The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) (9 page)

“Gagged, Captain?” Green
leaned again under Carbonale’s hat and whispered.

“Alphonse, I do only what I
must—you know that better than anyone,” he replied, and then, as if filled with
wind, he addressed the crew. “Due north, handsomely, gentlemen! We have just
over four hundred miles, and if we can’t make Nassau by Saturday morning you
are all worthless fucking shit!” he shouted above their heads, causing them to
erupt in a roar of cheers, pointing their pikes and swords into the air. “How
many times have we taken this route? Don’t bother to answer!
 
Just take your stations and, as usual, be
ready for anything.”

With a final crack of his
whip, he climbed the steps and again stood at the port rail, watching as Ivory
was brought aboard. She raised her head and bore a hole in him with her blue
eyes. He responded with an icy stare of his own, and then turned his back to
the rail to watch his crew go to work.

“You are a stronger man than
I could hope to be, Captain,” Green commented, lighting a pipe and leaning back
next to Carbonale.

“Would you like to tell me
what this is all about?”

Green looked over the side
and nodded in the direction of the longboat, which was now being raised and
brought up the side of the ship. “It concerns Madame Ivory. As much as I hate
to admit it, what I saw last night was not…”

“That will do,” Carbonale
said with a scowl.

“I will say this to you now,
as your friend, and be done. You are falling in love with that woman, and
because of Elsebeth, you are willing to watch her hang for it.”

“For the final time, she
will not hang,” Carbonale insisted, standing firm.

“How can you be certain?”

Carbonale stepped away and
stopped, then turned and walked back up to Green.
 
He slammed the butt of his fist down on the
rail. “If it comes to that, and this is a very big “if”, I’ll plead her case
and do whatever I can to prevent it. Do you feel better now, Master Green? May
we please continue with our voyage, or is there someone else aboard ship for
whom your heart bleeds?”

“Cap’n? You’re needed in
your cabin, sir,” said a young crewman upon approaching the men.

“I’ll be right along, lad.”
Carbonale said before Green spoke one last time.

 
“Maddox, once again as your friend, I am only
telling you what you cannot tell yourself.”

“Well, please do us both a
favor, and allow me to make my own decisions, as I always have.”

“I’m afraid if anything
happens to this woman, it will be your heart that bleeds. For that matter,
you’ll be bleeding from every hole in your body,” Green shouted in a whisper as
he pulled a knit cap over his head and dashed off to mind his duties.

Chapter
Ten

“Miranda, let’s go!
 
The sun’s already up,” Cass said, pulling at
her cousin’s arm when a knock came at their cabin door aboard the
Carolina Cutlass
.

“Ladies, are ye dressed
yet?”

“It’s Willy. He’s back.”
Cass rushed to the cabin door and unlocked it, to find Willy standing there
with his hat in his hands.

“Well? What’s the news?”

“First of all, the
Black Cat
is gone.”

“Gone?”

“What do you mean… gone?”
Miranda shouted as she leapt from the bed and rushed up behind Cassandra.

“Just what I said, and by
the way, neither of ye is dressed.” Willy threw up his arms and turned his back
to them.

“Just come out with it, will
you?” Miranda asked and sat back on the edge of the bed.

“Ol’ Molly wasn’t sharing
much information last night, but the old girl still had a few tricks up her
sleeve, I can tell ye that.” He grinned, rubbing his forehead. “Oh, and can ye
ladies not shout? I had quite a bit o’ rum last night and…”

“Willy, just tell us what
the devil is going on,” Cass exclaimed, pulling him by the arm into the room
and pushing him down into a chair.

“Alright, alright,
listen…not that we spent the whole night gabbin’, but when Molly shoved me
outta the bed this morning and asked fer her money, she told me it was
Blacksnake’s men that took Ivory alright, and he’s had her held up in his house
since they found her.”

“I knew that bastard was
lying,” Miranda growled. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go back and get
her!”

“It’s not that simple, Mir.
Don’t you think that house will be heavily guarded against such a blatant
attack?” Cass pointed out.

“It’s of no use. She’s not
there no more,” Willy interjected.
 
“They
took her aboard the
Black Cat
just
before sun up, and Blacksnake’s planning ta’ trade her ta’ the British in
Nassau for fifty thousand pounds!” Willy’s cheeks puffed up as he spoke.

“Wait…did you just say fifty
thousand pounds?
 
