Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) (14 page)

“I get what I need, and don’t you concern yourself with who or how.”

I leaned back as I sat on that bottom step and spun around when I heard the front door open again. Master Green stepped outside and waved to the men on the wagon to prepare to leave. “Razor, you and Mister Finnegan will stay here and stand watch until the Captain arrives. You have also done a very fine job of angering the senorita. Perhaps in the future you should keep your hands to yourself and allow reason, not reaction, to keep them there.” Green stomped down the steps past Fin and me and carried on to the wagon. Fin and I stayed where we sat, uselessly, as not a living soul approached from any direction as we awaited our Captain.

“Thanks fer nothin’, Razor,” he grumbled, laying back against the steps and placing his hat over his face.

“Care to explain that statement? Wait…Green called you Finnegan. Are you Peter Finnegan who sailed with Barclay’s crew?”

He sat up as if on springs and said, “How’d ye know me proper name? Ye ain’t s’posed ta know it.”

In recalling his full name, Peter Joseph Finnegan, I also recalled where I’d seen it—in the log book from Barclay’s
Demon
. I couldn’t believe it. All this time we’d worked side by side, and I didn’t realize why he’d shortened his name.  Now, here we were alone, and my stomach turned over when it dawned on me that he was, in fact, one of Barclay’s henchmen.

“I…I don’t know,” I stammered. “I think I may have overheard it somewhere.” That book of Barclay’s was for his eyes only, until we got our hands on it. Fin didn’t need to know it even existed.

“Ye didn’t hear that name on the
Jade
, I can tell ye that; so who are ye, Razor…or is it really Razor after all?” he inquired. His face was red with fire and his fists were clenched at his side as he leaned towards me, signaling me to abruptly stand.

“Stand down, Fin. I’ll tell you where I saw it, and then…” I said, drawing my cutlass before he could put his hand on his sword. “Then, you’ll tell me whose side you’re really on.”

SEVENTEEN

MISSING PIECES

I held Fin at the end of my cutlass for several minutes before, again, that shitty little Spanish wench burst out the door and confronted me and questioned my actions. I was through making nice with her, and as the sun began to set, so did my patience.

“What is this? Pirates fighting on my land like common dogs? Where is Rasmus? I have had all of you I will stand.” She gathered her skirt and made a swift and foolish descent down the front steps and met the barrel of my pistol. Fortunately for me, she had no idea I hadn’t even had the time to load it, and she froze, clutching the railing with one hand and her heart with the other.

There I stood; my blade to Fin and my pistol to Valentina. “You stupid and foolish woman, you know nothing of what you speak. Take your saucy arse back in that house and stay there until you’re told to do otherwise. And you, Fin, you’d better start talking, before I render you unable to speak again.”

Valentina slowly backed up the steps when it occurred to me I had no idea who else was in that house, and at any moment, I could be shot from any one of her eight front windows. Just then, I heard hoofbeats approaching and waved my sword at Fin to follow my blade. As I turned, I could see Rasmus approaching on horseback, with Mick close behind. I breathed a sigh of relief and stowed my pistol, thanking God I hadn’t yet been peppered with musket shot.

Rasmus leapt from the horse before it had even stopped and rushed towards me. “What the devil is going on here, Razor?” he shouted at me, pulling the cutlass from my hand before I could draw breath to answer him.

“Rasmus…I mean, Captain Bergman…please, wait. This is Peter Finnegan. Remember? The same Peter Finnegan whose name appears in Barclay’s secret log. Master Green addressed him as Finnegan. Perhaps he was familiar with him aboard the
Demon
and had no knowledge he was involved with the smuggling. When I found him out, he tried to draw against me, but I managed to best him and hold him prisoner until you arrived.”

“Fin, is this true?” Rasmus eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched behind his flattened lips.

“He wouldn’t explain to me why he hid his identity,” I added.

“Razor, stand down, and let me take care of this,” Rasmus said aside and then walked to Fin, holding my cutlass at his side. “Answer me, Fin.”

Fin fell to his knees before Rasmus and cupped his hands together in front of him, shaking them. “I was…I mean ta say…aye, I was with Barclay’s crew, and I won’t deny I took part in his filthy work, but ye ‘ave ta believe me, Cap’n, when I tell ye I was but a boy alone when I first took up with his crew and signed on. The bastard beat me half ta death, until I agreed to do his biddin’. I’d a’ run off when ye’s took the
Demon
had I anyplace ta go, but I figured ye seemed like a decent and honest bunch, and, well, I didn’t take part in none a’ that mess in Port Royal, and ye know it.”

“Now you sing like a bird,” I mumbled, slapping my arms across my chest in disgust.

“None of it ye, say?” Rasmus asked.

