Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
“Oy!” Thrain called out through a mouthful of bread when he spotted Cali in the galley's doorway. “I was about to come look for you.”
Cali appraised the raccoon busily mixing the contents of a bowl while the red-headed dwarf retrieved a golden-crusted pie from the oven and slid it onto the counter. Thrain was the only one not actively working, although he appeared to be industriously eating. “Were you?”
Thrain’s cheeks pinked, and the pantheri suspected it was not from the steam of the ovens. Unlike Marvella, who swiped the back of her hand across her flushed forehead and puffed out a breath when she saw Bonnie One-Eye standing next to Cali. “How many for dinner in your quarters, Captain?”
Before Thrain could speak, the cook leveled a squat finger at him. “Not you. You’ve eaten half your body weight in my rolls already.”
The dwarf spluttered protests, but Marvella waved them away with a dishtowel she pulled from the waistband of her apron and returned her attention to the captain.
“I have a meat pie that only needs a few minutes to cool.” She gestured to the pie she’d pulled from the oven.
“And by the time you’ve finished that, my wee friend here will have a batch of cookies ready for you. ”
Bramble paused his mixing, rubbed his tiny black hands together, and reached for a lemon half. He squeezed it into the bowl, then picked up the wooden spoon again and folded in the dribbled juice.
“I dare say, he’s put a sizable dent in our lemon stores.” Marvella eyed the creature, then shrugged. “But he was right about adding an egg to the dough for my rolls, so I trust he knows what he’s doing with these.”
Cali thought about the raccoon’s time in Lira’s kitchen. Maybe Crumpet wasn’t the only woodland creature with a talent for baking. Or maybe Bramble was a fast learner. Either way, he seemed very at home in the ship’s galley.
Bonnie plucked a pair of dish towels from the worktable. “If this pie is for us, why don’t I take it?”
Marvella looked relieved, even though she attempted to protest. “You sure, Cap?”
Bonnie scooped up the pie, snatched a pair of forks, and backed from the galley. “I’m sure. I wouldn’t say no to some of those cookies when they’re cooled, though.”
Thrain had managed to swallow, and he eyed the retreating meat pie mournfully but didn’t make any moves to join them.
Cali suspected he didn’t want to get on Marvella’s bad side, although a small part of her felt a pang of guilt.
She knew how much Thrain loved food, and dinner rolls wouldn’t have quenched his robust appetite.
On the flip side, she liked the idea of eating with the captain without the talkative dwarf.
Cali offered her friend an apologetic shrug as she followed the captain back toward the stern.
Bonnie led Cali straight through her own door, nudging it open with her elbow as she balanced the pie carefully against one hip.
Cali followed her, familiar now with the book-lined shelves, the wide window, and the ornate candelabra centering the polished wood table.
Bonnie set the pie down on the table, dropping the forks beside it. Unlike the first night onboard, there were no decorative china plates or chunky glass goblets fronting each chair. Even the squat candles in the candelabra sat quiet with cold, soot-curled wicks.
Cali started across the room to the table, but she paused when her gaze snagged on the papers scattered across the captain’s desk.
She drifted closer without quite meaning to, her attention drawn to the pencil sketches that were much like the one she’d seen her first night on the ship.
One ragged edge parchment showed the ship from the water with sails full.
Another was of Gert mid-shout, her braid flying.
Then there was a coiled, furious sketch of a mermaid, all teeth and tail, that could only have been Arabella. A few were dappled with color.
“These are all yours?” Cali asked.
Bonnie glanced over, and for half a second she looked as if she’d been caught doing something naughty. “They are.”
“They’re very good.” Cali picked up the sketch of the mermaid, turning it toward the candlelight. The fury in the creature’s expression had been captured with only a handful of lines. “You have genuine talent.”
“It’s nothing, really. I like to draw the things that happen to us.” Bonnie came over and gathered the papers. “It’s nothing anyone else sees, but I like to memorialize our adventures in my own way.”
Cali turned to her. “It’s not nothing. It’s amazing.”
Bonnie didn’t turn to her, but her cheeks flamed hot. “Like I said, it’s really just for me.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t important. I keep journals for the same reason. I don’t want to lose track of all that’s happened, and I like to retell the tales in my own words.”
Bonnie’s mouth curved, and she breathed a sigh as she put the organized stack of papers back on her desk. “You write what happens, while I draw it.”
Cali set the sketch down carefully. “Which is a good thing, because I can’t draw a straight line if my life depended on it.”
“Then it’s lucky you have words instead.” Bonnie moved back toward the table and the cooling pie. “I love to read, but I’ve never had the gift for putting words down myself. I draw because it’s the only way I know how to hold on to a moment without it slipping past me.”
“I get it.” Cali thought of her own journal, the pages soft with handling. She and the captain had that in common.
She joined the captain at the table as Bonnie handed her a fork and then stabbed her own through the browned crust of the pie. Steam spewed out while brown gravy burbled onto the glossy pastry top. The pirate swirled her fork inside before resurfacing it with a chunk of meat impaled on the tines.
“You want to tell me your plan for getting us past the sirens?” Cali asked as she watched Bonnie blow on the steaming meat. “More specifically, your plan for getting Thrain past them without losing him to the sea?”
The pirate captain leveled her fork at Cali. “The sirens who guard the bay to Claw Island trade in one commodity.” She raised her eyebrows. “Secrets.”
Cali poked her own fork into the pie as she considered this. “What kind of secrets? Secrets from the mainland? Secrets from lairds or dwarf queens?”
“Our secrets,” the captain said with a bob of her brows.
Cali blinked at this. “They want secrets from the crew in exchange for safe passage?”
Bonnie nodded as she fanned her mouthful of pie.
The pantheri didn’t think this sounded too bad. “At least they aren’t requiring a payment in blood and bones.”
Bonnie swallowed and reached for a jug squatting in the middle of the table. She uncorked it, took a swig of the contents, and gasped. “This isn’t rum!”
Cali eyed the familiar jug and grinned. “That’s Rosie’s apple brandy. Too much of that and you’ll be swinging from the crow’s nest.”
The captain blew out a breath that was heavily tinged with the aroma of fermented apples. “Secrets aren’t such a steep payment unless you don’t have any left to share. We’ve been to Claw Island so many times the sirens know all our secrets.”
Cali cocked her head. “All of them?”
“Once you’ve crewed together for as long as we all have, you stop having secrets from each other.” Bonnie kept her gaze firmly on the cooling pie. “But you and your friend…”
Cali gulped. Was this why Bonnie had wanted her to join the search? Was this why she hadn’t protested when Thrain had invited himself? Did the pirates need their secrets as siren tribute?