Because I could swear…”

“Yes, Miranda, I’m afraid
that’s exactly what he said,” Cass confirmed.
 
“Do we know what this reward is for?”

“Apparently, it’s fer the
Blue Diamond
. That’s why they sacked
her.”

Cass said stumbled backward
and landed on the bed next to Miranda. They instantly turned and stared
wide-eyed at each other, as if there was an understanding between them. When
she spoke, her voice was firm.

“Prepare to set sail. We have
to get back to Port Royal and tell Keara. We’ll put a bigger crew together and
go after that traitor. Calls himself a pirate and then trades one of the best
there is for a reward… once this gets out he’ll never sail these waters again!”
Miranda declared.

“I believe that’s the plan,
lass,” Willy said, lowering his head.

“Are you saying he’s doing
this to collect the money and run off?” Cass asked, pulling on her vest and
belt and arming herself.

Willy turned away to shield
his eyes as they finished dressing and said, “Yes. Molly said that after
Saturday, we won’t be seeing Captain Carbonale again.”

“Willy, get your ass on deck
and get this boat back to Port Royal as fast as you can. With no cargo, the
Black Cat
will fly through these waters.
Whatever the cost, we have to get to that ship, or to Nassau, in time to save
Ivory.”

Willy tore out of the room,
and moments later, scurrying feet could be heard from one end of the sloop to
the other as the sails were raised and the boat came about to head home.

“Cass, what will they do to
her if she’s tried and found guilty?”

“Women aren’t often hanged,
but she could be facing a long jail sentence. If she pleads for leniency and
swears she was forced, or coerced, into this life by a man, she might get a
lesser sentence.
 
But, I just don’t see
Ivory doing such a thing.”

“Not even to save her own
neck?”

Cass looked up from lacing
her boot, and Miranda knew immediately what the answer was. “It feels as if we
have the wind. We’ll be home in no time, and together I know we can, once and
for all, put that demon and his ship out of commission. For good.”

* * * *

Keara had stood watch on the
deck of their beach house since dawn, surveying the horizon for the sloop.
She’d spent the entire night before going over charts with Roberts, as well as
finishing off a bottle of rum and playing chess until she thought her eyes
would bleed. After beating Roberts at every match, he gave up and threw the
board across the floor. He then decided their time was better spent naked in
her bed and tossed her over his shoulder.

Keara was mum when it came
to her affair with Roberts, but one of the other women was wise to them from
the start. Cass made it her business to know all the going’s on in their little
community and picked up on the smoke from their sparks before the fire even
caught. However, having the whole night together and not having to steal away
to his tent in the dark was a welcome treat, despite the terrible circumstance
which left them to it.

“Ke, we might as well have
breakfast,” Roberts whispered as he walked up behind her and leaned over her
shoulder.

“I suppose you’re right.
Where are they, James? They should have been here by now.”

“Let’s eat, and by the time
we’re through and I’ve had my way with you again, I’ll be willing to bet they’ll
be within eye sight.”

It took her a moment to
catch on to what he’d said, and once she did, she slammed the spyglass closed
and wacked him hard on the backside with it as they turned and walked back into
the house. “Way with me indeed!” She laughed. “James, I’ll get breakfast ready,
and when we’re through, I’ll need you to gather a crew. I have a feeling we’re
going to have a fight on our hands.”

“What makes you think that?”
he asked, pulling on his boots.

“Cass has believed since we
found out about the
Blue Diamond
being sacked, as well as from crew reports, that it was Blacksnake’s work.
Lucky bastards, that bunch. If that fishing boat hadn’t come upon them, we’d
still be wondering what happened to the Diamond.” Keara paced back and forth
across the room, pondering something, which always made James uneasy. “I can
trust you, James, can’t I?”

“Of course you can, you
crazy woman. Is there anyone else on this bloody island who knows we’ve been
sleeping together for almost two years?”

“What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“God knows I love you, Ke,
but sometimes I wonder where you left your head,” he laughed, pulling her into
his lap. “If I haven’t told a soul about us because you’ve asked me not to,
don’t you think that’s a good enough reason to trust me?”

Keara sat up in his lap and
rose to her feet. “Wait here,” she said, rushing over and throwing the bolt on
the front door and then securing the back as well. “Check the windows and make
good and sure no one is lurking.” As James followed her orders, she disappeared
into the bedroom.
 
