Page 75 of Go, Rogue

“They said two days so I’ll assume a week at least.”

“That’s not fast enough.”

“It’s as fast as we can afford,” Rogers says. “I’ve only limited cash available and I used most of it for provisions and extra pay for the men. Jamaica is a much longer leg than what they signed up for and there will be no percentage of goods sold once we get there because the whisky barrels didn’t survive the cannon attack. As I said before, we cannot afford a mutiny.”

“No,” she agrees, “we can’t. Did you tell them nothing about what we’re doing here?”

“McNeil gave them the barest bones of the story. Piracy, which they well know having lived through it. Abduction, which they saw with their own eyes. And that we believe McGann’s kidnappers are headed to Jamaica for reasons we do not yet understand.”

He pauses. “If you’re asking whether the crew wants to rescue their captain, the answer is yes. They feel a loyalty to him.” He gives her another of those assessing looks. “But they need to feed their families as well as the next man, and loyalty doesn’t put food on the table.”

“I know,” Catherine replies. “I did not mean to imply otherwise.”

The crew is made of good men; farmers who have bravely taken on a new role as sailor for a chance at a better life for themselves and their families. Even if they did agree to go to Jamaica without the pay they’ve been promised, she wouldn’t ask it of them.

But they can’t wait a week for the repairs, either, not if money could hasten the work.

Her mind flits back to her wedding jewels. She’d removed them from the hem of her wedding gown before she’d given the fabric to McNeil to use in the oakum mixture and now has them hidden once more in the captain’s cabin.

Those jewels represent all the money she has in the world and her only way of supporting herself until she can reach her family in New York. It would be beyond foolish to give up her only source of income. But she can’t ignore the need to know that McGann’s alive, or the urge to do whatever she can to ensure his safety. If foolishness is the price she has to pay for his safe return, that’s the price she’ll gladly pay.

“Will they take jewelry as payment?” she asks. “The men who repair the ships? And the crew?”

Rogers examines her. “I sense that is not an idle question.”

“It isn’t.”

“Then yes, they will. If you have jewelry to offer. But Mrs. McGann, I wouldn’t suggest this course of action. There’s no guarantee we’ll find him. You ought to keep a tight hold on the things you’ll need to survive after this journey is over.”

“That,” she says, “is exactly what I’m trying to do.”

He gives her his shrewd look again, the one she’s very much coming to dislike. “First your gown, and now your jewels. Soon you won’t have anything left of Lady Catherine West at all.”

She thinks back over the last few days. That’s true enough, she supposes, in the materialistic sense. But there are other things she’s carried with her on this journey that are worth far more than a gown or a necklace. She’s brought her wits, honed by her time spent on the marriage mart. Her strength, learned from McGann. And all that Violet has taught her about finding where one fits and not settling for anything less. She needs nothing more from her former self, so she only shrugs at Rogers in reply.

“Are you certain?” he presses.

“I am. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”

“Then bring me the jewels, Mrs. McGann, and I’ll do what I can to speed up this process.”