17 Desperately Seeking Mermaids
Desperately
Seeking Mermaids
Sea-foam
And coral! Oh, I'll
Climb the great pasture rocks
And dream me mermaid in the sun's
Gold flood.
― Adelaide Crapsey, Laurel in the Berkshires
“ARE YOU EVER PLANNING on going out there again?” Elizabeth’s voice was unusually kind, as was her hand that lay gently on Hawk’s shoulder, and yet, he could detect the exasperation in it. “You can’t hide here forever.”
“Mmm,” was the only response he felt up to giving.
“You have what you’ve always wanted,” Elizabeth continued.
“All that gold to build our own life here, free of the past!” Her fingers squeezed around his shoulder, making him acutely aware of the tension he’d been holding there for days.
Since Silver left. Or whatever the hell that damn fish’s real name was because it sure as shit wasn’t “Finn Silver”!
Bile rose up in Hawk’s gullet. “Perhaps,” Elizabeth continued in those same patient tones that she had adopted with him most of the time, as if talking to an intransigent child, “that isn’t what you’ve always wanted after all.
Perhaps, what you wanted is what you did not know you had till it was gone? ”
“Don’t talk to me about the mer-creature!”
“I didn’t mention him.”
“You meant him and you damn well know it!” He cast a rageful look upon the traitor but was immediately overcome with shame. “Forgive me,” he muttered.
“There is nothing to forgive. You fell in love. Surely, there is no shame in that?”
“All along, I thought he was an idiot, that he was somehow not of this world. I had no idea how right I had been the entire time,” Hawk sighed.
How did he always manage to ruin everything?
“I’m so angry at him for lying to me this whole time,” he continued.
“And at myself for not being satisfied with what I had and expecting the worst. But I... how could I have anticipated a fishtail???”
“And how could he tell you the truth about that? You would have either dismissed him for a lunatic or exposed his entire species to predation!”
“I nearly dismissed him for a lunatic anyways,” Hawk mumbled, entirely unhelpfully.
“Samuel!” She tilted his face up by his chin, her thumb stroking over the point of his beard as if by that movement to instill some sense into him.
“Are you not listening to me at all? You love him! I’ve never seen you look happier than when he was here.
And I believe it was more than obvious he loved you very much: he left his home and his people for you! ”
“What are you saying?”
“What I’m saying, my purposefully daft friend, is you should fight for him! Go after him! Find him again!”
“And where do I look, pray tell? The entire wide ocean?”
With a long-suffering sigh, Elizabeth pulled up a chair and sat next to him, her hands taking a hold of his.
“Has it occurred to you that if one of them can come on land that it’s very likely there are others living among us at this very moment?”
“Mermaids masquerading as humans?”
“Is it so hard to believe after all you’ve seen? Such an ally could help you locate Silver again, facilitate a meeting between the two of you.”
“No, but... how would I go about locating one? They could be anyone! I can’t very well have the entire island walk the plank!” He paused. “Actually...”
“Think, Hawk! What was the one thing Silver was always obsessing about?”
“His huge cock?”
“Not you - he!”
“Um... his hair?”
“That’s right, his hair! I remember you telling me that he kept going on about his hair even though you were convinced his best feature was his... eyes.”
“He does have such beautiful eyes,” Hawk sighed. “They change colors with the tides... God damn, I was an imbecile!”
“Right, so...” Elizabeth gave Hawk another hard look, as if waiting to see if he’d come to the logical conclusion on his own. With a sigh at his obstinacy, she went on, “So, you start with whomever has the most beautiful hair in Port Royal!”
“You?”
“For god’s sake, Hawk! Not I! And if you don’t stop flirting with me, I’m afraid you and Henry will come to blows,” she laughed, squeezing his hand.
“I don’t know anything about hair!” Hawk exploded in a panic. “I’m a pirate, not a hairdresser,! You must come with me, or else I’m going to execute Plan A.”
“Which one was Plan A?”
“Making everyone walk the plank!”
Elizabeth quickly rose. “I’ll get my hat.”
Could there really be more mermaids in Port Royal? Hawk wondered as they made their way up the street. For what purpose? To steal away with human riches? If that were the case, he was certain that far more treasure had been lost to the sea than it would be possible to steal from land.
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, I see," 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!
She knew.
Hawk's mouth went dry. Could he really expect her to help him win back Silver after all of that? And even if she did... would it be enough?