“That Shepard lass ye married, ye can ask her when we get back ta Port Royal. She’ll tell ye. She’ll tell ye, Cap’n, none a’ them lassies seen my face, nor no other parts a’ me, all the while we was at sea and thereafter.”

“How’d ye get away with it without Barclay’s men knowing?” Rasmus asked, holding my cutlass out to me without looking away from Fin, and I took it and slid it back into my scabbard.

“I’m ashamed ta tell ye, Cap’n, but if ye spare me life, I’ll admit what I done,” Fin said, lowering his head.

“Well, I suppose I can’t spare ye, lad, if ye don’t tell me.  So go on.” Rasmus squared his shoulders and folded his bare arms with a heavy sigh.

“After the night we took them girls in Charles Towne, I pocketed some things I shouldna’ from what we took from some of the folks we robbed. I was plannin’ to make a clean start and break loose a’ that
Demon Sea
and Barclay for good, but when we boarded the ship to head for Port Royal, Barclay snatched me up and told a few of the mates to search me. He said someone seen me takin’ from the loot. I spent the whole trip to Port Royal in chains, sir, and that was after I was whipped again ‘till I was nearly dead.”

“Take off your shirt,” Rasmus ordered.

“What, Cap’n?” Fin asked, with a confused and desperate expression. My head spun left, and I believed my expression matched Fin’s, but a second later, I realized what Rasmus wanted, and I was more than inclined to help.

I walked to Fin and pulled him under his arm, lifting him to his feet. “Take off the shirt. You heard the Captain’s orders.” Hearing the front door close, I glanced over at the house, and there on the porch stood Valentina, flanked by the girls, who were all huddled together as the golden twilight washed over their anguished faces.

Fin removed his vest and then gathered his shirt at the waist, turning to see his audience. With a wince and a groan, he whipped the shirt up over his head and tossed it onto the grass. The gasps from the porch were evidence enough before Fin raised his arms in the air and turned his back to Rasmus and me. There, beyond the shadow of any doubt, were the deep, red lines of truth staring back at us, just as the sun dropped below the horizon.

I cringed in horror at the pain he must have endured to bear such a horrid reminder of his  servitude under that beastly man’s reign, which only affirmed even more so my pride in having a hand in ending Barclay. His back looked like ragged and torn fish net had been laid across it and had left an impression. Something drew me closer to it, and I couldn’t move my eyes away.

“That’s enough. Put your shirt back on and catch my horse. Tie it up in the barn and feed and water it for the night. Hand your weapons over to Razor, and make yourself a bed out there. Until I figure out what to do with you, I’ll not have you armed, nor under this woman’s roof.” Rasmus looked up at the porch, and I trembled, waiting to gauge his reaction when he finally set eyes on Valentina. Unfortunately, it wasn’t him who spoke first.

“Rasmus! My darling, I have missed you like the rain on a hot day.” She shooed the girls back into the house and met Rasmus at the bottom of the porch steps by leaping into his waiting arms. I instinctively placed my hand on my cutlass again and inched it from my sheath, stopping myself halfway and then sliding it back in.

She disappeared behind his big body, and he lifted her and then set her back to her feet on the bottom step, before at last turning to call me over to join them. “Valentina, I’m going to guess you’ve already met Mister Razor, here.”

“Yes, I have unfortunately had the displeasure of meeting this boy,” she said, brushing her hand out at me as if she were shooing a fly. I believed I’d break off my teeth if I’d clenched them any tighter to hold in my tongue.

Rasmus chuckled and said, “Bad first impression, Razor?”

Before I could answer, that wench said, “He slapped one of the girls right before my eyes, Rasmus, darling, and then, I look out of my window, and he is holding a sword to that man with the scarred back. Who is that man, by the way? I think I have seen him before.”

   “You have my word that Mister Razor is a good man, and although you know I don’t stand for any man laying a hand on a woman, I’m sure he regrets it and will make a full apology to the lass. Now, why don’t we put all of this behind us and go inside. I was counting on some of your chicken and rice for supper.”

Rasmus slapped one of his big hands on my shoulder and squeezed as he spoke. I took it as some sort of gesture to keep me calm and obedient, or to squelch any possible jealousy I might be feeling. Unfortunately, all it did was prove to me there was something between them somewhere and sometime before I entered his life. I needed a drink. I needed it immediately, and I rushed ahead of them both and held open the front door for them to enter.

As Rasmus approached the threshold, he said, “Valentina, I need to have a word with Razor. Set my usual seat, and load up my plate, lass. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Hmph,” she huffed at me, giving me her turned-up nose as she swept her skirt aside to avoid me and stepped in the house.

Rasmus motioned to me with his hand to step over to the porch railing as far from the windows as possible. Once we’d reached his desired distance, he leaned forward and rested his forearms on the rail as he turned to speak to me. “I should have filled in all of the missing pieces for you before I brought you here.”

