I’d dine with the crew, and was well entertained by their stories and songs, and I went to the cabin once they went back to work.
Gabriel was true to his word and he stayed in the cabin with me as I slept. In fact he slept beside me in the bed, which was deliciously comfortable and warm. And although I snuggled against him, and sometimes I woke with his arm around me, we did nothing more than that. Not a kiss, and definitely not any touching.
I savoured those sleepy moments pressed against his warm body even though I knew I wouldn’t get anything more. I felt so dreamily content with his arm around me. I felt as if nothing could ever hurt me, that I was in his protection, which was absolute. I slept very soundly.
Finally, the day came when Gabriel informed me we’d be landing in Casablanca to make the exchange. That’s how he put it. We were standing in his cabin, me pulling my shirt on in order to be dressed for breakfast and him already fully clothed in all his blackest, most piratical gear, ready, I assumed, to go on land and claim payment.
“The exchange?” I said, as if I didn’t understand.
“You will be returned to your family, and I will take the payment,” he said, lightly. His tone betrayed something in his eyes, I thought. Perhaps he wasn’t truly happy to be rid of me?
“I can’t believe you’d so willingly part with me,” I said, knowing I sounded petulant. “Sleeping beside you has been so pleasant, and several times I’ve woken with your arm around me. I think you enjoy it too.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, and turned away to fuss with his compass. I sighed, because it was clear he’d made up his mind.
“Well, I hope the cult has given up on me, because there’s no way some friend of my father’s can fight them off.”
Gabriel’s shoulder’s stiffened at that and he cleared his throat. “No sign of them for days. Perhaps the charm stops them tracing you.” And then he stalked right out of the room, like we hadn’t been in the middle of a conversation.
I huffed a little at the general indignity of it all, and then followed him out. I wanted to say goodbye to the crew after all.
I started by seeking out Dante, since I was closest to him after Gabriel. He was in his cabin, doing something with the ship’s records. His hair was swept over his shoulder on one side, exposing the long, pale line of his neck.
I’d spent a very enjoyable few hours the day before sketching him, studying the planes of him, and getting steadily more aroused, but he’d obeyed the captain and largely ignored me.
I’d tried to pretend I didn’t care when he ignored me.
He looked up as I entered the cabin. His face went through a few different expressions and then settled on careful disinterest.
“Good morning, Cedric.”
I felt a little nervous, suddenly, my heart thumping in my ears. “I uh, I understand that I’m leaving you all today,” I said, feeling ridiculously formal.
Dante dropped his eyes to the ledger and wrote something. “Indeed.”
“So I wanted to say goodbye to you, because, well, you know.” I moved closer to the desk, practically daring him to look me in the eye and act so dry and disinterested. He set the pen in its holder, folded his hands and looked up at me.
“I’m most likely in the party taking you ashore,” he said. His voice was low and measured, controlled. No emotion leaking through. “But I appreciate the gesture.”
I hadn’t given thought to who would be escorting me to shore but of course, someone would. I wondered how they’d do it…
“Dante, you really don’t have to be so formal, you’ve literally been inside me and drunk my blood.”
Dante cleared his throat. “Cedric, I’ll miss you, I’m sorry we have to give you back, but the Captain has made his orders very clear. There’s nothing to discuss.”
“So you do like me!” I planted my palms on the desk and leaned in, grinning with triumph. Dante leaned back ever so slightly.
“Yes, I like you, and I’m afraid for your safety with that tattoo marking you. But as I said, orders are orders.”
“Fine, at least give me a kiss before I’m banished from the ship forever.” I leaned further across the desk.
Dante hesitated, and I knew he was imagining Gabriel’s reaction if he found us kissing. Thankfully, he also appeared to be weighing up the benefits of kissing me because he leaned in and did it.
I closed my eyes, hungry for more as soon as his lips touched mine. I bit back a moan and took it for what it was, a peace offering, or a goodbye or something like that. Dante wouldn’t disobey the Captain, but I could have this at least.
