The Treasure Hunters

by Beth D. Carter

  “An’ this ‘ere is the old ware’ouse,” Mike told her in a thick Cockney accent that had her straining to understand. “Over the years, unclaimed items ‘ave been sent ‘ere and basically ignored. Ye’ll be categorizin’ it.”

  Ruby looked around seeing nothing but cobwebs hiding a lot of junk. Mike tripped the electric break and as light flooded through the building, Ruby’s heart sank. This was a place that was as dead as the merchandise, a place to send an unwanted cousin in the name of charity. Tears threatened to spill but she blinked them back. She knew she should be more than grateful for a roof over her head and food in her belly. So many people had less than that. But the place was truly depressing.

  Overhead, a second floor lay up in the rafters and she pointed. “What’s up there?”

  “The really old junk,” Mike emphasized. Ruby blinked. Older than the stuff down here? “Don’t worry about recording it right now, just focus on this ‘ere mess down ‘ere.”

  Yes, a mess indeed.

  And thus life began in merry old England. Days of traveling back and forth to work through the cold and snow, and making sure the heater stayed lit without burning the building down. Merridie had been put to work in the townhouse and Ruby saw her grow more and more frustrated every day at the situation. Eden had been attached to work in the kitchen, which meant she was able to steal extra food. Still, the days blended together almost painfully.

  One evening, several weeks after she’d begun working in the warehouse, moving boxes and crates, she’d sat back to rest a moment behind some crates when she heard voices reverberating through the cavernous space. Deciding to investigate, she moved closer to the office door and recognized one voice as Mike.

  “I told ya, tonight…”

  It was hard to make out exactly what he was saying.

  “My collection…rewards,” snarled another voice, this one a bit deeper with an ugly rasp to it. Ruby tried to peek through the cracked door, but she only caught a glimpse of a tall, muscular man, dressed finely as any gentleman. His head was bald, smooth and tanned from the sun. He was facing off in front of Mike and the next instant he stormed out of the office. Ruby watched as he left the warehouse before heading back to work.

  Later that evening, she was in the office finishing up a report, working by candlelight when she heard a clanging at the front of the warehouse door. Ruby sat still for a moment longer, until the noise came again followed by a low murmur of voices. She quickly blew out her candle before walking quietly over to the window. She peeked around the curtain and saw two figures making their way up the ladder to the second floor, a lantern held by the first man. Eyes widening, she backed away from the window. Thieves. Why? What could this building full of old junk have that was worth stealing?

  Jewelry perhaps?

  Well, she couldn’t let them succeed. Her eyes landed on an iron pry bar leaning in the corner, so she quickly walked over to it and grabbed it.

  Quietly opening the office door, she eased into the shadows of the warehouse. She saw a coiled rope hanging on a hook and cinder block around the stove and an idea formed. She hurried to set a trap, knowing she would have to take out two men, and then hurried into her hiding spot nearby.

  The two thieves descended the ladder. The second man gripped a bag in his hand. As the first one took a step off the ladder, his feet got tangled up in the rope that Ruby had set up, causing him to fall on his face.

  “Hey!” the second thief called out. “You okay?”

  The first thief raised his head and nodded. He sat up and grabbed the rope around his ankle.

  “Wait a minute,” he muttered. “This rope––”

  Before he had a chance to finish that statement, he pulled the rope again and this time it became taut. He looked up and saw it was looped over a low beam. He pulled it again and suddenly a large cinder block was flying through the air, attached to the rope and coming right for his face. All Ruby heard was a dull thud on impact, as it knocked the thief out.

  The second man started to look around so she held herself very still and silent. He cautiously made his way over to his fallen buddy and bent down and that’s when Ruby raised the pry bar and struck him sharply across his back and head. He fell, out cold, a trickle of blood rising in his hair. The bag flopped on the ground beside him at her feet.

