17. Adrian
Adrian
The last thing I wanted to be doing was stopping at Pointet Harbor, but I wouldn’t risk the crew for my own gain.
Connie brought the ship into the port with ease.
Everything ran smoothly, as it should. I stood on the deck to monitor, but I was really just there to watch.
The ship functioned like a well-oiled machine without me.
And I built it that way. Sometimes, I thought about whether or not they really needed me, but that was the point of it all.
Everyone on this ship knew what they needed to do, and did it.
Respect is the most important thing you can earn on a ship.
“Just tying off,” Connie said, giving her report as always. “Everything went smoothly. We should only need to be here the night.”
“Thank you. Are the shifts set?”
She nodded. “Handed out this morning.”
“Perfect.”
Being on port meant spending some time on land, and everyone wanted to get off, stretch, and spend whatever coin they had.
But someone had to stay here, so they were sent out in rotations.
Plus, having an entire crew of pirates on an island at one time was its own recipe for disaster.
Everyone on my crew understood respect, but they were all pirates at the end of the day, and chaos would be imminent.
I also had to make sure there were small groups. Going out alone could leave you lost.
Or dead.
“Are you staying aboard?” she asked, following me down.
I normally would but… “Bramwell and I have to go to the library.”
That was the other reason we were stopping here.
There were plenty of ports to stop in, but Pointet had one of the largest transatlantic libraries on the continent.
There was usually some kind of shared library system at every port, and books traveled from so many places, they were some of the best resources to find information in.
She nodded. “I’ll stay until the evening then. As long as I can get a crisp ale before sundown, I’ll be happy.”
“Got it,” I said.
Connie split off to go to her own room, and I continued down to the meeting room where Sage and Bramwell were.
When I got there, she had her golden hair up in some sort of pin, a few side pieces falling into her face as she looked down. Not at a book, no, but at a piece of fabric between her fingers and the needle in her other hand.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
They both looked up at me. “Fixing Bramwell’s shirts,” she said. “Many of them were ripped. Seems he has a pension for breaking out of them.”
He looked bashful for a moment. I’d never seen that man look anything but stoic, with a slight smile on occasion.
“I hadn’t had an opportunity to get them mended for a while.”
“I see,” I said.
They were both there, dressed very similarly, sipping their tea that I always thought tasted like dirt.
It hadn’t seemed like they were in conversation, but it was clear they would have more things to talk about.
The pair of them looked… correct, even though Bramwell had left the ties of lower nobility behind a very long time ago.
“We should get going soon,” I said. “We’ll need most of the day probably.”
“So, we’ve stopped? Excellent,” he said, getting organized to leave his things.
“We’re at port?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ll only be docked the day.”
Her sudden giddy reaction shocked me. She stood, swishing towards me. “Perfect. I could use a dress or two I don’t need help into. Oh, and some shoes, and a few more sewing supplies. Some of these things need patches.”
“You’re not coming,” I said.
She paused her rambling thoughts and turned to me, arms crossed. “And why not?”
It felt like these gowns of hers took up so much extra space. Like we were standing much closer than we actually were, and the proximity always made me feel… something I didn’t want to examine too closely.
“We can’t be seen with the kidnapped princess,” I said.
“I’m not a kidnapped princess,” she said. “As you’ve said many times before. I’m a guest. We’re also in a different kingdom. I’m not heir, so people don’t know me as well.”
Other excuses danced on the tip of my tongue. “We aren’t going shopping,” I tried. “You’ll be bored to tears.”
“Fine, no shopping,” she said, being uncharacteristically reasonable. “I just need to stretch my legs.”
I was grasping at straws for any reason to say no. Bramwell was no help, just watching us volley back and forth. He was back to his stone face, which was especially unhelpful now that I knew he had more in his repertoire.
“I… fine. But you stick close, and just follow us to the library.”
Her smile was radiant, like a flower that had just fully bloomed to see the sun for the first time in spring. “I’ll get ready.”
She was off, her dress swooshing against the floor as she went, and her heels clicking loudly. There was no moving in silence in an outfit like that.
When turning back into the room, Bramwell was staring at me.
“What?”
He shook his head, but the corners of his mouth were turned up ever so slightly.
“I didn’t say a word, Captain.”