“Of course…what more could you possibly need, correct?”
“Why are you here? Did you come down here just to berate me?” Ivory asked, pulling the sheet tightly around her and looking away.
“I gain no pleasure in such things.”
“Then, why? I’m sure you have more important things to do, so why don’t you…”
“I want to help you!” he shouted at her in a whisper, picking the chair up and sitting down to face her. “I told you, Maddox is my friend as well as my captain. I respect the man. I do not always agree with his choices—this barter, for one —but I cannot and will not defy him. However, if you want your freedom, sooner or later you are going to have to tell the truth about what was on that ship when you took it.”
“I told you, there was nothing on that ship other than what was in the log.”
“I offer you my help, and still you lie. What sense does it make to die when you know you can save yourself? This is insanity, Ivory. No, it is suicide and…”
“Maddox loves me. I know he does. Yes, maybe I’m insane to believe that in only these few days he’s fallen in love with me, but God help me, I know I love him. He believes I’m his prisoner only because he’s viewing this through a spyglass. I’m seeing it as far and wide as the horizon.”
“You make no sense.”
“Master Green, you know me. You know what I can do, as well as what I’ve done. Of course stories out here are stretched and turned to lore, but you and I both know that I absolutely did capture and take the Demon Sea from Barclay that early spring morning back in Charles Towne. You also know that my ladies and I took out several of his best men. Everything that came after was much the same, but as we also both know, it’s impossible to forget that fork in the road which twists your fate. We donned our slops and took to the sea, and this life, as if we were born into it. After seeing it all through your own eyes, ask yourself if you believe I am, or have ever been, anyone’s prisoner.”
“Then why do you stay? If you could have taken your freedom back at any moment, what keeps you here?”
“I…I don’t know. To tell the truth, at first I was in no condition to save myself, but I was strong enough by the second day. I could have saved myself the night Maddox and I…well, of course, waking up bound to a bed certainly wasn’t my finest hour.”
“Ugh! You are worse than him. Why do I stick out my neck?”
“I’ve never before allowed any man inside my head, or my heart.”
“I can assure you, Madame,” Green said, looking about the dank and dingy room, “this is not love.”
“And how would I know? You say these things as if I would know love when I saw it. I may not know what love is supposed to look like, but I know something turned in me, as I believe it did in Maddox. I want to, at the very least, give him the chance to save me himself. I believe that, even if it comes to the last minute, he will do the right thing.”
Green pushed the chair back away from Ivory in frustration and leaned forward, staring deeply into her eyes. “You, my dear, are even crazier than I feared. However, strangely enough, the storm has left us adrift with no wind. It would seem God has bought you a few more hours.”
“How can you be so sure that I’ve only hours? We could sit here for days.”
“I know these waters well. I am certain that by this afternoon we will once again be on our way. I will pray for your crazy plan, but for your sake, I hope you have another—although knowing you as I have, I am sure you do.”
Green stood and left, finding Richard outside the door with Ivory’s breakfast. Green took the tray from Richard and sat it on the tea table. “You have perhaps thirty six hours left. If I were you, I would reconsider your current plan and go directly to whatever the other may be. Your head is like a lump of coal, but Maddox—his is as hard as a diamond.”
Ivory swallowed hard and sat silently until the door was locked, then cleaned her plate and washed from head to toe. She opened the trunk Zara had packed, pulling from it one of the dresses she was to wear to her hanging, and laid it out on the cot. Doubts began to fill her mind, and she questioned her belief that she did, in fact, love Maddox. She asked herself what it was that so set him apart from any other man who’d made advances toward her, but no matter how she pressed herself for some logical reason, there was none to be found. The only real evidence that she loved him was how she felt when he took her in his arms, and the irony of how safe and secure she felt there. Those were two emotional places she’d never been with another human since the day of the Spanish raid—the day she grew up.
Suddenly, something remarkable happened. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks. Within a few moments, she was curled in a ball on the cot, sobbing. The sadness that washed over her seemed to come from a solitary thought that, for the past several days, she had refused to allow into her mind—what if he doesn’t save me?
