“Humans do not weave pearl crowns for their intended,mon cher,” Mara sighed and looked out the window towards the beach. “I have such emotions in my heart for Xanne, but True Love? I do not think she loves me that way. I think that had been Mami Wata’s cruel joke all along. The bipeds aren’t capable of it.”
“Are you saying,” a stone rose up in Silverfin’s throat, not letting him continue on with the horrible thought. “Are you saying... that Hawk will never love me the way I love him?”
There was something in Mara’s eyes that Silverfin did not quite like. Pity, perhaps. As if she had been waiting this whole time for him to learn some lesson that this cruel world was planning to teach him.
“No,mon cher,” she tried to protest, but her words sounded hollow to his finely tuned ears.
“I’ll prove you wrong, Mara! I’ll prove them all wrong!”
It turned out that storming out of a place was just as difficult as storming into it, minus a functioning biped appendage. But Silverfin sure as hell did his best.
Bipeds aren't capable of love,Mara reminded herself firmly as the last of the sunlight faded away. The brothel was as busy as ever, but it failed to take her mind off of the words she and Silverfin had shared earlier. She was right, and allowing herself to think otherwise was just setting herself up for more heartache. Just like...
No.
Memories of Elizabeth had no place in her mind, not now. Not when Xanne's smile was so kind. Mara simply needed to accept what she had and find what happiness she could in it.
She glanced across the room to where Xanne sat at a table with Alex and the roly-poly first mate of theRose of the Sea, both men becoming quickly flushed with celebratory rum. One of Mara’s favorite girls, hung off of the first mate’s arm like the sun shone out his asshole and, whether her adoration was real or merely her expert plying of the trade, he seemed every inch as besotted with her.
Xanne, though... the softness in her eyes when she looked at Alex was real. It was too guarded to be an act, and from what little she knew of them, there was no reason for it to be. Alex had rescued Xanne from a life on the streets when she was barely more than a child. He had placed no expectations on her, and given her the kind of freedom most female bipeds would never know. Of course, her loyalty would always be to him.
Alex must have made a joke, sending the table into peals of laughter, and Mara tried to ignore the way her heart twisted when Xanne smiled at him. She turned her back, catching up a cloth, and set to polishing the bar with furious fervor.
Xanne wasn't in love with her, and she certainly wasn't in love with Xanne, she told herself firmly. What did it matter if she ended up sleeping alone?
She forced herself to focus on work. Pour the drinks, take payment from the girls. Don't think about Roxanne O'Toole. Suddenly, someone pressed up against her back, slender arms slipping around her waist, and Mara gave a yelp of surprise.
Xanne laughed against her ear, breath spiced with rum. "You've been working too hard. Come upstairs. Take a rest. We have money to spare."
Mara leaned back into her embrace despite herself. "Won't Alex notice your absence?"
Xanne let out a soft puff of laughter, hands stroking lower on Mara’s waist, warm through the rigid bodice. "He's a big boy. Can take care of himself. Not like he's my lover or anything now, is he?"
For a moment, Mara didn't know how to reply. Wasn't he? All of Port Royal knew, it was always Duprez and O’Toole, O’Toole and Duprez; you never saw one without the other.
At her silence, Xanne pulled back, stepping around to look at her. Her voice was quiet and serious. "Look... not saying there hasn't been anything. A woman has needs after all, and he's... safe. And... he'll always be important to me. But he's not who I..." Her pretty lips twisted as she glanced away, and the bright playfulness that Mara had worked so hard to bring out of her started to fade into her old insecurity. "But if you don't wanna come..."
Mara leaned in to kiss away her words softly. "Of course I'll come," she murmured, trying to ignore the way her heart fluttered in her chest. She was doing this because Xanne wanted it, she told herself firmly. It didn't mean they were something. It didn't mean anything at all.
Xanne's eyes lifted back to hers, shining brighter than the sea, and she caught Mara's hand with her own and started for the stairs.
Hawk had spent the day overseeing the transport of the gold to the Port Royal fort, trusting neither Duprez nor Pane to preside over the distribution of it. Haggling over the details had been exhausting, but he did somehow convince them to sequester a portion of the gold for the city’s defenses in anticipation of the inevitable arrival of the British in their attempt to reclaim Port Royal from the pirates for the Crown.
“We fucking did it,” Elizabeth had said, clasping Hawk to her chest. He was certain a part of this jubilant reception was also due to the fact that along with their dream of a Pirate Republic, her favorite pirate captain had also been delivered back to her in one piece.
As to the rest, well, they were all rich men and women now. So why was it that Hawk didn’t feel happy? He glowered at the crew, hissed at the cat, and kicked several empty bottles of rum, until he finally settled back down in his cabin and forbade Ruiz to permit anyone to disturb him. Except Silver.
“And where is Mr. Silver?”
“Hank says last he saw him, he was headed for the brothel.”
“Typical,” Hawk had wrinkled his nose. His temples throbbed. He waved Ruiz out of his cabin and collapsed onto his cot.
He was exhausted. He suspected if he had only allowed himself to close his eyes, he’d descend into a deep sleep from which the very war with England wouldn’t be able to rouse him. He wished Silver had been there and not banging some three to five whores at the same time with his newly acquired treasure. But he’dknown, didn’t he, that this would happen. That as soon as the gold was theirs, the little arrangement they had fallen into would be over. And he was a fool, for allowing himself to besoft, for allowing himself to feel something again.
The door to his cabin slammed open and a distinctive drag and drop of an artificial leg brought Hawk out of his reverie of self-loathing.
“Tell me this wasn’t just about the gold to you!” Silver all but shouted.