  She might have killed them and she probably should feel more remorse, but they were thieves. She had no tolerance for their profession, even in these difficult times. Ruby bent down to grab the bag and looked inside, wondering what on earth could be so important and expecting to see necklaces or rings. Instead, she pulled out a rolled parchment. The dim light made it difficult to read.

  She hurried back to the office and relit the candle before rolling the parchment out. It was a map, and a very old map by the looks of it. She saw Africa and some islands with the words in a different language. She squinted, trying to read the script, tilting the candle to get a little more light.

  “Okay, this is French,” she said to herself. “Let’s see: signed by Jean-Pierce…Jean-Pierce Vouleigh.”

  Ruby raised her head and narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember where she’d heard that name before. Where, where, where––from her father, perhaps? And then it hit her. Her father’s bedtime stories: the daring and dashing adventures of long-ago pirates. Jean-Pierce Vouleigh, the fiercest of them all.

  “Oh god,” she gasped and looked back at the map. Could this possibly be his treasure map? If it was, what could she do with this? She certainly wasn’t going to let the two idiot thieves have it. Rolling it up, she blew out the candle and hurried out, knowing she had to get home.

  It was little over an hour later that she burst into the guesthouse she shared with Merridie and Eden. She could hear Merri bitching from all the way outside.

  “The she-witch had me polishing silver,” she said angrily. “I hate silver. I hate England, I hate the Talcotts, and I hate being poor. In that order.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes right before she burst into the room, locking the door behind her. Merridie had her arms crossed with a bottle of wine sitting in front of her.

  “Finally, you’re home––”

  “I found something,” Ruby interrupted her.

  “Found what?” Eden asked.

  Ruby pulled the rolled up map from under her arm and laid it on the table. Eden and Merridie gathered around her to look at it.

  “What is it?” Eden questioned.

  “A map,” Ruby said.

  “Of what?”

  Merridie pointed to some writing. “It’s slightly faded, but is this French?”

  “Yes, and look at this name in the lower right corner.”

  “Jean-Pierce something,” Merridie replied.

  “Jean-Pierce Vouleigh.”

  She said it as if they should know who she was talking about, but they just gave her wide-eyed stares.

  “He was a mariner who sailed the Atlantic about a hundred years ago,” Ruby explained. “More of a pirate, really. He flew the Jolly Roger whenever he came across important cargo he wanted. Sailors still talk about his lost treasure.”

  “Oh,” Eden said. “Neat.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Ruby asked, looking back and forth between them.

  “Get what?” Merridie asked.

  “His lost treasure.” Ruby tapped the map. “This map is a guide to that treasure.”

  Eden nodded as if she understood, but Ruby saw that it was just a placating gesture.

  “No, listen. We use this map to find the treasure and we can return to our old life.”

  There was silence as her words sank in.

  “No more working menial labor at my family’s home, no more trudging in the god-awful fog and snow every morning and night. We could go back to New York.”

  “Have you gone completely mad?” Merridie demanded. “You’re suggesting we three girls head out on some treasure hunt?”

  Ruby calmly confronted Merridie. She knew Merri would be t
he hardest to convince.

  “Yes,” she said calmly. “The three of us, finding whatever this map leads to.”

  Eden looked confused at the map while Merridie looked at Ruby like she had a screw loose.

  “Absolutely not,” Merridie stated flatly.

  “Why not?” Ruby demanded.

  “We are not adventurers!” Merridie cried. “We are not treasure hunters! And we certainly are not equipped to traipse all over the Atlantic Ocean looking for fool’s gold!”

  Ruby looked frustrated at her friend. “So you like working at my cousin’s home? Because I could’ve sworn you hated it not five minutes ago!”

  “I’d go,” Eden said quietly.

  However, it barely registered to Ruby that Eden said anything at all as she glowered at the brunette.

  “Don’t forget,” Merridie continued, poking her in the chest with a finger. “You brought us here, Ruby. Is this another one of your grand schemes you’ve concocted?”

  “I said I’d go!” Eden yelled.

