Page 136 of Storm over the Caribbean
“Good. Because—”
“Do you have any idea how much the last wedding cost? I won’t be paying for another one.”
“Come on, you two!” Someone shouted before I could give my dear husband a kick in the bollocks. Suddenly, Jackal appeared behind the both of us, slinging his arms around our shoulders. “Don’t just stand around here! Join us! Come drink some rum and roast some meat!”
“You know, I think I will.” I smiled at him, then sent an intense look at Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s family jewels. “And I think I know what I’ll be roasting first.”
“Great! Come along!”
The bad news: Mr Rikkard Ambrose’s bollocks were still intact by the end of the evening. The good news: it was the best feast I’d ever been at. And, considering the number of dinners, balls and buffets my aunt had dragged me to in an effort to marry me off, that was saying something. Somehow, it was much more satisfying to sit on the beach with a bunch of pirates and eat crispy roasted meat on a stick than to sit at a dinner table with three dozen people I didn’t know and discuss the weather while minding my table manners.
“Hey! Give me another slice!”
“Ha!” The man turning the metal skewer gave a bark of laughter. “Aren’t you fat enough already?”
My eyebrow twitched.
Oh, I’m fat, am I? I wonder, would that still be your opinion if you knew you are facing a pissed off pregnant lady with a serrated knife in her hand?
But before I could get my just revenge—or my slice of meat for that matter—a sudden shout came from the lookout at the shore.
“Ship! Ship on the horizon!”
In a blink, the festive mood was extinguished. Gaptooth, who had still been playing with his gold a moment ago, leapt to his feet, his paunch jiggling.
“What? What kind of ship? Is it the navy?”
For a long moment, no answer came. Then, after a time that seemed like an eternity…
“The captain! It’s the captain! He’s coming back!”
“Captain?” Blinking in confusion, I pushed myself to my feet. “What captain?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” With a giant grin on his fat sack of a face, Gaptooth strode forward. “I ain’t the leader of this merry band of cutthroats! No, that honour belongs to the captain! Just wait till he hears about all we’ve done!”
Grinning like a Cheshire cat who had indulged ina lotof cream recently, the fatty grabbed two fistfuls of gold and marched down towards the beach. Well, when I say “marched”, I mean “waddled”. By the time he reached the shore, the ship had already dropped anchor, and people were clambering down the side into a dinghy. One man stood at the little boat’s prow, while the others started to row as if the hounds of hell were behind them.
I swallowed.
“Is he…?”
Jackal nodded. “Aye. That’s the captain.”
With a crunching sound, the dinghy hit the sand, and the man they called the pirate captain jumped ashore, stalking forward. An excited whisper went up from the crowd. They wereclearly excited to find out what their captain would say about their accomplishments. Gaptooth walked towards him, grinning broadly, displaying his fistfuls of gold. Only I seemed to notice the thunderclouds roiling above the captain’s head, and the lighting flashing in his eyes.
“Welcome back, Captain!” Still grinning widely, he held out both hands, filled with gold. “Look what we’ve got!”
“What,” the captain demanded, his eyes gleaming like freshly polished blades, “is that?”
“Um…that?” Gaptooth looked down at the gold coins in his pudgy hands. “That’s gold, Captain. We—”
“Notthat.” Lifting his arm, the captain jabbed a finger at the gold—then swept said arm towards the ocean, and more specifically, the Royal Navy ship anchored there. “I’m talking aboutthat.”
“Well…” The fat man glanced between the navy vessel and the captain, an unsure look on his face. “Don’t you know? It’s a ship. You know, for travelling on water? You just stepped off your own, so…”
“I know it’s a bloody ship, Gaptooth! What I want to know is why a ship of thegoddamn Royal Navyis anchored at my camp’s beach!”
It suddenly seemed to dawn on Gaptooth that his captain was not as elated about recent developments as expected.
