Chapter 11 #2
“Actually,” Rosetta murmured, playing with the ring dangling from Alister’s earlobe. “I’ve never heard how you acquired your ship.”
A beaming grin spread across his features, revealing his wide, sharp canines. She only ever saw them when he smiled this brightly.
“She wants to hear how we got the Howling Death, lads,” he said to the table, hefting her higher up his thigh, as though he wanted her to be closer and was pleased at her request.
“Now wasn’t that a day!” Pierre exclaimed.
Alister raised the hand holding his bottle and held the neck with his thumb and index finger, splaying his other fingers out. He waved it through the air like he was showing her a painting.
“Picture this. We’d been hightailing it over the seas after a heavy storm damaged our old ship because we’d hit some rocky shallows. What was this, four years ago?”
“Maybe a few months more,” Derek confirmed.
“We were taking on water, rushing to fix that old thing as best we could. She was a good ship, but smaller.” He placed the bottle on his knee, swirling it.
“We were all tired, working day and night to make sure she stayed afloat. Just when we got her in working order, there it was, sailing over the horizon and heading straight for us.”
It wasn’t often Alister was the lead storyteller.
She couldn’t help smiling as she watched him speak with a sense of glee. He was obviously very fond of this tale.
“They were pirate hunters. They knew our ship, wanted the bounty on our heads. They didn’t know the old captain had died a year before and were still after him.”
“So, your ship came sailing towards you?”
“Oh, aye!” He laughed with that fondness of reminiscence. “Came sailing right into my hands. I knew when I watched it coming towards us with the bony finger of the grim reaper pointing from the bow, like death was coming for me, that I had to have it.”
“It helped that our old ship had seen better days,” Pierre added. “We needed a new one anyway.”
“When I saw that grim reaper pointing at me, I knew it would send fear into the hearts of our enemies. I sacrificed our old boat so we could jump ship and take over theirs. We lost many men that day.”
“It was a sea of blood on the deck,” Kent threw in. “It took days to clean it all. I should know, I was one of those who was put to scrubbing!”
“It was also the day Cap’n lost his eye,” Derek said, his gaze fixed on Alister’s face.
“I haven’t lost it!” he yelled, smashing the end of his nearly empty bottle against the edge of the table so hard it shattered. He threatened Derek with the jagged spikes of glass. “It just doesn’t bloody work.”
The murderous, foul glare he wore was telling of his ire.
“You hurt your eye that day?” she asked, to draw his attention away from the old man who had narrowed his eyes in return.
“Aye. Was fighting the captain. He was an ogre of a thing, nearly as big as me. Managed to cut me down the face right before I sliced his throat. He and his crew fought until their last breaths, refusing to surrender.”
Pierre nodded with a ponderous expression. “If we were destined to die, it would have been that day.”
“Sounds like quite a battle,” she said, pretending to appear wowed, just to make them feel good.
“It was like a war in the middle of the ocean,” Kent recalled animatedly. “Guns firing, swords clanging. Men swinging on ropes while others jumped from the quarterdeck railing to try and sneak up on us from above.”
Pierre smacked his shoulder to shut him up so he could speak. “If it wasn’t for Derek, I’d probably be a hobbling peg walker like him!”
“I regret saving yer life every day, ye piece of shit!”
Rosetta bounced when Alister kicked his leg forward to boot the underside of the table, stopping them from arguing before they’d even started.
The conversation continued, men sharing little details, how they had saved another man or were saved themselves. It was obviously a day that brought them tightly together and deepened their bonds.
The conversation fizzled out into another tale.
The only time Rosetta was able to get up was when Alister was challenged into an arm wrestle by Kent. Of course, he accepted, refusing to back down. When she went to step away to give them room, Alister pulled her by the skirt of her dress.
“Nay. You’ll be staying here.”
“I’m just going to the bar.”
With his elbow on the table and his hand in position for Kent to grab it, he looked her over. Then he nodded – not that she was looking for his approval. He reached into his coin purse and pulled out a few, asking her to get him another as well.
Leaving the men to be men, Rosetta made her way to the bar. She bought herself a bottle of rum, since it was one of the cheapest liquors she could stand drinking, then got Alister something stronger.
On the way back, however, she overheard a conversation that caught her attention.
