Now she’s haunting me. As if my haunted mind doesn’t suffer enough ghosts.
As soon as she at last closed her eyes, they reopened to the sounds of her men rustling about as the sunlight stole the sky away from the moon. “Mornin’ Cap’n,” Willy said as he helped her to her feet. “Looks like the heat got the best of a few of us, aye?”
“Willy, did you happen to see any new ships come in this morning?”
“No, Cap’n, but I wasn’t lookin’ for none, neither.”
“Alright. Maybe I was dreaming, but…never mind.”
Ivory stretched and made her way back to her cabin. She tapped on Keara’s door and entered to request that she and Cassandra join her for breakfast in town.
“In town? Are you serious?” Keara snapped.
“Afterwards, I’d like to take a trip up the river…to the house.”
“I told you, I don’t believe that’s a good idea,” Keara protested.
“What house? Ivory, are you speaking of our old farm?” Cass questioned.
“No Cass; the mansion.”
“Ivory, please reconsider!” Cass exclaimed.
“You’re damn right she needs to reconsider,” Keara added.
“Listen to me, both of you. Whether or not you go with me isn’t the issue. I’m going to go—especially now, after what happened to Maddox. I’m trying to make you understand I have to go back.”
“If you absolutely insist, then I’ll go,” Cassandra said, “There’s no way I’ll let you go alone.”
“Damn you two! Fine, I’ll go.” Keara scowled with a heavy sigh.
Ivory backed out of the room, and within the hour, they were having breakfast at the Rusty Nail Pub. As usual, all eyes were upon them as they entered, and those eyes continued their examination as the women poured tea and eggs down their throats like starving hounds. Women in men’s clothing wearing pistols were a sight to behold. Even having requested a corner table out of the way with their backs to the wall didn’t stop the prying glares.
“This never gets old,” Keara said under her breath as she smiled up from her plate.
“And why is that, cousin?”
“You would be the one to ask that question, Cass. But I’ll explain it like this—I’ll put on a skirt when it suits me. Back in Port Royal, I often do. However, I’ll not dress and put on airs for this lot. They watch us because they’re scared. They’re frightened to death of a woman with a little power.”
“You like scaring them, do you?” Cass asked.
“You’re fucking right I do.”
“Ke, please,” Ivory said. “Don’t mind her, Cass.”
“No, she’s right. It is rather exciting to have so many people gawking and wondering why we look this way. However, why don’t we just pay them no mind and get on our way?”
“They’re staring at us because they know we’re pirates,” Ivory mumbled over a mouth full of biscuit.
“You don’t say?” Keara said sarcastically, as all three women broke into laughter.
“I’ll settle up. We need to be on our way.”
As Ivory paid the tab, she overheard Keara making a few unsavory remarks as Cassandra pushed her from behind out the door. She just shook her head and dropped an additional five dollars in the barkeep’s hand, along with her apologies.
“Was all that talk necessary?” Ivory scolded when she joined them outside.
“Oh, I was just having a little fun. Remember fun, Ivory? Ivory?” Keara stopped and looked at Ivory’s face. An ice cold stare met her there, and she followed Ivory’s eyes down the street to the back of a man wearing a long, black surcoat and a plumed cavalier. Cassandra clutched Ivory’s forearm and held her still.
“Jackson?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
“Leave it be, Ivory. Please.”
“I’m with Ivory,” Keara said. “Let’s go see what that old bastard is doing here.”
Ivory pulled free of Cassandra’s grip and raced off in the direction of the man as he turned the next corner and stepped into a man’s clothing shop. Keara and Cassandra followed closely behind, but as they approached the shop, Ivory’s arm pushed back to hold them off.
“I’ll do this. Wait here.”
She strode to the open doorway of the shop and watched as Phineas browsed and was then approached by a short, round man with a measuring tape draped about his neck. When the man stepped away, Ivory entered and walked up behind the sea captain.
