Page 21 of Hooked By a Hero
Elias sent Hunt and Ruby a wary look, then turned to Caspian. “Well,” he said, unable to think of anything else to add.
Caspian answered with a reassuring look and reached for Elias’s hand. Nothing felt better than that brief moment of contact and connection between them. It tore something within Elias that they were forced to let go almost immediately so that they did not risk some sort of greater punishment from the mutineers.
There was much to be concerned about as they joined the other passengers and members of the ship’s crew who did not appear to have thrown their lot in with the mutineers as they lined up along the deck. Worryingly, it looked as though at least half of theFortune’screw now gladly took their orders from the new captains, who appeared to be Dick and Tumbrill. Elias tried not to hold it against the men as they raced up into the rigging or worked to secure damaged bits of the ship while the rest of them were counted. They might not have had a choice.
“Well, well,” Dick said as he walked smugly down the line of passengers, a vicious sneer contorting his face. “You lot survived mostly intact, I see.”
In fact, from what Elias could see as he glanced up and down the line, they had not all survived intact. He’d watched old Mr. Ferrars being swept overboard with his own eyes, but he was not the only person missing. Lord Dunstable was nowhere to be found either. At least half a dozen other once-familiar faces were missing as well.
And on the surface of things, none of the ladies were present. They all stood between Elias and Hunt, who had taken up a position at the end of the line, heads bowed and caps pulled low in an attempt to disguise themselves.
“I see not all of you managed to keep yourselves alive during the storm,” Dick went on, marching past Elias with a look that was almost disappointed. “None of our fairer guests seem to be present.”
Elias sucked in a breath as Dick approached the shaking, terrified women. He watched the man move closer to them, hands twitching at his sides in anticipation of needing to defend the women. Dick was armed to the teeth with swords and knives on his person, but that would not stop Elias from doing what was right.
“What do we have here?” Dick asked, rubbing the bottom half of his face as he moved close enough to sniff Lady Adelaide.
Elias shifted from looking straight forward to watching the interaction. As he did, something like a shimmer in the air or a wave of humidity passed over the far end of the line. He blinked, wondering if he was seeing things.
“Not a single tasty morsel in sight,” Dick said, disappointed, moving on to Hunt at the end of the line. “You don’t know anything about that, I’m sure.”
Elias nearly gasped in shock. Dick walked right past the women without recognizing them.
“They leapt over the side once your lot took over,” Hunt lied. “They decided they would rather die than be at your mercy.”
Dick looked outraged for a moment, then he turned back to glare at Elias and Caspian. “It’s been too long since I’ve dipped my wick,” he said, grabbing his crotch. “If I can’t have a woman, maybe one of those filthy sodomites will do.”
Outrage hit Elias before any sort of fear. How dare the blackguard think he had a right to anyone’s person?
“Dick! Get down here!” Tumbrill shouted, ending whatever confrontation might have happened before it began.
Dick muttered something, then marched back down the line of shaking passengers to where Tumbrill stood near the main mast. He was surrounded by a mixed complement of sailors and convicts, all of whom seemed ready to take orders from him. The only one who didn’t quickly bow to him was Dick.
“What do you want?” Dick demanded of him.
“There will be time for games later,” Tumbrill said. “Our first order of business is to account for passengers and crew and assign them all duties.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to keep them locked below, like they did to us?” one of the convicts asked.
A few of the others growled and nodded in agreement.
Tumbrill shook his head. “We lost too many men in the storm. We need every pair of hands left to repair the damage the ship sustained and to help us reach the nearest port.”
“What do you mean reach the nearest port?” Dick demanded, hands planted on his hips. “I thought the whole point of this was to sail away to lush, tropical lands with Ferrars’s treasure so that we might live like kings for the rest of our days.”
Several of the convicts chuckled and grunted in agreement.
“That is the point,” Tumbrill said stiffly. “That is the entire point of this endeavor. Which is why we should turn to sail northward for Cape Colony. The port of Durban should be directly to our north.”
“Er, I think not,” one of the sailors said hesitantly. “We’re well past Cape Colony.”
“How would you know?” Dick snapped at him, making the man jerk back in fear. “At any rate,” Dick went on, facing Tumbrill, “I’ve no wish to land in Cape Colony. What do they have there but dirt and darkies? I want to go somewhere with real wealth. Somewhere like Hindustan.”
Elias went rigid in offence at Dick’s characterization of the people of Cape Colony. He was clearly as ignorant of the people of the world as he was vicious.
“Hindustan is another month or two away,” Tumbrill argued, scrubbing a hand over his face. Elias began to see how exhausted the man truly was. “Durban could be less than a week from here.”
“Durban is controlled by the Crown,” Dick argued. “We’ll be caught and strung up if we show ourselves there. Hindustan belongs to the East India Company. We can bargain with them. They understand money.”
