Raised By Wolves 1 - Brethren (82 page)

I asked the man the amount of silver and emeralds. He said one chest of emeralds and three of silver. We instructed the captain to have them brought above. His compliance was gained by the breaking of two more fingers. He finally shouted orders into the hatch Cudro was guarding, and shortly thereafter the chests began to arrive on deck.

The first small one was indeed filled with gems, though most were of an inferior quality.

As the next chest was being negotiated up through the hatch, Cudro, Pete, Striker, Gaston, and myself pulled aside and quickly conferred.

“I say we take the booty and run,” I said.

Striker was laughing quietly. He looked about. The fog was clearing every minute. There was no telling when the other Spanish ships would show.

“I concur,” Striker said. “We haven’t lost a man and we have enough to make this voyage worthwhile.”

“I think the men will be pleased. Better have them scuttle their cannon,” Cudro said.

The order was given to move the chests to the Mayflower as we received them. The Madonna’s captain lost the rest of his fingers in getting the cannon scuttled. I felt he was quite stubborn for no good reason. Meanwhile, we took everything the officers possessed. Soon, we had the gems and the first chest of pieces of eight upon the Mayflower, and our men were hanging on the sides to watch as the galleon’s ordinance began to be shoved out their gun ports one by one.

This all happened far more slowly than we were comfortable with.

Only a few of the cannon had been scuttled, and we had not taken possession of the second heavy chest of silver by the time the fog burned away and we sat upon open ocean. We could see two other galleons.

They were not close, but even before realizing the Madonna had a ship beside her, they had been maneuvering to close their formation.

Thankfully the Mayflower was tucked in beside the larger vessel, in order for the chests be hoisted over. Our vessel was not visible unless they were on the galleon’s starboard. Unfortunately, one of the other galleons was, and shortly saw us. She put on a great deal of sail and made for us. We demanded the second chest, and the Spaniards below, realizing we must have reason for our sudden haste, began to dawdle.

If we began shooting the ones visible, we would have to kill them all and wade in blood, ours and theirs, to reach the remaining silver. We decided to take what we had and run, and we abandoned the galleon as quickly as we had boarded her.

The Bard turned us west, and we ran before the wind, until we actually passed the other galleons on a long arc and came around behind them: to begin to beat our way across the western Caribbean, towards Jamaica and Hispaniola.

There was a great deal of rejoicing and laughter, and all hailed our brilliant bit of luck. Though we had not gotten it all, what we had taken was a hefty sum indeed. There was one remaining keg of beer, and we opened it that night, as soon as we were sure we were well round the Spanish. It was not nearly enough to make the lot of us drunk, but one would not have known it from the party that ensued. The musicians played, and there was dancing and revelry throughout the night.

As Gaston had never been much of one for that sort of thing, and Pete and Striker were, we retired early to the cabin to peruse the books we had taken from the galleon’s officers. We doubted any other would want them, but technically we could not claim them until the booty was shared out. We could read them, however. Unfortunately all were religious tracts or awful romantic novels, and not the salacious type either. We set them aside and regarded one another.

“Despite the books it was an auspicious thing,” Gaston said.

“Thank God you are practicing witchcraft. If you had not conjured that fog, who knows what would have befallen us.”

We laughed, yet I noted it did little to ease his tension.

“What is wrong?”

“It was too easy.”

I nodded. I had heard that from several others, including Striker.

There was yelling on deck, and I grinned. “Perhaps something disastrous will occur tonight to set things right. I am sure young Tom could provoke a duel or two.” I remembered I had not told him of my new plan. I quickly related my thoughts from last night.

He chuckled. “You should leave match-making to Pete.”

“Non, I am as talented as any man, and I have meddled in the affairs of many.”

“To what success?” he grinned.

“A few duels…” I regarded him curiously as he laid his head on the small table we had made out of the bunk.

“You think too much, and so do I. Make it all go away,” he murmured.

We retired to our hammock, and I endeavored to do so. As always, I only wished I could give him the release I achieved; but he seemed relaxed when we finished, and he smiled lazily at me. I cuddled next to him, and we listened to the sounds of the party continuing overhead.

