Chapter 4
Alister never noticed the short person who walked past him under a tricorne hat shielding their face. He was too busy watching over his men while they worked.
Since he knew everything in their stocks, he was making sure they brought what he wanted off his ship and left what needed to stay on it.
Pierre, the wonderful swindler, was already off trying to find buyers for the expensive cargo. Alister was hoping that by the end of the day, everything valuable would be sold so he wouldn’t need many guards.
He only needed one or two to make sure no one tried to steal the Howling Death. The hatch would be locked, his men forced to find somewhere else to sleep, so it couldn’t be raided without being noticed.
As though he knew it would happen, he halted one of his men to check the crate they were carrying. He opened the top to look inside, finding green glass bottles safely nestled inside bits of straw.
“That’s sweet wine, you daft twit!” He smacked the man on the side of the head before pointing to the special red wax symbol stamped on the side of it. “That’s twice as precious as normal wine. Put it back on the ship.”
There must be someone on this godforsaken island who has excellent taste. He wouldn’t have it sitting in a stall to be sold for half the price with the cheap wine they’d stolen.
Rosetta’s men were putting their cargo with his so it could be sold together. Then they would split the profits down the middle. What couldn’t be sold for the highest price would eventually be sold to a merchant shop for whatever coin they could get.
Alister had been surprised that Rosetta had asked him to help her sell her wares. That was, until her face had turned depressed, and she’d mumbled about John being the one who usually helped her sell it.
She was a woman. Merchants and buyers would slyly try to offer the lowest price because they would think she was na?ve, which she was.
Alister knew she wouldn’t understand what most of it was worth.
She’d admitted that she hadn’t traded much, and when she did, John had done all the work while she stood in the background.
She’d put too much faith in someone who was capable of dying.
Thinking of that woman... She still hadn’t turned up, and the sun had risen higher.
Or so he thought.
He turned his head to check on Naeem, who had gone quiet, to see she had her arm around his shoulders.
He was looking down at her, an obvious chuckle coming from him. They were talking about something that obviously had the man jolly before he peeked his eyes up over her shoulder, as if he was just casually looking around.
His smile died when he saw Alister approaching. He tried to step away from her, but she refused to let go of his neck.
“Unfortunately, since I’m getting you to guard the ship tonight, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
“Uhhh, Rosetta...” Naeem answered, looking at Alister with his arms crossed over his chest while his eyes squinted.
Her spine stiffened. “I feel the creep of death at my back. He’s behind me, isn’t he?”
“Just where in the name of the seven seas have you been?” he bit through clenched teeth. “You had a ship to unload.”
Without moving her arm from Naeem, she tilted her head back and to the side to look at him. “Was having tea.”
His jaw dropped in disbelief.
“Tea?! You left your men on their own and walked these streets by yourself to have tea?”
She finally turned to him, wearing a grand smile that held not a single shred of fear.
“Sure did.” She looked around him like she was inspecting the boardwalk. “You did a bang-up job here, Alister. I’m impressed. You really are amazing at what you do.”
“You...” Devious little woman. He pointed his index and middle finger of one hand at her. She was trying to get on his good side with a compliment, and they both knew it.
He poked her in the forehead twice.
“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood when I’m about to make coin.” He threw his arm to the side to point towards the end of the boardwalk and the town. “Now, move it. You and I are going to get to work selling our wares.”
She furrowed her brows into a thoughtful expression.
Since no one else was around to overhear, she leaned in and said, “But you know I can’t be of help.”
“Nay.” Like he did when he was feeling an emotion such as anger, pride, or arrogance, he folded his arms. “I don’t trust you won’t say I cheapened you out of your share if you aren’t here to witness it.”
Her plush lips turned pouty. “How am I supposed to trick you into giving me extra coin when you make it so fair like that?”
He leaned forward to be eye level with her, practically having to lean over. “Because you’re a deceptive woman who already revealed all her cards.”
Her pout turned mischievous as she reached up and patted the side of his cheek lightly. “That’s what you think, big boy.”
Bloody hell. And she already had his sail ropes in knots.
She gave a defeated sigh.
