by Merry Farmer
Milton held up his hands, showing that he, too, was unarmed. “As you can see, I’m a free man. I was separated from my crew by a storm. I’m only now making my way back.”
Mr. Thatcher made a sound from deep in his throat. Next to him, Aludra chafed at the noise. She stepped back, halfway into battle position. She was as eager for a fight as I, but against a spry old man? He was no enemy of ours unless he proved an obstacle to rescuing our friends. I would rather this end without bloodshed.
Grand-mère stepped into the light, stretching out her hand with a warm smile. “Come now, sir. Will you let our old bones grow stiff from this damp chill? Let’s adjourn inside.”
I’d often thought Grand-mère could charm a snake out of its skin. However, this frail old man was made of sterner stuff than he looked. He stiffened and straightened, the light from the lantern calming its dance. “I’m afraid I have instructions not to let anyone in, madam.”
“We won’t tell. In fact, it would be rude of us to use your fire without contributing a few pennies to the purchase of coal.” The pouch she untied from the belt at her waist jingled as she held it out. It held only a fraction of what Jeanne had prepared, the rest hidden among crew hands in the town. Grand-mère pressed the sack into the old man’s free hand and tilted her face up to meet his, her smile never wavering. “What do you say?”
I say you’re standing too damn close to him. I held my breath. Grand-mère was right. No man should underestimate her. She was as useful with her cane as I was with my sword.
After a moment’s hesitation, Mr. Thatcher tested the weight of the bag, then tucked it into his pocket. “Perhaps a moment inside would do no one any harm. If you’d like, madam, I may be able to arrange a short visit between you and your…granddaughter?”
At least he hadn’t forgotten the particulars of the request.
“But no more.”
That wasn’t going to be good enough.
Grand-mère claimed his arm without a second thought. “Please, escort me inside.”
When he obliged, I had no choice but to follow. I scanned the street one last time before stepping inside, searching for guards. I saw no one.
The front room of the prison was tiny and cold, the brazier little wider than my forearm. It was low on coals, the embers glowing red in the dark room. I shivered as Mr. Thatcher gestured for Grand-mère to take the only seat, a wooden chair worn smooth by time and use. If these were the conditions in which he kept watch, I shuddered to imagine the horrors Tamara and Evelyn faced. We should have come sooner.
The moment Grand-mère had settled herself, both hands folded atop the head of her cane, Milton stepped into the middle of the room. He caught Mr. Thatcher’s eye. “Are you certain we cannot come to another arrangement? We have more money.”
The old man hesitated but shook his head. “The two you mentioned are due to be shipped inland on the morrow. I can only manage this one visit, and I fear it must be short.”
The snick of steel released from its sheath sounded as soft as a whisper, but it raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I fumbled again for the sword I didn’t have as a dark form stepped out of the shadows, the light of the lantern glinting off a short blade. Aludra. When she lunged around Milton to approach Mr. Thatcher, Milton caught her arm. He thrust his fingers in between hers and rested the blade away, pushing her back with his forearm at the same time. The blood rushed in my ears, and for one dizzying moment, I thought, This is it. This was the betrayal I had predicted.
Milton crossed behind Mr. Thatcher and immobilized the old man with an arm slung across his chest. He thumped him soundly on the temple with the hilt of the knife. The old man’s eyes rolled up, the whites showing. He crumpled. Aludra lunged for the lantern as it smashed against the floor, the flame sputtering and the oil spilling over the ground. She stamped out licks of flame. In darkness, I breathed swiftly, pulse pounding, blinking away the spots in my eyes.
What had just happened?
The flicker of flame returned as Aludra righted and rekindled the lantern. It sputtered, low on oil, the light glinting off the shards of glass in its casing. Milton still held the old man, slowly lowering him to the floor. Aludra snarled, but he didn’t appear to notice. He laid his fingers against the man’s neck and grimaced. I braced myself.
“He’s still alive.”
