He couldn’t let himself, his reputation, or his men down by giving up now. He was closer than he’d ever been to The Cursed Hangman’s treasure. Rupert would have information. He had to have something new, something fresh, something that could point Wade in the right direction.
Things were tough now, but what kind of a captain would he be if he gave up every time things got hard? No, Wade couldn’t disappoint his men. He would see this through to the end even if it ended up killing him.
And he knew, as he finished his whiskey and closed his eyes, that it just might.
**
When Julianne was safely back in the storage room, she folded her blanket into a little makeshift bed and collapsed onto it. Somehow, after being wrapped in Wade’s tender arms, the floor felt so much harder. She tossed and turned and tried to relax, but it was a futile endeavor.
Part of her wondered if she was making the right choice coming back on the ship. It would be days or even weeks before The Dark Lovely made port again. By then Julianne would be even thinner from hunger.
Had she made the right decision?
Was she wasting her one shot at freedom by willingly rejoining her brother and his crew?
She could have simply disappeared into the crowds at Darnial. She could have vanished. She could have walked into any tavern and gotten an easy position as a saloon girl. Fresh meat always fared well, she knew. She could have been the woman of choice at any inn or brothel. Even if sex wasn’t what she wanted to do, Julianne could have begged some poor seamstress or tailor to take her on as an apprentice.
She could have done something.
Anything.
But when Wade had kissed her goodbye at the bathhouse, when he had turned and given her one last, longing look, she knew that she would never find someone like him in Darnial.
If love was what she wanted, if passion was what she chased, she would find it on the high seas and not in some sloppy port town full of diseased pirates and grubby sailors.
Finally giving up on the idea of sleeping, Julianne sat up and leaned against the side of the ship. Nelson had kept his promise and purchased some extra food while at Darnial. She would need to find an unlocked trunk to hide the food in so that the rats wouldn’t get to it. Maybe later. Now she was bored and anxious. She needed to relax. Her dagger lay nearby and she grabbed it, fingering the hilt. It was laden with sapphires: a gift from her brother.
Where had he gotten it?
She had never asked and he had never told. Nelson liked to think of himself as a good pirate, a decent pirate. Was there such a thing? Julianne was under no illusions that her twin was an innocent. She had never seen him kill a man or steal from someone, but that was the life of a pirate. Adventure had a cost.
On a whim, she carved a little picture into the wooden wall. She put it low, toward the base of the ship: a girl and a boat. She carved another picture then, slowly getting the hang of what she was doing. The third picture was even better and she stared at them in the flickering darkness. Her candle would burn out soon and then she would be cast into the blackness.
No one would notice the
pictures she had carved. No one would be on the floor down here unless they were hiding, like her.
And if they were hiding, they wouldn’t exactly be complaining about the décor.
When she was finished with her work, Julianne put out the candle and lay down once more. She tried to push thoughts of Wade from her mind. He had been kind and fantastic and she was sorry their afternoon together was over.
What would he do if he knew she was hiding on his ship?
Would he remember her?
Would he think twice before he slit her throat?
**
When Rupert returned to the ship, Wade was ready. They wouldn’t set sail until morning, but most of the crew would return before then. Wade had no patience for deserters or tardiness and would aptly punish anyone who wasn’t back before dawn. Most of his crew had learned to come back after their trysts, rather than spending the entire night on shore and trying to rush back to the ship in the early morning hours.
The crew had been accounted for tonight, save Rupert, when darkness fell upon the ship. Once his first mate was aboard, Wade was ready to talk about what Rupert had found. The two went downstairs to the storage room in the hold so they could speak privately. While Wade conducted most business directly in his cabin, anything dealing with Mad Drake's treasure was handled downstairs in his private storage room.
He wanted to ensure they were completely, utterly alone.
They walked inside, each carrying a lantern, and closed the door behind them. Wade locked the door and slipped the key into his pocket. Though he knew his men would respect his desire for privacy, he didn’t want anyone to accidentally walk in on them. There were only a few keys to this room and he doubted Nelson or the Cook would need to enter this late at night.
Tonight was too important to leave up to fate. Wade would take every precaution he could to hear exactly what Rupert found out on shore. Mostly, he hoped it was better than the information he himself had acquired, which amounted to nothing.