“If we see another ship in the morning I think most of us will be without our pants,” I said.

Low laughter rumbled through his chest. “I think Striker set a fine example for us all this morning. I have met no other captain who would put his ship before even his dignity.”

“Dignity is worthless if you are dead, but I concur.” I chuckled. “I know of few men who would run out to command their troops naked as the day they were born, though it is not as if he has anything to be ashamed of in that area.”

“Nor would you,” he said.

At first I winced, as I had not meant to imply that he did; but as I saw the gaze he had upon me, I realized he meant something else entirely.

“Truly?”

He nodded and gazed at the ceiling with a mischievous smile. “I have noted that you are better endowed than Striker, both flaccid and aroused.”

I had noted the same, but was not one to hold court on the matter.

“And this pleases you?”

“You are mine. You are better. It pleases me.”

“So in your competitive Gallic heart this matter holds merit and nowhere else?”

He laughed. “It seems well-formed.”

“It thanks you.” I considered pressing him further, but I knew it truly could not carry much other interest with him. I was pleased he had said as much as he had, and that he looked on it with pride.

“It gives me pause,” he whispered, and immediately flushed.

The possible interpretations of this gave me pause, and I found my head cocked like a dog’s before I realized it.

“In what way?”

He sank even further into the hammock, if that were possible, and sighed. “I did not wish to discuss it.”

“Then we shall not. I will be filled with curiosity and unable to sleep, but I shall endure.” I kissed him on the temple and made as if to roll over.Gaston caught my shoulder and snorted derisively. I settled down on my elbow and his eyes returned to the ceiling as he sighed again. “The size gives me pause if we were…If I was to allow you to…”

My heart lurched for a moment with excitement, and I thought of whales and Spanish galleons and all manner of terrifying things to keep myself from becoming aroused at the mere thought that he had harbored a thought on that matter.

“Good Lord,” I whispered, “you have been thinking on a great number of things, have you not?”

He nodded and studied the far wall. “Over the years, I have noticed that many find pleasure in being the recipient.”

“It can be extremely pleasurable unto itself.”

“This is a thing you wish, non?” He was still not looking at me.

“Oui, but I will not ask it of you. If we never engage in that, then I will…”

“Endure,” he said.

I grabbed his chin and turned his head to face me. “In truth, as I believe I have mentioned, I would rather you were aroused and buggered me.”His eyes narrowed, and he pulled my hand off his chin and kissed my fingers. “So would I.” He frowned. “Other than… it being proof of my… desire, would you find it pleasurable?”

I mirrored his furrowed brow. “Oui…” I found myself flushing. Now I did not wish to discuss the subject. “Beyond the feelings it engendered in my heart and mind, I found it physically pleasurable when… done gently. And beyond that….” I sighed. That was not wholly the truth.

I stopped talking and started thinking. I decided it was safe to go poking about in the shadows.

“I did enjoy it,” I stated with more conviction. “Or rather, I wished to enjoy it and I felt…that it could have been immensely pleasurable if I had been with someone else. Because there were aspects of it that seem to be knotted up with the matter of it providing proof and the like… But yet separate as well. I resented both of them for it, or rather, I resented Shane for the manner in which he did it and Alonso because he would have it no other way. I was not allowed to mount either of them.”

I gazed into Gaston’s green eyes and tried to put the indescribable into words. “It is immensely pleasurable to me, both physically and in spirit. One must surrender in ways that are difficult for me, and upon doing so I found great peace for a moment. Even if all of these other thoughts were running amuck in my mind before and after, and even if it started and ended in pain, I achieved some kind of peace with myself when it occurred. There is this need to expel it. This feeling of being impaled. And then there is this knowledge that one must accept it and endure and in doing so it gets easier and the peace comes and… By God, it is the most spiritual sensation I have ever experienced. And then the pleasure comes. That is the thing that a man can give me, and a woman cannot.”

Gaton nodded and I felt he did understand.