I let out my breath.
The knowledge didn’t appear to assuage Aludra. In fact, she looked murderous. She stepped closer, the lantern held in her fist like a weapon. “What do you—?”
“It would not have helped you to leave bodies behind.” Milton straightened to his full height, looming over her. “Thanks to you, my involvement is already suspect. I’m willing to help you, but not at the cost of my career.”
I flinched. I shouldn’t have expected his loyalty to run that deep, but hearing it spoken so boldly out loud stung like the lash of a whip.
Churlish, Aludra reclaimed her knife. “I did not plan to kill him.”
Milton crossed his arms. “It didn’t look that way from where I was standing.”
I cleared my throat. What was done was done, and arguing about it wouldn’t help us. “Let’s look for Tamara and Evelyn quickly before someone else arrives. He seemed adamant that we needed to be brief.”
Grand-mère levered herself to her feet and held out her hand for the lantern, which Aludra handed over obediently. Grand-mère set it on the chair and hobbled over to the unconscious old man. “Go. I’ll stay here to make certain he doesn’t die from the injury.” She raised her gaze, spearing Milton with accusation. “Our poor bones can’t handle what you young folks do to yours.”
He held up his hands in surrender but didn’t defend himself.
Aludra said brusquely, “Let’s find another lantern and go.”
As we soon discovered by peering through the barred windows in the solid doors, there were far more rooms housing men than there were housing women. The rooms on the ground floor bore no fruit, and only when we’d searched through half of the upper level rooms did we cross one with women inside. My breath caught and hope surged when I distinguished the telltale forms by the light peeking over my shoulder. “Tamara?”
Nothing. Then rustle of cloth. “Jeanne?”
My knees weakened. “This is it.”
I checked the latch, but the door stuck fast. It was locked.
“I’ll find the key,” Milton said under his breath and turned away. Aludra, clearly unwilling to leave him alone, held my gaze for a moment before she followed. She left me in darkness. I leaned heavily on the door.
This wasn’t over yet, but we were halfway there. Had Tamara and Evelyn been hurt? I bit the tip of my tongue, not certain if I wanted to know the answer. In the course of my pirating, I had rescued far too many women from poor situations. I didn’t want to consider my dear friend weathering the same fate.
Instead, I swallowed and asked, “Is Evelyn in there with you?”
“Yes, but…”
At her hesitation, every muscle in my body seized.
“She isn’t faring as well.”
What had they done to her? I swallowed twice before calling enough moisture into my mouth to ask, “Is she ill?”
Another hesitation. “As much in spirit as in body, I think.”
She confirmed my worst fears. I swallowed back bile. Whatever Evelyn had endured, we were here for her. She would survive.
And you? If Evelyn had been so mistreated, what had the jailors done to Tamara?
Tamara said, “Caleb…”
I grimaced. “As far as I know, he got away with the rest of the crew. We’ll look for him. We’ll find him.”
Tamara’s voice was hard. “Good. He’s one of our own.”
I laid my palm on the door, blinking away tears. “As are you, sister.”
When I heard approaching footsteps, I wiped under my eyes. I turned into the unwavering light of an unbroken lantern. Milton held up a key ring. When I stepped aside, he proceeded to
insert each one in turn until he unlocked the door.
When we pulled it open, Tamara filled the threshold. She still wore the shirt and breeches she’d worn as captain of her ship, but the shirt was ragged and dirty and it fell loosely around her frame as though she wore someone else’s clothes. Her black hair hung to her waist in matted clumps. She had sunken hollows beneath her eyes, visible even in the shadows cast over her dark, ashen skin, but her weariness was chased away by the fire of outrage as she recognized the man standing in front of her. She drew herself up, never mind that she was nearly as short as Grand-mère. “You!”
I stepped between them before violence broke out. “He’s here to help. Let’s get Evelyn to the ship.”
Milton tried to sidestep me. “I’ll carry her.”
