Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) (4 page)

Four

IN THE DEVIL’S OWN WORDS

Virginia has proven to be overflowing with lovely pearls. We’ve collected several that should be worth their weight in gold.

Just reading those words made my stomach tighten. As my groom slept peacefully, I crept onto our quaint front porch facing the lagoon and opened Barclay’s secret log book. Rasmus had finally given it to me as some sort of wedding gift but made me promise not to go running off in the night. As my eyes travelled down the pages, my emotions flew from anger to sadness. Our mission was clear; put them all out of business, no matter how long it took, and save as many as we could along the way. There before me as well were all of the names of those who had taken part in Barclay’s scandalous work. I noticed Rasmus had marked out those we’d killed so that only three names remained, and he’d told me two of those hadn’t returned to the ship. There was but one name still unaccounted for; Peter Finnegan. I shook my head and scratched my scalp, but I couldn’t place him. Perhaps he’d run off as well.

With so many ships and so many girls to find, I allowed myself to feel defeated for a moment before we’d even started. There were pirate ships as well as merchant ships. Having their headings as well as their shipping routes and the frequency of their voyages was priceless information, but we still needed a navigator. Rasmus was well-trained but hadn’t taken a voyage north of Florida in several years. Even he admitted a mission this vast required someone with far more knowledge and training than he.

“Come back to bed now, lass,” Rasmus said as he stepped onto the porch.

“Can we? Can we really manage this?” I looked up at him in the lantern’s glow, pleading with my eyes as I closed the book.

“That we can, but we cannot do it at this hour,” he said, taking me by the hand and leading me back into the cottage.

I crawled into his arms, and he pulled the sheet over me. I curled myself into his embrace and closed my eyes. As much as I wanted to stay in that position for all eternity, before I fell back to sleep I decided we’d spent enough time in paradise. The lives of people we hadn’t even met depended on us, and they didn’t have the security of knowing our plans. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what needed to be done, and I couldn’t sleep another night knowing we weren’t taking action to shut down this business for good.

I was awake as the sun came up and the bands of light crept slowly across the smooth light wood floor. Our bedroom was the only room separated by a doorway, and with the curtained door tied open, I propped myself on one elbow and watched as our cozy main room came to life. I drew my fingers lightly over Rasmus’s shoulder and down the curves of his arm until his eyes fluttered open in the shadow between us.

“Good morning,” I whispered and moved closer to him. I lay back down and rested my cheek on his forearm as it folded beneath his pillow.

That arm I’d been stroking so lovingly drew me in closer to him, and within moments, he was making love to me again. In the several days we’d been here, I’d already lost count of how many times we’d found ourselves tied together like this. However, when we at last managed to rise from our bed, I began gathering our things and packing the trunk.

“What’s this? You’re already tired of me?” he said with a chuckle as he entered the cottage with a basket of fresh fruit and a jug of water.

“I love you, but I can’t spend one more day knowing that these girls are being stolen and sold like animals. If you love me, we’ll be on that ship and after those devils as soon as we can.”

“May we at least eat first?” he asked as he pulled the dagger from his belt and began chopping up our breakfast.

“Of course; we can discuss our plans as we eat. Dear God, Razz, please tell me you’ve cleaned that thing recently,” I chided with a sour expression.

He raised an eyebrow at me, shook his head, and said, “No. I do believe I still see a bit of kidney right here,” he joked, pointing to a nonexistent spot on the blade.

I joined him at the table and groaned at his attempt at humor. I opened the secret book and read some of the names of the ships off to him in hopes he’d heard of them. Since he’d been at this for a while, I was sure he knew some of them, and he most certainly did. He was even abreast of the routes of a few and pointed out several of the ships he’d already managed to intercept in their delivery of the girls. Mostly, he pointed out Barclay’s deliveries to Port Royal, as Barclay was the largest smuggler to this side of Jamaica. However, he was also quite familiar with the merchant ship
Virginia Belle
and the pirate ship
Grand Fortune.
  

