Page 46 of A Pirate's Pleasure
The plea sliced through me like a razor. Whitby stood at my shoulder, but his continued silence told me he intended on letting me run this. “Do you have a boat?” I shouted. I waited for his nod before giving the next instruction. “Come on board and we’ll talk. Just you. Nobody else. Someone can row you over here if needed, but they don’t board.” He gave another nod and then there was nothing to do but wait, the process of launching the small rowboat and the captain climbing into it, a far more protracted one than I’d have liked. As predicted, he required someone to row him across the meters of sea that separated the two ships. The rowing itself also seemed to take an infinitely long time. No one had warned me that piracy required this much waiting around.
Meanwhile, the crew of The Navarino had gathered at the railing, most of them being their usual obnoxious selves and leering at both the women and the men, some of the women looking like they might sink into a dead feint. It was good to know that if blood became a factor that I’d have company on the deck.
Finally, the captain of the Incharran stood in front of me. He was sweating even more now, but whether that was from nerves, or from the exertion of boarding The Navarino, there was no way of knowing. I still hadn’t quite decided how to play it. I guessed I’d find out once I opened my mouth. As it was, he sealed his own fate by sticking his hand out with the expectation of a handshake and talking nineteen to the dozen. “Captain,” he said, “I can see that you’re a reasonable man. A man of good standing. A man who…”
There was no way I could imagine Zeph putting up with this amount of groveling and false flattery. As I couldn’t zap him with a burst of lightning, or pelt him with hail, I did the next best thing: I drew the cutlass from my belt in a deliberate movement. “Stop talking before I’m forced to remove your tongue.”
He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes bulging. The crew of The Navarino chuckled in unison. Oh, they liked that, did they? I guess threats of violence did it for them, as long as they weren’t the ones on the receiving end, because Garrick hadn’t seemed to like it when I’d poked him with my dagger. “Name,” I barked out.
“Th… Th... Theobald Sh…Shelby.”
“Well, Captain Th… Th… Theobald. Sh… Shelby.” It was cruel to mock his inability to get his words out, but that was the part I was playing, and now I’d gotten over my initial stage fright, I intended to do it well. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You will return to your ship. You will line up all your crew and passengers on the deck. And I mean all of them. Ensure you don’t forget a single person or there will be consequences. My men will board your ship and do a thorough search and take whatever they want. As long as no one tries to stop us, no blood will be spilt, and you’ll be free to continue with your journey. Is that understood?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid that if you’re looking for a plentiful bounty, you’re likely to be disappointed.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t ask for your opinion on what constitutes treasure. I asked if you understood how you can avoid casualties on your ship. We’ll make our own minds up about the treasure, or lack of it. Is that clear?”
The captain’s nod was much more enthusiastic this time, another droplet of sweat traveling down from his forehead to hover on his moustache. “Go,” I said. “Before I die of old age.” I took back every time I’d ever accused Zeph of not being patient. Clearly, he had hidden depths I’d never appreciated.
He scuttled off to carry out the whole laborious process in reverse to return to his ship. I sheathed the cutlass and leaned my elbows on the railing, Whitby propping himself next to me. “How am I doing?” I muttered under my breath.
“Good,” Whitby whispered back. “Zephyr would approve.”
“Yeah?” There was no stopping the warm glow that spread through my chest at the compliment. “More like he’d find it hilarious that you’ve maneuvered me into this when I’ve always made my stance on piracy very clear. He’s going to be sorry he missed it.”
Whitby winked. “Don’t worry. Once we get him back, I’ll tell him all about it.”
“Great,” I said with some sarcasm. Captain Shelby was back on board now, the man casting surreptitious glances our way as he ushered the people of the Incharran into the straightest line the world had ever witnessed or was likely to. “I’m guessing this is his first brush with pirates.”
“I would say so. We certainly haven’t encountered him before. I would have remembered that moustache.”
