Corsets & Crossbones (21 page)

Sunlight seeped through the lone window in the captain’s quarters and in the crevice between Brooke’s nearly-shut eyelids.  She closed her eyes once again, sighing in discontent.  She lay still for a moment, trying to go back to sleep, and pulled the covers over her head.  A shot of pain caused her to yelp in surprise, which caused any hope of going back to sleep to disintegrate.  She placed her head back down on the pillow, and stared up at the ceiling, tracing a pattern on her right hand with her left forefinger.

“How are you feeling, darling?” Charlie asked, standing near the foot of the bed, his eyes studying her carefully.

“Charlie?” she mumbled, her voice coming out cracked and sore.  She blinked a couple of times, his body coming into focus.

Charlie nodded, placing his belt back on the top of the desk and walking over to the side of her bed.  He sat down, and reached down to caress her face.  She sighed in content, leaning into his palm to feel the caress.  She closed her eyes for a moment, and Charlie took this moment just to study her features.  He smiled at her reaction to his touch, his heart quenching with an emotion he could not explain nor understand. 

“I heard your voice in the dark,” she said , opening her eyes again and looking into Charlie’s. 

“I was here,” he told her.  “I didn’t leave your side.”  He pulled his hand away from her face, and placed it in his lap.

“What happened, Charlie?” she asked, trying to sit up but unable to due to the pain.  She found it difficult to articulate her words, and knew they were coming out in a jumbled mess.  “What happened to… Sutherland, the crew…?  Did you find the treasure?”

“Slow down, love,” he told her with a gentle smile.  “You are going too fast.  The best thing you need right now is to rest.”

“Will you at least answer my questions?” she asked him, pushing her brow up to widen her eyes in a pleading way.

“I suppose I could manage such a task,” Charlie said, looking out the window for a quick moment before looking back down at Brooke who, in turn, was looking at him expectantly.  “After you fell from the mast trying to attain the key, you slipped into unconsciousness.  When you were out,
Diablette ordered me to solve the riddle, which I did, and then sent me and Sutherland into the forest to look for the treasure.”

“Did you find it?” Brooke asked with excitement.

Charlie shot Brooke a look for interrupting him, but continued nonetheless.

“I found the tree trunk the chest was buried in - and before you ask, yes, it was buried in a tree trunk, but before I could look in it, Sutherland pushed me out of the way to observe my findings himself,” he went on to say, reciting everything that he remembered.  “However, instead of valuables and jewels and other such things of the sort, there was nothing in it save an envelope and a piece of parchment.  While Sutherland believed that someone else had taken the treasure and left the note to tease other seekers, I believed it to be another clue to finding the treasure.”

“Did you attain the parchment and envelope?” Brooke asked, interrupting Charlie once again.

“Of course I did,” Charlie said, slightly offended that Brooke would think he would do anything otherwise.  “What do you take me for, exactly?”

Brooke ignored Charlie’s question, and went on to ask another one of her own.

“What happened to Sutherland and
Diablette and her crew?” Brooke asked once again.  “How did we get back here safely?”

“Would you like me to tell the story, love, or do you want to keep asking me these questions as I’m about to answer them?” he asked her dryly, narrowing his eyes at her.  She sighed
in a haughty manner and raised her brow impatiently, but pursed her lips together to keep herself from speaking.  “All right, then.  I managed to dashingly save you and bring us both back to the shipall rightAs much as I want to take credit for saving us, it was more than just I who had a hand in disposing of our problem.  You see,, the island is inhabited by a tribe of cannibals who had probably taken Sutherland, Diablette, and her crew.”

“Why did they not take us?” Brooke asked in confusion.

“When Sutherland disappeared, we had just found the chest,” Charlie explained.  “I was looking at the contents of the chest, while Sutherland was mumbling and pacing like a fool, just like Diablette and her entire crew do when they’re waiting for something.A  The tribe reacts to movement.  See, when they took Sutherland, I was still reading the parchment, while you were unconscious with the crew.”

Brooke was silent for a moment, and then sighed.

“We lucked out, didn’t we Charlie?” Brooke mumbled, her voice still and serious.

