Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) (15 page)

Being the gentleman he was, Rasmus stood and waited for the girls to pass by and enter before him. I refilled my glass again and carried it with me. When I approached him, he lifted it from my hand and set it down on the end table near where he had sat. “Under the circumstances, I believe you’ve had enough.”

I felt relaxed and took a deep breath. When I looked up at him, that concerned and worried look covered his face again. Instead of filling me with compassionate concern, I was anxious and reached for the wine on the table, but he cut me off and swept my hand away. “You’re beginning to bore me. Pull yourself together, and I swear to God, we’ll be out of here after dinner, and I’ll turn over every rock you can find, if it’ll put an end to this childish behavior.”

“We’re pirates, remember? I’ll do what you tell me to do, but I’ll never be a gentleman.  And until I know every last detail of your attachment to Val-an-tin-a, I won’t promise that won’t be a problem.” I walked around him and picked up my glass and carried it into the dining room.

“I’m sorry ladies, and apologies to you, senorita, most of all. I admit my first impression was quite colorful, even offensive to you. Unfortunately, living the life of a pirate can leave a young man lacking in the ways of finer folks such as yourselves.” I felt light-headed and spoke with lofty inflections, waving my hand about until my glass came to rest in front of the table setting to Valentina’s right, where she sat at the head of the table. “May I please have the honor of dining next to you, senorita?”

Valentina’s eyes rolled up at me and then around at the stunned expressions aimed my way from every seat. “You can sit next to me, Doctor Razor, if you like,” Francis said, pulling back the empty chair where the ever-silent Mick was about to sit. I was quietly grateful that when I looked at Francis she bore no lasting marks or bruises where I had struck her.

“No, the young doctor shall sit next to me. Perhaps we may be able to set aside the unpleasantness of earlier and enjoy this fine meal as civilized people,” Valentina said pulling a linen napkin across her lap and nodding to Rasmus, as he took his seat at the other end of the table.

“Gracias, senorita,” I said, taking my seat.

EIGHTEEN

LANDSLIDE

I was as well behaved as I had ever been. The conversation tilted back and forth across the table between the girls and Valentina, from topics of cooking and baking to dressmaking. Knowing little to nothing of any of those subjects, I sat quietly sipping my wine and shoveling that damned delicious plate of perfectly seasoned chicken and rice into my mouth. The longer I sat between their banter, the farther from them I became. Ivan stuffed in mouthful after mouthful of food and alternated between a goblet of water and glass of wine as Ivory hid behind him, feeling completely disconnected. She sewed sails and tarred decks. The only action close to anything domestic she was proficient at was giving a close shave.

What stood out to me above all the foreign accents and even more unfamiliar topics was the laughter. Valentina had a way of making these girls forget what they’d been through. She engaged them so easily and so proficiently I could scarcely believe these were the same girls I’d led from a dank dungeon—for lack of a better word—only days before. Although still a bit disheveled, they were no longer frightened and clinging to each other. It was as if I had sat and watched a field of flowers unfold beneath the sun after a cold, dark night. I had to blink my eyes repeatedly when I believed I’d witnessed the color rise back into their cheeks and the true shades of blues, greens, and browns saturate the irises of their eyes.  By that time, a young cocoa-skinned girl brought a tray of coffee and cake to the table.

“Enjoy my darlings. After dinner, you shall all have a warm bath, clean nightgowns, and a soft pillow to rest your heads upon. Tomorrow, there will be lovely dresses for you to pick from, and Marina will come by to visit and do your hair for you.” The words rolled from Valentina’s tongue as if they were played on a mandolin—sweet, and yet self-assured and uncompromising. “I must admit, Doctor Razor, a hairdresser I am not, as you can see.” She leaned to my side and purred soft and low, flipping her loose locks back over her shoulder.

I smiled at her. “Please, call me Ivan.”

“Well, it seems Valentina has you girls all squared away, so Ivan and I will get ourselves back to the ship. I’ll leave Mick here and, well, that sorry fella out there in the barn; I suppose we should drag his pitiful arse with us. I still don’t know what to do about him.” Rasmus shook his head.

“No, no, no, Red. You shall all stay here as my guests tonight. I have my own men to watch over things, as you well know, and I’ve already prepared your room for you.” Valentina insisted.

“You’ve five girls to manage. That’s more than any one woman needs on her hands,” Rasmus said over a laugh as he stood.

“I won’t hear of it. You have that big Jamaican man to take care of the ship. Ivan, please, tell that big, hard-headed sailor. You may all stay. I am certain you would not have brought these men with you if you did not feel you could trust them under my roof with so much beauty and charm,” Valentina went on insisting.