“I thought you didn’t like America?”
Phineas turned at the shoulders in surprise and then faced her. “That’s why I’m not staying. Why, Captain Shepard, what brings you to Charles Towne?”
“I grew up here. And you?”
“I heard this was as good a place as any to find a decent suit of clothes in the style to which I was formerly accustomed. This shop in particular came highly recommended.”
“You travelled this far to buy a suit of clothes?” Ivory leaned back against a counter, staring at the floor as she spoke, and then finished her thought with a look of disbelief aimed straight at his black eyes.
“I needed a change of scenery,” he smirked.
“I thought I saw the Jade early this morning. It’s comforting to know my instincts are still good, even when I try to convince myself you wouldn’t think of following me. Tell me, Phineas, why are you following me?”
“Following you? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?”
“I don’t care how it sounds. Just keep your distance. I have no desire to see you again.”
“Tell me, Captain, what have I ever done to you to cause this hostility?”
“You’re a pirate. You figure it out.” Ivory turned and walked out of the shop. She stopped briefly in the doorway and looked back to find Phineas tipping his hat to her as he’d always done, but this time he looked down at the floor.
* * * *
“If I didn’t think it would draw attention, I’d strip down to my bare ass right about now,” Keara remarked as they rowed stealthily down the river toward their childhood home.
“Remember the cold weather? Some nights here were so cold I thought we’d all freeze to death by morning,” Cassandra commented.
“I sure don’t miss that…but this heat! I’d trade a hundred gold pieces for a blast of that cold right about now. How about you, Ivory?” Keara asked as she dipped her scarf into the river and wrung it out over the side of the boat.
“I’m sorry, Ke, what did you say?”
“I said it’ll be a nice day if it doesn’t rain.”
“I don’t know…I think a little rain would feel good right about now,” Ivory mumbled.
Keara looked back at Cassandra and rolled her eyes. “Ivory, what do you think Phineas is really doing in Charles Towne?”
“I think he’s after something he thinks he can get his hands on, but he is sadly mistaken.”
“I take it you mean the diamonds? But how could he know about them?”
“Remember when you put Tommy Boston on the Jade to get him away from Miranda?”
“Shit. Do you think he used Tommy to come after you?”
“I think anyone is capable of anything under the right circumstances—especially a pirate.”
“How did Tommy find out?”
“That part I’m not sure of, Cass, but I can’t think of any other reason he’d follow us here. Unless, of course, he thinks he can collect that bounty on me. Either way, as I said, he is mistaken.”
“That son of a bitch must have been following us since the day we left.”
“Yet no one spotted a sail. But, in our defense, he was at least a day behind us.”
“And no one was looking for a sail. We’ve gone soft. Bunch of chicken livered women we’re turning out to be.”
“Oh, Ke, stop it. We’re not chicken. I think we’re all just...finished. And I hope to God Boston isn’t with him, because he’s a dead man walking.”
Cassandra rowed in sile
nce. She swallowed hard and contemplated this visitation as if she were trotting through thick mud. They continued steadily on until they found their destination. The remains of the gray stone mansion lurked behind the tall grass of the riverbank. It peeked out at them like an apparition and grew closer until they reached what was left of the now dilapidated dock where their uncle had kept his fishing skiff. What remained of it was at least sturdy enough to tie off the boat and safely make their way to land.
“Jesus, Ivory,” Keara whispered.
“I know. It’s like a daydream.”
“More like a nightmare if you ask me,” Keara groaned as she finished securing the boat to the pier.
Ivory walked ahead and sliced through the overgrowth with her sword to clear the path to the back of the house. The exterior stone walls were still covered in soot. Black scars were etched into the tops of what was once the window frames. Vines and weeds crept up and over what remained of the roof, and the doors were now no more than gaping wounds. She imagined the interior blackened and infested with vermin, now home to whatever roamed the land.