That one question of complete doubt put her out on the edge of her life, and through her tears, she finally asked herself if this uncertainty truly was worth risking her life. Regardless of their passion and the depth of those foreign pleasures that extended far beyond the bounds of her flesh, she was asking herself if this man, or any man for that matter, was worth dying for.
With a deep breath, she sat up, pressed her face through the open window, and took an even deeper and more satisfying breath. The sea had not failed her. As long as she gave it her respect, trusted its currents, and did not try to beat back against it, from the crystal blue of its shallows to the deep cobalt of its fathoms, they had an understanding which these nearly ten years was never broken. Even given the opportunity to swallow her up, it carried her on—something no man had ever done without wanting something in return.
Once she’d filled her lungs sufficiently, the tears stopped. She sprang from the cot and reached into the trunk again, tossing gown after gown into the air. Suddenly, she stopped. Beneath the layers of pastel taffeta and lace she discovered the old, ragged slops in which she had been found. Now washed and neatly folded in the bottom, they were hidden beneath clean stockings and a shawl. Zara had thought of everything. Little did Ivory know the extent of what Zara had planned, until she pulled the linen shirt, cotton breeches, and even her belt, boots, and vest from the trunk, and caught her reflection in the gleam of a dagger lying nestled in a red silk sash at the bottom of the trunk.
She paused as the emotional reminiscence of a similar dagger, clasped in Maddox’s right hand as it sliced through her gown to take her for the first time, swept through her mind. The memory of his wanton lust spun through her like a tempest, and then swiftly blew itself out, leaving her body with a heavy sigh. Regardless of what Maddox believed, nothing had ever happened to Ivory that she did not invite or permit. She was tempted to reduce him to the level of a poor choice of adventure, but decided that, on the remote chance he’d actually felt what he claimed, she’d allow him one final chance to have her—before striking him from her life forever. This twisted misadventure wasn’t her first, but she consciously decided she was through with any man who had to struggle to love her, and even worse, was too encumbered by his own demons to prove it.
She quickly packed everything back in its place, neatly arranging the final bead-encrusted gown on top and closing the trunk, but she clutched the dagger tightly in her right hand and pointed it toward the open window.
“Thirty six hours of which I’ll allow him twenty. Upon that hour, has he not proven himself worthy, I’ll take my leave out of you, window. Upon Saturday morning, when he rises, he’ll be the one to face the noose, empty-handed. Until then, I’ll withhold my heart, and should he be that man worthy of having it, I’ll happily surrender. But should he not, I’ll happily watch him hang in my place.”
The key turned in the lock, and she heard Richard’s unchanged boyish voice as he exchanged words with another man. Quickly, she hid the dagger behind the cot and, again, wrapped herself up in the sheet to await his entrance. “Madame, I�
��m here for the tray.”
“Yes…I’m through.”
“Will there be anythin’ else?”
“Will you ask the Captain, since this will be my last night alive, if perhaps I could have just a bit of rum, or beer? If not, then just some fresh water would be fine.”
“Aye, Madame.” Richard shook his head and quietly turned back and spoke again, “Do ye want ta’ die, Madame?”
“Well, of course I don’t. But, I have no choice.”
Richard sat down the tray and turned and looked at her sadly. “But what of last night?” he whispered.
“Young man, were you spying?”
“No, Madame! But, I’m twelve years old, ye know? I’m not a child. I know what goes on with men and women behind closed doors.”
“And?” Ivory asked, holding back a laugh.
“Between us—ye and me that is, somethin’ just smells foul about that. I mean, ta’ share a lady’s bed, ‘specially a lady like yerself, and then just let her hang, well…that’s all I got ta’ say about it.” Richard pursed his lips hard and sighed, then scrunched them to one side of his face.