I kept exploring. “And I… I resented Shane and Alonso, because they would never understand what they had wrought on me and I had felt this thing, and I could not share it with the one who brought me to it, and I was very alone. I wanted to surrender to them. I wanted it to be an act of love. But it could not be. It was a thing of lust and left me feeling dirty and confused. It belittled it.”

He rubbed my back, but I did not let him pull me down to him yet. I took several ragged breaths. “Of course that was the least of my concerns, and I distracted myself from it all admirably. In looking back, I did myself poor service in that. As always, I asked so little, and expected less, and called it more.” I wiped threatened tears away with annoyance, and tried to compose myself.

“Someday I will be honored to take you there,” he whispered.

“Whether it proves anything or not.”

“It will prove I love you,” I said with surprise. “It proved I loved them.

Why should such a simple thing be so confusing?”

I was heartened by the discussion, though, as I had discovered another thing and it had not ripped my soul asunder to do so. I smiled at him.

“I see now that the act itself was not the cause of the reciprocal self-loathing I engaged in before; it is separate and merely tarnished by all of that. Perhaps some day I will polish it with you, and hold it to the light and cherish it for what it is.”

“Storming the gates of Heaven,” he said.

I finally remembered my own words and the night on North Wind when we had watched the men in the bow make love.

“I have… I suppose there have been a few times I have engaged in that as it is meant to be. Some of my lovemaking with Alonso, in which I was the recipient, was of that nature, and a powerful and wonderful thing. It is hindsight and a greater understanding of myself that makes me question it now. But at the time, it was quite wonderful and the best I could imagine. And some of the lovers I have taken… the act reached that level of intensity. But it has been a rare thing and I…. I almost feel I have misled you in a sense, in that the beauty I wanted you to see is not common. But you know that, do you not?”

He shook his head. “Oui, you did not mislead me. You gave me much to think about that night, as you always do.”

“That is truly the most reciprocal aspect of our relationship.” I grinned and slipped into his embrace. In time, I let myself sleep with his fingers playing through my hair.

I woke to the sound of the door clattering open and the feel of Gaston tensing beneath me. I grabbed a pistol from the netting with my left hand as my right was under Gaston. The lamp had guttered, and the room was dark except for the reflected moonlight from the waves through the windows. There were several people, and I sighed with annoyance, as I assumed it was Pete and Striker staggering in drunk.

Then I remembered that was impossible, given the meager amount of beer. I guessed someone had been hoarding a bottle or two of rum.

Then Belfry spoke. “There must be a lamp. Ah, here it is.” The lamp surged to life as he turned up the wick, and we blinked at Belfry, Dickey, and Tom, who were soon blinking at us. When Belfry raised his hands, I realized we had pistols trained on them. When Dickey averted his gaze, I realized we were naked.

“What the Devil are you doing?” I yelled. I replaced the pistol in the netting and returned to glaring at them.

“We thought this cabin was empty,” Belfry sputtered. “We needed privacy.” He looked alarmed at his own words and added quickly, “For a discussion.” His eyes flicked to the ceiling. “Um, you are naked.”

“Of course I am. I am in my hammock, in my cabin, and it is night.”

Dickey chuckled and said, “Our apologies. We will leave.”

“Nay, nay, you are here. We are awake and now I am curious.” I looked at Gaston and shrugged. “Are you curious?”

“Non, merely awake,” he rasped.

“Hand me that water bottle, would you?” I said. “And what is this about?”

“Will you dress?” Belfry asked.

“Nay,” I snapped.

Gaston grabbed my face with both hands and turned me to look at him. “I would like my clothes.” He was more bemused than angry.

I sighed, and a minute later Gaston and I were dressed and we all crowded about the table.

“Now what is this about?” I reiterated.

“They wish to chastise me,” Tom said. He sounded and looked far drunker than the keg of beer would have allowed; and I surmised he had been into a hidden stash, if no one else had. Dickey and Belfry appeared quite sober.

“You are being quite the little tart,” Dickey said firmly.

I sighed and understood. So something had come to a head, so to speak.