“Yes, you should have,” I answered in a curt burst.

“I apologize, Ivory.” He hadn’t called me Ivory since that day in his cabin when he tore my breeches down. I didn’t even realize how much I missed it and needed to hear it, until I felt my body soften like butter in the sun. “Valentina,” he said over a heavy sigh. “Where do I begin about her?” As quickly as I melted, hearing him say her name that way hardened me like cold steel.

“She’s waiting for us, Captain,” I snapped at him. I turned and walked to the door so fast the breeze I created nearly blew the hat off my head. I pushed it open and waved my hand at him to enter. His body rolled slowly up and away from the railing, and he removed his big black hat with the white plume. “Well?” I asked.

“I suppose this means you won’t be returning to town with me later for our night alone?”

I pulled the door closed quietly and walked directly up to him. “How can I spend one more night with you knowing nothing of all of these missing pieces you speak of? You know everything about me, Rasmus Bergman—if that is, in fact, your real name. There isn’t a stone of my life I haven’t overturned for you. Now, if I am to return to town with you tonight, I’ll do it as Ivan, unless those big strong arms of yours can finally bear to lift a few rocks.”

I knew I’d touched a place inside of him with my angry words that he hadn’t seen coming. After all, this was supposed to be a day of celebration and success. This was the day we’d longed for and one of many similar days we’d hoped to share. I asked for this. I wanted to be a part of this rescue and every one thereafter, and bit by bit, I was marring our joy with unsubstantiated envy and childish insecurities, and I had to stop it…now.

Once inside the front door, the house was much as I’d expected it to be, although the details were filled in with my roving eyes. I took in warm, rose-colored draperies, trimmed in lace.  Dark, sanded wooden floors were covered in large multicolored rugs with fringed edges.  I saw, of all things, cream lampshades, with fringe as well, that sat atop tall brass lamps adorned with carvings of beautiful Spanish women dancing. The way in which the whole place reflected her made me feel suffocated by her perfect charm.

I strolled around the perimeter of the spacious parlor, picking up small sculptures and porcelain figurines of animals and more Spanish ladies, occasionally glancing up and listening to their chatter and small talk. “Are all of these things from Spain?” I finally asked.

“Yes. I have collected them over the past few years since I have lived here. Please be careful with them, as they are all my treasures,” Valentina answered, looking up at me from where she sat on one of her fancy burgundy velvet sofas.

“May I?” I asked her, when I spied a sideboard containing a decanter of wine and several glasses and lifted the stopper from the bottle. She turned to her left and eyed Rasmus as he sat in the large matching wing-backed chair. He smiled the smallest bit it appeared he could muster and nodded, before continuing with his tale of how we’d managed to achieve our rescue.

“So, you simply ran them aground, you say?” Valentina asked him, sitting up and straightening her back, as well as thrusting her unsecured bosom at him as if she were offering him two ripe melons to choose from. I poured my glass and drank, leaning back against the wall next to the sideboard and then poured myself another.    

“It wasn’t quite as simple as all that, Valentina,” Rasmus quipped over a soft chuckle. “It was quite a feat, if I may say so. My navigator, James Robertson, has proven to be a great asset to my crew, as well as Razor there,” he added, pointing nonchalantly in my direction.

“That one? You are telling me that boy is an asset to you?” she asked in an upturned and sarcastic tone, followed by a chuckle of her own.

“You’d be surprised at what that lad is capable of.” Rasmus looked uncomfortable in that fancy-ass chair of hers and leaned back as far as he could, situating his big body and digging his fingers into the soft cushion of the armrests.

“I’ve seen what he is capable of,” she mumbled, turning her body farther in her seat to face my husband.

“Mister Razor is a doctor,” Irvette said, throwing me a wide smile. “He saved my sister’s life. Had it not been for him, she most certainly wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

“It’s true, he made me a special broth and mixed citrus juices to bring me back,” Edwina said, soft and low.

“Doctor? What sort of doctor could such a young boy be?” Valentina asked, looking left to right as if she were attempting to search everyone in the room for an answer she could rebuke.

“I’ll be nineteen in a few months, and I’d not think it far-fetched for me to say I’ve lived twice those years…senorita,” I answered on my own behalf and raised my glass to her with a bow.

“Our food is ready by now, I’m sure. I apologize in advance if it is not what your stomachs are accustomed to. I have recently acquired a new cook, thanks to you, my darling,” she said over a giggle to Rasmus. “The recipes are mine, but alas, the girl is still learning. Come everyone, let us dine and celebrate your valorous rescue at the hands of this brave and wonderful big, red Captain.” She stood and clapped her hands three times, and everyone rose and followed behind her swaying skirt into the dining room.