“Alright, let’s go.” She gestured her hand forward. “Lead the way, Captain.”
His nose crinkled in agitation. She only called him that to mock him. Still, he turned and led the way.
Not far from the pier was a street where ships came to sell their wares. The kilometre-long street was bustling with stalls and people perusing the wares. Alister’s men had already started working, with Derek watching over them until he arrived with Rosetta.
He took the ledger from the one-legged man and gave it to her. He still couldn’t believe she’d left to go have tea while he was busy working, forcing him to have to wait for her.
“You sit here and write the number amount and items of each sale.” He pointed to a crate hidden from the sun by the roof of the stall.
She couldn’t help sell, but he would still have her be useful, since he knew she could write and read perfectly – possibly even better than him. “We will add it all up later.”
Without argument, she plopped herself onto her makeshift seat in an unladylike manner and folded one leg on top of the other, kicking it like she was bored already as she rested her chin in her palm.
Alister leaned his shoulder against the inner wall of the wooden stall, remaining in the shade to stay away from the muggy heat. Theirs was in the middle of the three the crew had taken to occupy, since they had a lot of loot to sell.
He eyed her as she brushed the feathered tip of the quill under her jaw absentmindedly, staring at the people walking past.
We have a lot more to sell because of her.
He knew having all that space on her ship would be useful. This might be one of the best trading days he’d ever witness.
Whenever they sold something, she wrote it down, waiting first for Alister to haggle his way to a higher price.
Most things were sold by the crate load. One box of soap? Sold in one go. Candlesticks? All five boxes were bought by one man for his wife, who wanted them. A box of bath oils? Sold to another merchant who specialised in personal hygiene wares; he also bought face cloths to go with them.
“They’re worth more than that,” he heard Rosetta say from behind him.
He was currently in the middle of a trade for a teapot and teacup set, about to accept the offered price for them.
It was the first time she had spoken for nearly an hour, and he turned his head back to look at her with a raised brow. She rolled her eyes, no doubt understanding his question of ‘how the hell would you know?’
“They’re from the Southern Trading Company.” She lifted her head higher to look at them. “Turn one of the teacups upside down; it’ll have the insignia on it.”
Out of curiosity, he did. When he saw it, he thrust it into the man’s face.
“They’re rare in the northern hemisphere. I doubt you’ll ever find anyone with a set like this.” Then she looked the buyer in the eye as she said, “Only those of the highest nobility have anything with that insignia.”
“And how would you know?” the fat man asked her with his long nose lifted in snobbery.
She gestured to her body. “Am I not a woman? All women know about the quality of tea.”
Those words seemed to spark a light in the man, who offered double the price just to have them. Alister got triple.
“The tea we have is also from the Southern Trading Company.” She waved her hand towards the metal tins filled with loose herbs and spices. “It’s obvious you know your teas, and any guests you serve them to will be delighted at the taste.”
For someone who wasn’t good at selling wares, she made the man puff his chest with pride at her compliment – even though Alister thought he looked like a brainless moron.
He bought multiple metal tins and gestured to his servant to gather his haul. Alister turned his attention to Rosetta when they were gone.
“Good job, lass.” She’d saved him from losing good coin. “No doubt you learned that from being a duchess.”
“Yes.” She grinned. “I learned that those teacups are ones of thousands, and he’ll be very disappointed when he walks into any tea shop on the mainland to discover them there.”
“Wait.” Alister stared at the man as he walked further into the crowd. “You lied to him?”
She gave a snort of laughter.
“Of course I did. The Southern Trading Company usually has the rarest and most prized items – everyone knows that. But those were fakes.” She scribbled down how much they’d gotten for them. “The insignia is usually stamped in blue, not black. That’s how I knew.”
Regardless, Alister grinned at her. He was always up for stealing from fools.
Eventually, they were pulled away from the stall by Pierre so they could sell the valuable items from the ship.
A singular man, who intended to ferry everything he bought to the mainland to sell to vain and rich nobles, bought most of it: carpets, rugs, drapes, all the fabrics they’d stolen. He’d also taken the wine and perfume.