“Come here, Richard,” Ivory said, waving him towards her, and then taking his dirty hands into hers. “Don’t ever lose this part of yourself that knows wrong from right. The world will try to steal it from you, a bit at a time, but stand up to it and listen to that voice that steers you straight. Promise?” Ivory asked, lifting his face by the chin.
“I’d never do ye like this. If I were as big as Master Green, I’d save ye.”
“I believe you would,” Ivory said, placing a light kiss on his freckled cheek. “Now, run along before they catch you and let that old cat out of the bag.”
Richard smiled and did what he was told, and Ivory was alone yet again, until Richard returned with only the water. Ivory wasn’t surprised. With no expectations, she wasn’t disappointed either. When the hall outside her door was silent, she returned the dagger to its place in the trunk and dressed in her sailing clothes. The familiar feel of the fabric against her skin empowered her and awakened her senses. The days she’d spent recovering were insignificant in comparison to the healing power of buttoning her own shirt and tucking it into her own breeches.
Once the gold, diamond-shaped buckle of her belt was secure, she calmly lay back on the cot and fell into a deep slumber, devoid of dreams and unencumbered by fearful nightmares. When she awoke several hours later, the sun was high in the sky, and she was so rested that her body sprung from the cot as if she were tossed off of it. She pulled on her stockings and boots and dove to the open window to find the ship, once again, cutting through the water as a diamond on glass.
When Richard returned moments later with her lunch, he was startled. His eyebrows were hidden beneath his shaggy bangs, and his mouth fell open, though he seemed unable to speak. Ivory stole the tray from his trembling palms, sat it on the tea table, and asked, “Richard, what’s wrong with you?”
“But…ye really are the Razor!”
Ivory pressed her hand over his mouth and held it there until the boy found his senses and nodded when she asked him if he could breathe. “Well, of course I am. How could you even doubt it? Now, I’m going to let go of you, but you mustn’t shout. Do you understand?”
When Richard nodded again, Ivory slowly pulled her hand away, put a finger to her lips, and stared down at him. “Who the devil did you think I was?” she asked, snatching a piece of bread from the tray.
“If ye don’t hold it against me, Cap’n Razor, I…I…”
“Just spit it out, will you?”
“I had my doubts ye was who they said, because I’ve heard stories about the Razor, and I didn’t believe anyone could catch her, let alone keep her. I just figured ye were some pub whore they was gonna pass off as the Razor ta’ get that money.”
“Richard, all this time you carried on this charade, then? Treating some pub whore as if she were the real me? Why would you do that?” she asked as she took the tray to the cot and flopped back against the wall.
“We do what we’s told. If the Cap’n says you’re Ivory Shepard, then you’re Ivory Shepard. But, everyone knows the real Razor don’t wear fancy dresses, and she surely wouldn’t be shaggin’ the Blacksnake, now would she? But when I finally laid my eyes on the true Razor, you as is right in front a’ me, I know’d it’s true for real.”
“Watch it, now. If you believe me to be the Razor, you know I’ll snap you like a match and toss you out that window there for speaking to me in such a way.”
“I meant no disrespect, I swear it!” he yelped, as he cowered away.
“Oh, Richard, don’t be ridiculous! I won’t hurt you. So, what gave me away when you walked in?”
“Ye look, well, different. Bigger and stronger and… well yer clothes, Cap’n. And that belt buckle most of all. I’ve never seen one like that, and from the tales of ye, there isn’t another one the same.”
“Bigger?” Ivory asked, pinching at her mid-section and tossing the bread on the tray.
“Bigger, not fatter—ye don’t look as filled out when…when yer half-naked, Cap’n. I guess it’s the clothes, but…I don’t know. Look, I gotta go, or they’re gonna wonder what’s keepin’ me,” Richard rambled as he turned for the door.
“See you for dinner,” Ivory said with a smirk. Richard only glanced back, shaking his head, and out the door he went.
Knowing Richard brought her lunch at twelve o’clock sharp, she said to her herself, “Sixteen hours to go,” and she lifted the fresh pitcher of water to pour a cup and wash down the dry bread. She raised the cup to her lips, took a healthy swig, and coughed. She whispered, “Richard, you little fox,” as the warm, familiar sensation of rum tingled the back of her throat.