  Her voice cut through the tension between her and Merridie and they turned to look at her in surprise.

  “What?” Merridie sputtered.

  “Well, if this is a democratic choice, then I vote we go,” Eden said.

  “We’re lovely British servants now,” Merridie snapped. “Remember? We’ve followed Ruby this far and it didn’t turn out to be the best thing for us, now, did it? Family love and all that shit!”

  But Eden stared solemnly at Merridie, who glared at Ruby.

  “Merrie,” Eden said, grabbing her attention. “You already said you hated it here and you hated being poor. So do I. It’s not the money so much as the freedom we used to have. I saw a woman on the docks in New York, right before we boarded the ship. She was dressed how we used to dress, looked how we used to look. And then we came here and we’re all miserable and we’re fighting. I vote to go, Merri. What have we got to lose?”

  Merridie crossed her arms and pursed her lips as she turned away.

  “Our lives” she muttered.

  “We won’t go without you,” Ruby stated.

  Merridie was silent and Ruby gave her the space she needed. She knew she was thinking things over, weighing everything. It was a new position for her to be in. It was a new position for all of them.

  When she finally turned back, her eyes were narrowed.

  “Do you have a plan?” she asked. “A sensible plan?”

  Ruby nodded. “But we have to leave right now.”

  “Why?” Eden asked.

  “Two men tried to steal this map tonight. Only I stole it from them. When they discover it gone it’s not going to be hard to figure out who was there. They’ll come after it…after me.”

  “Let me see the map,” Merridie said. Ruby moved aside so Merridie could get closer. “It seems to be written in a code of some type. I’ll have to study it more.”

  “These are the Sweeny Islands off of Africa,” Ruby said, pointing.

  “We need a boat,” Eden stated.

  “Start packing now. We leave in an hour.”

  Chapter Five

  They dressed in black, deciding to go with trousers to free up their movements. It hadn’t been hard to procure the clothing. Eden had simply snuck into the laundry room and taken the uniforms of the male servants. Even in the dead of night, hackneys still ran, so they hailed one. Time crawled at a snail’s pace, and Ruby kept glancing behind her, expecting to see the men from the warehouse following them. Only when they finally stood in front of the ship registry office did she breathe a sigh of relief they’d not been caught. Yet.

  “Didn’t I say a sensible plan?” Merridie whispered angrily.

  “Shh!” Ruby said, holding a finger up to her lips.

  Eden knelt by the door and in a few seconds it swung open.

  “One day you will tell me how to do that,” Merridie said, slightly in awe.

  Eden simply smiled angelically. It was hard to believe such an innocent face knew how to pick pockets and break into locked offices.

  Ruby lit a lantern and headed right to the log books. Merridie kept watch from the door and Eden wandered around, looking at the all the nautical stuff strewn about. Ruby searched each book until she found what she was looking for and flipped it open.

  “Here, I found one,” she said. “The Paradise, located in berth number eleven.”

  A sound from outside had Ruby hastily blowing out the candle and the three of them waited, poised in fright as footsteps could clearly be heard coming closer. If they were discovered now, all was lost. They’d be arrested. The map would be confiscated. And more than likely, Katherine would throw them out. Oh god, no. Ruby held her breath and prayed, even though she didn’t really consider herself a religious person. Her father had raised her to question doctrine, to view the world as a scientist saw it, but right now she put everything she had into praying that they weren’t caught. In the next second, the footsteps abruptly turned and began to fade and Ruby wondered if perhaps her father wasn’t looking out for her now. Relief poured through her and before anything else could arise, she grabbed Merridie’s hand, and she in turn grabbed Eden’s, and they made their way out the door.

  Sticking to the shadows, Ruby thanked the heavy fog that helped obscure them as they hurried to berth number eleven. A beautiful forty-foot schooner was anchored, made of mahogany planking that no doubt lay over a steel frame. The ship appeared polished and clean, her ropes new. Ruby saw the love and care in the small details and knew that the owner took great care of his boat.

