Page 99 of Storm over the Caribbean
“Well? Speak!”
My dear husband cocked his head ever so slightly. The silent message was clear:you are contradicting yourself.
I didn’t know whether to snort in laughter or slam my head against the closest wall. This bloody man…! He would be the death of me! And himself, if he went on like that!
“Speak!” the pirate roared. “Or I’ll have your throat cut right here and now!”
“Now that would be rather wasteful,” Mr Ambrose finally decided to break the silence. “Considering that I’ve come to join you.”
There was momentary silence in the pirate camp—then the fat leader burst into laughter. “Join us? Ha! Mwahahaha! And why the hell should I let you? For all I know, you could be a plant by some bloody navy bureaucrat looking to catch us and make a name for himself. And even if you aren’t, why the hell would I want you on my crew? Why would the captain?”
Mr Rikkard Ambrose met the other man’s eyes with a steely gaze, not looking away for a single instant.
“For the same reason you wantanyoneon your crew.Because they can hold their own.”
“Hm…is that so?” The pirate’s eyes narrowed. Leaning forward, he stared at Mr Rikkard Ambrose for a long moment—then apparently decided to switch tactics. “Tell me…how exactly did you find this place? We aren’t exactly advertising for volunteers in the local newspaper.”
Dark chuckles rose from the crowd.
“Ah, well…” Mr Ambrose shrugged. “You could say fate brought me to this place.”
“Fate?” The pirate pulled a face.
“Well, that, and the coast guard. They didn’t seem to appreciate my playing hide-and-seek with them. Particularly since I was a lot better at hiding than they were at seeking.”
That caused a few more chuckles to rise from the pirates. Only, this time, they weren’t filled with malice or derision. A fact that didn’t seem to escape their leader. I saw his posture tense, and he leaned forward to study Mr Ambrose more intently.
“So…you’re a smuggler?”
“Was. After spending a few days with that bastard Tom, I decided to change jobs.”
“Tom?” One of the pirates next to Mr Ambrose jerked in surprise. “You…you don’t mean my cousin Tom, do you?”
“Naturally. If not because of him, why would I be here?”
“How the hell do you know Tom?”
Mr Ambrose gave a snort. “How else? Got caught and shared a prison cell with him. When I got broken out, things were a little too hot at home for my taste.” He shrugged. “Then I remembered Tom going on and on about his cousin living it up on the high seas, and I thought, why not join up? Out there on the ocean, free and unfettered… Has to be a wonderful life, right?” He gave a mirthless laugh. “That’s what I thought before my ship went down halfway here. Well, at least I got shipwrecked on the right island, right?”
“So…you really wanna join up?” The fellow with the imprisoned cousin stared down at my husband suspiciously. “You look like no pirate I’ve ever seen.”
Mr Ambrose snorted. “How stupid do you think I am? Going sailing looking like a pirate? That’s just asking for some navy goon to shoot you in the back. Besides…” He gestured down at his scarce, tatted clothes. “After the shipwreck, I don’t look like much of anything anymore.”
The pirate leader gave a bark of laughter. “Ha! Well, that much is true, for sure!” He glanced over at the guard beside Mr Ambrose. “You…you really have a cousin called Tom?”
“Aye, Sir! I do.”
“And he’s really stuck in chokey?”
“Aye, Sir!”
“Hmm…” The fat pirate stroked his triple chin, scrutinizing Mr Ambrose who, despite kneeling on the ground, still somehow managed to look down on everyone around him. “So you really wanna join up?”
“Yes. I do.”
“And I’m supposed to take you in because—How did you put it?—becauseyou can hold your own?
“Indeed.”