“Yes, we did, love,” Charlie said, nodding. 
“But no need to worry about it now, ay?  We’re safe, and on our way to New Providence so you can rest and regain your strength.”

Brooke nodded, and then asked, “May I see the parchment, Charlie?” she asked quietly.

“Of course, love,” Charlie said, standing up and walking over to his desk.  “I’ve been trying to figure it out because it sounds so familiar, but I haven’t got a clue.  Also, there are these nonsensical numbers on the back of it.  Maybe you can figure it out.”  He grabbed the parchment and envelope from the desk and handed them to Brooke.

Brooke looked at the envelope and then turned it over.  Her brow raised when her eyes came in contact with the broken seal; a lion holding a spear.  It was familiar to her, but she couldn’t understand why.  After a moment, she placed the envelope by her side and turned her attention to the parchment.

And even thence thou wilt be stol’n, I fear,

For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

She reread the message, moving her lips to read the words softly.  Charlie watched her, crossing his arms over his chest.

“This is Shakespeare,” she said after a moment.  “I believe it’s from one of his sonnets, but I do not remember which one.”

“What does it mean?” Charlie asked curiously.

Brooke shot him a look.

“Would you like to keep interrupting me, or do you want to actually hear the story?” she asked tartly.

Charlie rolled his eyes.

“I am ever so happy to see that despite your battered state, your lovely persona has not been bruised,” Charlie repeated dryly.

“It means,” Brooke said firmly, glancing up at him sharply before looking back down at the parchment once again.  She paused once again, thinking very carefully before answering.  “It means that the author is worried that his love will be stolen from him, for even the saintliest will turn to thievery for such a prize - her.”

“The context it’s used, though,” Charlie said, his mind racing.  “Could one substitute love with treasure, and still get the same effect?”

Brooke looked down at the parchment, and reread the quote once again.  Finally, she looked up at Charlie and nodded.

“I believe so,” she said.  She tilted her head slightly, and looked at Charlie for a moment before asking, “Do you happen to have a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets?”

Charlie turned to glance at the bookshelf behind his desk.  Everything on this ship was nailed in to prevent things from falling; the chests that housed his clothes, his bookshelf, his desk, and even his bed.  He peered at the spines of the books, before turning back to look at Brooke.  He shook his head.

“No, not on this ship,” he told her, his eyes drifting off, as though he was staring in space.  “On my old one I did.  The ship I had when I worked for Lord Sutherland,” he explained further.  “That had everything written by Shakespeare, it had Chaucer, it had Dante, it had everything that I enjoyed.”

“I truly am sorry, Charlie,” Brooke said sincerely, her heart clenching with sympathy. 

Charlie forced a tight smile.  “It’s in the past now, love,” he told her softly.  “One must not worry about what he cannot change.”  He sighed, glancing out the window once again.  Despite being early February, the sun was high over the ship, but a gentle sea breeze drifted through the air to cool people down.  “I am sure New Providence will have a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, however.  We can get you a copy when we get there.”

“What exactly am I supposed to do for the next five days?” Brooke asked with a restless tone to her voice.

“Well, there is a nice collection of books here,” Charlie said, sweeping his arm out and motioning to the book shelf.  “I am also assigning one member of the crew to come in and look after you for a few hours.  In fact, I’ll send in Hugh first to replace your bandages with fresh ones.”

Brooke pushed her brow together, trying to sit up as she watched Charlie walk to the door.

“Wait!” she called, just as his hand wrapped around the doorknob.  “Where are you going?”

Charlie turned slightly, and smiled at her, the sun reflecting off his two gold teeth.

“Why, I’m the captain, love,” he said in his usual arrogant-tainted voice.  “I have captain things to do on deck.  But not to worry; I will return to you in a few hours to check on you.  You know what’s best for you, though, correct?”

Brooke rolled her eyes.  “Rest,” she mumbled with annoyance.

Charlie smiled cheekily.  “Right you are, love,” he told her.  “Right you are.”

And with that, Charlie walked out of the door.  Brooke slumped back, a pout on her face.  She hated not being able to move on her own.  Hugh came in shortly after Charlie left, and quickly peeled off the old bandages and put new ones on her. 

