People with beautiful hair, Elizabeth had said. Most of the pirates in Port Royal had hair as scraggly and unkempt as they were - if they had hair at all. Pane, perhaps? He did keep his hair long and the man was not too shabby of face, come to that. It would explain how he'd miraculously escaped the same fate as his crew, though not, perhaps, the missing trousers.
"Was there anyone in Port Royal he mentioned?" Elizabeth asked.
Hawk forced himself not to step protectively closer, glaring at some disheveled, toothless cretin who had the audacity to look at her.
"Hawk?"
"Huh?"
"I asked if there was any place he frequented," Elizabeth said again, a little more slowly. "Surely, you must recall something?"
Hawk frowned, glaring at another dirty pirate. "The whores called him The Cannon. That's where he was before we fought." Come to think of it, Silver had mentioned that there was some mysterious but legitimate reason he'd been there. But why would a mermaid stoop to being a common whore?
"Then that is where we shall start," Elizabeth decided. "Lead the way."
It was still early in the day, early enough that the brothel was fairly quiet - only a few men seeking the hair of the dog. Hawk stopped in the doorway and surveyed the room, frowning. How the hell was he supposed to know which of them - if any - might have started life half-covered in scales?
At the back, Roxanne O'Toole sat with her boots up on a chair, hat pulled down over her face. He caught a glimpse of a glint of green, though, and there was no question that she was fiercely aware of the room from behind her curtain of red hair. Wait... rather pretty red hair. He squinted at her. He tried to picture O’Toole in a seashell brasier and a fishtail, snarling at shipwrecked sailors. It wasn't a particularly reassuring image.
"Well, good morning to you, Captain Hawk, Miss Barnes.” One of the brothel's whores sidled up to Elizabeth, her bodice so tight that her ample bosoms looked about ready to spill over the top. She gave Lucinda a wink. "You know, we have a two-for-one special when it comes to pretty lady friends. Care to take a load off, Captain?"
Hawk opened his mouth and immediately closed it again. She had very pretty hair as well, the long black curtain spilling over ivory shoulders. Maybe she was the one Silver had been coming to see? "Are you..." he started, then stopped, well aware of how daft he was about to sound. Asking some whore if she was really a mythical creature in disguise?
"I'm afraid we're only here looking for Mr. Silver," Elizabeth said smoothly, unruffled by the whore's advances. "I don't suppose you could tell us if anyone here has seen him? Or spent much time with him?"
"Oh, The Cannon?" The girl winked. "He hasn't been 'round here for a few days, more's the pity. But I could ask Mara, she knows everything. Come have a seat and I'll go fetch her."
She took them to the table by the side - still under Roxanne O'Toole's watchful eye, Hawk couldn't help but notice. He watched the whore as she walked. Had she been in possession of those legs her entire life?
She turned, smirking as she caught his gaze. "Sure you don't want to go somewhere else, Captain?"
Hawk paused, took a breath, and leaned in close. "Listen to me. Are you... are you a mermaid?"
Her eyebrows rose and she gave Hawk a playful smile. "Now that's one I haven't heard before. But with the kind of coin your boys just brought in, Captain, I'll be whatever you want me to be."
"Please fetch Mara, if you will," Elizabeth said curtly. "Thank you."
Hawk pulled out a chair for Elizabeth, before dropping into one himself, and frowning a perpetual frown. He caught sight of the look she was giving him. "What?"
"You might wish to employ a little more subtlety, Captain," she said under her breath. "You can't just go around asking..."
"What else am I supposed to do? Give them the water bucket test?"
Elizabeth let out a pained sigh, shaking her head. "You can't drown half the whores in Port Royal," she hissed under her breath. "You'll just have to - "
Then, hearing steps on the staircase, Hawk looked up. The whore had reappeared, followed by... He lunged across the table to grab Elizabath’s arm. "Hair!" he hissed excitedly. "Elizabeth, her hair!!"
"Yes, Isee," she hissed back, shaking off his hand. "Pull yourself together!"
The new arrival, Mara, pushed past the girl as she reached the bottom of the stairs, storming across the floor. Hawk stood up excitedly. "Are you - " he started, only to have Elizabeth's hand clamp down over his mouth.
"Are you free to speak privately?" she asked, smiling awkwardly.
"I have nothing to say to this man," Mara said, glaring daggers at them both. “Or to you.”
Hawk beheld the brazen upstart, as if truly seeing her for the first time. Those luminous eyes, those lips that were at once too large and too soft, her dress that appeared to shimmer like a wave around her hips, those soft tresses that fell in cascading waves around her shoulders.
Mara had been right! Silver had said. You are incapable of the same kind of love as I am!