She slowed to listen in, her gaze falling over three men seated in a booth.
There was a map rolled out on the table between them, their gazes fixed to it.
The candlestick in front of them seemed to make their awed faces glow with heat.
“How’d you get it?” one of the men said, excitement and shock widening his grin. He was half bald with a receding hairline, his face shaven but dirty.
The one who spoke next obviously owned the map. “Stole it from some drunk passed out last night. He’d been showing it to everyone. It was like he wanted someone to steal it.”
His hair was short and dark, his eyes near onyx. He was thin, but had a sharpness to his features and a meanness to him in the way he sat. It was obvious he was either a pirate or had been at one point.
The third man never spoke, his hair hidden under a plain red bandana.
“With all the coin we got, we could pitch in to buy a small boat.”
“Those fools gambled us straight into a boat! Could you imagine what we could do with this much treasure?” He tapped the map with his index finger.
“Finally get our own ship and crew. We’ve been waiting for this day!”
Unable to help herself, she stepped a little closer to see the map better.
I haven’t seen that one before. It wasn’t one she’d given to Alister, nor was it one he had crossed out in his desk.
My funds are low. Alister was right; there was a chance they may not be so successful when they sailed again.
Her gaze shifted to where their crews were sitting, and she watched Alister take back his seat at the end of the table. The arm wrestling must have finished, and she’d missed seeing who the victor was.
She glanced back at the three people with the map.
With a sultry smile, Rosetta walked with both the bottle of rum she had for herself and the scotch Alister asked for.
She fell into their laps.
“Hello, boys.” She giggled with slurring words – even though she wasn’t drunk at all. “Fancy a drink and a woman?”
They quickly rolled up the scroll and eyed each other.
“What do you want?” the map owner asked with squinted eyes. His tone was quick and sharp, telling her he didn’t appreciate her little interruption.
She was lying across the one who never spoke so she could have her shoulder against the map holder’s chest.
“Well,” she pouted, “I just discovered my man was sleeping with another woman. Decided I would pay him back by trying to find a group to have some fun with. You lot look rather capable, so I brought booze and the space between my thighs... for free.”
Once more, they eyed each other. Slowly, she watched their faces turn into grins.
She had to hide the devilish smirk trying to make its way onto her own. Tricking morons like this is like taking booze from a drunk man.
“Well, little lady.” The map holder chuckled as he grabbed her, pulling until she was seated over his lap, then he cupped her roughly between her legs.
She had to stifle the wince when he squashed her delicate pussy as if he was an ill-mannered barbarian.
“Aren’t you lucky we are more than happy to help you get revenge! ”
“We also don’t mind sharing you,” the balding man added, reaching forward to take the scotch from her hand. He bit the cork off, and before he took a deep swig, he said, “Looks like the gods are in our favour tonight!”
Alister gripped Kent’s fist tightly and started pushing sideways as the gorilla of a man did the same.
Their clasped hands shook violently with strain.
Kent had always been strong, and on the rare occasion Alister was exhausted from manning the helm, he’d beaten him in an arm wrestle.
But not this time. Even though Alister’s hand started moving towards the table like he was about to lose, a smirk formed across his features. They’d already had the battling waves of almost touching the table, fighting for dominance while waiting to see who had more endurance.
Alister gave a sudden burst of strength behind his push. His hand came over to slam Kent’s down against the table with a loud thud. Cheers rang out while others gave disgruntled noises. Coins were thrown on the table as bets were paid up.
Alister moved to return to his seat.
“You should have asked me when I was drunk,” he admitted to the man with a chuckle. “You may have won then.”
Others began challenging Kent, and he took up every one, needing to prove himself after losing. Alister watched with humour, knowing he’d most likely win against the rest.
Even Pierre wasn’t as strong as Kent.
Derek may be, though. Unfortunately, the old sea dog didn’t like playing. He said it hurt his withered bones.
It took Alister a while to realise something was missing. He wiggled the fingers of both arms. His hands were empty of a cold bottle and a warm Rosetta.
It’s been a while. He lifted his focus from the table so he could look around the tavern.
He knew he’d spotted her at the bar right after he’d won, but he could no longer see her. Where the hell did she run off to?
A terrible feeling grabbed at his stomach. He started to get up just as he thought, She better not be on top of another man.