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“What say you, boy?”I ask Henry as he climbs the stairs to the stern deck where I’m sitting on top of a bench, spyglass at my side.
Henry reaches into his burlap sack and tosses me an apple which I catch without even looking at it. “That all?” I ask, examining the apple’s surface, red but peppered with bruises. “She’s seen better days.”
He starts looking through the bag but I quickly wave him off. “No, no. The apple is fine. Something to pass the time until we cross the strait. What I mean is, how are the prisoners?”
“Which ones? The ones in the hold are screaming.”
“To be expected. What about the couple in the cell?”
He shrugs. “They seem fine, I guess.”
“Did they speak to you?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. I don’t think the fella even looked at me. The lady did but she didn’t say anything, just watched. She’s pretty.”
I find myself smiling. “She is, isn’t she? And not just a lady, but a princess.”
“Maybe she should have better clothes. And someone to change out their bucket. It’s starting to smell in there.”
I wrinkle my nose. I forgot how prisoners can get. The ones in the hold will smell much, much worse. Eventually only those with noses made of steel will be able to go down there to tend to them. We differ from others in the cruising trade, for cleanliness is one mainstays of the Brethren and our crew keeps their hygiene levels high, bathing regularly from the rainwater barrels we collect on deck and using the head at the bowsprit. I have my own tub, and a privy located outside my quarters, though I let the higher officers like Thane and Cruz use it too when they request privacy. Oh, and Sam, since she’s a woman and all. She’s in there more often than not, to our annoyance. Sometimes I think she just wants a break from us, and I can’t blame her for that.
“I’ll make a note of that, Henry boy,” I tell him. “We’ll get someone to change out their bucket, perhaps get the lady a new dress. Have we gone through the trunks we’ve looted from their ship?”
“Remi and Horse are doing that right now.”
“Good. Tell them to put the princess’s things in my quarters. Then tell them to return to their posts.” I look around at the land we’re passing. “I want our gun men to be at the ready until we’re in the open ocean. That goes for Matisse and Sterling too. Then get Lothar to change out the royal’s bucket.”
Henry nods and turns to leave.
“Also,” I call out and he stops and turns to face me, awaiting my order. “If you can get Sedge to put on another pot of coffee and bring me a mug, that would great.”
“Rum in it, sir?”
“Not until this evening.” I tap the side of my head. “I need to stay sharp.”
He gives me an impish smile. “Do you think I could finally have coffee? With sugar and milk?”
“If you think you deserve it,” I say. “Perhaps you’ll work through some vocabulary exercises tonight and we’ll call it.” He nods so earnestly I nearly laugh. He hurries off down the stairs with an extra spring in his wee step. I have a feeling the lad isn’t going to like coffee unless Sedge, our cook, makes it so it’s mainly hot milk. Much like Hilla was, Henry’s affection for sweets knows no bounds.
Henry came aboard theNightwindwhen he was just five years old. He was the son of pirate woman, Elizabeth, who had joined our crew when we were holed up in Fragrant Harbor Village in China. She had heard about us and deserted the English ship belonging to the East India Trading Company that she was on. We folded them into our family, always happy for more Brethren of the Blood, and Henry became the best of friends with Lucas, who is Thane and Sam’s boy, only two years older.
Then tragedy struck, as it often seems to do on theNightwind. Maybe it’s the nature of the game, of this life we chose, the way our service to the devil can cut our lives very short. But we were in the process of looting a merchant ship when one of the officers captured Elizabeth and sliced her head clean off. It was an act of ferocious violence, even to our eyes, though perhaps our reputation of us being hard to kill led the officer to take such gruesome measures.
It worked. Elizabeth died, her head held high like a prize, then all of us swarmed the officer and made sure the same was done to him. Henry came under the care of the ship and I’ve taken an affection to the boy. In so many ways he reminds me of my Hilla, sweet and thoughtful but with a mischievous quality. He keeps me on my toes and his presence, along with Lucas, and the other pages, eighteen-year old twins John and Bart, give the ship a boost of youthfulness—much-needed since the Brethren can get tired and stuck in their ways.
I’ve even taken to helping both Henry and Lucas with their reading and writing skills when I can, my library of books turning into a study a couple of times a week. Sam and Thane teach them things like math and history the rest of the time. Growing up on a ship is no excuse for not having an education.
Speak of the devil.
“Ramsay,” Thane calls out, heading up the stairs to my deck. As usual, my brother is dressed in all black, from his shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his biceps, unbuttoned to show off the layers of necklaces over his chest, to his wide black petticoat breeches. On any other man, the outfit would give him the appearance of being halved and stocky but my brother and I share the same genes that give us height and width to our shoulders. I dare say Thane might be able to pull off anything, especially with his hair cut neat and short under his hat, unlike mine which is unruly and falls to my shoulder, often pulled back with a black band.
I tip up my hat and bite into my apple. “Yes, Quartermaster?” I say, my way of reminding him that he didn’t address me as captain.
He frowns at me as I eat the apple. “You seem awfully cavalier, considering all that’s about.”
“It’s the apple, brother. Anyone eating an apple looks like they’ve got nothing better to do.” I observe him for a moment, the set of his jaw and the hawkish look in his eyes. “Have you ever considered dabbling in levity every now and then? Might lead you on the road to having a sense of humor.”
He makes a gruff sound in response. “If Idabbled in levity, as you suggest, we’d probably run aground.” He clears his throat. “Look now, we may have a problem on our hands.”