Chapter Nineteen
“Lower the longboat. I need to speak to Phineas,” Keara demanded as she climbed in and ordered two sailors to join her. “You, Boston, pick a man and make it smart.”
Tommy picked the first man to his left, a young Jamaican named Rollo, and they climbed aboard. Tommy avoided eye contact with Keara throughout the brief row to the Jade, until she forced him to address her. “Boston, this is between you, me, and this swab here—are you reading me?” Tommy looked up at her and nodded. “I asked you a question, Boston.”
“Aye, Captain,” he murmured.
“I’ll have no more of your jealous and foolish bunk. One more of your tantrums and you’re off this crew. Now, row.” Keara spoke her piece and grabbed an oar, and not another word was spoken before they boarded the Jade.
“Captain Shepard,” Phineas greeted Keara, giving her a hand up.
“Captain Jackson, your quarters,” she said, waving him ahead. She turned to her companions, “You two wait here. This shan’t take more than a few minutes.”
Phineas led Keara to his quarters and took a seat. Keara stood, as her intention was not to waste a moment of time. “I’ve come to give you the plans. We’ve chosen not to engage the Cat. I’ve never been one to risk the lives of many for a single soul, and neither would Ivory. Our plan is to arrive in Nassau under the cloak of night and weigh anchor among the ships in the harbor. At that time, a crew of ten, including myself, will board the Cat and free Ivory.”
“Haven’t you forgotten something?”
“And what might that be, Captain?”
“Where exactly is she on the ship? I’d have my doubts about ol’ Blacksnake lettin’ strangers, especially the uninvited variety, roam about his ship.”
“You can’t possibly think...never mind. I’d forgotten there are still men in these waters who find women only good for one purpose. We have one of his crew aboard the Cutlass who’s familiar with the ship and can lead us directly to where we’re sure Ivory’s being held.”
“How can you trust the man? What if he’s a spy?”
“He’s no spy, I assure you. He…I trust him. That’s all you need to know. Upon my signal, we’ll begin. Willy, my boson, will cover the bow lamp twice. You
respond in turn by covering yours twice as well. The only thing you’ll need to do is keep your men aboard ship. No one leaves the Jade, is that understood?”
“At what hour might this mission be underway?”
“Three o’clock. Most of his crew should be deep in the bottle, and the rest deep into something, or someone, else. I’m sure he’ll have his lookout and a few reliables at the watch, but of course we plan to make every effort not to be seen. When we weigh anchor, pull along our port side, and we’ll lower the boat between the Cutlass and the Jade, so as not to be seen.”
“And we do what?”
“You wait.”
“Two covers of the lantern. We reply in kind, and you drop the boat and head to your deaths, correct?”
“You’re boring me, Phineas. Just do as I’ve said. Once we have Ivory safely aboard, we return to Port Royal and await our fates there. You’re not obligated to stay. ”
“I knew I was being used, but to insult me as well?”
“I’m just returning the favor. What did you expect? You’re being paid to do a job. I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain. It’s nearly four o’clock now…less than twelve hours to go. May I suggest a nap? It’s going to be a very long night.”
Keara turned and made her way back on deck and found Tommy speaking with one of the crew. Keara breezed past him and said, “Boston, you’re aboard the Jade for the remainder of this mission. You there, what’s your name?”
“Tobias, Captain.”
“Well, Tobias, shall we go?”
“But, Captain!” Tommy cried out, rushing toward her.
“Belay, sir! I won’t jeopardize this rescue. I’ll see you in Port Royal.”
“I’m not a fool. I know why you’re doing this,” Tommy mumbled as he folded his arms at his chest. Keara had reached her limit of tolerance and tossed her head back as she turned and walked straight up to the man where he stood.
“Really? It takes a fool to challenge his captain. Would you be that fool, sir?”
The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) Page 15
