should thank you and stop giving you so much guff. Behind my closed eyes, I was imagining you were a man, even as young as you are, and asking myself if you were a young man, would I sign ye on.”

  “What was the answer?”

  “It was yes. I’d sign you just for killing my enemy, but I’d watch ye like a hawk.”