“Thanks for saying you'll miss me,” I said, a little softer than I’d been speaking. I felt suddenly, and strangely on the verge of tears. I swallowed a lump in my throat and forced myself to smile.
Dante’s hand was on my jaw, his thumb rubbing my cheek softly and he smiled indulgently at me. “Best of luck for the future, Cedric. I really will miss you.” He dropped his hand and cleared his throat, breaking the spell of tenderness. I straightened back up.
I looked him in the eyes and he looked back at me with sad fondness. I wanted so much to say more, but I had no idea what it ought to be. My stomach dropped away and the lump came back to my throat.
It doesn’t matter, I told myself. Just move on.
“Right, uh, I’ll see you soon, I suppose.” I turned and left the cabin, feeling my eyes misting. I swiped my sleeve over them as soon as I was out of sight of him. It took me a few moments to get myself under control, and I had to give myself a stern talking to.
Yes, Dante likes me, yes, he’ll miss me, and I’ll certainly miss him, and think about that bite and the fucking and all of that. But there’s nothing for it. Lucifer is going to get his ransom and he can’t have that while I’m still on the ship. This was never a long term arrangement, and I knew that.
Saying goodbye to Marco and Kaito should have been easier, but it really wasn’t. The two of them had been kind to me, and allowed me to draw them multiple times each. Marco had even shifted into his otter form and let me draw that too, which was rather special. I’d never seen a sea otter before, let alone had a magical one pose for me.
I’d done several studies of Kaito, trying to capture the colours in his clothes and never quite coming close. The pigments in the watercolours weren’t bright enough.
They were kind about saying goodbye, but they were a little cold as well. Marco smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Best of luck for the future,” Kaito had said, and then turned away.
I felt like a wrung out rag when I retreated back to the Captain’s cabin. I’d seen land on the horizon, and it wouldn’t be long until we were mooring. Just a couple of hours.
I felt like I was being taken to prison, rather than released from captivity.
I went to the desk where I’d taken a small amount of space for my paintings. I sighed, flipping through the pages of portraits I’d made. I’d have to leave them on the ship. There was too much care in the execution of them. If anyone saw them on land they’d see the affection I had for all these men.
I left them in a neat pile and went to settle on the bed, miserably awaiting my fate.
Chapter 21
In which the ransom is collected
As they sailed towards Casablanca, Gabriel looked over the deck and nodded his approval. The Devil’s Whore was obviously a pirate ship most of the time. Gabriel liked to declare it vividly, because with the reputation he’d built up for Captain Lucifer, most saw the ship with the red sails and avoided it.
But when the red sails were taken down, and replaced with the white canvas ones, it looked much like any other privateer’s ship. Gabriel found it too time consuming to change the sails too often, but Casablanca was close to Spain and Britain, and the waters were more frequently patrolled than those in the Bahamas, so it had seemed worthwhile to do it this time.
Plus, Gabriel thought, it was a handy distraction from t
he sorrow and drama that Cedric was creating by going around and saying goodbye to the crew.
In the time they’d had him on board the ship, Cedric had made an impression. He was impossibly charismatic. Both impossible and charismatic, yes. And Gabriel knew in his heart of hearts that he’d miss the boy, too. It had been a lesson in patience and agony to hold himself back from Cedric carnally, especially when they were lying in bed together. He’d tried to wait until Cedric was asleep before getting into bed with him, that made it a little easier but as he slept, his body betrayed his true desire. He’d awaken with his arm around Cedric, or pressing his nose against his shoulder, inhaling the sweet scent of the boy.
His ridiculous, adorable puppy.
Pathetic, he told himself. The crew needed the ransom money. He had promised them riches and celebration, and to do those things they needed the money Cedric’s father’s friend had secured to pay him off.
He made sure he was wearing his most impressive Captain Lucifer garb, brushed his hair back and tied it with a black ribbon and had Marco shine his boots until they reflected his face. Perhaps emerging from the ship looking like this would alert someone to the fact that it was a pirate ship, but it had never happened before. And Sir Gabriel Durant couldn’t be seen to be involved in a kidnapping.