“So what you’re telling me is that our plan stands a chance?” I asked him as I popped a juicy slice of orange into my mouth.

“Once we have an actual plan, yes. I see no reason why it wouldn’t work, but there is one problem,” he said as he leaned his elbows on the table and peeled a banana. “These routes are out of my realm of navigation, lass. We’ll need to find us a navigator first.”

“Oh my goodness, Razz. Where on Earth can we find someone on such short notice?” I moaned and sat back.

“Now hold on there, woman. Ye don’t know everything, and it’s high time ye let me do my own job as yer captain,” he said, staring at me with those icy blue eyes and shaking his dagger at me.

“What do you mean?” I sat up.

“We, meaning Willy and me, are working on a deal with a young fella named Robertson.  He’s barely twenty, but the lad comes from a long line of mappers and navigators. From what we heard, he’s been drawing maps and navigating since he could hold a quill.”

“Well, what are you waiting for then?”

Rasmus lowered his head and burst into one of his hearty chuckles. I crossed my arms and frowned at him with my eyebrows pressed down tightly, until he peeked up at me and that one corner of his mouth curled up. “Yer gonna be the death of me aren’t ye, lass?”

“If you don’t answer my question, that will be sooner than you think,” I said leaning further forward.

“Robertson has been working for the merchant ship,
Delia Elaine
, for two years. She sails from England to the colonies, and then on to the West Indies three times a year. That’s six voyages a year in the same channels we’ll be hunting in, and add to that, the young man can swing a sword, so’s I’m told.”

“He’s not a pirate, then, but at least he can fight.”

“Now, lass, ye don’t want yer navigator to be getting killed, or else you’ll end up bottoms up. That’s a job a man can spend a lot of years in, unlike a captain,” he said with a smile as he finished off another banana and a tankard of water. “Eat up, lass. I don’t plan on climbing in that dinghy without at least one more roll with ye in them feathers in there. I have a feeling it’ll be a while before I have ye all to myself again.” He winked and filled my cup, then pushed a plate full of fruit at me.

“My big red Viking husband, you’re more than one woman can take,” I told him smartly and winked back.  

Rasmus insisted I return to the Chandler’s and spend some time with the girls while he met with Willy and Green to discuss the meeting with James Robertson. As much experience as Robertson had, Rasmus was still skeptical of his abilities and wanted to meet with him and go over his charts before making the commitment to sign him on to the crew of the
Jade
.

By the time we were setting the table for dinner, Rasmus hadn’t returned for me, and I grew angrier by the second. The days of worrying about his safety ended the night he rescued me from Rip and his band of rapist monsters. Now, my worries were that decisions were still being made about my life that I had no part in. I couldn’t eat a thing and excused myself before the meal was half-over. Cass followed me to the bedroom we’d shared, and her patience was, as always, admirable where I was concerned.

“Ivory, we haven’t even had a moment alone to talk,” she said as she closed the door.

“Can you help me get ready?” I asked her, not even acknowledging her statement.

“Ivory, please sit down and talk to me. I’ve missed you these past few days. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.” Cass sat on the bed and held her hands out to me. She knew there was something pressing on me, and the way she looked at me with so much concern there was no way I could deny her.

“I’m sorry, Cass. I suppose I’ve been so wound up inside about getting out to sea after those beasts, I’ve been neglecting those I love.” I laid down my sailing clothes and my binding on a chair and sat next to her. “I also can’t believe I’m married. What does it all mean, really? I feel as if it means nothing except I followed the rules laid forth by men in order to be with the man I love; but I don’t know how to be a wife. I don’t want to sound like a horrible person…but Cass, I hope I…” I ran my hands back and forth over the inch or so of white hair on my head and stopped and took a deep breath.

“You hope you don’t have any children is what you were going to say, am I right?” she asked, resting her hand on my forearm.

“I’ve probably cursed myself for even thinking it. What woman doesn’t want any children? And it isn’t as if for the past five days I haven’t been playing at making one.”