A few minutes later,
she emerged with a brown sack, tied closed at the top with a golden rope. “Are
you sure we’re alone?”

“Yes, yes, Ke, we are
completely alone. Now, what is all of this about?” James stood and walked
towards her as she sat the bag down on the kitchen table and pulled loose the
rope.

“When Ivory took that
ship—you know the one she…”

“I know…” he sighed and
rolled his eyes.

“James, you don’t
understand. This is serious.” Keara tilted the opening of the bag forward and
gently began to pour its contents onto the table.

“Jesus Christ, Ke! Put those
back!” he shouted, backing away from the table.

“I think this is what
Blacksnake was looking for,” she said, brushing her hand over a pile of
diamonds. There were yellow ones, pink ones, white ones…and a few extremely
rare blue ones as well.

“I said put them back, Ke. I
wish you’d never even shared this with me now,” James turned away and took a
turn at pacing.

“Oh, shut up and stop being
a coward. You haven’t even seen the best one yet, and you’re falling apart.”
Keara reached into the bag, and when she pulled out her hand, sitting in her
palm was a rare, blue diamond the size of a chicken egg. James fell back into
his chair as beads of perspiration formed on his forehead. He pulled his
bandana from his pocket and dabbed them away.

“Alright, Ke, you’ve made
your point.
 
Now put them back.”

“How much do you think all
of this is worth?”

“How should I know? I’m a
navigator, not a jewel expert. I can tell you this for certain, though; someone
is definitely missing that bag.”

“I agree.
 
Which is why I believe Blacksnake did this,”
she said, scooping the jewels into her hands. “Well, don’t just sit there, come
help me.”

James scrambled to his feet,
still shaken by the sight of the bag’s contents, and held it open as Keara
poured the stones from her hands. "What I don’t get is why, with all of
this, you are all still living here on this beach and not off in some mansion
in America, or anywhere in the world for that matter.”

Keara stood holding the
large blue stone up to the sunlight streaming through the window and said, “You
can’t just sell stones like this at some pirate trading port, James. You have
to find just the right buyer, and I don’t know of anyone here in these waters
who could afford such things. We planned to take them to a jeweler in America
and have them set—well, all but this one, of course. It’s a lot easier to
unload stones such as these when they’re already set. The real mystery is what
they were doing on a merchant ship.” Keara again paced back and forth, tossing
the big blue stone into the air and catching it as she stepped under it, which
held poor James on the edge of his seat, ready to leap into action should she
miss. “We came to the conclusion that the captain was really a smuggler. You
can only find diamonds like these in two places in the world, and Jamaica isn’t
one of them.”

“I’d wager my share of a
ship full of Spanish gold that whoever those belonged to would kill, or die, to
get them back. Come on, Ke, please…put it away. Put them all back where you
found them.”

“Or kidnap.”

“What?” he asked, snatching
the diamond from the air and rushing it back to the bag.

“Kill, die…or kidnap.”

“Wait, if Blacksnake knew
about these stones and wants them, for whatever reason—be it they’re his or he
knew they were on that ship—then where is he? Where’s the ransom? He had the
means to sack the
Blue Diamond
, whose
name now makes perfect sense, but don’t you think he’d have come after you all
right here in Port Royal? Not to mention, Ivory took that ship months ago. He’s
had more than enough time to make his move.”

“James, do you remember what
that ship was carrying when we took it? Do you remember where it was coming
from when we caught up to it in the gulf?”

“Don’t bring that up,” James
answered, returning to his chair and dropping his head into his hands.

“Ivory suspects that ship
was on its way to the American colonies.”

“It was full of Africans,
Ke; of course that’s where it was headed.”

“Africans, rum, textiles,
and some other assorted items.”

“And a bag full of precious
stones.”

Keara stopped pacing and
spun around. “Exactly…a bag full of precious stones—of which some of them can
only be found in two places in the world; one of those places being Southern
Africa. Where does that fit in? They certainly weren’t listed on the ship’s
cargo log. Ivory came upon them locked in a box in the captain’s cabin, hidden
in the bottom of a trunk. When she confronted him about them, he denied even
knowing they were aboard. That crazy cousin of mine was already looking to slit
his throat over the Africans, and she knew he was lying about that bag. I
suppose turning him over to the Africans took care of that beast.” Keara
chuckled.