A generous addition to the mooring fee usually meant no one asked questions he didn’t wish to answer.
With Kaito at the helm, the ship would dock within the half hour. It was time to stop avoiding his own cabin and prepare Cedric for the handover. Perhaps he should just have Marco handle it and avoid Cedric himself.
He considered that option for a moment and quickly dismissed it. If Cedric wasn’t allowed to be dramatic and emotional at him now, in private, he’d certainly attempt it later on. Best to get it over and done with so that things on shore would be more or less seemly.
As they got closer to the mooring, he went into his cabin.
Cedric was sprawled dramatically on the bed, one hand thrown over his eyes and the other arm out to the side.
Since he knew Cedric wouldn’t see it, Gabriel allowed himself a smile. The boy was beautiful, his dark curls spilling over the pillowslip, his hip bone jutting up in an inviting way, torso canted slightly to one side due to an artistically bent leg.
Gabriel cleared his throat.
Cedric didn’t move, apart from his mouth. “I heard you walk in. I expect it’s time to get your money for me, is it? I didn’t feel the ship moor just yet.”
“Soon,” Gabriel said. “Are you ready to go?”
Cedric sat up, letting his arm fall away and fixing a baleful gaze on Gabriel. “Funnily enough, I didn’t have much to pack. On account of how you kidnapped me off the streets and I have nothing of my own here.”
Gabriel found himself looking away from Cedric, feeling slightly guilty. Or possibly quite guilty indeed, so he distracted himself by looking through the sketches and portraits Cedric had made of the residents of the Devil’s Whore. They were really quite beautiful.
“This is fine work,” he said, honestly. “Do you not wish to take one or two?” He imagined Cedric with his sketches of Dante and Gabriel, dreaming about the two of them, and then tried to dismiss the thought, although it wasn’t easy.
He turned back to Cedric, who had raised one eyebrow. “Do you really think I want someone to find flattering portraits I made of my captors, just, kept in my bedroom in the manor house, or secreted about my person? Would raise some questions wouldn’t it?”
Gabriel allowed that it would. “Perhaps you’re right.”
“I hate this, I hate goodbyes,” Cedric said, his voice deceptively light. Gabriel suspected there was a quiver of emotion under the words. “I don’t want to go, and I don’t truly believe you’re as indifferent to me as you pretend.”
Gabriel sighed a breath out before he considered that it might be giving away more than he meant to.
“Come along, Cedric, you’re not suited for this life, and we took you for one reason and one only.”
“Yes, to be paid. I know, I know. Well then, what do you want me to do, go sit in the longboat and wait for father’s old shipmate to claim me?” He stood up and squared his shoulders, gazing up at Gabriel as if challenging him to do something.
But to do what? Gabriel wondered. To kiss him? To tell him he was sad to see him go? I cannot do such a thing, then I might weaken, be selfish and decide to keep him. I need that money.
“For now, you can wait here.” Gabriel felt his arm twitch, he wanted to touch Cedric’s curls one last time, to caress him, to hold him close. He squashed the desires down and folded his arms. “Marco will come and get you when it’s time, Dante will be with him. They’ll bring you ashore to the designated meeting place once I’ve secured the ransom.”
“Lovely.” Cedric’s lip curled and his eyes flashed cold as Gabriel had ever seen them. “I hope you enjoy your payment.”
Such a barb shouldn’t have had any effect on Gabriel, but his gut twisted in an unpleasantly liquid way at Cedric's words. He turned and left the room, cursing silently at the power the boy had to get under his skin.
Gabriel strode down the gangplank and onto the marina, tipped the harbourmaster well to register the ship under the name The Blue Mermaid and made his way to the designated meeting place. The witch’s network was a marvellous invention, Gabriel mused as he made his way to the inn the man had named. In previous years, before the British Navy had recruited witches, such a ransom exchange would have involved letters and days of waiting, not knowing if a missive had got through or not. This was much more convenient.
