Chapter 12
Rosetta stared up at the sky with a thoughtful pout.
Why is he staying with me? She didn’t understand.
The stinging emotion she’d felt in her chest, with no one else to blame but herself, faded. She felt the tension and pooling disappointment in her stomach leave as her body went lax beside him.
“I thought you couldn’t sing,” he commented.
Rosetta pursed her lips in annoyance.
“If you tell anyone, I’ll cut your tongue out,” she threatened. “If the men discover I can sing, it’ll be relentless. They’ll make me sing sea shanties until my throat hurts.”
Rosetta sung and danced like a baboon on purpose.
“Your secret is safe with me.” He chuckled. “‘The Siren’s Sailor’ is a sweet song. I haven’t heard it in years.”
She doubted he would have, since it was a song mostly sung by women. It was a song about how a man gave up his search for riches by falling in love with a mermaid with fangs, a beautiful monster who would drag him to depths to be eaten.
She tilted her bottle of wine towards him. “Want some?”
“Did you get that from Pierre?”
It took him a moment, but he eventually grabbed it and drank a small amount.
“No. Half that sweet wine was mine to do with as I pleased, and I may have taken a few for myself. You guys kept any booze you found for yourselves, so I had every right to do the same.”
She expected him to have more than a large sip, but she shrugged her shoulders when he gave it back.
Her head was resting against his chest, and she found the warmth comforting while they shared a small silence.
She was surprised he was letting her lie on the blind side of him.
He’d once told her he didn’t like people on that side.
She figured it was just because he hadn’t thought about it when he’d climbed into the netting amongst the shrouds.
She had been feeling despondent earlier, so Rosetta had been thinking about her life, mulling over everything. “Did you think this is where you’d be in life?”
“Aye, always knew I’d be a pirate.”
She couldn’t help furrowing her brows. “Even when you were a boy?”
“Ever since I was four.”
She knew she was stating the obvious when she said, “I didn’t.” She let her eyes roam over the stars that made her feel small and insignificant in such a large, cruel world. “I never thought about sailing until I was suddenly doing it.”
At the time, she was just so miserable that she wanted to escape her life, but it had been daunting. Running away had been frightening, and she’d been terrified the first time she stepped foot on a ship.
“I grew up with flowers, tea parties, with the belief that I would go to fancy balls. I was a girl showered with affection and told I had society at my fingertips.” A pang lanced her heart as she thought of herself as a child, of the parents she missed dearly.
“I never thought I would go through the things I have, that I would do the things I have, that I would one day captain a ship and crew.” Rosetta’s voice grew small as she whispered, “I never wanted to be a pirate.”
The arm around her shoulders drew up, his hand landing on top of her head in a comforting gesture, but he didn’t say anything for a long while.
Rosetta realised she may have said too much and turned her head up. “Sorry, I was just thinking out loud.”
She saw he had a thoughtful expression, his gaze remaining on the sky. “My father was ‘Mad Dog.’”
“You mean Captain Cole ‘Mad Dog’ McCarthy?”
“Aye, my real name’s Alister McCarthy. Didn’t like it much, so I changed it.”
“Didn’t you say he was the last captain of your crew?” Her eyes opened wide, and she patted him on the chest. “Wait... you shot your own father in the head?”
He gave a curt nod, tapping his forehead with a finger. “Right between the eyes. Asked me to, was so sick he could barely stand.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Because people thought he was insane. I changed my name because I didn’t want people to think I was insane too. Paine suits me better, anyway.”
She guessed that was true.
I didn’t tell him my name was Briggs. She probably never would have if he hadn’t figured it out on his own.
“How did you end up on his ship, then?”
He stayed quiet for a long while. She could see he was unsure about sharing his past with her. I’m surprised he even told me of his father.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.”
“My ma was a prostitute, and he didn’t trust that I was his at first. Refused to claim me.
He knew it when he saw me a second time when I was four.
” He reached up and grabbed a couple of strands of his own hair to look at.
“Apparently, I looked so similar to him even as a child that it was hard to deny it.”
He dropped his hair and stared up, seeming to think on his next words.
“Mad Dog was a nobleman before his sailing ship was taken over by a band of pirates and he was forced to join them. He got a taste for killing and raiding ships, realising he could earn more money than he had ever earned doing good, honest work. He eventually worked his way up to captain.”
