Page 34 of A Pirate's Pleasure
Lief
The impact of the sea stole all the breath from my lungs before dragging me under and forcing me to fight my way back to the surface. My clothes weighed me down, making the process more difficult, especially when I’d never been that strong a swimmer. Not like Zephyr. My head broke the surface, and I looked around for him, expecting to see him come up somewhere close. Nothing.
A shadow passing across the sun had me tilting my head back and squinting up at the sky as I trod water. A bird? No, not a bird. It was too big, its wing span too wide.
Lucretius.
Not dead. Not buried. Or at least not for very long. And clutching a very limp and obviously unconscious Zephyr in his talons. Fuck! I watched them until they were nothing but a tiny speck in the distance. Now what? How was I supposed to get Zephyr back when I didn’t even know where the harpy was taking him?
The obvious answer was I couldn’t. Not on my own, anyway. But perhaps an entire ship full of pirates could. Which made getting back to The Navarino the first step in any future rescue plans. The rowboat was still at least a hundred meters away as I struck out for it. A hundred meters was farther than I’d swum in the last eight years. A hundred meters more to be exact, but I guess there were some things you never forgot. And at least I’d kept fairly fit during my years as lord of the manor.
It helped that the rowboat had changed course in response to my swan dive from the cliff, heading not for the beach as originally planned, but toward me. Had it been Newton in charge, he’d no doubt have rowed in the opposite direction. Even with the reduction in distance, my arms and legs were burning by the time I reached the boat, and I was glad of Boden’s help to haul me aboard. I lay on my back, sucking in air and thinking that perhaps I should have been more appreciative of Zephyr’s efforts on the day he’d rescued me, when he’d swum at least three times the distance I had and then climbed a rope ladder.
Oars abandoned for the time being, Stafford loomed over me, blocking out the sun. “Where’s the cap’n?”
I lifted an arm to point to the sky, letting it flop back to my side when the effort of keeping it up there with fatigued muscles became too much. Not that speaking was much easier when I was still out of breath. “Harpy found us. Carried him off. Nothing I could do.”
Both pirates lifted their heads to stare at the sky as I heaved myself to sitting. “We need to get back to The Navarino as quickly as we can, so we can change course and find him before Lucretius tires of having yet another unwilling partner.” When Stafford’s brow crinkled in confusion, I elaborated. “It’s a running theme for him. He’s all, I love you, you’re mine forever, never leave me. Only, forever is apparently not as long for him as it is for everyone else once they kick up a fuss about being imprisoned on an island with only a deranged harpy for company.” The more I said, the more Zephyr’s precarious position was sinking in. Yes, technically, it was his fault for being easily swayed by a pretty face and not asking more questions, but who hadn’t been there a time or two? I knew I had during the eight years I’d spent convincing myself that my life was so much better than it had been before. I’d been unwilling to admit that there was a Zephyr-sized hole in it, and that not a day went by when something didn’t remind me of him. It was a shame that epiphany had only made itself known when it was already too late to do anything about it.
“Well,” I said, running out of patience as both men continued to stare at me. “What are you waiting for? Row. We’re wasting time hanging around here.”
Stafford could have taken umbrage at me ordering him around. Thankfully, he chose not to, performing an adept maneuver to turn us round and take us back to The Navarino. I sat and watched The Welcome Isle get smaller, contemplating how my first impression of it had been the right one, and that we should have steered clear. We’d played right into the watching Lucretius’ pointy taloned hands by separating ourselves from the rest of the pirates.
The argument that had broken out on the ship once I’d caught them up on the day’s events and why their captain wasn’t with me was frustrating. The pirates had divided themselves into two factions with opposing viewpoints. On one side was the contingent headed up by Whitby, who displayed unwavering loyalty to their captain, and who were clearly prepared to go to the ends of the earth and do whatever was necessary to get him back. And on the other was a smaller, but more vocal group, who were in favor of Whitby becoming captain and The Navarino starting a new chapter. A large proportion of the latter group comprised the previous day’s antagonists. Clearly, their actions toward me had been based, at least partly, on less loyalty toward their captain than the rest of the crew.
“Do you think Captain Chase would just abandon you if you were in trouble?” Whitby pointed out to a red-faced Newton, who’d become increasingly more argumentative as the debate had raged on.
Newton shrugged. “Dunno. I wouldn’t have shagged a harpy and put myself in that situation in the first place, would I?”
“Only because the harpy wouldn’t have gone anywhere near you,” quipped a pirate whose name I hadn’t yet learned. “Don’t go pretending you’re all that fussy about where you put your cock, because we’re not buying it.”
Newton drew himself up to his full height. “I’d have known, wouldn’t I? That he wasn’t who he said he was. I wouldn’t have been stupid enough to fall for some pretty boy fluttering his eyelashes at me.”
“Bollocks, you wouldn’t,” someone else chimed in. “Come and tell us that when it’s actually happened to you.” A chorus of guffaws went round the group of pirates.
Much as I enjoyed seeing Newton taken down a peg or two, this was getting us nowhere. And while they carried on arguing about the best course of action, Lucretius was putting more distance between us, and our chances of finding Zephyr before something happened to him were decreasing.
Grabbing hold of a large barrel, I maneuvered it into a better position at the edge of the group. Everyone except for Whitby was far too busy bickering to notice my actions. He, however, fixed me with a curious stare. “What are you doing, Lief?”
I clambered on top of the barrel, the elevation providing me with the perfect vantage point to see every pirate’s face as I pulled myself upright and stared out over the sea of heads. “Hey!” I shouted. “A moment of your attention if you’d be so kind.”
They turned my way. Some wore looks of confusion. For others, it was more curiosity. And a few, Newton and Garrick among them, just looked annoyed.
“You got something to say?” Whitby asked.
“Yeah, I have.” I took a deep breath. I had one chance to get this right, which was quite the challenge when I hadn’t planned what I was going to say. If I fucked it up, I’d make things worse. Also, there was the small matter of me reminding them of my existence when Zephyr—and therefore his protection—was no longer around. It was a risk, but it was one I was willing to take.
“He doesn’t get a say,” Garrick said before I’d uttered a single word. “He’s not a crewmember. He ain’t nothing but a fugitive. We didn’t vote for him to come on board, so there’s no reason to listen to him.” A few pirates mumbled their agreement and nodded profusely.
“We should throw him overboard,” Newton said. “Fucker told me I’d look good in a dress. Thinks he can make me his bitch, doesn’t he?”
It was amazing how quickly a story could get twisted. I couldn’t afford to get dragged into an argument over something that in the large scheme of things didn’t matter a damn, though. “This is not about me,” I said. “This is about Zephyr. Your captain. My… friend. This is his ship.” I scanned their faces, letting my words sink in before I continued. “This is the ship he dreamed of having for years, so I can’t just stand here and do nothing while you plot to take it away from him.”
“He ain’t here though, is he?” a pirate with a large gold ring through his nose said.
“No, he isn’t. He’s been kidnapped and is being held against his will. And we need to do everything possible to free him and put him back in his rightful position as captain of the ship he loves so much.” Silence. “Is he a good captain?”
“He’s always been good to me,” one of the oldest pirates said, most of his hair gray. “Gave me a job when no one else would. Most people said I should be retiring. Not Captain Chase. He said he was glad of my experience, that they were fools that didn’t know what they were talking about.”