The inn was named simply Azul, and there were a group of men out the front sharing a tall glass pipe contraption that Gabriel had seen before, a way of combining tobacco with water somehow, which seemed to be a marvellous invention, as well.
Inside the inn it was short work to spot the man in the British naval uniform. Gabriel approached him, checking the other denizens of the bar. He had his cutlass on his hip, and various other weapons concealed under his coat, but it always paid to check the surroundings to avoid being surprised.
There were few people in the bar, and most of them looked like residents of the town, or Portuguese sailors. None were paying him any attention aside to look at him and then quickly away again.
That was how he liked it.
The man, Cedric’s uncle, didn’t look terribly appealing, but then, he was some sort of Naval officer, and Gabriel had never found them appealing. Gabriel stopped at the table and eyed the man.
“Chief petty officer Roderick Wright?” Gabriel asked, his voice low.
“Indeed,” the man nodded at the chair and leaned forward on the table. “Cedric, is he alive? Is he well?”
Gabriel sat down, leaving one hand on the hilt of his cutlass. “If you have brought the payment, you’ll have him returned complete and healthy. If you have some sort of double cross or deception I can assure you he’ll not remain in one piece.” He let his voice get a growl to it, the menace that had got him what he wanted so many times before.
The man, who was already pale, nodded, his eyes wide. “Of course. I’d not dare to… I understand your reputation mister…er, Captain Lucifer and I have no desire to witness your ire.”
Gabriel gave him a cold smile. “Then we’re agreed. I’ll be needing the money up front of course. Then you can come down to the docks and retrieve the boy.”
The man was clearly nervous, perhaps more nervous than Gabriel had expected of a Naval man. He fumbled a little as he picked up a canvas bag from the chair beside him, he put it on the table between them, and it made a satisfying clinking noise.
Gabriel used his left hand to pull it open so he could look inside. The pile of coins inside was a mix of Spanish doubloons, French francs and British pounds. He could hardly count each one here, but he pulled one out at random and tapped it on the table. It rang, true and clear.
He did a little mental arithmetic and decided it looked like e
nough to meet his ransom demands.
“All right. Here’s what we’ll do,” he said, leaning forward to speak quietly. “Come down to the East docks in thirty minutes. I’ll take this aboard, count it and confirm it’s enough. If you’ve short changed me in any way, we sail off.” And I get to keep Cedric, he thought to himself. He cleared his throat and focused again on the man in front of him. “If it’s the amount we agreed on, then I’ll send a couple of men out with Cedric and the deal is done.”
“Of course, Captain. That will give me time to bring my carriage around. I imagine after his ordeal with you, he’ll appreciate not having to walk too long.”
It was an odd thing to say, and Gabriel frowned, his eyebrows drawing together. But there was nothing truly untoward going on. The man was wearing a British Naval uniform, he was in the place to meet Gabriel and he had the money. There was no particular reason to doubt his motives. It wasn’t as if some slave trader or cultist could have intercepted the message he’d sent through the Naval network.
“Right.” He stood up, picked up the canvas bag and tied it to his belt, letting the jacket fall over it. “Thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes.”
He turned and left the inn, making his way back to the ship using a circuitous route to the West docks. With each step the feeling of unease faded. He kept his hand on his cutlass, just in case some pickpocket decided to try his luck, but no one approached him or even looked him in the eyes. The people had their own business to mind.
He was so close to succeeding, he had the money in his possession. It was going to be quite the pay for all the crew, and himself included.
Simple, and relatively victimless crime. There’d been some drama of course, but Cedric would soon forget them. He had a great future to look forward to, returning to his family in London in due time, no doubt he’d eventually meet his match and settle down with a nice girl and this whole adventure would become a story he’d tell his children and then grandchildren. They probably wouldn’t even believe him…
Kidnapped by the Gentleman Page 11
