Port Royal had become an interesting mix of humanity. A pirate haven, it teamed with society’s dregs. Thieves and murderers. Whores and connivers. Lately, it was also seeing an influx of English influence. Beyond the city, the British hold was gaining strength. Plantations and colonies were becoming more established. Of course, you’d never catch a proper British gentleman wandering the fermented streets, not without good reason, and certainly not at night.
Ric pushed into the dim tavern. The smells of stale ale and rank bodies meeting him head on. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust after the brightness of the morning. Time was irrelevant here. Patrons from last night lay passed out in their chairs and littered upon the floor. Other’s played cards. The billiard tables were active and revelers still crowded the bar.
He sidled up and ordered a rum. “Make it a double.”
“Ric Robbins.” A cluster of men at the far end of the bar recognized him. “Ye bastard. Back to take more of me gold at the tables?”
“No time to fleece ye again, I’m afraid, I’ve a mind to spend my shore leave in the arms of my luscious Teja.” He downed his drink and dropped a coin in payment.
The men burst into laughter, jostling one another. Snatching the coin off the bar top, the bartender snapped off what was owed him, and shoved the remainder of the gold back across the bar. “Ye be a mite too late there, Ric. Teja done hooked herself a captain.”
They all laughed louder. One of them leaned toward him. “Captain Black.” He gestured to the back corner of the tavern. It took Ric a second to register what he was seeing. A couple kissed. The deep, long, wet kisses of lovers. Captain Black had a hand pushed up under Teja’s skirts and had bared one of her full breasts.
“Captain Black?” Ric choked. “Pandora Black?”
Roars of laughter erupted around him. “Guess the great Ricochet Robbins bounced her right over te the other side.”
At the commotion, Teja and Black ended their kiss. Seeing Ric over Pandora’s shoulder, Teja adjusted the neckline of her blouse to cover the dark peak of her nipple and smoothed down the front of her skirts.
Pandora Black turned a lazy look over her shoulder. Dressed as a man, Ric wouldn’t have guessed she was a woman had he not known her by name. A fierce captain, she would fight any man who made the mistake of underestimating her. And she only took women into her bed.
She pierced Ric with an icy blue stare and hauled Teja back against her body. Holding Ric’s gaze, she lifted her hand and licked her fingers.
Hoots, catcalls, and uproarious laughter followed Ric out of the tavern. “Son of a bitch,” he growled. “I should ’ave known. She was wearing the same britches as me.”
“Someone’s in your trousers again, Robbins?” Gavin Quinn laughed as he and Bump approached him. Bump was another crewmate from the Night. A lad of less than a dozen years, Bump had been like a little brother to Ric since they brought him aboard. Sharp as a honed blade, the boy had become a first-rate seaman. Given the fact he was stone deaf only made his accomplishments more impressive.
“Damn women in my pants,” he grumbled to Bump. “Story of my life.” He shook his head and gathered what was left of his pride. “Nothing, Capt’n. Rum in the Rogue Wave leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.”
“Forget the rum, stick with Bump while I meet with Fin Willy. I’m heading now to seal the deal. Soon we’ll be sailing the Scarlet Night and the White Witch. Add that to the Raven Wing; more ships, more bounty to share.”
The trio maneuvered their way past the array of taverns and brothels lining the docks. Urchin children picked the pockets of the unaware. “Congratulations, Capt’n. Gonna give Tupper a chance at the helm of her own ship?” Robbins asked. Tupper Quinn was the former Alice Tupper. She and Gavin had married and spent the last six years pirating their way back and forth across the Atlantic.
“Doubt it.” Gavin dodged a puddle of filth. “Wouldn’t care to be apart from her. Not now that I’ve grown so used to her being at my side.”
Ric jostled past a group spilling out of a doorway. “Ye could always make me captain.”
Gavin chuckled. “Another year or two under your belt and maybe the crew’d be ready to vote you in.”
A crowd had formed into a tight knot of bodies surrounding the town’s auction block. Gavin stopped. A fierce defender of the abolishment of the African slave trade, he hated these auctions. Men, women, and children being sold as property was abhorrent to him. Ric had been with him long enough to see him hunt down and track slave haulers to deliver their human cargo back to the safety of their own shores. The number of those he saved must have reached a thousand in all these years.
By the look, today’s auction wasn’t for Africans. A line of woman, chained together like dogs, was being dragged before the crowd. Young, old, weak, strong. The mob jeered and shouted lewd comments as the chained group was towed up onto the block. Sex slaves. Bought and sold into prostitution, life as concubines, some into harems or simply to satisfy the lust of the owner. The youngest and prettiest went to the highest bidder.
Quinn scowled before turning away. “It is a good thing Tupper loathes Port Royal and is still aboard the Scarlet Night. She’d be drawing her sword and taking on this whole crowd to set those women free.” He slapped Robbins on the back. “I’ve kept Fin Willy waiting long enough. I’ll meet you and Bump back on board. Tonight we celebrate the new addition to our fleet.” Quinn made a few hand gestures to Bump who nodded in agreement before Quinn headed off to his negotiation for the White Witch.
Ric barely noticed. Over the heads of the pack of bystanders, he caught the panicked gaze of one of the women up for sale. She’d been scanning the throng before her. Her face ashen beneath a tangled mop of dark curls. Dirt and scratches marred her face and neck, and one sleeve of her blouse had been torn from its seam at the shoulder.
He moved closer to the block. The noise and energy of the crowd seemed to make the ground tremble. Bump gave a sharp tug on Ric’s arm. He paid him little notice, as he was too absorbed in the scene before him. The raven-haired captive held his gaze. It was as if she were reaching out to him alone. Looking for some tether. Perhaps a sympathetic face in the mob to keep her from tipping into the abyss of insanity.
Whatever the reason, she had found him amongst the dozens of faces and held onto him. Pale frightened eyes seemed to silently plead with him to stop this madness as the bidding began.
Ric’s world narrowed to a pinhole. A buzzing sounded in his ears. His brain screamed at the craziness of his thoughts. Save her.
Her tenuous bond was broken when she was jerked to the forward edge and became the next victim to be auctioned off.
“That one be mine,” slobbered the fat man standing next to Ric. He smacked his thick lips and opened a sack of coins.
Ten gold pieces was the starting bid. An auctioneer scanned the crowd for any takers. Ric shoved his hand into his pockets and curled his fingers around the rough coins held there. “Ten,” he shouted. His gaze never leaving her.
The man next to him bid fifteen, another yelled eighteen. Soon the bidding passed twenty-five gold pieces.
“Thirty,” Ric bid, knowing full well he didn’t have more than twenty gold pieces on him.
“Thirty-five,” barked the fat man, narrowing his eyes at Ric before scratching at his crotch.
“Fifty,” Ric countered. In his mind he knew he couldn’t keep this up. Even if he managed to scrape together fifty gold pieces, what would he do with this girl?
The auctioneer smiled an oily grin as if he could sense a bidding war commencing. Turning back, he tore at the woman’s blouse exposing her breasts to the audience. “Show ’em what they be buyin’, Frenchie.”
A black rage flooded Ric as the beast next to him frantically counted coins and raised the bid to seventy-five.
“Eighty.”
“Ninety.”
Blood rushed in Ric’s ears. He shook with anger and the rush of indig
nation. His stomach turned at the thought of this man laying his fat, filthy hands on her.
Bump tugged on him once more trying to pull him away. Ric scowled at the boy’s imploring gaze and shook his head. No, he wasn’t leaving. He wasn’t going to back down. There was no way he was going to lose her.
“Three hundred!”
Within a Captain's Treasure Page 23