She cut her way to the stone path leading up to what was once their back door, and for a moment, she remembered hot summer days such as this one, when they would run squealing into the yard after one another in their summer rompers. Their curled hair would be bouncing against their shoulders in pursuit of butterflies or picking wildflowers. The sweetness of her first memory of living there was stripped from her thoughts when the surviving fragrant roses and lavender in the abandoned wilderness that was now their old back yard, was replaced by the lingering odor of burned wood and defiled innocence.
Ivory pushed forward until she reached the doorway. She stood there for a few moments, as if some unforeseen force had blocked her path. The wave of the katydid’s song fell away, and the thick, pollen-filled air settled into a still and deadly calm. The others hung back, swatting at bees and staring through squinted eyes at their surroundings. Cassandra shaded her view with her hand and pulled a single pink rose from one of the overgrown bushes just to the right of the doorway, using her dagger to gently remove the thorns. Keara stood a few feet back, her arms folded tightly at her waist. She blew out a heavy sigh as Ivory looked on, expressionless, into the shadowy tomb. “What the hell are we doing here? We could be doing something much more interesting, like having a mug of ale… or slitting our wrists.”
“Ke, hush…”
Suddenly, Ivory turned and sliced violently at the overgrowth to her right until something caught her attention. She froze, knelt down, and pulled something from the weeds. She pulled it fast to her chest and clung to it as she spoke.
“It was here he caught me. Right here in the doorway. If I hadn’t stopped, I’d have made it.”
Cassandra turned to Keara and placed a finger to her lips in warning for her cousin to be quiet. She moved closer to Keara, and both stood down and listened. Ivory spoke as if she were entranced, and she motioned with her hands and her head as if she were re-enacting the tale. “Once I’d placed you three securely in the cellar, my intention was to run as fast as I could to the stables for a horse. It wasn’t until I reached the back door that I realized they’d already taken them all, and the stables were completely engulfed in flames. I stopped, in shock at the sight of it. It was right here in this spot I first felt his hand in my hair, pulling me back, dragging me from my feet. He pulled me so hard I came out of my shoe. I struggled as hard as I could—as hard as a thirteen year old child could. He hurled me there.” She pointed to the spot. “He was a soldier…a man. I was but a rag doll tossed to the ground. I remember him staring down at me when I turned over and peered up at him from the dirt. The fire from the stables reflected in his wild eyes… or perhaps it was just the opposite.”
“Ivory, don’t, please. You don’t have to do this…” Cassandra reached out and grabbed Keara’s hand and pulled her to her side.
“I watched something twist in his soul at that moment, as if I were looking right through him. It changed from a bitter and brutal sense of duty to something self-serving and perverse. I knew immediately what it was. I don’t know how I knew, but, oh, I knew alright, and I scrambled to my feet to get away. But he was already on me, dragging me to the side of the house.”
“Ivory, you stop this right now! We should have never come here!” Cass cried.
“What the hell is she talking about, Cass?” Keara said slowly.
“I fought him,” Ivory continued. “I clawed and I kicked and I tore the hair from his head, but I couldn’t stop it from happening. I couldn’t make it stop.” Tears poured from Ivory’s eyes and her voice had taken on a higher pitch as it rose and fell with ragged breath and pain. Cassandra could take no more, and she grabbed Ivory and spun her away from the house. “We’re leaving right now.”
“Why won’t either of you explain any of this to me? I’m still here—remember? And I think I deserve some sort of answer.” Keara stood in her signature bossy way, but tears of sympathy welled in her eyes.
Ivory collapsed onto the back step of the house and took Cassandra down with her. “When will it ever go away, Cass? When can I sleep? When can I finally be rid of this… forever?”
Cassandra wrapped her arms around her cousin and pulled her in tight. “It’s already gone, Ivory. You have to believe that. You were a child.”
“I was a fool to think I could save us.”
“But you did.”
“No, you saved my life that night.”