“Is there anything else I can get for you?” he asked as he stood up, preparing to exit the room.

Brooke sighed.  “Could you hand me a book from the bookshelf?” she asked him.  “Any book is fine; as you can attest to, I am going to be here for a while, and as such, what better thing to do than to expand my knowledge of whatever these books hold?”

“Um… of course,” Hugh said, not entirely sure how to respond to the woman’s sarcasm.  He decided not to respond at all, and grabbed her a book from the bookcase before making his leave.

The week was excruciatingly long for Brooke.  As each day passed, the pain began to slowly subside, but Charlie would not let her out of bed unless she had to go to the restroom.  Her back began to ache, not because of the pain that was previously inflicted upon her, but because she was lying on it constantly.  Her legs began to ache because she hadn’t moved them in a while.  Her head began to ache because she was in the same room in the same bed constantly.  The only thing that occupied Brooke’s mind were the many books she managed to read in a week.  Some she did not like while others she did.  Every night, Charlie would have her retell the book she read that day to him before the two would fall asleep.  Brooke became use to falling asleep with Charlie, and had never felt safer than when he was lying next to her.  She had grown quite fond of him in her many months of knowing the man, but love had never crossed her mind.  Maybe it was her perception of pirates, and how their only love was really the sea.  There was no way she could compete with the sea, so why compete at all?  However, whenever she saw him, her heart would skip a beat almost painfully, and her stomach would tie itself into knots that would challenge a labyrinth.

Besides Charlie keeping her company, the crew would come in and visit her individually, and she found out quite a lot about each sailor.  Kenneth was married to his wife for forty-two years before she passed away in her sleep.  He thanked God every day because she did not suffer; he did not believe he would have survived long if he had to watch his true love die in pain.  They never had any children, but they knew Charlie and considered him one of their own.  Kenneth would even tell Brooke stories about Charlie in his youth, which never ceased to make the woman laugh.

Hugh the doctor was another interesting character she learned about.  His father was also a physician, one of the many physicians in the English court.  Because of his father’s success, Hugh wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.  However, once he started treating people of high status, he began to overhear their whispers and their secrets.  Their dishonesty and greed disgusted him so much that one night, he left England, stowing away on a ship, and never looked back.  He did not necessarily consider himself a pirate but he conceded that pirates might be the most honest men he knew.  They never really pretended to be someone they were not; they were content in being themselves.

Another member of the crew Brooke met and learned about was Po, a music man who loved to travel.  He was chubby, with dark eyes and short, black hair, and came from China.  When he was a lad, he would help his father with their farm.  However, he got sick one day, and to occupy his time, he taught himself how to play his mother’s harp.  He left home when he was sixteen to travel, and has been everywhere from Ireland to Australia to everywhere in between.  He never had to pay to board a ship because he would offer to play the harp for the crew.  As he got older, he began experimenting with other instruments such as the piano, the guitar, and the lute, but his favorite instrument would always be the harp.

Brooke was fascinated by the tales the crew would tell her to keep her entertained, and by the seventh day, she felt that they had forged a close bond together.  When the dawn broke, Brooke woke up.  It was still relatively dark outside, but she knew the sun would slowly be making its way up.  She had always wanted to watch the sun rise on the sea, and decided that she had been cooped up long enough.  She glanced to her side to make sure Charlie was still sleeping, but surprisingly enough, Charlie was gone.  This only furthered her desire to watch the sunrise, and so she removed the covers off of her and very slowly moved her legs over the bed.  She had to reach a bit until her bare feet hit the cool, wooden floor.  She pushed up on her hands to get herself in a sitting position, biting her lip to conceal her pain.  After shifting left and right, she finally was sitting.  She paused, breathing in and out deeply, preparing herself for what was to come.  After a moment, she pushed herself up so that she was standing, but to keep her balance, she quickly bent her knees and crouched her back.  She whimpered softly, and breathed hard once again.  Another minute went by before she slowly stood up straight.  And then, she proceeded to take baby steps to the door; one foot, and then the next.