Tamara snapped, “The devil you will!” Her voice roused the other women in the room. She and Evelyn were not alone—no, four or five shadows loomed behind them, all crammed into a room no bigger than my cabin. How did they find the room to stretch out and sleep?
Milton blocked the entrance. “I think, of the four of us, I am undeniably the person with the most upper body strength. If any of you tried to carry another person, you would slow us down.”
I didn’t like the look of the other prisoners. I didn’t know why they had been locked up, but I feared the consequences of releasing them. “Milton, you can carry Evelyn. Do it quickly. I’m not certain if there are guards about.”
As he stepped inside, the women stirred, throwing up fists and feet toward him. One hunkered in the corner, arms clutching her knees. Another looked ready to rake him with her fingernails if he stepped close enough. Looking unconcerned and intimidating, Milton located and lifted Evelyn. She barely stirred.
As he turned away, the others were not as willing to be locked up again. One lunged for him, but I stepped in between and elbowed her in the ribs, knocking her side. Aludra drew her knife again, baring it in front of her, but she had more hesitation about leaving them than I did.
She asked, “Why are you here? What are your offenses?”
The lead woman sneered. “What’s it to you?”
“I’m not about to let a murderer back on the street, if that’s what you mean.”
The woman scoffed. “No murder here, only hard times and misunderstandings.”
She was almost certainly lying, but I didn’t want to wait another minute. At the top of the stairs, I turned back to Aludra and beckoned. “Are you coming?”
She stared another moment at the women before stepping back. She left the door open in her wake. “Don’t follow us.”
She was convincing enough that no one attempted to leave the room before our footsteps had become a memory on the stairs.
In that small cold room, we found Mr. Thatcher with his head in Grand-mère’s lap. She dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. He looked up at her with a weary smile, as docile as a lamb.
I gasped. “Grand-mère!” She’d woken him?
Carefully, Grand-mère moved his head to the floor so she could rise. She used her cane liberally. The sting in her voice warned no one to help. “Relax, child. He’s agreed to keep our secret.”
The old man grinned, moving into a sitting position with difficulty and resting his back against the wall. “I think this lump will absolve me of responsibility. In fact, I’d wager old Butcher will be punished worse for spending his time with his woman when he ought to be working. Pirates, in my jail.” He shook his head, still smiling. “This is the most exciting thing to happen in my entire life!”
Chapter 10
Recruit Like-Minded Lost Souls
With a gentleness that belied her usual briskness, Aludra tucked Evelyn into her bed. The rescued woman was pale and sweaty, her eyes flickering behind closed lids as she softly moaned. She thrashed, her head jerking from side to side on Aludra’s pillow.
With two additional officers on board, both of them in a sorry state despite Tamara’s claims to the contrary, everyone had switched their sleeping arrangements. Aludra had taken my position in the wardroom on the table. The moment she had announced that change, Hannah had given up her bed to Tamara and announced her intention to sleep with Grand-mère.
Why hadn’t I thought of that when I’d been searching for a bed unoccupied by the broad-shouldered, muscled man standing next to me?
The first mate’s quarters were even more cramped with so many bodies. Although Evelyn didn’t appear to notice the world around her, when Papillon snaked between my legs, a knot inside me unfurled. He jumped onto the bed and curled up next to the ill woman, purring loudly as he tucked his nose beneath his tail. Evelyn might have gone through a trauma, but she was among friends now.
In the doorway, Tamara also vibrated. However, given the glare with which she pierced Milton, it wasn’t nearly as contentedly as the cat. The air in the small cabin was stifling. Latching onto Milton’s sleeve, I turned and ushered Tamara out of the room. Grand-mère and Aludra would look over Evelyn now, and Tamara needed her rest, too.
Her mouth thin, the woman I thought of as my sister made no protest as she climbed with me to the quarterdeck. Her shoulders were tight beneath the dirty shirt that I was certain only a week ago would have clung to her far more closely. She’d always had a short, curvaceous figure that seemed to leave no one in any doubt of her femininity no matter which clothes she wore. Her hips swayed as she proceeded me onto the deck.