  “What do we do?” Eden asked.

  Ruby looked at them before taking a deep breath. This was it. She walked over to the plank that led the way onto the deck.

  “We find the captain,” she said.

  As she reached the top deck, a man suddenly appeared and Ruby reacted without thinking about it since her nerves were already strung tight. She leaned over, grabbed a wooden rope spoke and swung her arm. The attack caught the man unguarded in the head, dropping him onto his back. Another man, a big beefy black man, melted from the darkness to come at them.

  “Hold it!” Ruby cried, wielding the spoke. “Wait! We just want to talk to the captain!”

  The injured man pushed to sit up. He held a hand to the back of his head. “Well, as soon as my head clears I’ll be happy to talk. Jesus!”

  Mortification swept through her. Great. Just great. The black man walked over to the captain and helped him to stand. Fog covered the moon, casting an eerie glow upon them. Ruby couldn’t see the captain’s face, so she didn’t know how upset he was with her. She could only hope he gave them a chance to talk.

  “What the hell are you doing on my boat?” he demanded. His British accent was deep and smooth, and it sent shivers racing over her skin.

  “We want to hire you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We need to leave England and we have a business proposition for you.”

  The captain studied her, and although she couldn’t make out his features, his forceful appraisal had her belly clenching. Finally, he nodded at the black man, who then

  disappeared once more, back into the foggy midnight. The captain waved them to follow him and he led them into the galley. He lit a match and lit two lanterns, and that’s when Ruby got her first glimpse of him.

  She was vaguely aware her mouth dropped open. Before her wasn’t the typical scruffy-bearded, dirty boat captain. This man was young. And handsome. More butterflies fluttered in her stomach. He had short black hair that looked like he’d been running his fingers through it in aggravation. He needed a shave, but Ruby rather thought his slight whiskers enhanced his looks rather than detracted. Although he looked tough, he had kind eyes––blue maybe, or green. It was hard to tell in the muted lantern light. He was tall, muscular, and when their gazes met her heart stuttered in her chest.

  “My name is Sin,” he said, introducing himself, although his gaze stayed locked upon her.

  “Litera
lly or figuratively?” Merridie asked dryly.

  He winked at her. “Captain Sinclair Dardon. Who are you, and how may I help you?”

  “I’m Ruby Talcott, and that’s Merridie Morgan and Eden Cariker. We need passage to Africa,” Ruby said, ignoring the odd excitement gripping her insides. Now was not the time to get distracted by a pretty face. Oh, but that was easier said than done, especially once he turned those hypnotizing eyes back her way.

  “Why do you think I can help?”

  “The registry office has you listed as heading to Africa this morning. We just need a ride.”

  “I’m not a passenger ship.”

  “We won’t be passengers,” Ruby insisted. “We can earn our way.”

  The way his gaze traveled up and down her body had her blood heating up and leaving little doubt to what was going through his lascivious mind.

  “This isn’t a whorehouse either,” he stated.

  Merridie and Eden gasped and it took everything inside Ruby not to slap him. Her fists curled into tight balls. She couldn’t afford to lose her temper. They needed him.

  “That wasn’t what I meant,” she muttered through clenched teeth. “We can do chores.”

  Merridie hit Ruby in the arm.

  “Listen, ladies––”

  “We can pay!” Eden blurted, her words ringing loudly through the room. “We have a map.”

  “Eden!” Ruby snapped.

  “What type of map?” Sin asked.

  The three girls stood silent, staring at him, and Sin sighed.

  “Hey, I’m not a bad guy,” he finally stated. “You say you have a map of something and I have a right to know what it’s about, if you want to hire my ship.”

  Ruby stared at him but he stared right back, equally hard and unblinking. And there it was again, that zing that made her knees weak. She knew she was attracted to him, but this was something else. Something electric. And although it scared her, they needed him. It became a mantra streaming through her brain. Without another thought she reached inside the bag and pulled out the map. She gave it to Merridie, who rolled it out on the table.