“Hard to say. There’s plenty who don’t want to be found out, like Bessie and Jane, and no one hears about them. Only a few put themselves forward like them and Captain Cooper.”
Jill thought they were powerful and frightening all at once. Anne Bonny, seated, had dark red hair that caught the light. And she studied Marjory Cooper closely as the captain spoke, as though if Cooper said the least thing wrong Bonny would spring from her chair, sword drawn, and run her through. But only if Read didn’t get there first with her pistol. Read had dark hair and was more stout, more physical than Bonny. Bonny would use tricks in a fight; Read would just pound you.
Cooper, of course, didn’t seem intimidated by either of them.
Mary Read looked over and caught Jill staring at her. Jill almost fell over; fear more than anything kept her rooted in place, staring back, wondering what she’d done to draw the pirate’s attention, scrambling to figure out what she had to do to get away from it.
Then Read looked away, turning a smile as if chuckling to herself, and the spell was broken. Jill could breathe again.
Henry nudged her and put a mug in her hand.
“No, no more rum,” she said, groaning. She was tired of rum. She wanted a nice cold Coke more than anything right now.
“It’s not rum,” he said.
She tasted it, an amber liquid, bitter and frothy. Definitely not rum. No—this was beer. It still wasn’t a Coke, and it wasn’t cold, but she sipped it anyway.
Jill imagined that this was where the pirates made deals. For all the talking, laughing, and drinking going on, for all that the gathering seemed on the edge of turning rowdy, it never did. People sat close, chairs pulled together, bent over tables, talking. Maybe forming plans to raid together, maybe selling stolen cargo, maybe trading information about where their enemies had last been spotted, which ports to avoid and which were clear.
When she thought of those dozens of ships in the harbor, all with cannons, she understood why the navy didn’t come along to capture everyone.
Abe had left the captain talking with Rackham and the others. He passed through the room, greeting and shaking hands with people who seemed happy to see him.
“What are they doing?” Jill asked Henry. “Why are we even here?”
“To find out what anyone knows about Blane. Without seeming like we are.”
Moments later, Captain Cooper left the side room and returned to the main bar; Abe spotted her movement and joined her. The captain was full of business.
“Rackham’s drunker than anything as usual, but Bonny says Blane’s on the island. Doesn’t know just where, of course. He raced ahead, got here before us. I count it as a stroke of luck. We’ll have to bribe everyone here not to run to the old steer and tell him we’re looking for him.”
“Already done, Captain,” Abe said, grinning.
“God, what a lot of rogues and thieves.” She shook her head, but her lips curled in a smile, as if she could think of nothing better than rogues and thieves. “Let’s go, all of you.”
“But I’ve not finished my mug,” Henry complained.
“Then drink fast,” said the captain. And Henry did, upending the mug and draining it all.
Jill just set her drink aside and followed the captain and company outside, wincing in the sudden bright sun. It was like stepping from one world to another, a dark world of conspiracy into one of light and sea air.
“Tadpole?” the captain said, with only a cursory look over her shoulder to make sure Jill was really there.
“Aye?” Jill said reflexively, before she’d realized she’d said it. The reply had become habit.
“I need to you to stay on the ship for the rest of our time here.”
“But—no, I can’t—”
“You’ll stay on the ship. Blane knows about that bit of rapier, Bonny says, like he can smell it on the air, and he may know about you as well. But he’ll not have either one of you. So you’ll stay on the ship.”
She didn’t want to stay on that ship a second longer. She had to find a way home, and the way home had to be here. Maybe if she went back to the stretch of beach where she’d picked up that stupid piece of sword in the first place. She couldn’t find a way home if she was on the ship.
Henry looked at her with interest, waiting for the next volley in the argument, but Jill didn’t have one. She was too angry to speak. Cooper kept insisting she was part of the crew, but really the captain only saw her as a way to get to Blane. A pawn in a rivalry that had nothing to do with her. Not even worth being crew.
But she wasn’t part of the crew. That was what Jill kept saying, that she wanted to get home, that she wasn’t one of them. She shouldn’t care what Cooper thought.
But she did, she discovered.
Jill marched along, feet pounding on the packed dirt road, not saying a word, biding her time. Making a plan.
12
BEAT
Captain Cooper sent Jill and Henry with a couple others of the crew to help row back to the Diana. The returning crew relieved the crew on watch, who took the rowboat back to shore, leaving Jill stuck on the ship.
Night had fallen, but the town of Nassau was still alive, lit by lanterns and torches, a glowing golden pool nestled by the harbor. Shouts, laughter, and songs from the taverns carried over the water, drunken pirates and merchant crews wandered the streets. A dog barked.
“What’s she going to do when she finds Blane?” Jill asked Henry.
Henry sat on the bowsprit, leaning back, legs dangling high over the water. Jill sat near him on the gunwale, looking over the town. Her hand tapped nervously.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Run him through, I expect. She truly hates him.”
“Why? Because he marooned her?”
“Some folk say it’s because he broke her heart. They were once in love and he left her. In her fury she turned pirate and now roams the waves, vowing revenge.” He took on the exaggerated tones of a storyteller.
“That’s kind of melodramatic, isn’t it?”
“It does seem a bit common for the likes of them, doesn’t it? I’d guess it’s something plain. He stole the ship from her, and she holds the grudge because that’s how she is.”
Whatever Cooper planned to do to Blane, the captain didn’t much care what happened to Jill in the meantime. She stuck her on the ship to keep her out of the way. Jill frowned at the thought.
“What’s wrong?” Henry asked, shifting to see her face, turned slightly away from him.
She shrugged and changed the subject. “You didn’t have to stay here with me. I know everyone else is onshore, partying. You should have gone with them.”
“Naw, this is fine. Besides, Captain ordered me to keep an eye on you.”
Of course Henry hadn’t stayed behind just to keep her company. Of course this was about Blane, again. Looking away, she muttered. “Or to keep me from escaping?”
He laughed. “And why would you do that?”
“I want to go home,” she said, sighing.
“Do you even know where home is? We fished you out of the water, you didn’t remember a thing.”
That was the story they told themselves about her, because she hadn’t told them the unbelievable truth. But Blane—maybe he’d know. If his broken sword brought her here, then maybe he’d know how to send her back.
Henry seemed inclined to sit on the prow talking all night—keeping an eye on her—but Jill said she was tired and needed sleep. She went below, curled up in her hammock, and waited. Nervous, she didn’t worry about accidentally falling asleep. She had to wait until the ship was quiet, until she heard snoring from the handful of crew who remained aboard.
Someone would be keeping watch. One wrong step or stray noise would wake everyone. Very carefully then, very quietly, she climbed out of the hammock. Setting a bare foot on the wooden deck, then the other, she slipped to her feet, holding on to the hammock to keep it from swinging. They all went barefoot on board or on the beach, but she’d been given a pair of leather shoes to protect her feet on the dirt roads in town, and she put these on.