He spun towards me, gloves leading the way, but then he did a double-take. He straightened up and steadied the bag with both hands, a glare on his face. “What do you want, Captain?”
“Don’t take that tone with me,” I said in a low voice. I stuck my hands in my coat and wore my dangerous poker face. He’d had a whole month to get over having Jessie aboard. This was getting old.
“Sorry, Captain.” He sounded like he’d tried to mean it but he was still too high on rage. He bowed his head and his nostrils flared with contained fury.
I studied the bearing of his shoulders, the set of his jaw, his balled-up fists, and the shoulder-width placement of his feet for signs that he might lash out at me. I wasn’t afraid of him, even though I’d more than likely lose. I feared very few things without having death as a consequence.
Right now, Jacobi’s ego needed taking down a few notches but I couldn’t do that if he’d explode into fight mode. Once his nostrils stopped flaring and his fingers uncurled a little, I took a step closer. “You need to calm down and grow up. Your attitude is beyond ridiculous. All this piss-poor attitude over having a woman on board… did you lose your balls in Chesapeake? Just grow up.”
Jacobi kept his head low and said nothing. I waited for the slightest opening of his mouth but he presented me with no opportunities to further rip into him. This was turning out to be quite the bland chewing out session.
“Now, I have a very important question for you.” He met my gaze with a cold glare, his anger not directed towards me. You could feel hate when you looked eye-to-eye with a person. His hate was internal, instead of rolling towards me in waves. That earned him some IQ points back. “What’s more important to you: getting rid of my curse or getting rid of Jessie?”
Hesitation ate at his contained hate. His glare waned.
“She’s done nothing to give you reason to hate her.”
“She kicked and badmouthed me.”
“Oh, and I bet you were so gentlemanly towards her.”
“She doesn’t belong on your ship.”
More IQ points for not calling the Pertinacious “our ship” at this time. That would’ve further pissed me off. “That’s not your call to make. Besides, she hasn’t said anything about making her stay permanent. She just wants to help with my curse then go home. So shut up and put up.” I turned to leave.
“She’s not going to help you, Captain. Why do you believe anything that bitch says?”
My back to him, I said, “Jacobi, I have been around a lot longer than you. I know when I’m being lied to.”
“Then why’d she run away in Revivre?”
I faced him. “Did you see her try to run away in Le Havre? No. In fact she helped take out a bunch of pirates.”
“Only because she wants you to get her home.”
“Of course she wants to go home, you moron. She hasn’t seen it in two years because she was too busy getting raped and abused on Tethys’s ship.”
“I’ll come back and haunt you if I die because of her.” He ripped off the gloves and slapped them on top of the bag.
Aha, the real root of the matter. All this rage to mask fear. “Then help her instead of hinder her. Amphitrite is taking careful stock of how we all treat Jessie. You’re asking for trouble with your piss-poor attitude. Did you ever think of that?” I hadn’t warned anyone of this because I wanted their behavior to be genuine. She wouldn’t miss feigned kindness. If Jacobi pretended to be nice just to preserve his own skin, that wouldn’t go over well either.
He gaped in abject horror. “Now I hate her even more. Both of them.” He punched the bag.
“Now answer my first question.”
Jacobi heaved a sigh through his nose, then faced the bag. “I know what my answer should be but for some reason I can’t hide how much I hate having her around. Something about her just makes me want to strangle her.”
“Do I need to put a restraining order on you?”
He looked at me. “No, Captain.”
“Then what the hell’s your problem?”
He thought a moment, then held up his hands. “I don’t know. I just don’t like her and want her off this ship. I don’t think she’ll bring you any closer to getting your curse lifted.”
His words struck a chord with a fear I had buried deep inside. Being around for almost three centuries now, I couldn’t help but wonder if she kept me alive just to toy with and torment me. Were these avatars really sent to help me? Part of me refused to believe that might be true. No matter how bleak things seemed, I couldn’t abandon hope.
He thought some more and punched the bag a few times. “But if she’s not interested in permanently staying here, then I’ll do my best to shut up and put up.”
“Good. Now go apologize to her.” Burying my fears back down, I didn’t blame him for the look of disgust but I pointed a finger at him anyway and gave him a look of “don’t you dare protest.” Making him apologize to Jessie would be the same as me apologizing to Amphitrite for my anger and thanklessness when she’d “saved” my life over two hundred years ago. She still wanted that apology. Tough crap.
Jacobi punched the bag one more time, sending it spinning, then did his best to storm off while limping. Kinda hard to put on an intimidating strut with one leg in a cast. I followed him back to the galley.
Jessie could barely contain her excitement about seeing her home for the first time in two years. She was thrilled when Mido and the others agreed to let her cook up a Greek breakfast. Didn’t take much convincing once they heard the word “strudel.” Right now, ten more apple strudels with sliced almonds on top were baking in the oven. The galley smelled delectably like a bakery. Mido was helping dice up meat and vegetables for the frittatas, which she’d explained were basically omelets baked in the oven.
Jacobi limped into the galley with Dyne right behind him. The captain stopped by his customary spot at the end of the table and watched Jacobi expectantly, who was scowling at the floor. He turned in Jessie’s direction, met her gaze for a moment, then looked back down and shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said flatly, then plopped on the opposite end of Dyne, who opened his mouth.
“It’s fine,” Jessie said. “Really. It is. It’s more than I ever expected.”
Dyne studied her a moment. “Alright then.” He sat down and reached for his coffee.
Mido said, “The frittatas are ready anyway, so let’s eat.” He and Jessie cut the pies into quarters and set them on the middle of the table. Eight hands shot out to claim a slice of breakfast, even Jacobi, but he gave his slice a scowl. Ted elbowed him.
Sam said, “Stop scowling, Jacobi. Food’s always great. Even better with these two goin’ at it together.”
“Whatever.” Jacobi, along with the rest of the crew, devoured their frittatas, followed by the strudels. Jessie and Mido sipped at coffee while everyone else ate. They’d eat together afterwards, as had become customary.
Soon after there was nothing but crumbs on the crew’s plates, the techies headed off to the engine room, the cargo pushers to the hold, and Dyne to the wheelhouse to relieve Rammus, leaving Jessie and Mido all alone.
Mido removed their plates from an oven. “Let’s head to your cabin. I want to make good on my breakfast-in-bed promise now, since we didn’t stay in Athens long enough for it.”
“Can’t wait until Paphos?” she said with a grin.
He grabbed two sets of silverware. “Nope. Hope you don’t mind.”