More people had spilled onto the deck of Incharran, their dream of skulking below deck during the pirate attack, scuppered by my directive, but even I knew that having everyone where you could see them was key to there being no surprises. A hidden crew member was one who gathered courage, where dreams of being a hero took hold, and their actions veered toward reckless with little thought of what might happen if it wasn’t successful.
Meanwhile, the pirates of The Navarino waited like a coiled spring for the order. It felt like holding a tiger back, one eager to sink its claws into a fresh carcass. Soon, there was no delaying it any longer, all activity on the deck of the Incharran having ceased, everyone standing still and quiet in anticipation of what came next.
“No prisoners,” I said, my voice ringing out. “We don’t need another mouth to feed. No killing unless it’s self-defense. Let’s get this done quickly before sunset.”
I’d barely finished speaking before the pirates let out a whoop, spilling over the side of The Navarino to leap into the sea like a plague of ants. They swam the distance between the two ships much quicker than Captain Shelby’s rowboat had managed it and were up the rigging of the Incharran in a flash. Within minutes, they’d be all over the ship with no guarantee that they’d pay the slightest bit of attention to what I’d said when I wasn’t really their captain. “I need to go, too, right?” I asked Whitby.
“You do,” he said, amusement leaching into his words. “How are you at climbing rigging?”
I eyed it with disdain, most of the pirates shimmying up it like they’d been born to it. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
The rowboat to ferry me across to the other ship had already been readied, my position as pseudo captain saving me from the leap into the sea, which was something to be grateful for. Whitby accompanied me, rowing duties this time given to Boden as Stafford stayed behind on The Navarino. At least, I assumed it was that way round, and that the first mate had been left in charge of the ship rather than the boatswain. The row across to the other ship proved a little less tedious for being part of it.
Climbing the rigging at the other side was about as enjoyable as I’d expected, which was to say not at all. It required a lot of upper body strength, but at least my clothes weren’t sopping wet, which would have made it even more difficult than it was already. Mind, I couldn’t have been too bad at it, my feet touching the deck before Whitby’s, the man’s greater body weight seeming to slow him down.
The crew of The Navarino had been busy in the time it had taken us to board: crates and boxes already stacked and ready to be ferried back across in the boat. “Make sure you leave them one crate of food,” I said. The pirates in charge of loading the boat nodded. As it wasn’t Garrick or any of his crew, I had faith that they’d do as I say.
If we didn’t leave them any food, it would be kinder to kill them all now rather than to leave them to starve to death. If they rationed, one crate should buy them enough time to sail somewhere they could resupply. They’d be hungry, but they’d live.
While the boat was loaded and the several trips back and forth required were carried out, I took a slow walk along the line that Captain Shelby had formed as per my instruction. Those that were braver, most of them crew that had probably tangled with pirates before and lived to tell the tale, met my eye, while those that weren’t so courageous studied the planks beneath their feet. I stopped in front of a heavyset woman, cursing her for the circlet of pearls she wore around her neck. I gesticulated at it with the point of the cutlass that I’d already unsheathed as a precaution. “Your necklace, madame, if you please.”
Her nostrils flared. “This necklace was a gift from my husband. How do you think he’d feel if I handed it over to pirate scum?”
Nice. I really was getting called all the names recently. Fugitive. Murderer. Pirate scum. “I would think,” I said as amiably as I could manage, “that he would care more about your head still being attached to your shoulders. Because either you hand the necklace over or I’ll take it, and we all know the quickest and easiest way of doing that.” I mimed slicing the cutlass across, one of the other women letting out a little gasp of shock. I wasn’t proud of myself for threatening a woman, but I couldn’t afford to come across as weak. Not when this was about proving that I was worthy of a space among the pirate’s ranks, and Zephyr’s rescue depended on it.
Raising an eyebrow in expectation, I held out my free hand. She let out a disdainful sniff as she raised her hands to her neck and unclasped the necklace before dropping it into my hand. “Your sort deserves to swing on the end of the rope.”