He started wriggling a ring around his finger with his thumb until it was almost off. He handed it to her to examine.
The ring itself was made of gold with an etching of a simple family crest on it – some sort of dog, mostly likely a sniffing hound.
“That was his family’s ring, and he told me when I was old enough to wear it, he would take me from my ma and make me a pirate.
He visited her almost every year, checking in, paying her for raising me, making sure I was growing well.
” He gave a dark laugh and a small shake of his head.
“She hated it, fought him on it, but he eventually took me when I was eleven, despite her protests.”
He gestured for her to return the ring and he slipped it back on his finger. “It didn’t fit, but he knew he wouldn’t be coming back for a while.”
“You were eleven when you started sailing?” That meant he’d been sailing for eighteen years.
She frowned. Unless he’s had his birthday since we met. She’d had hers but never told anyone.
“Aye, and I have barely been on land since.” He tapped her on the forehead a few times. “Which is why when I tell you how to do something, you should do it.”
She grabbed his hand to stop him. “No, I don’t think I will.”
“Of course not.” He sighed roughly. “Why would you listen to me?”
She turned her body, so she was tilted towards him, subtly bringing her outer knee up to rest next to his. That gave him room to slide his arm further down to hold her better, resting his hand against her lower back.
Rosetta carefully brought her hand up and ran her fingers through the long black stubble on his jaw. She gave him a small smile when he turned his head so he could see her, since she was lying on his blind side.
She took a large sip of her sweet wine and offered him some. He lifted his hand and shook it. “Nay.”
Alister saying no to booze? She gave a snort of laughter. Well, isn’t that strange? Honestly, this whole night was strange.
She continued to stroke his jaw. He told me of his family. Rosetta didn’t think he ever would, considering he shut down any conversation about his mother. He told her it was none of her business.
“Do you know how to navigate using the stars?” he asked, making it obvious he wanted to deviate from their current conversation.
“I may not be able to count well, but I know how to follow the sky, Alister.”
He pointed to a group of stars. “So, you know that’s the Ursa minor?”
“The little bear? Of course.” She pointed to another, larger group. “That’s the great bear.”
“Ursa major.” He nodded before pointing to another. “Cepheus, the king.” His arm moved to point somewhere else. “And that one far over there is Triangulum, the triangle. You can’t really see it right now, though.”
She threw her hand forward and pointed to another constellation before he could. “That’s Draco, the dragon.”
“Aye!” He chuckled, drawing the curved line of the Draco constellation. “That one is my favourite.”
Rosetta turned her head to see his bright smile. She realised he was sharing an activity he enjoyed, and it made her heart jump precariously.
Who would have guessed Alister likes stargazing?
Rosetta knew he couldn’t see she’d stopped looking at the stars while he pointed to more constellations. She was too busy admiring his face. It was filled with abundant joy, so different from the serious, stern faces he often wore.
She wanted to see all of him.
She wondered if he would let her.
With slow and hesitant movements, she brushed her fingers up until the tips were running over that scar cutting across his face. His hand snapped forward to grab hers just as she touched the bottom of his eye patch.
“What I’ve got under there isn’t pretty, lass,” he warned in an ominous tone, his face turning grim.
“I don’t mind.” She pushed her hand forward through his.
His grip loosened, letting her reach higher so she could grab the bottom of it with her thumb and middle finger. Making sure she wouldn’t hurt him as she did, she started lifting it up until she revealed his eye and pulled the patch away completely.
In the light of the nearly full moon, Rosetta was able to see him entirely.
The scar ran down his hairline, thickened over his brow, and made a shallow divot over his eyelid – as though he’d closed it when he’d been sliced – before it came down his cheek.
His eye, however, was not its usual brown. Instead, it was blue, milky, and discoloured. The whites of his eye seemed normal, and when he blinked or moved his good eye to look at her, it followed like it was undamaged. Rosetta could tell he was completely blind, though, as it had no pupil.
“You’re right, it’s hideous.” She sighed playfully, trying to ease his tension under her scrutiny.
“That’s it, give that back.” He turned so he could grab his eye patch from her hand.
She stretched her arm out and held it away from him above her head.