Ransome's Quest (12 page)

“She arrived two days ago, along with her husband and sister-in-law.”

“Husband, you say? Had to be some money riding on that one somewhere. Thought for sure that old maid would stay that way. Never saw the chit myself, but a woman who couldn’t find anyone to marry her before she was nigh thirty years old cannot be that much to look at.”

Anger rose in the back of Charlotte’s throat. How dare they speak of Julia in such an insolent manner. She ought to—

“Julia Witherington is a fine-looking woman. That was not the issue with her not marrying.” Salvador clasped his hands behind his back.

Did he always wear shirts with those fancy lace cuffs and she hadn’t noticed them, or had he dressed specially for tonight—showing his wealth and finery ashore differently than he did on his ship?

“How much do I owe you for carrying the letter for me?”

Dandy mouthed to himself as he counted something on his fingers. “One guinea.”

Salvador dipped his fingers into a pocket and then flicked a gold coin toward the other man. “Thank you.” With a nod toward Charlotte and Lau, he turned and made toward the door.

“And where will you be, should there be any reply?”

Salvador paused. “The messenger need not wait for a reply.” He inclined his head again, and strode out the door.

This time, Charlotte did not wait for Lau to go ahead of her. She had no desire to be left behind alone, even if just for a moment. Something about that man frightened her in a way the two pirates she was with did not.

A few twists and turns away from the house, Salvador broke the silence. “While I’m here I must stop at the Crown and Sword to see what I can learn about Shaw and his movements.” He made a right turn and then, a few steps later, they walked out onto the broad high street.

Charlotte stopped to orient herself. The church tower rose above the other buildings to her left. To her right, lights and noise from the taverns. Now was her chance, but she wanted to find out what Salvador learned about Shaw. If she ran now, she would not know if Julia was in jeopardy.

She hurried to catch up with Salvador and Lau, pulling the hat she’d taken from the boy she’d fought with lower over her eyebrows.

It only took one whiff of the stench inside the public house to make Charlotte regret her decision to stay with Salvador. The smell of alcohol would not be so bad on its own, but combined with the stench of unwashed bodies, tobacco smoke, and other odors she did not care to distinguish, it made her stomach churn.

The noise dimmed momentarily upon Salvador’s entrance. He stood tall and straight, surveying the dark, dank room as if he were the proprietor. But the novelty of his entrance did not hold the patrons’ attention long, and soon the cacophony returned to deafening levels.

Salvador cut through the room toward the back. Charlotte’s skin crawled, and she jumped at every touch, bump, and jostle until she remembered that no one here saw her as a woman. Calling upon everything she learned aboard
Audacious,
she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, pushing through the men and women in Salvador’s wake.

At the back of the room Salvador paused briefly, and then he pushed through a heavy black curtain and disappeared.

Charlotte stopped, but Lau nudged her forward.

The back room contained one large table around which sat six men, with several others standing around the perimeter. All stared at Salvador.

“Come to play or to knock heads?” A portly man with tufts of dark hair growing irregularly from his shiny head laid his cards facedown on the table and dropped his hands to his sides.

“Neither. I came for information.” Salvador reached into a pocket and withdrew a leather pouch. He tossed it onto the middle of the table with a loud clank of coins. “What hear you of Shaw?”

“Still on about that’un, are you?” The tufty man spat toward a brass receptacle, and missed with a wet splat against the rough wood floor.

Charlotte turned her face away to keep from gagging. When Salvador did not immediately answer, she turned to look at him.

He stood still, arms hanging at his sides, but he was not relaxed. She could almost feel the tension radiating from him.

“Shaw.”

Tufty eyed the pouch of coins in the middle of the table atop those that had been wagered on the game in progress. “He was here, nigh on a week ago. Talking about how sommat was being delivered for him in Kingston and how, soon as it arrived, everyone would know his name back in Merry England.”

“And was he taking both of his ships?”

Shaw had
two
ships? Charlotte reeled, catching herself against the wall.

“Nay, said his pickup in Kingston would be easy. I reckon he sent
Sister Mary
to the bay to wait it out.”

Charlotte frowned. Sister Mary? Was the second ship captained by a nun? Shaw’s sister?

“So he definitely sailed
Sister Elizabeth
to Kingston?”

Oh.
Sister Mary
and
Sister Elizabeth
were the ships’ names. Strange.

“Aye. If you’re wanting to ask more questions, I’m going to need to see another one of those.” Tufty nodded toward the money pouch.

“That is all I need to know.” Salvador gave a stiff bow, and Charlotte was happy to follow him out of the tavern.

He slowed his pace once back out on the high street. Lau walked beside him, but Charlotte hung back, ready to break away and run but wanting to hear Salvador’s thoughts and plans.

“He could be making his move against Julia—Miss Withering—Mrs. Ransome right now.” He barked a mirthless laugh. “He may have already taken her.”

“We stand no chance against both ships together.” Lau’s soft voice betrayed no emotion.

“No. And it is unlikely we will easily come upon
Sister Elizabeth
if he has already left Kingston.”

“He would have to come back this direction to rejoin
Sister Mary.”

“Aye.” Salvador’s pace slowed more. “And there are many good moorings near the bay that would shelter us from view of a ship coming from Kingston if we could make it past the mouth of the bay without being seen.”

The two pirates began discussing strategy. Charlotte trudged along behind them, her own mind whirling. If only she could get this information to Ned or William. They needed to go after Shaw instead of chasing Salvador.

She bumped into something solid and looked up, her hat falling to the street.

Salvador glanced over his shoulder with a frown. And then his expression changed. “Why, you—”

Taking advantage of his shock, Charlotte bolted around him and ran as fast as she could toward the church on the opposite end of the street—the very, very long street—praying with each slap of her foot against the hard-packed earth that she could outrun both Lau and Salvador.