“I only wish I could have saved you sooner. It’s a miracle we’re even here talking about it. When we leave this place, you need never think on it again. You were a fawn with an arrow aimed at you. There was nothing you could have done to change it.”
“Wait, I remember now!” Keara exclaimed. “Cass, you were our look-out. You were watching from the cellar door over there.”
“Yes, and when I saw that bastard Spaniard dragging Ivory away, I had to do something.”
“All of that blood. All of that blood on the both of you. Oh my God… you killed him, didn’t you?” Keara hissed and smiled.
“The damn fool left his belt lying there on the ground. So, I pulled his dagger and…”
“Goddamn, Cass! Bloody brilliant you were.”
“She still is,” Ivory sniffled and pulled the scarf from her neck to wipe her face.
“Give me that damn thing,” Cassandra said, as she pulled the small shoe from her cousin’s hand and tossed it back into the weeds.
Ivory nodded, and Cass pulled her to her feet and handed her the pink rose. “What’s this for?”
“I wanted to give you something sweet to remember in this place. If we allow that one horrid night to taint our memories of living here, we lose the beauty of every day leading up to that night.”
“I understand. And you’re right, of course.”
“Yes…we had some of the happiest days of our lives here,” Keara said with a huff. “Come along, ladies. Now that we’ve successfully slit our wrists and lived, I’d say that ale is waiting.”
Chapter Thirty
The Black Cat was doing seven knots for days on end. She blew through the southern coastal waters past Florida and onward to South Carolina. Maddox was relentless in his pursuit, and having Master Green to lead the way put them far ahead of schedule. They were now but a day behind the Carolina Cutlass.
Maddox stood at the bow as the wind whipped his hair straight and filled his shirt with sun-kissed air. The Cat danced over the approaching waves as if she’d been seated far too long at the ball, and he held tight to the lines like her partner, more than willing to allow her to lead. The weather had been fair but for a welcome and brief summer shower, and he hadn’t had a drop of spirits to drink since they’d left Port Royal. His wits were as sharp as a newly forged blade, and he believed he could see as far as an eagle. His prey was not yet in his sights, but he knew where to find her.
“Maddox, we shall reach the port in Charles Towne at dawn. Have you de
cided how we will approach?”
“We will not approach. I will go alone.”
“You do not believe this a foolish thing to do?”
“Of course it’s foolish, which makes it all the more sensible to this fool.”
“Madame Ivory will spot the ship immediately.”
“Madame Ivory is here to relieve herself of those diamonds. I know if it were I on such a mission, I’d be focused on the matter at hand and not looking over my shoulder for...well, me. Besides, there’s always the chance that word of my demise has preceded our arrival. In which case, she’d be watching for a ghost.”
“You do not know her as I have known her.”
“Funny you should bring it up. I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.” Maddox turned away from Green, took several steps away from the bow, and then turned back, facing his friend with a suspicious squint. “Your knowledge of her…behavior, shall we say… seems quite researched. It was upon your advisement that I sack the Diamond into oblivion or else we’d never take her. It was also upon your word that her crew be given full quarter, if possible, and that Ivory not be harmed at any cost. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to ask until now, but I believe it’s long past the time for an explanation, Alphonse.”
Green leaned back against the rail and sighed. He stared back into Maddox’s eyes as if he were relieved to finally give the explanation for which he was being pressed. “Ten years ago, I was but a sailor aboard the Demon Sea.”
Maddox balanced his stance as the ship danced on and folded his thick arms tightly at his chest. “Go on, then.”
“When we came upon Charles Towne, it was under the dark of night, and we had been at sea for quite some time. Captain Barclay promised us we would raid the homes along the riverbanks and then be on our way. He gave the order to kill anyone who stood between us and our purpose, and to take anything and everything we could carry. His intention was to fill our hull and then head out after much larger prizes. We longed for land, but we were starving and would never make it back to Port Royal alive without following his orders.”
The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) Page 25