Rasmus looked over at me. I knew his thoughts immediately, and the burden of breaking his promise to me weighed heavy on his brow. “Will I sleep in the barn as well?” I turned and asked Valentina.

“Unless you have not noticed, Rasmus has provided us with a very large home. There are five bedrooms, not counting mine. We shall give the girls two, and…”

“Captain, if you no mind, I sleep in the barn with Fin. That way, I may keep eyes on him for you until you decide what is best.” Since Mick rarely spoke unless he was spoken to, I had forgotten how broken his English was.

“That leaves you and Ivan to your own rooms. Of course, Rasmus, you know which room is yours.” She was purring again and approaching Rasmus, sashaying and floating at the same time.

“Ivan?” Rasmus said. “How’s about a mug of ale before we turn in? Valentina, you wouldn’t mind if Ivan and I stepped outside for a bit would you?”

“Pft! Men. Go, go, go… before I join you.” She laughed, taking him by his big right arm and wrapping herself around it. “LeAnna,” she called to the young cocoa girl, “Bring two mugs of ale to the gentlemen, and then boil enough water to bathe these lovely girls. I will have Philippe take you home once you are finished.”

Rasmus and I lifted our mugs from LeAnna’s hands, and he led me out through the back door of the house that led to a rose garden. I was beginning to understand there was much more to the lovely Valentina than I had wanted, or planned, to find. The path between her Spanish roses wound at least thirty feet from the back porch until it ended at a white gazebo, much like the one at the Chandler’s estate in Port Royal. In the darkness, I had no idea what colors they were. They all appeared as shades of gray, and yet they still smelled as sweet as when the sun was shining. At the sight of the gazebo and the fragrance of the flowers, I was instantly taken back to the day we were wed. The roses faded to black and the porch light withered, the closer we drew to the ghostly white structure.

  As we stood there in the darkness, I could barely see his face at first, but the sounds of his weary breathing were evident before he spoke. “I was a captain in the Royal Navy aboard a ship named the
Majesty’s Venture.
” He blew out a sigh, and I heard him take a drink—something I’d rarely heard or seen.

“Do you want me to ask you questions, or would you just prefer to go on?” I asked him, placing my untouched mug on the ground in front of me. Then, the half-moon appeared from behind a curtain of clouds, my eyes adjusted in the darkness, and his beautiful, but woeful, face at last came into view.

“Please, let me get through this, and when I’m finished, if ye have any questions, then ask.”

We sat down opposite one another, and he cleared his throat several times and took another drink. This time, I could see him when he raised the mug to his lips, and he held it there until I was sure it was empty. “I had the life I was born to live, or so I thought. I had a trusted friend in my first mate, a loyal crew, and a fine home in London. We were in port, and Miles, my best mate, and I decided to go for a drink at a pub one night. Of course at the time, we had no idea that drink would lead us both down a path of betrayal.”

I listened intently. I’m not even sure I breathed at all during his pauses, but between the fragrant roses and the warm breeze that carried it, I was lulled into a dream-like mood, imagining his former life.

“An admiral was murdered before my eyes. I pulled the knife from his chest with my own hand, and he died, right there in front of me. He’d come to find his wayward young wife who’d been cavorting in one of the upstairs rooms with a young and dashing fella. Throughout my trial…”

“Your trial? But you didn’t…” I gasped.

“No, I did not kill the man, except when I removed the blade and released the river of blood from his chest. I was accused of restraining the admiral, rendering him unable to defend himself. I was sentenced to be stripped of my rank and honors and removed from the Royal Navy. Only that wasn’t enough for those no-good bastards. They planned to completely destroy my reputation as well, and relieve me of my fortune.”

“Fortune? You had a fortune?”

“Family money, lass. Unfortunately for them, I’d secured it long before any of this ever happened. Thanks to Miles and that handsome young philanderer, I ended up back aboard the
Majesty’s Venture, still
as the captain; only this time, she wasn’t sailing under the flag of the realm. She took to the sea a free woman, and I, and every man aboard who maintained their loyalty to me, did as well.”

“They all stood by you, then.” I finally took a deep breath and released it, in awe of the level of man my husband was. I swallowed hard and took a drink from my mug and then handed it to him. I believed he needed another to keep going. When he gladly took it from my hand and swallowed it down, I knew I was right.

“Not all, but most. We had one hell of a time getting her away from the harbor and out to sea and beyond to ports throughout the New World, but by God,” he said over a light chuckle, “I couldn’t have asked for better men to serve with.”