Once there, she rounded and attacked. I was between her and Milton, so she couldn’t wrap her hands around his throat as she clearly wished. Instead, she glared at him over my head, her chest nearly pressed to mine. “I want him thrown overboard.”
Gently, I urged her back to give both me and him some space. When I was certain she wasn’t going to do the deed herself, I stepped to the side to include him in the conversation. Calmly, I told her, “I’m not going to do that.”
She bristled. “He stole my ship.”
Casually, Milton crossed his arms. He looked unapologetic. “You’re a pirate.”
His words stabbed me like a blade. Yes, that was exactly what we were. But only because society had no other place for us.
Tamara took his disdain in stride, tossing her black braids out of her face. “And you are a prisoner!”
He cocked an eyebrow, unperturbed. “Actually, I’m currently here of my own volition. I volunteered to rescue you.”
Tamara narrowed her eyes. “You would have done better not to steal from me to begin with! Do you know how many people you left homeless and destitute?”
“Pirates,” Milton said again, his voice even and unrepentant.
At the same time, I whispered, “I do.”
Both of them silenced. The only sound was the creak of the ship bobbing in the water and the wisp of a breeze stirring the flaps of canvas sail.
I might not be in command of Tamara’s ship, but I was the elected commander of our entire fleet. She sent me frequent updates, and I had made a point of learning every name, every background, including those on board The Lady’s Fortune. On the occasions when we joined up, I put a face to those names, to those women and occasionally men, who relied on us for their freedom.
Milton’s expression was solemn as he turned to look at me. What did he see? Some morally ambiguous pirate? I’d known a long time ago that no man of his station would ever think me admirable. Sometimes, I forgot that men saw me first as a prize or a criminal and rarely as a woman seeking to choose her own path. Too often, I forgot myself in his presence. The heat of his kiss washed away our conflicting views. But at the end of the day, he was still a captain of the British Navy.
And I was a pirate.
Although he didn’t say a word, I met his gaze boldly. I didn’t regret my life decisions any more than he did. “I’m a pirate, too. You are outnumbered here.”
If anything, he looked dismayed. “Do you, too, think I should not have offered my assistance?”
I pursed my lips. “I think it’s the least you could have
done to repay your mistake.” Better to return the ship, but Navy captains were so starved for vessels that it had probably already been reassigned.
Stubbornly, Tamara thrust out her chin. “I think you should do more. Evelyn is dying of fear of her son. Dying.” Her eyes were hollow, her words falling like bullets. “She may recover from the fever with proper care, but if we never find Caleb?”
She left the rest unspoken.
I’d met Caleb, a laughing, curious boy eager to impress. He’d been put to work as a cabin boy on Tamara’s ship, with an aim to promote him to midshipman when the time was right. Crew positions on my ships were never as rigid as those in the navy, but I liked some semblance of order so that everyone contributed equally. The same way each member of the crew had an equal say in who ran the ships and who profited from the plunder.
So softly the wind nearly carried the words away, Milton admitted, “I can help with that, too.”
My stomach flipped.
Tamara sneered. “We don’t need the sort of help you bring.” The rage curled around her palpably, and when she balled her fists, I stepped between them again.
I took her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “I’m scared for him too, Tamara.”
She blinked hard, her dark eyes shining in the moonlight. “You don’t know him like I do. We have to find that boy, Jeanne. He’s only nine.” Her voice broke on the last word.
My tears welled in sympathy. Not only for the boy and his mother, but for the heartbreak on her face. “We’ll find him, I promise you. Please, rest. I don’t want you to make yourself sick, too. We’ll form a plan tomorrow.”
Her muscles bunched beneath my hands, quivering. For a moment, I thought she would capitulate. But then her gaze drifted over my shoulder again toward Milton, and her body tensed once more.