“Five days?  But you were only married four days ago…oh!  So that’s where you were when we all returned to the deck Saturday evening after our tour? Now I understand why Alphonse avoided the Captain’s quarters!” She covered her smile with her hand and laughed softly.

“That’s not why we rushed and got married the next day, though. It was because Rasmus insisted that he valued me too much to have me for a lover and not his wife. I’m satisfied either way, although I have to admit, the lover part is by far my favorite.” I was at last relaxed and able to take my full focus off of my mission long enough to beguile Cass with a few details of my adoring man’s charms in the bedroom. When her cheeks flushed red, I believed I was making her uncomfortable, and I stopped, finally asking her about her own distractions and interests.

  “Well…” she said, drawing out the word which told me there was something hiding beneath her cool and concerned façade that she wanted to say. I also believed she hadn’t followed me up here for the sole purpose of hearing about my wedding bed.

“Mister Green let me take his arm on the ship Saturday evening and also saw all of us home. We lingered a bit, and he told me about his hopes to be able to assist Captain Bergman in stopping these smugglers.”

“I was watching when you took his arm. Cass, do you know what love is, or how it feels to be in love?” I asked, now motioning for her to help me into my binding.

“I must confess that I do not, but I can say that when Alphonse took my hand, as hard and rough as his palms were against mine, there was a gentleness and affection I’ve never felt before.”

“Ugh, I can’t wait until the day I don’t have to wear this bloody thing,” I grumbled. “By the way, the color of his skin doesn’t worry you, does it?”

“There, that should hold you well enough,” she said as she finished flattening my breasts.  Then she helped me on with my shirt. “I understand there are those who would not bless a love between us. I have been able to think of nothing else since Saturday, but we came here to be free, did we not?” she asked and her eyes widened as she handed me my head scarf.

“That’s my girl. Please, if marriage comes up at some point, don’t do it unless it’s what you really want. I’m already regretting the decision, and not because I don’t love Razz.” I threw up my palms at her, and my voice inched above the normal level of conversation.  “Now that I know what love is, I believe I’d die for him—or kill— but I am not a wife. I’m too stubborn, and I have none of the skills of a wife. I just want to be able to make love to the man who leaves me feeling as if there isn’t another alive who could please me. I never imagined there could be such a man that could drain the life from my body and then pour it back in, renewed and churning like a maelstrom.”

Cass took my hands and cupped them between hers, and her green eyes slowly closed as if she were dreaming. “Oh Ivory, is that really what love feels like?”

“Actually, I was speaking more of the way in which he loves my body, and even more so when he holds me after and speaks sweetly from his heart. That is when I can breathe again, and I’m reborn. I don’t need bible verses and a signature from a pastor to tell me that Rasmus is mine.”

“Be kind to him, Ivory,” Cass said as we walked to the bedroom door.

“Why do you say that?” I stopped and turned to her with a raised brow as I buckled my belt.

“It’s obvious how much he loves you, and I’m afraid, knowing you as I have all of these years…”

“You’re afraid I’ll push him away if he gets too close, am I right?” I interrupted her and held the door closed until we finished our conversation. She lowered her head and lifted my hat from the chair by the door.

“You’re a good person, Ivory, and I love you with all my heart, but I fear that if Rasmus pushes you too hard or tries to hold you back in any way, it may cause resentment.” Cass lifted her eyes to meet mine and placed my hat in my hands as she spoke.

“I appreciate your honesty with me, and if I, too, may be truthful with you, I don’t know why he’s put up with me this long, or why he loves me at all. Oddly enough, he’s told me it’s those parts of me that most people find intolerable that he embraces. Please believe me when I tell you I know how awful I can be and how brash and foolish I’ve been, but I’m trying, Cass. I’m really trying to let my guard down. The trouble is, the longer you carry a shield, the more accustomed you become to the weight, and the lighter it gets. Mine has lightened so that I hardly know I’m still carrying it until someone runs into it, and I’m left feeling terrible for knocking them down.”