“We, of course, had no income and had to turn to thieving to keep going. My thirst for revenge made the solution to our plight an easy find; I chose to go after the scum-sucking bastards who ruined my life. They, and their false honor, were mine now for the taking, and take it we did, until I’d ruined most of them, simply by stealing every last piece of gold or cargo their merchant ships carried. The best part of this was that I was more alive in my skin then I’d ever been. I was free. No more patrolling and harassing other merchant ships that weren’t on their bloody books so’s to keep them living their fat, stuffy lives as they pleased.”

“It sounds as if you had an adventure.”

“Aye, lass, we sure did,” he said, and his eyes at last lifted to meet mine. I leaned forward and stroked his beard and rested my hand on his cheek. “You weren’t meant to be tied down like some fancy show pony. You were born to be exactly who you are, and I love everything about you.”

“Well, don’t go falling over me yet, lass. I’m not finished.” His hand slid over mine where it sat, and he pulled it away and squeezed it gently, holding it for a few moments, and then he stood. He turned and leaned on the rail, facing away from me as he continued. “The first girl I ever loved was a bonny little thing—a lot like you, she was; feisty, unconventional, and as free-spirited as a child. I courted her while I was in training with the Navy and stationed at home in London. I don’t know… maybe her family thought me not good enough and wanted her to marry a gentleman, but hard as they tried, they had no reign over her. One night, I spied her in her red cape on the dock, from the deck of the
Venture
as we were changing the guard, and I was shocked to see her out so late in the evening. I rushed down the gangplank and ran to where I’d seen her standing in wait, hopefully for me, but she was gone.”

“What happened to her?” Once the words flew from my mouth, I pulled back and covered it, but it was too late. I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.

“Several years later, our now fully refitted pirate ship, what was the
Majesty’s Venture
, of course, made a stop in Port Royal for the first time. I was a bit of a wild one myself, but not the way ye might be thinking, so you can just let that assumption of my past go tonight and never think of it again. However, I did enjoy a good cup a’ Caribbean rum from time to time. The fellas and I took a stroll to the Golden Gull; ’twas my first time ever setting foot in that place. Seaman or no, I didn’t go in for those establishments, but in Port Royal, they were the only places to get a decent drink. A few cups later, the music started and the crowd was boisterous and lively, and I looked up at those girls doing their evening show on the railing. They were waving, and twisting their half-naked bodies, singing along with the band. I was entranced, yet at the same time, the old, high-born London gentleman in me cringed and thought only of their poor mothers and fathers and what they’d think seeing them like this. Can you imagine a man of twenty-seven, never having seen such a sight?” He shook his head and then turned back facing me.

“One girl, second from the right, caught my eye, though. I stood up from the table and started walking towards them. Everything seemed to move so slowly. It was as if life was a spinning wheel rolling down to a stop.”

“‘Gabriel!’ she shouted into the crowd at me as I stood there like a big, dumbfounded ape. She scrambled, pulling at her clothes to cover herself, and ran back up the stairs. I chased after her and caught her just as she pulled open a door to run inside a room to escape me. Oh, she was crying so and shaking when I pulled her into my arms and stroked her strawberry hair.”

“Gabriel. Your name is, or was, Gabriel,” I said, wiping tears away from my face.

“It was she; my bonny little lass. Once I calmed her down and paid for her time, she told me how that night I saw her in her pretty red cape she was snatched and carried away aboard a ship with several other girls. She told me she was ashamed to look at me, but I swore I’d get her out of there and back home where she belonged. She told me it was too late. She had a son who she’d placed with a family on a plantation, and she could never leave the child. I offered to take them both with me, but she wouldn’t go. All I could do was promise her that I’d do everything I could to not let this happen to another girl. Finally, I did manage to convince her that I could afford to place her and her son somewhere safe, and she’d never have to work another day in that slimy place for the rest of her life. To that, she agreed. To this day, she and her boy still live there, and yes, I have been to see them many times.”

I was sobbing. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from dragging everyone from the house to look for the wailing ghost woman in the night. “Oh, Rasmus, I’ve believed you the most honorable and generous man I’ve known since Uncle William. I didn’t think it possible for me to love you more than I already do, but I was wrong. I simply don’t deserve you. Not even the smallest bit. I’m a horrid wench, and I wouldn’t blame you if you turned me over your knee and whipped me before tossing me out into the night for good.”

He glanced around and then reached out and pulled me against his chest. “My crazy, ridiculous girl, I’m the one should be tossed out in the night for keeping all of myself from ye for this long. I’ve wanted to tell ye, don’t ye see? But to me, there’s nothing I can go back and change. I don’t even know who Gabriel Wallace is anymore. Maybe he never really lived. He was to me as Ivan is to you now; just a shield over the true man that was living in my heart.”