A
t the sound of shouts and pounding feet, Ned stopped. Two men were running after a slighter figure—no doubt one of them had just been pick-pocketed or otherwise off ended by a street urchin. He hoped they caught the scamp.

“What do you suppose that was about?” Lieutenant Wallis stopped beside him.

“Nothing to concern us.” Ned nodded toward the shoddy building ahead of them. Light, noise, and a foul stench were pouring from it. “The Crown and Sword. This is where we’re supposed to be able to get information.”

Wallis looked at the public house with disdain. “Best have done with it, then, sir.”

“Agreed.” Ned straightened his plain brown waistcoat, wishing he could have worn his uniform. But the reports indicated the informant did not respond well to having men in Royal Navy uniforms enter his establishment.

The smell and noise inside the building made Ned’s head reel. He could swim underwater for quite a while, but he wouldn’t be able to hold his breath for as long as this would take.

He shoved his way through drunken men and drunker women toward the bar, ignoring the attempts of a few barmaids to get him
sommat
.

The dark-skinned man pouring something from a dust-covered bottle into an equally dirty glass eyed Ned suspiciously.

“I need to speak with Mr. Lynch.”

“Why’s he going to want to speak with you?” the barman grunted.

Ned pulled a small bag from his pocket and shook it so the coins inside jangled.

The barman jerked his head toward a doorway obscured by a thick black curtain. “He’s in the back.”

Ned nodded his thanks and headed for the curtain. He hesitated in front of it momentarily, remembering all too well the sight that met Emily St. Aubert when she lifted the black veil. He almost laughed at himself. If only his sister had not secretly tucked
The Mysteries of Udolpho
in his traveling bag before he’d left Plymouth. With no money to purchase books before setting sail, he’d turned to the ridiculous romance the first week to keep from running mad with boredom during his off-duty hours. He’d meant to pass it on to Charlotte once they arrived at Tierra Dulce.

Feeling quite stupid for his thoughts running in such a direction, Ned pushed the curtain aside and stepped into the room. Five men sat at a round table playing cards, with several more standing around looking on. None but the one sitting directly across from the door did more than glance around at Ned’s entrance before returning their attention to the game.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” The thick man with hair growing in odd patches over his head puffed on a thin cigar.

“Are you Lynch?” Ned’s voice hadn’t cracked at all…or very much, anyway.

The man paused before nodding.

“I’m Ned Cochrane, captain of…of the ship
Audacious.
I’m searching for someone, and I’ve been told you might have useful information for me.” Ned tossed the coin purse on the table.

Lynch grabbed the bag and opened it, peering into its depths for a moment before tightening the strings again and tucking it into his already burgeoning waistcoat pocket. “Who’s it you’re looking for?”

“A pirate. I don’t know which one, but he came to Kingston—to the Tierra Dulce sugar plantation—and abducted a young woman. I have been tasked with returning her to her family.” And to himself so they could get married. But Lynch didn’t need to know that.

An odd glint entered Lynch’s small, piggish eyes. “Very interesting. Just had someone else in here asking about the same thing.”

“Who?”

“Never you mind about who came asking. I’ll tell you what I told him. Shaw was in here a week ago bragging on how he was going to make himself famous and saying there was sommat being delivered for him to pick up in Kingston.”

Ned’s stomach turned. It was as they feared. Shaw had taken Charlotte. Reading reports of the rare survivors from ships the pirate attacked had given Ned nightmares. He prayed for Charlotte’s safety. “What was this thing being delivered?”

Lynch took a few draws on the cigar before answering. “Not a thing. A person. Ever heard of a woman called Julia Witherington?”

Julia? “Aye—yes, I know of her.”

Lynch nodded as if he’d given a complete answer.

“You mean to say that Shaw went to Tierra Dulce for the express purpose of taking Mrs. Ransome?”

“Ransome, eh? Heard the bird got married. Aye, he holds some grudge against her and her father, the esteemed admiral.” But from the sneer in Lynch’s voice, it was obvious he didn’t esteem Sir Edward much at all.

“Did he take both of his ships to Kingston?”

“Don’t believe so.”

“Where would the second ship have been while Shaw made this…pickup in Kingston?”

“Ah, now that’d be premium information, lad.”

Of course. Ned reached into his back pocket and withdrew a larger, heavier bag. He let it swing from his fingers rather than tossing it onto the table. “Where?”

“There’s a bay near the point at Negril where Shaw’s been known to lay up and count his gold. But you’d best not try to take even one of his ships on by yourself, boy. Even with a sixty-four-gun man-o’-war under your command.”

So much for not wearing his uniform to keep Lynch from knowing who he really was. “Thank you for the information.” He flung the second purse at the man, turned on his heel, and marched out of the place as fast as he could.

He didn’t slow or speak until he was almost at the dock.

Shaw. Shaw had Charlotte. If he’d meant to take Julia, what would the man whose depravity and cruelty were whispered about from one end of the Caribbean to the other do when he learned he’d taken the wrong woman?

Back in the boat, Wallis looked as though he wished Ned would confide his thoughts to him, but Ned wasn’t certain yet what he was thinking. All he knew was that he needed to get Charlotte out of that pirate’s hands as soon as possible, no matter what consequences befell his own career once his crew recognized her as Charles Lott.

William even now was sailing in the opposite direction. He’d determined that if whoever took Charlotte was serious about collecting a ransom, he would stay within a few days’ sail of Kingston. He’d created a plan for the two of them to circumnavigate the island and meet on the north side by midweek, gathering as much intelligence along the way as they could.